Dev Anand: The Immortal of Indian Cinema

I am not a film expert and I have never met Dev Anand. At the time when I was born, Dev Anand was a 60 year old man, the age of my grandfather. 

Yet, today when I have come to know of the news of his death I am sad. There are legions of his fans who share the same emotion like me. Everyone loved him even if everyone did not love the movies that he did recently.

 

Does it matter? No. Because Dev Anand lived his life on his own terms. Like in one of his songs, “Gham aur khushi mein fark na mahsus ho jaha, mein dil ko us makam pe lata chala gaya.” He and his films are above comparison. To be honest, even though I belong to the age of fast paced films, he will remain my favourite actor ever.

The first movie of his that I saw was Jewel Thief much to the insistence of my mother. To my mother, he is the best actor and the most handsome man after my father.

After I watched Jewel Thief, I went into another world. A world of movies that was indeed better than the one I was living in. All the songs, and especially ‘Aasman ke neeche’, appealed to my ears and the way he wooed the beautiful Vyjayanthimala  in that song made a non-romantic guy like me feel for once to fall in love. That was his power. To make you feel the way ‘he’ wanted. One by one, I started watching his movies.  

Thus, I saw the entrapped detective in CID, the indifferent husband in Tere Mere Sapne, the longing brother in Hare Rama Hare Krishna and the titular character of the iconic Guide.

Indeed I discovered that Dev Anand stood above all other actors of his era and the present one too. Talking about era, Dev Anand is the only actor who looked dapper in both black & white and colour films.

In 1965 Dev Anand acted in Teen Deviyan (a B&W film) and Guide (a colour), making him the only actor to have done so in the same year. Both were successful but Guide went notches higher to become a benchmark in Indian cinema.

With Guide, Dev saab (as he was popularly called) won his second Filmfare award. His first had come in 1958 with Kalapani.

As an actor extraordinaire, Dev Anand was the only Hindi film star who delivered blockbusters over three decades in three different images. As a man extraordinaire, Dev saab was the epitome of positive energy.

With his death from a cardiac arrest in London on Saturday, India lost a glittering star that illuminated the country’s cinema landscape for over 50 years. The whole of Bollywood has gone into a state of mourning. Amitabh Bachchan has himself admitted that he has left a void that cannot be filled. True.

When Dev Anand began his film career, it was a year before India got its Independence. His debut movie, Hum Ek Hain, was under the then famous banner of Prabhat Talkies in 1946. Though the film was a flop, he went on climbing the ladder of success with movies like Ziddi, Baazi, Paying Guest, Munimji, CID, Jaal and many more.

His friendship with Guru Dutt produced three biggies that redefined cinema of the 50s – Baazi, Jaal and CID. Their partnership was like the one that Martin Scorsese and Leonardo Di Caprio share today.     

Another of his friends was Kishore Kumar who sang a number of hit songs for his movies. Who doesn’t loves to hum ‘Ye dil na hota bechara’ or ‘Khwab ho tum ya koi haqueekat’ or even ‘Phoolon ke rang se’?

Songs were a speciality of Dev Anand films. Mohammed Rafi delivered hits like 'Main zindagi ka saath' and 'Abhi na jao chorkar'. 'Din dhal jaaye' and 'Tere mere sapne' from Guide are classics that are not made today.

 

He was a very educated man of his times having acquired a degree in English Literature from the prestigious Government College in Lahore, Pakistan. He started working for the military censor office in Bombay. His older brother Chetan was already associated with theatre. He joined in and soon got his entry in the world of cinema.

From 1946 to the year of his death, Dev Anand remained active in Indian cinema. He was one of those titans who saw the complete evolution of Hindi film industry. He was there when Bombay was ‘handmaking’ movies. He was also there when Bombay became Bollywood and is belting out movies, both sensible and senseless, at a mechanical speed.

Frankly speaking, it was Dev Anand who introduced India and Indian cinema to fashion. The clothes he wore have been different in each of his films. The hats, the scarves, the hairstyle, the suit and the shirt, everything was unique and looked perfect on him.

Believe me, if Sherlock Holmes were to be made in Hindi, only Dev Anand would have looked best in the ace detective’s trademark deerstalker. An iconic picture in Jewel Thief is proof of it.

