Dev Anand: A musical interview (Part 2)

Updated (links): 17 June 2022

Interviewing Dev Saab is not an easy task! Once part 1 of the interview was done, I was certain that part 2 would only take me a couple of hours. I hadn’t, of course, taken into account one thing – every time I tried asking him a question, he’d just belt out one of his intoxicatingly romantic numbers, and I would be umm… distracted.

Sach kehta hun bohut haseen ho – Jaali Note (1960)

It took a herculean effort in exercising my will power to continue our chat on a normal plane. That is why this part has taken so long to come to you…

Naya Andaz (1956)

A song from this has been a long time favorite (Meri neendon mein tum). That, and the pull of bubbly young Meena Kumari, finally tempted me into watching this film. Its a sweet, lighthearted film that has, for some inexplicable reason, roused fRIENDS to fury. The print is terrible, the picture rolls on the screen or gets blanked out by bright lines, and the film’s reels are not put together in the right order. There are parts that remain a mystery in the first disc and light suddenly dawns in the second disc, because 15 minutes that were mysteriously missing in disc 1 are part of disc 2! And no, its NOT an experiment in a non-linear narrative! AARGHH!!!!

Baharon Ki Manzil (1966) – amnesia thriller

Sometimes the simplest of plots, with minimal twists, can make for very effective thrillers. Thats the case with this film, which I received from fellow oldies fan Shalini. With Shalini’s cautionary words ringing in my ears and my own misgivings born of previous experience with Meena Kumari-Dharmendra pairings, I approached the film with great trepidation. To my delight, it turned out to be a gripping thriller that had me glued to the TV screen well into the wee hours of morning!

Kinare Kinare (1963)

Dev Anand and Meena Kumari? Really?!! Even after seeing this video on youtube, I couldnt really believe those two were in a film together. A quick search on imdb, however, revealed not one but FOUR movies where they are credited together! Clearly, they werent a hit pair as I hadnt heard of any of their films (this one included) before. Well, I was determined to hunt this one down and happily, I did! As it turns out, its worth watching more for historical reasons (Chetan Anand, Dev Anand and Meena Kumari in the same film!) than any real entertainment value.

The two Parineetas

Continuing with this month's theme - movies from books - here's a look at Sharat Chandra Chatterji's famous romantic story Parineeta brought to life on the silver screen by two exceptional directors, 50 years apart.

1. Parineeta (1953)

Producer: Ashok Kumar
Director: Bimal Roy
Starring: Ashok Kumar, Meena Kumari, Asit Baran, Nasir Hussain, etc.

2. Parineeta (2005)

Producer: Vidhu Vinod Chopra

Director: Pradeep Sarkar

Starring: Saif Ali Khan, Vidya Balan, Sanjay Dutt, Sabyasachi Chakraborty, etc.

The story involves a romance between a lovable orphan and her bossy mentor.

Benazir (1964) - Another of Bimal Roy's forgotten gems

Having seen Bandini at a tender age, I was understandably wary of Bimal Roy. (Anyone who's seen the movie - ok not anyone, just me, perhaps - might be puzzled by the inexplicable choices made by the heroine.) Prem Patra, and Sujata however, changed all that and I was ready for more Bimal Roy. Browsing through imdb led me to Benazir, and I began my hunt for the DVD. I was overjoyed to come across it in the local Hindi DVD store and sat down to watch with eager anticipation. Here's my take on this forgotten classic.

The story starts with an earthquake in Bihar in 1934 and a young child being found in the ruins. She is found by a kind man who having lost his own daughter, decides to bring her up as his own. From such a beginning, and knowing the rules of hindi cinema, one could expect one of the following scenarios: a) a social drama with the benefactor's new wife becoming the evil stepmother, b) any variation on the standard lost-and-found formula, c) the "kind" benefactor is a criminal who gets reformed by the child but his past catches up with him on the eve of the girl's wedding, etc. As the movie proceeded and no such scenarios were forthcoming, I realised that Bimal Roy had broken new ground by departing from the sacred tenets of 1960's movie-making!

Bandish (1955) - a delightful romp

The recent flood of old hindi movie DVDs in the market has made my trips to the local hindi video store more fun than usual. One finds unheard of movies on the shelves and "new" old movies (thought I had seen them all courtesy Doordarshan, in my childhood) come to light. One such find was 1955's Bandish starring Ashok Kumar and Meena Kumari. Now, Ashok Kumar is always a delight to watch, especially when he is in the lead. With Meena Kumari though, one always expects a tragedy. The DVD cover wasnt any help as it showed the changing faces of Meena Kumari from a young and beautiful actress to the more familiar tragedy queen. So, which of these faces would she wear in the movie? Having earlier experienced the joys of watching the young Meena Kumari in Azad, Parineeta and Miss Mary, I decided to take a chance and hope this one would feature the younger version. After watching the movie I was glad I did!

Mahendra (Nazir Hussain) has been bringing up the orphaned Tomato (why such a wierd name for cute little Daisy Irani?) but is worried about Tomato's future as he has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. He decides to find Tomato a new father and takes him to the park. Tomato is promised a meeting with his long lost father and told to stick by the father no matter what. In the park Mahendra settles on a rich wastrel Kamal Rai (Ashok Kumar) as the most likely candidate based on his generosity and kindness to a beggar. (That just shows what random acts of kindness can bring. I wouldnt be kind to a beggar now in case someone sic'ed their orphan on to me!)