K.A Abbas Was The First To See The Sparks In Dev Anand And Even Gave Him Shelter In His One Bedroom House In Shivaji Park

Ali Peter John

Dev Anand had just arrived from Gurdaspur in Punjab after getting his degree in English literature. He was fascinated by his elder brother, Chetan Anand's career as a writer and director and wanted to follow in his footsteps. He knew it was not going to be easy and his brother, Chetan had made it clear to him, but he had come with the determination to make it, come what may.

In the initial stages, he followed Chetan wherever he went and one of the places was an old bungalow on Pali Hill which was numbered 41, Pali Hill. This was a place which was almost like a hideout for all the communist writers, playwrights, poets and actors with a strong leftist leaning.

Dev who was hardly twenty and very handsome had heard about all these famous names and even read some of their fiery writings and was carried away by them at his age and even wanted to write like them someday, but how could he forget that he had come to Bombay to try his luck as an actor?

He spent all day and till late in the night with all his writers in the hope of trying his best to catch their attention and to make an impression on them without disturbing or irritating them. He loved the atmosphere best when the entire group had heated discussions and arguments over the freedom of India that was at hand any time in the next few months and how they would like to celebrate it starting from the Gateway of India.

Dev too was full with the fervour for freedom, but somewhere within him he was also full of the spirit to fight for his place as an actor which he believed he deserved and his belief in himself was bolstered by one man more than the others at 41, Pali Hill and that was Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, whose belief in him was a strong that when he realised Dev had no proper home to live in Bombay, he offered him a place in his one bedroom flat in Shivaji Park, where he lived with his wife. Dev spent a number of months there, till he got his first few breaks as an actor, but had a very very long way to go and Abbas told him that he was very sure that he would surpass all those he sat with at 41, Pali Hill. What a prediction and a premonition it was from a man who I always think he had the powers of a prophet who was greater and far ahead of his times than any other prophet, genuine or fake.

Some years later, Dev Anand was a star and Abbas wanted to make a film about the problems of the tea planters of Assam and he hesitantly asked Dev if he would play the lead role and Dev saw that Abbas did not have to ask him anymore questions about the film called “Rahi". When Dev was disillusioned with the politics of the country and formed his own National Party, Abbas did not think about his own leanings for his own politics, but stood by Dev and was with him and was thoroughly disillusioned when Dev's Party was disbanded. Abbas had said, “if good and honest men like Dev also give up politics, where is the hope of this country?"

And when Abbas died in June,1987, Dev who did not like attending funerals said, “there goes one of the last lights of hope for this country rambling and groping in a smoke of darkness."

I consider myself extremely fortunate to be a witness to lives of these two men who I will always consider as two of the greatest men till the end of my life.

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