DEV ZINDAGI KA SAATH NIBHATE CHALE GAYE AUR SIRF APNA HI DHARAM MANTE HUE CHALE GAYE.... BY ALI PETER JOHN

If I say that Dharam Dev Anand was the most stylish and even the most unconventional star of Indian cinema, I will be making an understatement. Dev Anand was much more than all that film historian,writer, script writer, journalist and his biographer have said about him- Ali Peter John

Dev was truly a man way ahead of his time. Today, let me tell you about some of his secret beliefs which kept him going from success to more success.....

Dev came to Bombay with all the confidence that he could not only make it as a star, but as a very big star.

For a man with his handsome looks and his degree in English literature in the forties, he started living with his elder brother Chetan Anand in a chawl called ‘krishna chawl' in Parel which was the hub of mills and mill workers.

From Parel, he shifted to the house of KA Abbas in Shivaji Park. He was an actor without work and spent most of his time at 41, Pali Hill and tried to impress some of the greatest writers, directors and actors, but it was only K A Abbas and his brother Chetan Anand who kept encouraging him.

He finally got his first break in “Hum Ek Hai" directed by Baburao Pai. The couple Ismat Chugtai and Shaheed Latif found him loitering at the Churchgate station and asked him to come to Bombay Talkies and when the bosses at Bombay Talkies approved of him, he was signed to play the leading man in “Ziddi" and then there was no looking back for Dev Anand who not only became a leading star, but a legend, a producer, a discoverer of new talent and one of the three greatest legends of Indian cinema, besides Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor.

Dev was not a very religious man, but he believed that there was a Dev above who created and controlled the world, but Dev also believed that every creation of God had the ability to create his own god which was himself and could create his own world.

Dev hardly prayed and believed that being good and not harming anyone was the best prayer.

And whenever he prayed when he was alone, he prayed according to the Christian tradition and he knew every Christian prayer by heart and he could recite verses and pages from the Bible and he had the same kind of authority on the Gita and other holy books.

Incidentally, his wife, Kalpana Kartik was a born Christian whose name was Mona Singha before Chetan Anand gave her the name Kalpana Kartik for films and she is in her late eighties now and conducts Christian prayer meetings at Dev's bungalow Iris Park and is still very active.

Dev used to love wearing black till thousands of women threatened to put their life in danger if they saw Dev dressed in black in real life or reel life.

Dev never believed in superstition and he believed that the best way to succeed as an actor or in any field of life was to take care of one's health.

Dev had only a cup of tea when he woke up, had breakfast at night and never ate lunch or anything heavy and did not even have a glass of water and if he felt very hungry, he had a few dry grams(channa) or half an apple.

He didn't even have more than two or three sips of tea, but had a heavy dinner and then read the day's newspaper, watched the news on BBC and went to bed only to wake up at 5:00 in the morning and go for a walk in the compound of Iris Park and then got ready to start work.

He had never taken a holiday, not even on Sunday or any feast day and even on the Bannd called by George Fernandes or Bal Thackeray and believed that a Bannd was a crime against the country.

Dev loved having luxurious cars and the Impala was his favorite till he met with an accident in Poona when his co star Geeta Bali was driving with him.

He never again traveled in any imported, expensive and luxury car. He preferred to travel in a simple Fiat in which he always sat with his driver and traveled long distances only in these Fiats.

The company manufacturing Fiats offered him their car, but he accepted the car only after he had paid for them in the original price. Towards the last stages of his life, his sin Suniel Anand convinced him to travel in a Chevrolet and Dev agreed.

But the Chevrolet brought him under the shadow of bad luck. His office and studio, ‘Anand' was given away or sold to some builder who promised Dev that they would give him one floor to have his penthouse and another floor to have his sound recording studio.

Aging Dev agreed to their condition and he was literally pushed into a one bedroom apartment in a building called Riddhi Apartment, where he sat on his chair and a simple table with his books, awards, trophies and even the posters of “Guide" lying all around him. It was a pathetic and painful sight to see him there.

He paid one last visit to the Fredricks Hotel in Mahabaleshwar where he gave the finishing touches to his scripts and even to his autobiography, ‘Romancing Life', ‘ he came back and had a birthday party at the Sun n Sannd Hotel in Juhu where he had lived for 20 years in Suite Number 229.

Fredricks hotel and Suite Number 229 were his favorite places in Bombay, besides The Taj Mahal Hotel in Bombay. And he loved visiting London because he said he could walk around freely and do all his shopping for his clothes, his scarves and shoes and his caps.

He also loved to eat in the small cafes of London. After celebrating his birthday at the Sun n Sannd, he flew to London for what was to be a medical checkup. He checked into his favorite hotel, Dorchester with his son, Suniel.

That night, he felt uneasy and asked Suniel to get him a glass of water and before the glass of water could come, one of the greatest legends of Indian cinema had secretly slipped out of this world.

He wanted a death like this and he got it and he wanted a farewell where there would be no melodrama and he received that too because his body was given a silent funeral which was not even attended by 20 people and what I still can't get over with his how a man like Subrota Roy, the founder of Sahara who was n in Jail till recently was a pall-bearer holding the mortal remains of an immortal man like Dev Pishorimal Dharam Anand.

DEV JAISE INSAAN AISE HI THELTE THELTE, HASTE GAATE HAMAARE JAHAAN MEI AATE HAI AUR PHIR KABHI JAANE KA NAAM NAHI LETE KYONKI WOH HUM SABKE DILON MEI AB BHI JAHAAN BANAKE JAATE HAI