Dev Anand's "Romancing with Life"
Aruna, my wife, gifted me Dev Anand's autobiography "Romancing with life" for my birthday and it was after almost 10 days of reading that I completed the book yesterday. At the end of it, one can finally conclude that that the great star has only three driving passions in life - Dev Anand, women and Dev Anand. What follows is my opinion on the star as he emerges out of the pages than the book itself.
Now, I have always like Dev Anand and his films. They are usually breezy entertainers with right mixes of romance, comedy, mysetry and thrills. Dev equates to what Cary Grant symbolizes in classic Hollywood - debonair, handsome, comic and every girl's dream man. Dev was backed by the talents of his brothers who created scripts that enhanced his image as a star and providing just the right room for Dev Anand the actor and the star to fuse just the right amounts. "Fantoosh", "Taxi driver", "Kaala bazaar", "Nau do gyarah", "Kaala paani" etc are some such fine films. While Dev does acknowledge his brothers' contributions in the book, they are protrayed more as support members who were just there to give shape to Dev's own ideas and image. Not so much Chetan as Vijay who was definitely one of the finest directors of the time, the director who seemed to be most "hollywood"-ish of the time.
A real disappointment is that Dev doesnt spend much time on the golden period of his career and of the Indian films in general. The 1950s are just breezed through. We dont get any new insights to any of the great personalities of the time whom he interacted with - even closer friends like Guru Dutt, Geeta Bali, Kishore Kumar etc are referred to more in passing. An incident here and there involving them is all we get. This is a gross let-down. Instead, the man expands enormously on the period post-Prem Pujari when he turned to producing and directing films, easily the leanest phase of his career.
He spends a few chapters on each of his recent films, not giving a damn that most of his fans dont give a damn to those films. Who cares about how "Main solah baras ki" or "Love at Times Square" or "Censor" or "Mr Prime Minister" was made ?? One cant believe the extent of the man's self-illusion or arrogance when he puts down the failure of the films to the public's taste. He believes that his films are meant for the intelligensia, people who appreciate good cinema. Nowhere is there an attempt to contemplate, to acknowledge even an iota that the real reason is that the films are crap, they deserve to be buried and hidden away so that we retain the image of Dev Anand as he smiled his way to our hearts in "Munimji" and "C.I.D".
Ah well.. thats some heat off my heart for now. More later..
Now, I have always like Dev Anand and his films. They are usually breezy entertainers with right mixes of romance, comedy, mysetry and thrills. Dev equates to what Cary Grant symbolizes in classic Hollywood - debonair, handsome, comic and every girl's dream man. Dev was backed by the talents of his brothers who created scripts that enhanced his image as a star and providing just the right room for Dev Anand the actor and the star to fuse just the right amounts. "Fantoosh", "Taxi driver", "Kaala bazaar", "Nau do gyarah", "Kaala paani" etc are some such fine films. While Dev does acknowledge his brothers' contributions in the book, they are protrayed more as support members who were just there to give shape to Dev's own ideas and image. Not so much Chetan as Vijay who was definitely one of the finest directors of the time, the director who seemed to be most "hollywood"-ish of the time.
A real disappointment is that Dev doesnt spend much time on the golden period of his career and of the Indian films in general. The 1950s are just breezed through. We dont get any new insights to any of the great personalities of the time whom he interacted with - even closer friends like Guru Dutt, Geeta Bali, Kishore Kumar etc are referred to more in passing. An incident here and there involving them is all we get. This is a gross let-down. Instead, the man expands enormously on the period post-Prem Pujari when he turned to producing and directing films, easily the leanest phase of his career.
He spends a few chapters on each of his recent films, not giving a damn that most of his fans dont give a damn to those films. Who cares about how "Main solah baras ki" or "Love at Times Square" or "Censor" or "Mr Prime Minister" was made ?? One cant believe the extent of the man's self-illusion or arrogance when he puts down the failure of the films to the public's taste. He believes that his films are meant for the intelligensia, people who appreciate good cinema. Nowhere is there an attempt to contemplate, to acknowledge even an iota that the real reason is that the films are crap, they deserve to be buried and hidden away so that we retain the image of Dev Anand as he smiled his way to our hearts in "Munimji" and "C.I.D".
Ah well.. thats some heat off my heart for now. More later..
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