At the Artillery Centre Mess (Golkonda, Hyderabad), one huge party evening, I was ambushed by all my friends, 12 to 14 year-olds, into singing for a gathering of Brigadiers, Colonels and families. That was in 1967. I sang, after some shying away, “Tere Mere Sapne ab ek rang hai/jahaan bhi le jaye wahan hum sang hai”. The applause was something I still remember. That was my first public performance.

The Centre’s open-air theatre was also the place where I saw some of Dev Anand’s movies: Jaal, Hum Dono, Guide, Jewel Thief. This mornings news of the wonderful man’s passing on in London, left me brooding. And recalling some of his finest songs and roles. He was a man of immense talent and potential which Bombay cinema never fully tapped.

I think,the cigar-smoking, mustachioed Major in Hum Donon never found full expression in Hindi cinema. The Gambler came closest to that figure, though the remote ,charming nonchalance of the Major could not be matched. Dev Anand in Gambler was a curious mix of the Major and the junior officer, the nonchalance and the pathos now merged, but well short of the effect in Hum Donon.The Guide, Jewel Thief, and Hare Rama Hare Krishna, and Johnny Mera Naam were movies which gave us glimpses of the actor’s abilities, but Hum Donon always remains the show-piece of Dev Anand’s career for me.

Jaal , I barely remember except for the Hemanta Kumar song “Yeh Raat ,Yeh Chaandni phir kahaan/ sun ja dil ki daastan.” Jab Pyaar kisie Hota Hai which my uncle saw many times, buying tickets in ‘black’ at Zamarrud Talkies, got hundreds of Hairdressing Saloons thousands of customers hoping for that exquisite hair-cut with a ‘buff’ that Dev saab sported.I remember buying the Jewel Thief Hat whixh ,ironically, covered my version of the ‘buff’ hair-cut. I remember the song ‘Jiya ho, jiya ho jiya kuch bol do’ in Rafi’s romantic voice, and then in the melancholic version picturised on Asha Parekh. Great moments… but only moments.

The Anti-Hero of Bambai ka Babu along side Suchitra Sen is a very mature depiction of the conflict this ‘brother’ has to undergo—whether it is ‘Deewaana, mastaana hua dil’ or ‘Chal rii sajnii ab kya soche…,’ Dev Anand performs with due flamboyance and subdued pathos.This is among the most mature of Hindi cinema till date, an adult theme without the need for a blue pencil (Hare Rama, Hare Krishna is a distant echo of the theme).

Songs sung for Dev Anand are about the best one hears in Indian cinema. Rafi, Hemanta da, and Mukesh (occasionally) and Kishore Kumar, Dev’s alter ego, did much to give the actor the evergreen tag. Even bad picturization of songs did not harm Dev Anand’s image (“Chudi nahiin mera, dil hai…” and “Dil aaj shaayar hai, gham aaj nagma hai” in Gambler). A long list of songs is most likely to include some of Rafi and Kishore Kumar’s greatest ever. ‘Saathii na koyii manzil/ diya hai, na koyii mehfil,/chalaa mujhe leke ay dil/ akelaa kahaan’; ‘hum bekhudi mein tum ko pukaarey chaley gaye’; Mai zindagii ka saath nibhaata chalaa gayaa’. And the Kishore Kumar songs list is yet to begin!

Johnny Mera Naam , like Jewel Thief is a fun movie. The natkhat chulbuli adaa of Dev saab, the trim, nattily dressed, handsome and mischievous Dev Anand was so well-suited to the all out entertainer. Only Amir Khan today has a comparable charm of personality.

RK Narayan’s novel,The Guide, brought Dev Anand closest to immortality. With Waheeda Rehman and SD Burman, Dev saab moved Hindi colour cinema some notches higher than Raj Kapoor’s Sangam. Whatever he made after that, with the exception of brother Vijay Anand’s Tere Mere Sapne, was only a incurable habit.

Or an unbound energy for which the medium and the men available were not adequate any longer. After all, where could one find an SD Burman,a Rafi, a Kishore Kumar, a Sahir Ludhianvi.and a WaheedaRehman simultaneously for the bubbling energy of the man with the magic smile?

Death is natural , and for one like Dev Anand who believed in abiding with life in its variety of forms, it is but one more way of abiding with life. Once I saw the logic of Nature’s scheme, I accepted death’s finality and inevitability quite without demur. But for once, in Dev Anand’s case I’d like to ask, … wahaan kaun hai tera/ musaafir/ jayegaa kahaan; though he’s only likely to smile back in reply , singing ‘jeevan ke safar mein raahii/ miltey hai bichad jaane ko…

G.K.Subbarayudu