Opinion The real humdingers

The contemporariness was pronounced in the films he directed. The first,Prem Pujari,a flop at the box office,became a cult war movie about an underdog spy and has one of the greatest soundtracks ever. Hare Rama Hare Krishna was an unabashed look at the flower children,a theme that a traditional filmmaker wouldn’t have even thought of. And its music established his ability for having a finger still on the pulse of the young.

Dev Anand’s intent — to keep abreast of the times and to understand an emerging new audience — was the key to his success. But one of his greatest gifts to Hindi cinema was the music he helped create.

Apart from discovering talents like Kalpana Kartik,Zeenat Aman and Guru Dutt,it was for him that Kishore Kumar first sang — “Marne ki duayen kyon mangoon” in Ziddi.

When Kishore started his career,the only hero he would sing for,apart from himself,was Dev Anand. While Talat Mahmood,Mohammad Rafi and Hemant Kumar gave soul and pathos to the black-and-white times,Dev Anand heralded the youth with the cheer and flamboyance as well as the underrated poignancy in Kishore’s voice.

Having said that,Dev Anand was also probably the only actor whose onscreen personality was so malleable that he could do justice to Hemant Kumar,Rafi and his held-back pathos,Talat to some extent and,of course,Kishore.

Kishore and Dev Anand,best of friends,gave some great songs — “Gaata rahe mera dil”,“Dil aaj shayar hai”,“Shokhiyon mein ghola jaye”,“Maana janab ne pukara nahin”,“Phoolon ke rang se”,“Kiska rasta dekhe” — and went on to enunciate what is arguably the golden era of Hindi film music. Under the baton of the Burman father and son duo,he found the gold standard of playback.

There is this story of how they all used to go fishing in the Powai Lake in Bombay,usually in Dev Anand’s car. Kishore,having failed to catch anything,was determined to improve his image of a terrible angler and would go the previous night to drop some fish in the lake,which he would promptly “catch” the next day.

In the course of his helping to make some of the greatest scores Hindi cinema has ever heard (Guide,Hum Dono,Jewel Thief,Prem Pujari,Hare Rama Hare Krishna),Dev Anand remained a leading man even as Raj Kapoor went on to do senior roles,apart from producing and directing,and Dilip Kumar tried his best to hold on to his box-office status. Dev Anand continued to create a world that spoke to the young. And with R.D. Burman,he gave the next-gen a sound it hadn’t heard before. And probably it was that young,ebullient music that also kept Dev Anand relevant and evergreen.

He may have become a caricature of himself in his later films,but the music even in his relatively unsuccessful films like Joshila,Warrant and Swami Dada raised the bar for excellence.

Cinema will continue. Melodies will again be created. But they just won’t be the same.

Sen is a Mumbai-based filmmaker-screenwriter,express@expressindia.com