Retired from life but never retired from work

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Just yesterday I posted a discussion describing my sweet memories of Shammi Kapoor. Yesterday I had no opportunity to sit before my television as it is still now completely out of order for a couple of days and the television mechanic though already called in with several reminders is yet to turn up for the desired repair. So I got the bad and sad news today in the morning from the newspaper that Dev Anand, the evergreen hero of the silver screen of Hindi Cinema in India, passed away at the age of 88 years in London on Sunday at the Washington Hotel in Mayfair due to cardiac arrest during sleep. He was taken to the hospital but everything was then already over. It is true that man is mortal but it seemed as if the term ‘death’ has no place in the dictionary of Dev Anand and so does not fit into the life of Dev Anand. His debut film was ‘Hum Ek Hai’ in 1946 under the ‘Pravat Talies’. But his actual first break was ‘Jiddi’ when he joined ‘Bombay Talkies’ at the call of Ashoke Kumar alias Dadamoni. Kishore Kumar rendered his voice as a playback singer for first time in this film. Dev Anand was one of the great ‘trio’ of Hindi Cinema, the other two are great Dilip Kumar still batting and late Raj Kapoor. All of them started their careers in the Hindi film industry in the forties and were tough rivals to one another, although the rivalry was healthy. They were followed by a new generation of heroes in the fifties namely Shammi Kapoor, Rajendra Kumar, Sunil Dutta and some others. When all these heroes had reached the end of their careers as heroes before the seventies or the early seventies, Dev Anand continued as a successful hero with super hits like ‘Johny Mera Nam’, ‘Gambler’, ‘Hare Rama, Hare Krishna’ and others. When all these heroes shifted to character roles, he always stuck to the role of hero or the central character of the film and the whole story always revolved round him. In spite of repeated flops, he continued making films one after another with not only acting in the central role but also directing and producing, all in one. This was possible as he was always full of life. He never had the habit of lamenting over any thing; rather he was always keen on learning from failures. He never looked back. His motto in life was to go on, go on and go on and never to look back. This made him a notable exception from others who were either contemporary to him or even junior to him both in age and in beginning of their filmy careers. Though he started his filmy career in 1946 with ‘Hum Ek Hai’ but his long journey as an actor ended with the release of ‘Charhesheet’ in September this year. During this long stay as an actor, producer and director, he charmed us with films like ‘Jaal’, ‘Bazi’, ‘C.I.D’, ‘KalaPani’, ‘Hum Dono’, ‘Kala Bazar’ ‘Tere Gharke Samne’, ‘Paying Guest’, ‘ Maya’, ‘Love Marriage’, ‘Baat Ek Rat Ki’, ‘Guide’, ‘Jewel Thief’, ‘Johny Mera Nam’, ‘Gambler’, ‘Hare Rama, Hare Krishna’ and so on. He could not dance nor he was a versatile actor like his other rival contemporaries like Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor. So he invented some mannerisms of his own which were unique to him and helped him a lot in achieving his popularity and stardom for ever. As additional measures to maintain a separate identity for him, he adopted some special features for himself. While Raj Kapoor used Shankar-Jaikishan as the music director for all his films under the RK banner, Dilip Kumar preferred Naushad Ali as the music director for films featuring himself as the hero, Dev Anand used the music of S.D.Burman for films made under the banner of Navketan which was launched as a film company by him along with his brothers. When S.D.Burman was old enough to score any further music for him, the baton was handed over to none other than R.D.Burman, the renowned son of the renowned father, S.D.Burman and he did full justice to his job he was entitled with as the new music director. Raj Kapoor used Mukesh as the sole playback singer for him who was rightly called as the ‘soul’ of Raj Kapoor indeed. Dilip Kumar always had a fascination for Mohd. Rafi but he also used the voice of Mulesh, Mohendra Kapoor and Talat Mehmmood as the playback singer. Dev Anand always tried to avoid Mohd. Rafi, the principal male voice at that period, as his on screen voice. Initially he used Hemanta Kumar who rendered a number of hits for him in films like ‘Jaal’, ‘Baat Ek Raat Ki’ and so on but later on switched over to great Kishore Kumar who in the pre-Rajesh Khanna era had got the chance to render his golden voice in the lips of Dev Anand only. But Mohd. Rafi could never be spared even by S.D.Burman for songs where he was inevitable like those in ‘Kala Bazar’, ‘Tere Gharke Samne’, ‘Guide’, ‘Hum Donoe’ etc and so we get some immortal songs of Rafi in the lips Dev Anand. Dev Anand who came to be known as ‘evergreen’ for his refusal to retire fulfilled his pledge that he would work till his last breath and so releasing a film in September, he planned another at the time of his death. Thus he breathed and lived cinema till the last moment of his life.