Dev saab forever

The last time Dev Anand spoke about his Kolkata connect, it was to do with speculation regarding the inauguration of the Kolkata Film Festival.
Just days before KFF began, he had said, “I’ve no knowledge of it. I am going to London around October 28/29. I should be there for two to three weeks. Had I been in the country and in Kolkata during that time, I would have liked to attend the Festival.”
He did go to London but sadly, succumbed to a heart attack there.Though Anand never did any Bengali film, his love for the city was evident from the fact that he used to attend the premieres of his movies here. His first visit to the city was during the premiere of “Baazi” in 1951. Subsequently, he came for the premiere of “Taxi Driver” in 1954. Director Ajoy Kar had greeted him at the Roxy theatre and had complimented him on his uninhibited style of acting. Many more visits followed with “CID”, “Nau Do Gyarah”, “Hum Dono”, “Tere Ghar Ke Samne”, “Guide”, “Jewel Thief”, “Hare Rama Hare Krishna” and “Hera Panna”. He had also inaugurated Fatakeshto’s Kali Puja when he came down for the premiere of “Lootmaar” in 1980.
Sandhya Roy, who played his sister in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s “Asli Naqli”, said, “I got the news of Bhaiya’s death on Sunday morning. I am shocked. Hrishida (Hrishikesh Mukherjee) had met me while editing “Ganga” and had told Rajen Tarafdar that he wanted to cast me in a Hindi movie. I was very young then and was a little apprehensive about being cast as Dev Anand’s sister. He was a superstar and I was almost a nonentity. The film had Sadhnaji as the heroine and the song, “Lakh chhupaye chhup na sakega”, became a rage. There was a scene in the movie where I had to walk over him. Being 42 kgs, I was scared if it would hurt him. At this point, he told me: “Tum toh mere sister ho.” We spoke on the phone the last time he came down to Kolkata. He had wanted me to spend a day with him the next time he was in town.”
Few know that Anand had cast Supriya Devi in “Teen Devian”. “I was in Mumbai then and had shot for the film for a few days. Then, there were some date issues and I had to quit the film. I am very sad to hear the news.” The role was essayed by Simi Garewal. Anand had later come down to shoot “TD” for two days in Kolkata. Anand had also featured in two Hindi remakes of Bengali movies. While one was Uttam Kumar, Supriya Devi and Sabitri Chatterjee’s “Uttarayan”, which was remade as “Hum Dono” in 1952 with Dev Anand and Sadhna in the lead, the 1955 “Sabar Upore” starring Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen was remade as “Kalapani” with Dev Anand and Madhubala in the lead in 1958. There were bound to be comparisons, but after watching “HD”, Uttam Kumar had said: “There can be no comparisons between my performance in “Uttarayan” with that of Dev Anand in “HD”.”