The great actor held on his own fort in the presence of giants like Dileep Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Rajendra Kumar and Rajesh Khanna.

His carved out his own image that of an actor with a distinct head-nodding, a slightly tilted way of walk, a smile with a little shake of head, expressive eyes and of course his unmatched acting prowess. No wonder then that the ladies of those days went weak in their knees at the sight of Dev Anand.

Yes, I also came to know that he picked up the head-nodding style from Hollywood legend Gregory Peck but I have also seen Guns of Navarone of the latter and found that Dev Anand was in an altogether different league. What he did was what only he could do. That’s why he was honoured with the Dada Saheb Phalke in 2002.

He took to directing movies early in his career and gave cult classics like Hara Rama Hare Krishna and Prem Pujari. The music of the former was so ahead of its era that a recent release titled itself on the lead song of that film. The new one was, however, disappointing and crass.

As a fan I personally feel that no film of Dev Anand should be remade as it will for sure destroy the beauty of the original. The romantic image of Dev Anand is unparalleled even to this day and it should be allowed to remain untouched.

I had a hidden desire to meet him. He was a man who delivered flops one after the other in recent times but continued doing films purely because he loved doing it. In my opinion he was the man who ideally followed the principle of the Bhagvad Gita: “Karam karo, phal ki chinta mat karo” (do your work, don’t worry about the result). Perhaps this is why he became an immortal.  

Since he was a man who with a never say die attitude, I will suppress my grief as a mark of respect to the icon and only say – “Jivan ke safar mein rahi, milte hai bichar jaane ko, aur de jaate hai yadein, tanhai mein tarpane ko….o ho, o ho, o ho, o ho, oho oho.”

RIP Dev Anand sir

India needs doctors, not MBAs

Yesterday I was talking to a boy - a trainee in the company I work for - about his goal in life. He was more than happy to tell me that he was attending a coaching institute where they prepare students to face one of the countless MBA entrance exams. I am a journalist not an MBA and therefore I asked him whether it was necessary for someone to obtain a Business Management qualification. He gave me a perplexed glance, raised his eyebrows and replied in an accentuating manner, “Of course, it is.”

“Everyone is going for an MBA. Why? Because it guarantees you a good job with a fat paycheque,” he said in an excited way. The conversation then proceeded to other things.

Just a few days back I read in a regional newspaper about a boy in a small town who fell from a tree seriously injuring his liver. The report said that he was bleeding profusely and was taken to a nearby medical center. His family was mulling over the possibility of taking him to a top hospital in the city. The problem was that the distance to the hospital in the city was of a good measure and the doctor treating the boy in the local medical center knew that he may not survive the distance. Therefore, this doctor took it upon himself to save the boy’s life. According to reports, his treatment kept the boy alive and fit enough for shifting to the hospital in the city. The boy survived.

Imagine the fate of the boy had that doctor opted for a career in Business Management early in his life. Frankly speaking, India needs more doctors than MBAs.

According to various reports, India has approximately 6,00,000 doctors. Data available with the World Health Organisation puts that figure to 6,60,801 as in 2005. India has a population of over a billion. In approximate figures that translates to 1 doctor per 1,800 people.  Countries like Brazil and Thailand are better off with a ratio of 1:844 and 1:500 respectively. No need to think of Germany which has a ratio of 1:296.

Worse is the fact that a majority of doctors or, in other words, the medical facilities are concentrated in urban areas of the country. There are many areas in rural India where there is a serious dearth of proper medical services. Those areas are dominated by quacks (unqualified people posing as doctors) and/or practitioners of Ayurveda, Unani, Homeopathy or Siddha. The later ones provide basic medical treatment but cannot operate on a person in the case, say for example, of the boy I wrote about above.

Even in the urban areas, the government run hospitals are few and far between. Add to it the pathetic conditions of many of them and you have the perfect threat to the dream of a developed India. Most of the hospitals are privately run, a majority of which charge a fees that may put an average Bollywood actor to shame. There is no need to discuss the government as every Indian is aware of how it functions.

Talking about government, India’s closest competitor is way ahead. China had 19, 05,436 registered medical practitioners for its population as in 2009 according to the WHO. Yes, China presently holds the distinction of being the most populated country in the world but India will soon surpass it. Consider then the situation here. 

