Romancing With Life - by Dev Anand

It's funny how any actor's screen persona creates his/her image in our mind. And we almost never realize that the real person could be way different than our image. I wouldn't go so far as to say that Dev Anand has been my favorite actor from the Golden Era movies because I haven't seen any of his movies from start to finish. But I have always loved to watch his songs - be it a happy one like 'Jiya o jiya o jiya kuchh bol do', a naughty melody like 'Uparwala jaan kar anjaan hai' or a sad take on life like 'Kisaka rastaa dekhe ae dil ae saudaai'. So for me, Dev was always a shy, straight-forward, guy-next-door, with an enchanting smile, wooing his lady love with his sincerity and devotion and remaining loyal to her thereafter. His autobiography shattered that image.

Now, I must confess that I had no illusions about his directorial ventures. Also in the foreword, Dev himself says that people accuse him of being a narcissist but also maintains that it was necessary for his image. So, in a way, I knew that I had to read this book keeping these two things at the back of my mind. What I was not prepared for, however, was the extent of his narcissism. He discusses each of his movies in detail but the details are pretty much limited to his own role and contribution to it. There is very little that he says about his leading ladies, directors or other people associated with these movies. Yes, I understand that it is his autobiography and so it must talk about him. But after a movie or two, these details start sounding boring and many a times, downright jar on to your nerves.

Then he starts discussing the films that he directed on his own. We all know that a film can be considered successful even if it doesn't set the cash registers ringing - if the critics find something worthwhile in it. Dev's films had failed both the tests. But he doesn't seem ready to acknowledge what went wrong so any analysis of the same is totally out of the question. Probably that is the reason why he continued making films the same way though the subjects that they dealt with were different than the usual potboilers. After a while, the excuse that the film made him happy even if people didn't appreciate it starts ringing hollow. He wasn't making home videos, was he? The whole point of releasing the film in the theaters is that you want others to watch it. So shouldn't it bother you if one film after another keeps getting rejected? It doesn't seem to have occurred to him at all. Or if it did, he hasn't been candid about it in this book. For some inexplicable reason, I felt sad for him for this. Was he always living under some illusion or did he want to convince us that he really was successful as far as making a movie goes? We will never know.

Another thing that struck a discordant note was his frequent references to encounters with ladies. Before you say it, I admit that this could be because of my conservative upbringing and outlook towards life. But somehow I felt that he put it in the book to live up to his romantic image on screen. I wondered how things would have turned out if he had married his first love Suraiyya instead.

All in all, I am glad that I read the book - no doubt about it. But one thing is certain - something has changed in the way I will watch any Dev Anand song in the future. The image of the guy-next-door has been shattered in a thousand pieces - the same way Rozie's earthen pot shatters in that famous song from the movie Guide.