‘Romancing With Life’:
article written by krishna.
Dev’s justice to his experiencesEvergreen Bollywood film star Dev Anand decided to write autobiography as he was convinced that no biographer could do justice to the varied experiences he had had during his journey from being a struggling film star to heartthrob to producer. Speaking at the release of autobiography ‘Romancing With Life’ in the United States, he said a lot of people had approached him to write his biography. But he had one question “how could they portray the depth of his life and experiences when they knew him only superficially”.
”The book is only about me, my career and experiences. It was written by me in my own hand in ink,” the 84-year hero of yesteryears told the audience which comprised a substantial number of his fans who were teenagers at a time when he was at the pinnacle of his acting career.
Releasing the book at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in New York, counsel-general Neelam Deo described Dev Anand as “living treasure”. The strength of his creations, she said, lay in depiction of strong women characters and dealing with controversial subjects in a sensitive manner that not only brought the point home but also made the movies box office hits.
In this context, she recalled that in ‘Hare Krishna, Hare Rama’, he had focused on the issue of drugs and the struggle of young people to find their niche in life at time when the subject was not being openly discussed. In ‘Guide’, he openly discussed the subject of infidelity in a way that it did not offend the moviegoers, most of whom would not touch the subject.
The function was attended, among others, by Indian-born filmmaker Mira Nair and Founder of Jet Airways Naresh Goyal. In his remarks, Dev Anand said the success of Hindi version of ‘Guide’ was a few changes made in the novel of the same name by R K Narayan. The English version which stuck to the novel was not so successful.
Asked what his finest hour was, Dev Anand said, “this moment,” explaining that he lives in the present and not in the past and that is his strength.
Questioned as to how he feels when despite all his efforts, his movie fails, he replied amidst laughter that “the audience is foolish.” But then he explained seriously that from the reaction of audiences one learns a lot.
However, no one can pin- point one particular reason as to why a movie succeeds or fails it could due to acting, story, direction, treatment of the subject, songs or music and a whole- lot of other factors.
Walking the audience through his career spanning six decades, Dev Anand said he left his home with Rs 30 for Bombay travelling in “third class compartment of third class” and struggled the for two and a half years before his career took off ‘Hum Ek Hain’ and went to play the romantic lead in more than 110 movies before turning to producing his films.
Replying to question about difference between movies of yesteryear and today, he said it was all the same with romance, dances, songs etc. but the only difference that in olden days, “hero took a lot more time to get the girl” than his modern version.