We are in dire need of more doctors. We also need to stop the tendency of medical practitioners to leave for foreign shores. According to a report, there are nearly 60,000 Indian doctors in countries like US, UK, Australia and Canada alone.

Interest in a career in medicine must be increased. Better opportunities should be created in India itself for the doctors to stay back. More colleges are needed without compensating on the quality of education. Medical research must be given a boost.

The Medical Council of India lists 335 medical colleges imparting education in India. Compare this to the 1600 odd MBA colleges and you know where the country is heading.

Doing good business can never become the parameter of gauging a country’s overall development status. Of all the countless number of MBA graduates that we produce in India, 60 percent are fools, 30 percent know how to fool others and only 10 percent are the real MBAs.

Nearly every Sales Executive whether in a retail store or at your door is an MBA from an institution which may be operating out of a rented apartment. There are many MBAs who were unable to even pass their school exams properly, if you know what I mean. Barring those who pass from the elite IIMS or a handful of other equally competent colleges, nearly all of them are aimless people. In other words, since they were not good in any other discipline, they chose MBA for the simple reason because it is easy to pass if it is not from the IIMs or the other competent ones. They are the fools.

Some go for an MBA with dreams of becoming as ‘wealthy’ as Tata or Birla. Nobody wants to ‘be’ a Tata or Birla. They fail to see the hardships these legends of business faced to build their empires where it stands today. Such MBAs always try to take the shortcut to earning more money. They will never back down from fooling a gullible person into buying something which he/she may not need at all. They are those who fool others.

Over the last few years some innovative minds have come out with new business models that are essential for economic as well as social development. They face political, financial or other problems but continue doing their work. These are the real MBAs. They have the potential to give a positive direction to a business and society equally. Interestingly, many of them do not have an MBA qualification at all.

If the government continues to allow opening of MBA institutions on the premise of making India a developed nation, it will have disastrous consequences in the long run. The people of India need more doctors and medical researchers to counter the ever rising cases of unknown diseases. The Japanese Encephalitis is one such example where lack of proper medical facilities claimed more than 800 lives. The government should stop boasting about Medical Tourism if it cannot protect its own people on the ground.

By 2031 there will be a shortfall of close to a million doctors. According to the planning commission, India is short of six lakh doctors, a million nurses and almost two lakh dentists. What will India do with the money if the people do not live to enjoy the wealth?

It is the duty of the government to take concrete measures in protecting the people of the country. More needs to be spent on health, especially public sector. According to reports, of the 5.1 percent of the GDP spent on health an approximate 17 percent only is spent on the public sector.

Improving the economy is good but it should not come at the cost of lives. Bundles of money and batches of MBAs could not have been able to achieve what that doctor did in the small town. After all, saving a life is incalculably valuable than a billion dollar business plan.

Are you Brave?

I have been inspired to write on this by the various situations that life put me into and those that happened around me. The inspiration had actually come many times before but the idea took shape when I witnessed an altercation between young boys in my neighborhood.

 

Such things happen almost every five minutes in different parts of the world. The winner of such altercations is declared brave by the people. Hooliganism by the youth is dangerous for any society. The sad part is that many people think that if a man yields muscle power over others and wins the fights he enters into, he is a brave individual. (I used the word ‘many’ because there are some people who have an intellect.) The people who avoid such confrontations or squabbles are eventually branded as cowards. I have always avoided unnecessary fights or arguments. This has resulted in some people taking me to be a coward. Interestingly, these people will not come forward to stand beside me if I get involved in any such stupid fight. I believe that a brave man should always fight for his right, for the right of the meek, the elderly, the women, the children and the country. In fighting between sections of the society should always be avoided and especially between the youth.

Bravery or courage doesn’t have a perfect definition. This is the reason why people have misconstrued the whole meaning. Swami Vivekananda had said, “If you really want to judge the character of a man, look not at his great performances”. When surrounded by enemies even a cat wouldn’t give up without a fight. This doesn’t mean that the cat is as brave or courageous as the Lion. Fate plays a very important role in the great performances a man puts up. The real character of the man comes to light only by proper observation of his most common actions. The common actions include everything from walking, talking and treating other people of different classes. 

