Dev and Vijay Anand: It takes two to tango
(NOTE: This article was originally published in the India Today issue dated April 28, 2025)A large number of Indian cinema publications are anecdote-driven or based on salacious behind-the-scenes stories. Occasionally, though, a book is written with such care and attention to detail that it makes you want to drop everything and head straight to the films being discussed—so you can savour what the author saw in them, or disagree with her, or both at the same time. Tanuja Chaturvedi's Hum Dono—a 'guru-dakshina' for Vijay (also known as Goldie) and Dev Anand and the classics they made together—is in this category.advertisementChaturvedi's relationship with the Anand brothers' Navketan Films began in childhood (she got to meet Dev Anand at age five, an overwhelming experience for a girl who had only watched the charismatic star on the big screen), but took a new shape at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) where she learnt to appreciate Vijay Anand's technical proficiency and 'command over every aspect of filmmaking'. This was followed by a professional stint as Dev Anand's chief assistant director.Every facet of this long-lasting bond is represented here. The book has two dominant tones. One is that of the awestruck fan: the child who was rapt while watching films like Guide, as well as the adult who retained her passion for the Navketan flair, the songs, the modern approach to city life. The second tone, more pedantic, is that of the scholar and practitioner who knows a great deal about film history and likes to show off this knowledge, making references and connections that may seem whimsical or pretentious to a casual reader: from Camille Paglia's take on the differences between men and women (in the context of gender roles in the 1961 film Hum Dono) to fleeting invocations of Jungian psychology to a mention of Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood (while discussing the process of adapting R.K. Narayan's The Guide for the screen)And yet, somehow, these two modes come together very well in Chaturvedi's chronological examinations of individual films—from 1957's Nau do Gyarah to 1971's Tere Mere Sapne. Notably, though, the book is presented as a 'Dev and Goldie story', and though the author is a big fan of Dev Anand (the star and the person), she focuses a little more on Vijay Anand's special qualities as a director. This includes analyses of the celebrated song sequences in films like Jewel Thief, Guide and Johny Mera Naam, as well as Goldie's intuitive understanding of framing and camera movement, the gambles he took with narrative structure, and how he incorporated a progressive sensibility into even his early work such as Kala Bazar. To read Hum Dono is to see an egalitarian passion for the medium, unconcerned with the usual labels and hierarchies—popular vs art, serious vs entertaining—that often restrict film analysis.advertisementSubscribe to India Today Magazine
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