How brothers Dev Anand and Vijay Anand blazed a path on the earth of cinema

Vijay Anand directing Dev Anand and Vyjanthimala in Jewel Thief
| Picture Credit score: Courtesy: Bloomsbury Publishing

Within the realm of cinema, the enigmatic bond between a director and an actor holds a permanent appeal. Over time, the collaborations between Satyajit Ray and Soumitra Chatterjee, Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune, Federico Fellini and Marcello Mastroianni have develop into a part of movie folklore. Yet another collaboration that falls nearly in the identical league however shouldn’t be spoken about in the identical breath is the one between brothers Vijay and Dev Anand.

Over time, their movies have acquired a cult following amongst completely different generations of filmmakers, it’s time to look again at their affiliation that resulted in gems reminiscent of Hum Dono (1961), Information (1965), and Tere Mere Sapne (1971) . Dev had a wholesome chemistry with different administrators and Vijay directed different actors with distinction however after they got here collectively it was magical.

A latest ebook, Hum Dono: The Dev and Goldie Anand Story (Bloomsbury), traces their fascinating journey beneath the arc lights. Tanuja Chaturvedi, who labored intently with Navketan Movies, the manufacturing home of Anand brothers, shines a light-weight on the boys and their strategies and intersperses the ebook with anecdotes and inside tales to evaluate their inventive journey.

Just like the observe shot ingeniously utilized by Vijay in his thrillers, Tanuja aligns the charismatic Dev within the foreground whereas her gently probing lens tracks Goldie, as Vijay was popularly known as, and his understanding of cinematic craft.

Tanuja Chaturvedi’s ebook
| Picture Credit score:
Particular Association

Including zing to Taxi Driver and Funtoosh together with his inputs, Vijay confirmed indicators that he would outgrow the enormous shadow of Chetan, the eldest Anand who had developed a following among the many intelligentsia with Neecha Nagar and Aandhiyaan. Beginning with thrillers and crime capers reminiscent of Nau Do Gyarah (1957) and Kala Bazar (1960), Vijay lent Navketan a contemporary outlook and along with Dev introduced a component of enjoyable, intrigue, and Western sophistication to Indian cinema within the late Nineteen Fifties. Their movies have been marked by noirish themes and chatty conversations the place the hero might be a hustler, feminine characters had some company and the songs mirrored the story’s soul.

Dev Anand and Sadhana in ‘Hum Dono’
| Picture Credit score:
Particular Association

Recognized for his technical prospers in creating the mise-en-scene, with Nau Do Gyarah, Vijay tried a youthful highway film when there was no idea of sync sound within the Bombay trade. To set the stage for the character of a black marketeer in Kala Bazar, Vijay shot the premiere present of Mehboob Khan’s Mom India with high stars and filmmakers of the time strolling the pink carpet. Later, with Johny Mera Naam and Jewel Thief, he established the template for crime thrillers.

Dev was a uncommon Hindi movie hero whom lyricists reminiscent of Majrooh Sultanpuri described as haseen and khoobsurat in songs. However beneath that fastidiously constructed manner of a breezy romantic actor, who may play gray shades with conviction, there was a philosophical aspect to Dev that he was keen to specific as soon as he discovered a agency footing within the aggressive trade. Vijay, who had a grounding in non secular texts, gave this urge a concrete form with out taking away the mass enchantment of the star. This marriage of artwork and leisure was greatest mirrored in Information, their path-breaking collaboration. Vijay not solely took liberty with the literary supply on which the movie was based mostly, he additionally moved away from its English cinematic adaptation. Lastly, he got here up a magnum opus that rang true to India’s soul and stays related each when it comes to its progressive textual content and context. Information begins because the story of a vacationer information Raju, who comes throughout a lady whose unhealthy marriage has made her an emotional wreck. He reveals her the way in which to uncover her inside energy. Paradoxically, within the course of, Raju’s personal complexes come to the fore and the information loses his approach solely to seek out redemption in direction of the tip of a poignant climax.

Waheeda Rahman with Dev Anand in Information.
| Picture Credit score:
Particular Association

As Tanuja, who teaches movie interpretation, says, Vijay had this superb potential to play with the story’s subtexts to assemble the character’s inside. “For him, cinema was like a chunk of structure — a way to point out, not inform, categorical or clarify.”

This got here by way of once more in Tere Mere Sapne, which explored a physician’s dilemma in a rotten system. Primarily based on Dr A.J. Cronin’s The Citadel, realism permeated by way of Vijay’s screenplay and we received to see a glimpse of the actor in Dev and the glamorous Mumtaz as a robust performer.

To not neglect Dev’s neatly etched double function and Sadhana’s magnetic enchantment in Hum Dono, which Vijay co-directed with Amarjeet, the general public relations man at Navketan. A conflict movie with a young core, Vijay’s positioning and remedy of Sahir Ludhianvi’s songs to generate moments of epiphany make Hum Dono a movie for the ages.

The brothers shared a inventive camaraderie
| Picture Credit score:
Courtesy: NFDC

The depth of their endeavour is mirrored of their legacy as effectively. There may be hardly any similarity between Sriram Raghavan and Sanjay Leela Bhansali. However each swear by the artwork of Goldie. If one follows the artwork of making against the law scene and credit score rolls, the opposite pays tribute to his tune picturisation. Like R.D. Burman’s music, Vijay Anand continues to reside on by way of a brand new era of filmmakers.