An Evergreen

By Rajiv Vijayakar


When Dadasaheb Phalke rewrote history and instituted a phenomenon in India called cinema, little did he dream that it would be one day graced by a man who at 80-plus would have all the energy of a teenager. Even less would he have imagined that the highest award in the country for contribution to cinema – the Dadasaheb Phalke award – would be given under his name and that in 2003, it would be awarded to this perennially young actor-filmmaker called Dev Anand.

The 80-year-old actor-producer-director Dev Anand was working on the script of his latest project, Beauty Queen when the phone rang and Information & Broadcasting Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad informed him that he had won the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award for his over, half-century contribution to Indian cinema.

Dev Anand, the recipient of the award, is in the 56th year of his film career. His company, Navketan, which produced his best-known films including Taxi Driver, CID, Kala Pani, Guide and Jewel Thief, is 52- years-old.

Born on September 26, 1923 in Gurdaspur as Devdutt Pishorimal Anand, Dev Anand graduated in arts from Punjab University and came to Mumbai to join elder brother Chetan Anand who was already in films. He began working at Prabhat Studios where he met Guru Dutt, who became a life-long friend and associate. His first film was Hum Ek Hain. Together with Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar, he then went on to form the triumvirate that dominated Hindi cinema through the ’50s and ’60s. He has played the leading roles in over 110 films and produced and directed 18 films. He has introduced a number of directors, actors and actresses. He has his own Anand Recording Studio and a preview theatre fitted with the latest state-of-the-art facility. He is right now planning to start Beauty Queen which will be completed in three months. His first film to be made in America with an all American cast and technicians will start in April 2004.

The Phalke award, which carries a cash prize of Rs. 2 lakh, a shawl and a swarna kamal, was instituted in 1969 to commemorate the contribution of the late Dadasaheb Phalke to Indian cinema. President APJ Abdul Kalam will give away the award at a ceremony scheduled on December 29.

Dev Anand, the name, has spelt magic for over 58 years in cinema as an actor, star, filmmaker and human being. Coming to the scope of this feature, it stands for a musical kaleidoscope that is second to none in the annals of Hindi cinema. Over the decades, myriad timeless songs have either been filmed on this actor or recorded for his banner Navketan’s cinematic exercises. Like him, his songs were ahead of their times, supremely young at heart, rich in energy and remarkably enduring in lasting power. But then Dev Anand himself, like this huge list of great songs, is no less an evergreen number.

Says musicologist C.M.Desai, ‘The music of Dev Anand is unique. It was generated from his complete trust and dependence on his directors, which included mainly musical filmmakers like his brothers Chetan and Vijay Anand, Raj Khosla and Guru Dutt and his brilliant composers like S.D.Burman, R.D.Burman and – outside Navketan – Shankar-Jaikishan. Add stalwart lyricists like Shailendra, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Hasrat Jaipuri and Neeraj and you have a readymade recipe for exceptional music.

‘What differentiated Dev Anand’s endless repertoire of fabulous songs was their variety, ‘adds Desai. ‘Unlike Dilip Kumar-Naushad and Raj Kapoor-Shanker Jaikishan, where the songs tended to fall within a restricted range, Dev Anand’s collaboration with S.D.Burman in particular had multiple hues thanks to the fact that the actor never interfered in the creation of his songs. This is the reason why though Mohammed Rafi and Kishore Kumar dominated, we also had Hemant Kumar, Talat Mehmood and even Mukesh and C.Ramachandra spinning hits for Dev, the star.

Desai also notes that though Dev acted mainly in light entertainers mostly revolving around crime, his music always had a level of excellence normally unknown in the music of crime dramas. ‘His unique way of enacting a romantic song with loose dangling arms and his characteristic hairstyle, caps and dancing all added to the perennial appeal of his numbers. Also note the fact that Dev rarely held or played a musical instrument in his songs, unlike Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Shammi Kapoor and other musical heroes.’

Declares Amit Khanna, Dev’s close professional associate-cum-friend-cum-protege-cum-lyricist, ‘The man is the first and still the ultimate style icon who, forty years ago, did what others are claiming to do now! Many of his contemporaries and juniors still imitate him in their songs and Shammi Kapoor has gone on record to credit him as his inspiration in song enactment.’

