Dev Anand And World Tourism Day
Had he been alive on the eve of the World Tourism Day (celebrated on 27th September every year), Dev Anand would have taken the fans of cinema to a retrospective of his films and show cased to the world, how through his films he contributed to creating inquisitiveness and excitement for a country. His films shot on foreign locales kindled the element of wanderlust which otherwise is laid buried deep inside the heart, burdened by the day-to-day existence. Dev Anand indeed was the man who single-handedly was instrumental in kindling the latent urge among the Indians to travel to the different nooks and corners of the world as also to different nooks and corners of the countryside through the cinematic oeuvre that he left behind when he left the mortal world.
With the launch of Navketan Films, his own production house Dev Anand took it on his own to go on a wanderlust and unravel to the moviegoers the majestic beauty that this earth is endowed with through his panoramic lenses. Even before the convention of shooting songs on foreign locales became an accepted norm, Dev Anand had dabbled with the template in PREM PUJARI (1970) and through one song- Phoolon ke rang se, he took the fans of cinema on world tour.
One of the latent reasons he preferred shooting in foreign locations was that it provided him an opportunity to showcase his collection of jackets, scarfs and suits, which he seldom got an opportunity to display in the Indian locations. Dev Anand’s USP of the encapsulation of references of travel and creation of memories with these touch points lay in the fact that Dev Anand used to merge his character into the landscape and invoked the audience to fantasize about it and take their chance to actualize it. Dev Anand is perhaps the only filmmaker who shot a song sequence in Qutub Minar through PAYING GUEST (1957) and unravelled the architectural layouts of Qutub Minar for the public. SOLVA SAAL (1958) was the first film which captured the lifeline of Mumbai aka the local trains in all its finery before it became a norm with films shot in Mumbai and who could forget the song- hai apna dil to awara– which is a primer for aspiring mouth organ players. Very few people might know that it was Pancham who had played the mouth organ for this song (S D Burman was the music director), and when he became the composer, he used mouth organ in enigmatic ways. SOLVA SAL was followed by CID (1965), which captured the enigma of Mumbai that entices the dreamers to just roll down to this city of dreams and seek their realization – Aie Dil Hai Mushkil Jeena Yahan. Through PAYING GUEST (1963), Dev Anand gave a glimpse of the evolving city beautiful- Chandigarh when he drove through it on a scooter to chase Nutan to Shimla.
Credit should also be given to Dev Anand for opening up the splendour and opulence of Rajasthan through GUIDE (1965) when on the World Tourist Map Rajasthan was spreading its wings, and GUIDE played a catalytic role in opening Rajasthan to nooks and corners of the world, knowingly or unknowingly through two versions of the Film-Hindi and English.
He was the first person who brought Sikkim to life on the silver screen, even before Sikkim was officially included as a State of India through JEWEL THIEF (1967). It was perhaps first and last film which showcased the enigmatic state of Sikkim. He followed it up with shooting his JOHNY MERA NAAM (1970) in Nalanda and Rajgir, the famous Buddhist sites, which no other producer director followed subsequently to catch it through his camera.
Nepal, which is a neighbourhood foreign country where even average Indian can visit, without a Visa or a passport, acquired its cult status after Dev Anand shot HARE RAMA HARE KRISHNA (1971) Nepal was never captured in such details as Dev Anand had done it in HRHK.
Credit should be given to Dev Anand for opening Bangalore as a preferred shooting location for Hindi films when he made HEERA PANNA (1973) and it must have provided cue to Ramesh Sippy to shoot SHOLAY (1974) and subsequently series of Amitabh Bachchan films where shot in Bangalore. For Dev Anand the greenshoots of using Bangalore as location for his films would have emerged when he landed in Bangalore to travel to Mysore and meet R K Laxman in early sixties.
Dev Anand was also the first producer who went to Ladakh way back in 1974 to shoot ISHQ ISHQ ISHQ, where he introduced Shekhar Kapoor. In a befitting coincidence, when Shekhar Kapoor as director ten year thence, returned to shoot JOSHILAY (1989).
Obviously, Dev Anand could do all of this with such conviction as he had amazing music to build upon the narrative across the oeuvre of films with which he was associated from the time he made his debut to the time when he hung his boot. Travel is all about seeking music and musicality of the area one travels to and a particular node of music brings that element of nostalgia with the location and music team that Dev Anand was endowed with ensured to create such images of permanence. A case in point for this premise is the music of JEWEL THIEF that brought in the succinct nuances of Buddhist musical nodes and deconstructed them to make it a part of the popular film songs, be it in Dil Pukare where the internodes have the distinct Buddhist musical influence or the same echo in Hothon mein aisee baat from the same movie.
His arrangement of music always had a distinct local flavour, and this is what endeared Dev Anand’s music to the fans of cinema and endeared them to continue to keep the flame of travel alive in their hearts inspite of all kinds of hardships. Dev Anand’s birthday and World Tourism Day following it indeed is epitomised in the epochal song from JEWEL THIEF- ye dil na hota Bechara… kadam na hote awara.
Till the time he was alive and even after he has gone, Dev Anand is no more, his spirit of injecting an awaaragi into the footsteps is what WORLD TOURISM DAY invokes and perhaps Dev Anand’s contribution through his monumental work should be integrated as a part of celebration of WORLD TOURISM DAY henceforth.