Call of a lonely heart….

Navketan and Sachindev Burmanda enjoyed a durable and very memorable creative partnership. Burmanda was Dev Anand’s trusted composer and he even went to the extent of delaying a film project during Burmanda’s illness by a number of months, despite the man-who-would-have-been-King protesting and specifically asking Devsaab to take another composer. The project was based on an R K Narayan novel which Satyajit Roy was interested in, but Devsaab with his keen eye for good literature had already purchased the film rights for. Guide, the delayed project, has one of Burmanda’s best scores of a very memorable career.

Mona Singha was born in Lahore some 91 years ago, and was studying in Shimla, where she won a beauty pageant. Dev Saab’s older brother, Chetan Anand spotted the teenaged beauty and cast her opposite Dev Saab in Baazi. The pair clicked. Chetan Anand christened her Kalpana Kartik for the film. The name stuck and the lady only acted in 5 more films, all with Dev Anand: Aandhiyan the next year , Hum Safar the year after that, Taxi Driver and House No 44 (aka Ghar number chawalis) both in 1954, (they ran away and got secretly married during a lunch break while shooting Taxi Driver with just a few friends attending) & a final movie which was the only one shot after their Son, Suneil‘s birth, Nau Do Gyarah. The lady retired from acting immediately afterwards, and this is a song from the final film together. https://youtu.be/aiKuiWcLrtg

These were the heady, intoxicating days of Dev Mania. Hundreds of millions of Indian women would swoon and fantasize about him, his mannerisms and even his crooked smile and the puffed forelock made his charm irresistible. Every woman loved him (overtly or otherwise) and every man in the Indian diaspora aped him. My class in school had at least 5 clones when I was in Class 4. One, Rajeev Joshi would regale us to countless iterations of his Jewel Thief song, Ye dil na hota bechaara…. whenever teachers were late or absent for a period.

Nau Do Gyaarah was shot when Rafisaab was still Devsaab‘s vocal doppelganger. This is such a beautiful duet with Asha Bhosle. Devsaab, ever the style icon , looking dapper and debonair and Kalpana Kartik arching her eyebrows to inveigle his (& all the men in the audience) heart. Majrooh Sultanpuri‘s lyrics ooze romance and both Rafisaab and Ashatai complement each other beautifully. The naughty, teasing tone in Asha Bhosle‘s voice is truly unique and only Geeta Dutt (the poor ill fated singer whose voice I absolutely adore) could manage this emotion. Latadidi despite her unquestionable talent could never get this into her divine singing. https://youtu.be/XlQp1qbW0sc

Have fun folks, we have started off with an overcast sky and a sprinkle. I hope it rains hard and provides succour.

Stay safe, stay healthy as mentally I’ve already moved out of pills, balloons and springs to be in an open environment my heart longs to be in.

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