 |
| Dev Anand |
Dharam Dev Pishori Anand better known as Dev Anand, was an Indian film actor, director and pro¬ducer known for his work in Hindi cinema. He was an evergreen roman-
tic superstar of Bollywood. ,
He died on 3 December 2011 in London, following a cardiac arrest at the age of 88. Dev was born on 26 September 1923 in the Shakar¬garh tehsil of the Gurdaspur district in Punjab (British India) (present-day Pakistan).
With a career spanning 65 years, Dev Anand arguably the sole leading man who could count James Dean, Marilyn Monroe and Heath Ledger among his contemporaries. He was among the first urban, west¬ernised heroes in Bollywood, start¬ing his career in .pre-Independence India with Hum Ek Hain (1946).
As a young man from out of nowhere who quickly attained stardom on a massive scale, complete with all its trappings like a torrid well¬publicised romance with leading lady Suraiva. Dev Anand was one of the architects of the Bollywood dream.
For three decades, he was also one of the iridustry's most bankable heroes. In spite of not being gifted as a dancer and lacking the physique of an action hero, Anand frequently took the box-office by storm with his breezy good looks, choice of roles and luck with music directors.
Dev Anand set up his own pro-duction company, Navketan, in 1950. For its first film, Afsar, he cast himself and Suraiya in the lead roles.
S.D. Burman was roped in as music director, the start of a partnership that yielded some of India's best-loved soundtracks: Taxi Driver (1950). Guide (1965), Jewel Thief (1967) and Prem Pujari (1970), to name just a few.
Anand could have easily lapsed into the role of 'elder statesman', began directing full time or stuck to character roles, as many of the stars from his heyday like Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor and Ashok Kumar did.
However, directing was never an end in itself. Long after other producers lost interest, he continued as Navketan's leading man.
The Government of India ho-noured him with the Padma Bhush¬an in 2001 and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2002 tor his con¬tribution to Indian cinema. His career spanned more than 65 years.
The demise of Dev Anand is an end of romantic era in Indian Cinema.
0 comments:
Post a Comment