Romancing With Life: An Autobiography of Such Actor Who Romanced With his Life Till His Death

Romancing with Life: An Autobiography of Such Actor Who Romanced With his Life Till His Death

“From an ordinary boy, anon-entity, to now, as I stand here in front of you today, this book is about 62 years of my struggles…… (About) my joys, my sorrows, my highs and my lows. It is an honest depiction of a man with all his strengths and weakness”.  These are the words of Dharamdev Pishorimal Anand, popularly known as Dev Anand, an evergreen hero of Bollywood.  He said these words at the time of releasing his book Romancing with life and this book was released by the former Prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. This memoir talks about an honest tale of his life, which revolves around his family, friends, movies, his love affairs and his romantic encounters. Yes, it is a story of such a romantic hero who romances women two generations younger, on screen.  Dev Anand was an effervescent personality which means lively or high-spirited personality.  His life was full of joy and fruitful one. Dev Anand who completely loved himself and chased his creative ambitions relentlessly had written his autobiography Romancing with life in wonderful English.

From Yogesh Gogwekar

First few chapters of this autobiography, Dev Anand spoke about his upbringing in Gurudaspur, Punjab. He had mentioned his living in the shadow of his well-educated father, doting mother and eight siblings. Born on 26^th September 1923, Dev Anand completed his matriculation from Sacred Heart School, Dalhousie and completed his BA degree in English literature from the Government College at Lahore in Punjab (Now in Pakistan). For further education, he wanted to go to England like his brother Chetan Anand. Due to dwindling financial situations of the family, Dev Anand had to take the Job. He started teaching the English in Doon school for a short period. In 1940, he left Lahore and came to Mumbai where he began his career for a monthly salary of Rs.65/- in the military censor’s office at Churchgate. He left this job and joined an accounting firm for a salary of Rs.85/-. Later on he decided to join his elder brother Chetan Anand as a member of the Indian People Theatre Association.

On one day, Babu Rao Pai of Prabhat Film Studio saw Dev Anand and felt that Dev deserved to get one chance in film due to his smile , beautiful eyes and tremendous confidence. Thus, Prabhat film offered him the lead role in Hum Ek Hain which was released in 1946. This film was based on Hindu Muslim unity where Dev Anand played the role of Hindu boy with opposite paid Kamal Kotnis. During the shooting of Hum Ek Hain in Pune, Dev Anand met well known producer, director and actor Gurudutt and they became friends. They agreed to help each other to make it successful. According to Dev Anand, there was mutual understanding between them that when Dev produced the film, Dutt would direct the film and when Dutt would direct the film, Dev would act in it. This is the way his journey in Bollywood started.

Dev Anand had been very honest about the women in his life. In his autobiography, he mentioned his love affairs with three leading ladies without any hesitations. In this book, he has mentioned about three ladies which came to his life, namely, Suraiya, Kalpana Kartik his wife and Zeenat Aaman. His first love was Suraiya. Together they worked for seven films. Their love story was grabbing the headlines from 1948 to 1951. He wanted to marry her but the maternal grandmother of Suraiya did not allow it. He brought her a diamond ring which was thrown in the sea by her grandmother and her mother asked him not to meet Suraiya anymore. Suraiya remained unmarried till her death. At the time of shooting the film Taxi Driver, Dev Anand felt attachment with Mona Sing, a Christen girl from Punjab and their love affairs began. They married in 1954 and became parents of two children, one boy named Suniel and a girl named Devina. His relationship with his wife after the birth of two children was not cleared. After making her last performance in the film Nau Do Gyarah, Kalpana quit from the film to become a homemaker and started following her faith in Christianity.  His son starred in one film but did not come after that and settled down in England whereas his daughter married early but took a divorce. She has a daughter and Dev Anand was great fond of his granddaughter,

Dev Anand introduced Zeenat Aaman in his films. He admitted his extramarital feelings for Zeenat Aaman and felt in love with her, but he was betrayed when she left his production to work under Raj Kapoor for the Satyan Shivam Sunderam and very much hurt by seeing some of their actions.  Dev Anand was definitely a romantic person but not a corrupt director. He has spoken respectfully about his heroines in the films like Madhubala, Waheeda Rehman, Hemamalini, Mumtaz, Tina Munim and Reecha Sharma. He has also mentioned about his friendly relationship with Royal families of Nepal and Burma, with Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Ashok kumar and Gurudutt. He had beautifully written about his meeting with Charlie Chaplin, Gregory Peck and Jawaharlal Nehru. His conversation with R K Narayan and experience with his colleagues and director Vijay Anand for making the film Guide are also interesting to read. He had dedicated one chapter about new comers like Amir Khan, Aditya Pancholi and Jackie Shroff.

Dev Anand was politically active and during the emergency, he led the group of film personalities to oppose the emergency in 1975 and campaigned against Mrs. Indira Gandhi in Parliamentary elections in 1977. He formed a political party named as National Party of India which has been disbanded. The Government of India has honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 2001 and Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2011 for his contribution to Indian Cinema.  He had also received best actor awards for his performance in Kala Pani and Guide. He did 114 Hindi films out of which he had done leading roles in 92 films.

Dev Anand was an evergreen hero and by keeping this image of a timeless hero, he never mentioned the years in his book. I am always an admirer of Dev Anand. I always like his ability to overcome quickly the failures and move on to the next dream. Till end he has taken care to maintain his image in the minds of his audience.  His films after 1980 did not receive any success but he never stopped and continued to make new films. After reading this in his autobiography and understanding his enthusiastic, I feel that song of Hum Dono,” Main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya, Har fiqer ko dhuye mein udaata chala gaya” was rightly picturized on him.  He has entertained to audience through his films like Baazi, Taxi Driver, C I D, Fantosh, Kala Pani, Kala Bazar, Tere Ghar Ke Samane, Tere Mere Sapane, Guide, Jewel Thief, Hum Dono, Johny Mera Naam, Hare Rama Hare Krishna, Des Pardes, Man Pasand and many other films,

It would be a blessing to have a life like Dev Anand, therefore, he has rightly chosen the name of his book Romancing with life. It is wonderfully written by Evergreen Hero in beautiful English language.  At least his fans should read his book to know the history of Bollywood of six decades.

 Mumbai

27/06/2020