Amit Khanna’s decades-old proximity to Dev Anand helps reveal an interesting nugget. ‘Yes, Dev did an English version of Guide in the mid-‘60s, but did you know that he even made an English version of the film Teen Deviyan called O Boy! Three Girls! for which Dada Burman recorded two English songs that were lip-synched for Dev and written by Harindranath Chattopadhyay? Though the music was never published the songs were sung by Ramnath, Harindranath’s brother who later started Ramnord Color Laboratories. These songs can be heard by those lucky enough to procure a print of this film.’

Adds Khanna, ‘All said and done, Dev-saab symbolizes all that is the best and most variegated in film music and as in acting and filmmaking, even here his contribution to music is grossly underestimated. All genuine music lovers will agree that if we count the top 100 songs of all time, 20-25 will be either those enacted by Dev Anand or those that feature in his own productions. And that’s an amazing ratio! His songs have outlasted and will outlast those of any other musical star because of the combination of their merits and his star persona.

‘His music has the very best of so many greats, whether it was S.D.Burman, R.D.Burman, Shailendra, Majrooh, Rafi, Kishore, Lata, Asha or Geeta Dutt, though this is not written about, unlike some far-lesser achievements of others. I came in only much later as a small part of the legacy that he either discovered or helped to get major breaks, names that included some of those giants I mentioned as well as Neeraj as lyricist and singers Abhijeet and Usha Uthup.’

Privy to the making of Dev’s music long before he wrote lyrics for several Navketan films beginning with Des Pardes, Khanna adds, ‘He has a great ear for music and knew exactly what he wanted, that is why he never interfered once he spelt out his requirements. He preferred to choose the tune first and spelt out the gist of his lyrics in prose so that the brief was very focused. To many a lyricist, this could be quite confining, but the great talents who regularly wrote for him never thought so and so it was that most of the singers, lyricists and composers did some of their career-best songs for him!’

Dev’s complete faith in his composers, especially long-term associate S.D.Burman, is best illustrated by the fact that he would leave for shooting schedules with his director and depend on Dada for creating, recording and dispatching the song to the location later.

Desai points out to the abundance of classy club and cabaret numbers in Dev Anand’s films and music. ‘Take songs like ’Kya ho phir jab din...’(Nau Do Gyarah), ’Rangeela re...’ (Prem Pujari) or the two Asha sizzlers from Jewel Thief and all those Baazi numbers,’ he says. ‘And at the other end of the spectrum, we have a classical gem like ’Mose chhal kiye jaaye...’(Guide).’ But Desai mentions just the tip of the variegated iceberg. The Dev musical genre is replete – within or outside Navketan – with classics in every genre of song, from the bhajans and devotionals (’Allah Tero Naam...’/Hum Dono,’Na main dhan chahoon...’/Kala Bazaar) to the ghazal (’Kahin bekhayaal hokar...’/Teen Deviyan) and from the mujra (’Nazar laagi raja...’/Kala Pani) to the children’s number (’Phoolon ka taaron ka...’/Hare Rama Hare Krishna).

Add more genres like the sad litany (’Jaayen to jaayen kahaan...’/Taxi Driver) and the comic song (’Ae meri topi palat ke aa...’/Funtoosh), the patriotic (’Taaqat watan ki humse hai...’/Prem Pujari) and the folk (’Gori gori gaon ki chhori...’/Yeh Gulistan Hamara), the philosophical (’Jeevan ke safar mein raahi...’/Munimji) and the cult hippie number Dum maro dum...’(Hare Rama Hare Krishna) and of course just about every kind of romantic songs (’Khoya khoya chand...’/Kala Bazaar, ’Baith jaa baith gayi.../Amir Garib, ’Aankhon aankhon mein.../Mahal, Tu kahaan yeh bataa...’/Tere Ghar Ke Saamne and ’Ankhon mein kya ji...’/Nau Do Gyarah).

