Reminisces on Dev Anand’s funda of life

Dev Anand is no more. 2011 has been cruel in that sense: Jagjit Singh, Nawab Pataudi, Ustad Sultan Khan, The 9% Indian Growth story, and now Dev Anand. All taken by the cruel hands of fate.

We can all recount one or more of his movies as our favorites. But I think movies are, at the end, just that, movies: a simplified modeling of human life via a limited perception of an individual or a group of individuals. A bunch of brains can only throw so many scenarios, probabilities and complexities in a story. However in life, the level of complexities is humongous and this is the real test of character.

I think that it was on the test of life that Dev Anand excelled at. The nonconformist filmmaker and actor kept dishing out movies after movies, I personally disliked most of his recent movies which were also super flops, but then there are so many pathetic movies which still manage to make money at the BO just because of slick marketing). But what is remarkable is that till the very end, he stuck to his vision and his approach to the art. Many of us, including myself may easily criticize the man for his stubborn attitude when clearly, to us, his days of glory were over.

That is where we err. Who are we to write him or anyone except ourselves off? Who are we to decide that his or her days of glory were over? That and he didn’t have the wherewithal to reclaim his success, once again?

I admire him for the guts and courage to back himself till his last breath. How many of us will have the courage to do that? In the face of almost sure defeat, most of us will choose to smugly step outside the ring and refuse to fight an honest round, whatever be our reasons and justifications. At least Dev Saab didn’t take the easy way of quitting before the final whistle was blown.

As I mentioned earlier, we witness and admire so many fictional characters with the famous “NEVER SAY DIE” approach. Rocky, Chak de India, Men of Honor etc. the list is long and each one of us can add a few of our own. But that is all fiction. In real life the guy who has the guts to live those characters seldom comes out smelling like roses. I believe it’s the real life heroes who deserve to be appreciated for what they have done.

Dev Anand was one who didn’t believe it when: 

“…people stick a finger in your face and tell you you’re no good…..The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!

Now if you know what you're worth than go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers sayin' you ain't what you wanna be because of him or her or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain't you! You're better than that!

Until you start believing in yourself, you ain't gonna have a life.”

PS: I wanted to keep the above lines short…par control nahin hota…:) I looouve the dialogues so much....he he