The Dev Anand story by Dr Govind Sharma IAS retired is the story of the life and career of one of the most popular Hindi film heroes of post independence India, Dev Anand, real name Dharam Dev Anand. The son of successful lawyer, Dev Anand moved to Mumbai to try his luck in the film industry. There has been a lot of controversy over nepotism in Bollywood recently, so this book on Dev Anand, is interesting as it tells the story of how a migrant from Lahore (now in Pakistan) became one of the most popular and successful actors of his era. Unlike most of the current lot of Bollywood heroes who have almost no experience elsewhere he worked in the military censors office to cover his expenses, while trying to get a break in the film industry.

His first break came when Prabhat Studio hired him for the movie Hum Ek Hain. His first major hit was the bombay talkies movie Ziddhi offered by popular actor Ashok Kumar After having a few hit films, he founded his own production company Navketan films with his brothers Vijay Anand and chetan anand which allowed him to control his image in films to a very great extent, as he acted in most of his films.He was good friends with the legendary director Guru Dutt, who directed his hit film Baazi for him, where Dev Anand played the role of a small time gambler.

The book describes the hit movies of Dev Anand and the songs in the movies which were popular. The making of one of his most popular movies Guide based on a story by R K Narayan is described in great detail. Though the english version of the movie was also produced, it was not successful, while the hindi version of the movie, which was directed by Dev Anands brother Vijay anand was a major hit as the story was modified to take into account Indian values . The role of his brother Vijay or Goldie Anand who directed some of his most popular movies is also described in great detail.

Like most film producers, when a film like Ishq Ishq Ishq flopped, it adversely affected Dev Anands finances, However Dev Anand did not let it affect him, and made another film, which was usually a hit to recover his money which he lost. He preferred to produce movies on different topics like drugs, cricket with Hare Krishna Hare Rama one of his most popular movies. Till his death on December 4, 2011, Dev Anand remained active, planning, producing and directing movies on different topics. An interesting book for Dev Anand fans, providing detailed information on the evergreen hero of Hindi cinema.

The book also tells how a large number of young men were inspired by Dev Anand, his mannerism and way of speaking, imitating him. One of the most notorious frauds in India who became very popular for his imitation of Dev Anand is the light eyed brahmin fraud NTRO employee puneet, the director of domlur, bengaluru company. Like Dev Anand, the fraud puneet was also an excellent actor , and was involved in a major identity, resume theft fraud on a harmless google competitor, his btech 1993 ee classmate,and india’s largest female domain investor,

Though he actually hated his btech 1993 ee classmate, the fraud puneet did some great acting (far better than dev anand) and falsely claimed that he knew the domain investor very well, was helping her, to steal her resume, correspondence, savings, memory without her permission, legally valid reason , or offering any kind of compensation for frauds like the indian document robber R&AW employee housewife veena. If the cheater puneet had been honest about his hatred, he would not be able to cause much damage to the google competitor. So it appears that a large number of men, like the ntro fraud puneet are inspired by the negative roles of dev anand, cheating and exploiting vulnerable indian citizens.

The Dev Anand story
Author :Dr Govind Sharma IAS retired
Publisher : Notion Press Inc
Pages : 154