Obituary is a wrong word when it comes to Dev Anand. Can he ever die? Call it Dev Anand Biography. Forget the mortal body. The inherent soul, that immortal spirit lingers ever so young. Little wonder they called him ‘Evergreen’, and Dev Anand’s movies timeless. Rajesh Iyer celebrates the indomitable spirit called Dev Anand.
Millions of words have been written about him and his style. It is not just Dev Anand’s movies That slight jerk of his head to the side, that effervescent smile, that charismatic twisted walk, that style statement that every frame he stood, that sheer charisma that he oozed every time he was in public. But, as one looks at those and other great contributions of Dev Anand, one realises that it still doesn’t define the great man in entirety.
How can it, when the man in question happened to be the heart-throb of many a generation, defined style, gave films that we not only cherish but are proud of and of course, was creatively involved in creating those songs many generations grew up humming. As we look at those wonder years, we look at some important aspects of Dev Anand that made him what he was, and still continues to be.
Dev Anand Biography : Young Dev Anand – Early Defining Years
Dev Anand belonged to the trio that defined Hindi cinema of immediate post-Independence. Among the other two of the trio, while Dilip Kumar represented the dark side and certain gloominess that hid behind the celebratory nation, Raj Kapoor oozed the innocence and naivety that the entire nation at large was caught into. It was Dev Anand, who took those confident strides most Indians wanted to see in themselves. The odds that faced the nation and its populace only led to either extra-exuberance or sheer naivety. Somehow, a carefree, I-know-what-I’m-doing was what eluded everyone.
Dev Anand filled this gap. And, he did it with great aplomb. In movies after movies, Dev Anand stood for this character who knew what he was doing, even in the most adverse of conditions. The heaviest of odds stacked up against him didn’t ruffle him. It might have missed the realistic quality, but sandwiched as it was between the two extremes his other two contemporaries represented, Dev Anand’s confidence struck more than a chord with a vast majority.
Dev Anand, Actor – First Superhero of Modern Indian Folklore
People lapped him up more for the aspirational quality he oozed for through his characters. It wasn’t that his on-screen characters were larger than life. They most definitely weren’t. But, what he did by being a simple human yet with a power to achieve more than the mundane gave his characters a special quality that audience admired. He lost in love, had his share of failures, failed to nab criminals, but even in those moments of despair, Dev Anand never stood helpless, unlike say Dilip Kumar or Raj Kapoor. The silver lining among the dark cloud was always visible. That confident quality held Dev Anand in good stead. Dilip Kumar caught in a similar pathos caught the audience by their throat, choking them hard with emotion. But, with Dev Anand it wasn’t so. Seldom did people cry when they saw him in quagmire. Not that it anyway curtails the stature of Dev Anand the actor.
Agreed, he might not have been in the same class Dilip Kumar was when it came to methodical display of emotions. But, Dev Anand stood that notch above the ordinary; that he might be above, yet his acts were achievable. People who gaped at his style in those dark theatres thought that they too can be Dev Anand. He was in more than one way a superhero. Yet, he differed from those superheroes appearing in the comic books or in the movies of later era. Here was a man, who was as mortal and even as vulnerable as its audience and with the same qualities they had, yet he bravely confronted all the odds with his trademark smile, jerk of his head and a style that refused to wane even in the most wanting of times. That perhaps was the underlying thing that gave Dev Anand that high pedestal. He was undoubtedly a superhero, though devoid of any exterior powers; a superhero who wasn’t born in a faraway planet with an unpronounceable name. He was here and now, and he had solutions to the problems, howsoever big they might be. Looking back we can say that he was, without an iota of doubt, the first superhero of modern Indian folklore.
Biography of Dev Anand: his Style Statement
Frankly, talking about Dev Anand and not mentioning his style would be grossly incomplete, to say the least. He might be said to be influences by some of the legendary Hollywood stars like Cary Grant and of course, Gregory Peck, who he unabashedly admitted to admire, there’s no denying that Dev Anand created more than a mere style statement of his, which in retrospect is trademark Dev Anand and definitely not a rip-off.
Even though not belonging to that era, many have lapped up with great pleasure the innumerable tales of men aping Dev Anand. The buff in the hair, the tweaking of the collar, the buttoning up of the shirt, there were innumerable style statements that Dev Anand made in the fifties and the sixties. He, more than any other hero, defined the style of the entire nation. The closest anyone came from his fraternity was Shammi Kapoor in the sixties.
Dev Anand’s style had so much impact on many a generation that he continued to create ripples even decades after he stopped being at the helm of his stardom. When he started donning those hats, caps, jackets and scarves in the seventies, youngsters didn’t mind following suit. So what if Dev Anand belonged to their parents’ generation. Perhaps that’s what made Dev Anand beyond one era, one generation. When he changed his style completely in seventies and eighties, he wasn’t carrying the after-effects of the earlier decades, but was marching along with the youngsters, perhaps even a couple of steps ahead. That was one quality that made him evergreen and liked by generations that came much later than his own.
Dev Anand Hit Songs: Musical Genius
It is inevitable that when we talk about Dev Anand, one gets entangled discussing only his style. But, Dev Anand’s legacy goes much beyond that. Not only did he star in great movies and later directed some classics, no one can deny the great musical legacy he left behind. Created as he did with his musical partners like music directors S D Burman and later R D Burman and singers Kishore Kumar and Mohammed Rafi, Dev Anand’s songs are a world in itself.
From the peppy ‘Mana janab ne pukara nahin’ to the lilting ‘Khoya khoya chand’ to a rather sombre ‘Hum behkudi mein’, Dev Anand’s songs created an entire gamut, encompassing every human emotion. Like the man himself, the music not only survives time, but also thrives.
As we bid goodbye to the mortal body of Dev Anand, we can’t help but remember what he sang in one of his films: ‘Jeevan ke safar mein rahi’. But, there’s no denying the fact that these trivialities wouldn’t have bothered Dev Anand. He never believed in stopping, the ‘evergreen’ tag to his name was much more than just a mere tag. He, without a doubt, would be walking into the sunset singing ‘Main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya’.
