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
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