Chanakya, in his Arthashastra, mentioned four elements of polity. They are: saam, daam, dund and bheda meaning speech, money, punishment and planting respectively. The idea is to use any or all of the techniques in such a way that the desired work is done when dealing with another person or group. The elements can be interchanged according to the circumstances but it has been historically recommended that saam should be used first and the last should be dund. 

On a personal note, I wouldn’t like to boast of my acts of courage but in short I can say that yes, I have helped the elderly and my friends from both sexes in times of danger. However, I never entered a fight. I might not be an astute politician but I prefer to use my brain before my muscles. It is known as a fact that the brain is the most powerful weapon and God gave it to us all. Fortunately, he didn’t tell us how to use it and ultimately left it for us to figure out. I might be able to hit four guys at a time and there is a higher chance that I might get bashed up. Whatever the result be, if the fight is for unnecessary reasons then none of us is brave. 

Courage comes from the inside. In the animal world, there are many animals physically larger and stronger than the Lion but it the Lion who is considered King of the Beasts. Do you know why? The reason is that all the big and strong creatures will flee if they see their prey charging towards them in large numbers but the lion will not. If he is hungry, he will try to hunt down his prey from amongst the many charging towards him even if it means risking his life. Wildebeests always move in herds and there have been incidents when the lion had to face the herd head on, still he managed to kill one of them for food while the others gave up the fight. The Lion draws his courage from his mind and heart. We should learn from him.

How a person deals with pressure situations, how he/she faces all hurdles and emerges victorious; these and such other questions will decide how bold the person actually is. Life is hard and most of the times problems are worst in their non physical forms. The courageous fights such unforeseen situations or the invisible enemy and conquers it. The mind of a person is both the enemy and the friend. There has been enough news on students or people taking an extreme step when they failed in their examinations or in some endeavour. According to me, they may not have failed had their mind not failed them.

Here I am reminded of a saying in the Bhagvad Gita:

“One should save oneself by oneself;

One should not lower oneself;

For oneself is verily one’s own friend;

One is verily one’s own enemy”.

- Bhagvad Gita (6:5)

Before claiming to be a brave individual, just answer these questions:

Have you ever helped a needy or an elderly or a woman?

Have you saved anyone’s life (even if it is an animal) with or without risking your own?

Have you opposed injustice?

Finally, do you have the guts to give up your life for your country?

If the answer to anyone of the above is no, then you are not brave.

The India for which Anna fights

Anna Hazare has been arrested by the Delhi police. The famed Gandhian was about to begin his fast unto death against corruption at the JP Park in the capital of the country. However, the government and the police turned the tables on Team Anna by not only imposing sec 144 a day before but arresting many who had gathered at the venue in his support.

The entire area was cordoned off and in a matter of minutes the colour of khaki had replaced white. None was spared, not even the senior civil-society members who have a reputation of their own. Thus Kiran Bedi, Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan saw themselves getting packed into buses for a destination not disclosed. Many are protesting on the streets and some are courting arrest.

Almost everyone in this country is aware of what Anna is fighting for. The 74-year-old, born as Kisan Baburao Hazare, was already a known figure in parts of India (he was honoured with the Padma Bhushan in 1992). However, his rise to fame came only this year when he chose to fast unto death on April 5. Though the fast ended in four days but by then waves of supporters from many parts of India had joined him forcing the government to agree on a Jan Lokpal Bill to check graft in public offices.

This time, Anna was threatening the government with the same weapon since the Centre had failed in its promise.

In a televised interview before his arrest, Anna said that this is the time for a second Independence struggle. He urged the fellow countrymen to come together and court arrest so that the “prisons are packed to capacity”.

How sad. It seems he is not living in the 21^st century. Anna, rather unfortunately, still believes that the preachings of Mahatma Gandhi stand true in today’s times in this country.

India is a country where things run more on a ‘copycat procedure’. At the time when Anna was holding his fast in April, waves of protests had erupted in many parts of the world – particularly North Africa. Thus Anna’s fast got a big boost through the social networking sites. Reports reveal that many people who had then sided with Anna were either unaware of what the agenda was (except the clichéd word corruption) or were corrupt themselves.