‘Devsaab was not very fond of qawwali,’ notes Desai. ‘Though in keeping with the trends, he enacted them with a flourish in Mahal (’Hum tujhe dhoond lenge...’), Amir Garib (’Kahin janaab ko...’) and even in his own Jaaneman (’Iss mulaqaat ka bas mazaa lijiye...).’

Coming to his playback voices, the Dev Anand melody was dominated by Rafi and Kishore, but rare voices came in too. Right from the contemporary Kumar Sanu and Abhijeet, who shared vocals for him in one insignificant song in Return Of Jewel Thief (1996), we have also had Bhupendra singing the refrain Ho Shaalu in the original Jewel Thief. Manna Dey voicing the Chhupa Rustom title-qawwali and composer C.Ramachandra vocalizing ’Kehte hai pyar jisko...’ (with Lata) and ’Daane daane pe likha...’ in Baarish. Mukesh had to make do with ’Bahe na kabhi nain se neer...’ (Vidya/ 1948, probably the first SD-Dev collaboration) and ’Jab gham-e-ishq sataataa hai...’/Kinare Kinare/Jaidev). Obviously Hemant Kumar (’Na tum hamein jaano...’/Baat Ek Raat Ki, ’Yeh raat...’/Jaal, ’Hain apna dil...’/Solva Saal, ’Yaad kiya dil ne...’/Patita et al) and Talat Mehmood (’Andhe jahaan ke andhe raaste...’/Patita, ’Jaayen to jaayen kahaan...’/Taxi Driver, ’Tu roop ki rani...’/Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja etc. were a distant second-in-vocal-command in the Rafi-Kishore blitzkrieg of beauties that gave Dev as much ‘Anand’ as it did to us music lovers.

After the treasury of S.D.Burman stunners (which also include memorabilia like Tere Mere Sapne, Jaal, Solva Saal, Manzil, Paying Guest, Baat Ek Raat Ki etc.), who are the other composers who delivered memorable Dev nuggets? Well, we have Jaidev again (Kinare Kinare, Navketan’s Hum Dono). C.Ramachandra (Amar Deep, Baarish), O.P.Nayyar (C.I.D., Jaali Note), Ustad Ali Akbar Khan (Navketan’s Aandhiyaan), Salil Choudhury (the superb Maya with its Tasveer teri dil mein and Koi sone ke dilwala), Laxmikant-Pyarelal (Amir Garib, Navketan’s Jaaneman and Doston mere qisse from Prem Shastra), Rajesh Roshan (Navketan’s Des Pardes, Manpasand) and Khemchand Prakash (Ziddi, which began the Kishore-Dev association right from the singer’s debut with Yeh kaun aaya re and Marne ki duaen). Significant contributions came from Kalyanji Anandji (Mahal, Johny Mera Naam, Banarasi Babu) and Rahul Dev Burman (Navketan’s Hare Rama Hare Krishna, Warrant, Darling Darling) but the second guard for Dev were Shanker-Jaikishan (Patita, Love Marriage, Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja, Asli Naqli, Jab Pyar Kisise Hota Hai, Pyar Mohabbat, Kahin Aur Chal and Duniya).For the record however, Dev did work with Husnlal-Bhagatram, Anil Biswas and Madan Mohan as well as newer names like Bappi Lahiri, Raamlaxman, Nadeem-Shravan, Jatin-Lalit, Aadesh Shrivastava and even Lucky Ali and Adnan Sami, even if nothing of real ‘note’ came from any of them.



The Ten Best Dev Anand Musicals


GAMBLER (S.D.BURMAN-NEERAJ/1971)

The formidable Neeraj was at his sublime best in Kishore delights like ’Dil aaj shaayar hai...,Apne honthon ki bansi... (Lata joining Kishore) and ’Chudi nahin yeh mera dil hai...’. But the crème-de-la-crème went to Mohammed Rafi for the passionate croon ’Mera man tera pyaasa...’.


HARE RAMA HARE KRISHNA (R.D.BURMAN-ANAND BAKSHI/1972)

Dev had a vision for the film – RD was to do the fast numbers, SD the sober. Senior Burman put his foot down, Dev listened, and RD zoomed by the fast lane to the top echelons, thanks hugely to the cult song for all time, Asha’s ’Dum maro dum...’. Of course the back-up was splendid, with ’Phoolon ka taaron ka...’ in two versions, ’Kaanchi re..., ’Are haye re ghoongroo...,’ ’I love you...’ and ’Dekho o diwanon...’.


