I grew up watching his movies - in the 80s & 90s. My father grew up watching his movies - in 60s & 70s. My grand-father grew up watching his movies - in the 1940s & 50s. Is n't that incredible ! I 'm sure, many others could say the same way too. That's the most remarkable achievement of Dev Anand who has passed away on December 4th, at the age of 88. He entertained generations !
Well known for his old-world charm and feverish energy, Dev Anand's career spanned over 6 decades. When most of his contemporaries were retired or limited to side-roles, Dev Anand continued to play hero & make movies till the very end. Infact, his last movie 'Charge Sheet' was released only a few months ago. Dev Anand was known, esp. early in his career as 'Indian Gregory Peck'.
His most critically acclaimed movies came in the 1950s & 60s, known as the Golden Era of Hindi cinema. Prominent among them was 'Guide'(1965) based on the novel by R.K Narayan , made by Dev Anand's own production house 'Navketan'. This super-hit movie is a land-mark film in the history of Hindi cinema. Later he ventured into screen-writing & direction and made many super-hits, including 'Hare Rama Hare Krishna' (1971) which is based on the prevalent 'hippie' culture. In this film, he launched Zeenat Aman - the former miss-India and model - who later
became well-known actress of the 80s. Dev Anand as a film-maker is instrumental in lauching the career of many new-comers - a tradition he continued till his later movies.From the boyish-looking romantic hero of 1950s & 60s, Dev Anand re-invented himself as a dashing & debonair hero in the action-flicksof 70s and 80s. In his later career (from 1990s onwards) he acted only in his own productions. As Hindi cinema evolved into 'Bollywood' with songs & dance spectacle gallore, Dev Anand remained aloof to this trend and made his own small-budget 'indie' movies (a la Woody Allen). He recieved a lot of brick-bats and ridicule at this time for not 'following the herd'. Dev Anand was also a pioneer in making movies abroad, highlighting the lives of overseas Indians.
As a film-maker, Dev Anand movies were pure entertianers which can be termed as 'kitsch' (by world standards). But kitsch is also an art form and is better than plagiarism , which is rampant in Bollywood now. Infact, Dev Anand was a complete anti-thesis to the current image of a stupid and ignorant Bollywood hero. This M.A (Master of Arts) in English Literature was extremely well-read and articulate individual. During his launch of autobiography 'Romancing with Life' in 2007 ( released by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh) he told the reporters : "Every word of the book is mine. Come on, I'm an educated man !"
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