As expected veteran yet evergreen iconic co-star heroine Zeenat Aman (fondly called ‘Zeenie baby’) proved to be the surprise star attraction and centre-of-distraction at the ‘Dev Anand Birth Centenary ” event organized by Dr. Govind Sharma (of Jaipur ) and Ashok Kumar Malhotra on Sept 26^th to coincide with the 100^th birth anniversary of Dev-saab. The grand event which had loyal enthusiastic numerous Dev-saab Fans comprising NRIs from different foreign cities of the world and Fans from Mumbai and distant cities across India was held at an almost-houseful event at Nehru Centre, Worli.  There were at least five look-alikes ( ‘humshakal’ clones) of Dev-Saab who were being mobbed by some of the invited fans.

But the ‘humshakal’ of Dev Anand who was mobbed by maximum excited female fans was senior actor-mimicry artiste Tapan Kumar Boral, who had come to Mumbai, all the way from Kolkata   The formal lamp-lighting ceremony along with rich tributes paid to Dev Anand ( there were two beautiful portraits of Dev-saab displayed on stage) was followed by a live extempore Q & A session on stage by a professional newscaster with madame Zeenat Aman who was grateful to the Global Dev Anand Fans Forum organizers for especially inviting her. When asked how she was finalized for the 1971 movie ‘Hare Rama Hare Krishna’, (HRHK) Zeenat honestly replied that Dev-saab had told her that ‘HRHK’ cameraman Fali Mistry liked her eyes and her smile which is how she was finalized.  Zeenat disclosed, “As a passionate professional gentleman director-actor Dev-saab was a very stylish person. Always easy-going, relaxed, yet fully charged, dedicated to his film craft. Patient and cheerful by nature, Dev-saab would never lose his temper and never get angry—not even once…

His movie scripts were mostly written first in English which then would be translated in Hindi which would be a definite advantage for me,´ recalled Zeenat who also shared how they all shot for ‘Ishk Ishk Ishk’ (1974) movie facing extreme cold climate with less oxygen at the Himalayan mountain base-camp and such difficult conditions.  The zestful Zeenat also honestly opened up that while shooting for the song  ‘Dum Maro Dum’, (HRHK movie) with the haunting tune and catchy soul-beat rhythm, composed by R D Burman (Pancham-Da) they never anticipated that this song would ultimately become the No 1 best top-chartbuster song of that ‘70s decade and later the entire millennium as per cinematic history research conducted. Outspoken Zeenat shared that “Dev-saab hated these two things (persons)—he hated ‘hairdressers’ for female artistes and he hated ‘dance-directors’.

Devsaab preferred casual open flowing hair instead of  tight hair-buns and hair-bouffant and he preferred natural body rhythm-movement to the beats, tune, lyrics and mood of the song being picturised, where I was concerned,” disclosed Zeenat while also “admiring the legacy of  Dev Anand whose positive optimism and amazing energy is exemplary”   Interestingly Dev Anand had initially launched Zeenat Aman as his own screen-sister ( Jasbir / Janice) in ‘Hare Rama Hare Krishna’ (1971) and as the heroine Rakhee’s sister in Heera Panna (1973)  but few  years later there was her image-transition and he then cast her as his on–screen romantic premika in ‘Ishk Ishk Ishk’ (1974) and ‘Prem Shastra’ (1974) and Warrant ( 1975).

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