JAB PYAR KISISE HOTA HAI (SHANKER-JAIKISHAN-HASRAT JAIPURI & SHAILENDRA/1961)

S-J’s only film for Nasir Husain had a title song that was later conceptually aped to launch Rajesh Khanna in Aradhana. The connoisseurs loved ’Teri zulfon se...’, but the masses just flipped for ’Yeh aankhen uffyuma...’, ’Sau saal pahele...’ et al.


JOHNY MERA NAAM (KALYANJI-ANANDJI/INDEEWAR & RAJENDRA KRISHAN/1970)

Kalyanji-Anandji pulled out all the stops to create an instant hit with enduring quality a rare phenomenon even in 1970. ’O mere raja, Pal bhar keliye koi hamein pyar kar le... and ’Nafrat karnewalon ke...’ were enacted by Dev, but the rest of the score proved as good, if not better, with ’O Babul pyaare..., Govind bolo Hari Gopal bolo...’ and that benchmark cabaret number, ’Husn ke laakhon rang...’.


TEEN DEVIYAN (S.D.BURMAN-MAJROOH/1965)

“Aise to na dekho...’ and ’Kahin bekhayaal hokar...’ (ghost-composed by Jaidev according to Majrooh) were the top layer of this musical confection that also boasted of ’Likha hain teri aankhon mein,Are yaar mere tum bhi ho ghazab...’ and ’Khwab ho tum ya koi haqeeqat...’.


GUIDE (S.D.BURMAN-SHAILENDRA/1965)

Some would call this the finest score of Navketan as well as of S.D.Burman. The awesome lineup includes Lata’s ’Mose chhal kiye jaaye...’ and ’Kaanton se khinchke yeh aanchal...’(the song that begins with an antara!), Rafi’s dazzling trio ’Din dhal jaaye, Tere mere sapne...’ and ’Kya se kya ho gaya’, Kishore-Lata’s ’Gaata rahe mera dil’ and that exquisite Dada Burman solo ’Wahaan kaun hai tera...’.


HUM DONO (JAIDEV-SAHIR/1961)

Jaidev had done some forgettable films before but Hum Dono remains not only his breakthrough but also his best score to date. The classicfest had sparklers like ’Main zindagi ka saath..., Allah tero naam..., Prabhu tero naam..., Abhi na jaao chhodke...’ and ’Kabhi khud pe kabhi haalaat pe...’.


JEWEL THIEF (S.D.BURMAN – MAJROOH SULTANPURI & SHAILENDRA/1967)

Unalloyed lustre marked this ageless score that comprised of ‘Dev’-ilish diamonds like ’Yeh dil na hota bechara..., Aasmaan ke neeche..., Dil pukare aa re aa re...’ and ’Honthon pe aisi baat...’ along with 24-carat sparklers like ’Baithe hain kya usske paas,Raat akeli hai... and ’Rulaake gaya sapna mera...’.


PREM PUJARI (S.D.BURMAN-NEERAJ/1970)

A score for all prem pujaris - and for all-time. Exquisite is the term that best describes the synergy in the music and lyrics of ’Shokhiyon mein ghola jaaye..., ’Phoolon ke rang se, Prem ke pujari, Taaqat watan ki humse hai, Rangeela re, Gham pe dhool daalo and Doongi tainu reshmi roomal...’. 33 years have passed and the songs are as fresh as likeable.


TERE GHAR KE SAAMNE (S.D.BURMAN-HASRAT JAIPURI/1963)
This breezy film got the perfect foil in a crooning cascade of ethereal melody, complete with ’Dil ki bhanwar..., Tu kahaan yeh bataa..., Sun le tu dil ki sadaa..., Ek ghar banaoonga tere ghar ke saamne..., Dekho rootha na karo..., with Lata’s ’Yeh tanhai haye re haye... as bonus.



Source: http://www.screenindia.com/fullstory.php?content_id=6872