The clever government agreed to Anna’s demands for the time being only to let the issue ‘cool down’. It was a well thought-of plan and it worked. Indian politics says that the people have a very short memory and less patience. They may raise their voice for a particular cause but will not be able to hold on to it for long.

Here in India, the people are busier with their daily lives than anything else. Whatever little education they receive, they are content when they get a ‘sarkari job’. The next step is to get married and the ‘customary’ give and take of dowry. In the next step they carry out the ‘necessary’ task of having a child. In a year or two, the first child needs a companion to play with and thus a second one is introduced in the household. Now mind it, the second one has to be a boy if the first one was not. In case the second one too turns out a girl (which is unlikely because of cases of sex determination), a third one is planned. The series will go on until the ‘saviour’ boy arrives.

The next step in a common man’s life is to feed his family. To do so he needs money and in this rising inflation living on a ‘sarkari’ pay is not easy especially if the man is little learned. Thus, exchanging hands under the table becomes a common act. Even if the person is unemployed, this will not deter him from marrying and having children (often seen in rural areas of the country).

This type of a common man constitutes more than 2/3^rd of this country’s population. Of the remaining 1/3^rd, at least 30 percent of the people have all the luxuries they need. This leaves only a few who may join their voices with Anna. But indifference to the nation is another factor that will chaff off many more from within the probables. Those left will be the only ones fighting for Anna and they will only have small section of the youth. 

Faces of middle aged and old men were seen on TV channels airing the protests live. Not many young guys were there on any of the 20 leading channels of the country.

The opportunistic youth of today are busy with their careers and, if possible, leave for ‘that foreign land’. Who said USA is the only country?

In India a century by Sachin Tendulkar is far too important than a disabled boy winning gold at a world championship. In India staring at Ambani’s Antilla means looking ‘up’. Who cares for the homeless?

In India election of a leader on the basis of his caste is mandatory. Is there a criminal case against the candidate? We don’t care.

In India ignoring traffic laws, evading responsibilities, using unethical means to climb the ladder and differentiating between ourselves on any basis are some of the ‘rules’ by which people we have been living and will live.  

This is not Gandhi’s India. The concept of Ahimsa now stands good only for a movie script.

Thus, Anna’s agitation will not continue as anticipated by him. Yes, there will be protests for some time in his support but not for long. It is an established fact that a battle overstretched is a battle lost.

What is the real problem with the Railways?

The Times of India published its views in today's paper on the Uttar Pradesh train accident that claimed 68 lives and injured 181 others. In its opinion under the headline 'Populist railway policies pushing up accident rate' the paper stated that the populist railway policies adopted by ministers from the Eastern part of the country were pushing up accident rate. The write-up seems to be politically influenced and does not reflects the ideology for which the paper claims it stands. 

The actual problem is not announcement of a slew of trains on the Delhi-Kolkata route by successive ministers from Bihar or Bengal as stated in the article. The real problem is POPULATION. Even today, some news channels were showing images of people climbing on the rooftops of the trains in Uttar Pradesh. One can witness the same situation in many parts of the country. It is the population explosion that has created a problem bigger than the flawed ministerial decisions.

Adding to the problem is the inherent desire of the people to cheat. What will any minister do if there are people who travel without tickets? What will the ministry do if the people themselves love to bypass rules? In case any minister DARES to punish them then all-hell will break loose. Won't the media criticize the minister? If someone from any other part of the country becomes the Railway minister, won't he/she favour his/her state?


A prudent person or in this case, a responsible media house, must meticulously observe any critical situation before passing a judgement never mind what facts they are based on. Yes, the decision by the minsters are wrong but they always are. Favoritism is ingrained in the ways of this country and we all are unfortunately living with it. Let us raise our thoughts beyond the filth of politics and we will be able to see how bad we ourselves are.


Just for the sake of the readers:

http://lite.epaper.timesofindia.com/getpage.aspx?pageid=10&pagesize=&edid=TOI&edlabel=TOIM&mydateHid=12-07-2011&pubname=Times+of+India+-+Mumbai&edname=Mumbai&publabel=TOI

http://www.newsyaps.com/india/29-national/1982-how-the-west-bengal-was-won

On Newsyaps

http://www.newsyaps.com/india/29-national/1984-the-problem-with-indian-media