MUMBAI, July 6: Chetan Anand, film producer and director and the elder brother of Dev and Vijay Anand, died today at Nanavati Hospital in Vile Parle. He was 82.

Nearly three decades before Border became a runaway hit, Chetan Anand had directed Haqeeqat India's first and unarguably finest war film to date. It became a yardstick for subsequent Hindi films based on war.

Anand who was born in Gurdaspur in Punjab, was suffering from kidney failure and chronic asthma. He died at 3 am. His body was cremated at Oshiwara crematorium. His funeral was attended by several of his contemporaries and juniors from the film industry including B R Chopra, Amitabh Bachchan and of course, the entire Anand family.

Dev Anand described Chetan as his mentor and the man responsible for bringing him to the film industry. While Vijay Anand said, ``Chetan could infuse life into films on realistic and social themes.''

Chetan Anand's friend and his classmate from Lahore days, producer-director B R Chopra, said the golden era of Hindi films has ended with the passing away of Anand.

He served as an active Congress worker in the 1930s after graduating from Government College in Lahore. Subsequently he taught history in the early 1940s, and it was during this time that he decided to write a film script based on Ashoka the Great. But before that he aspired to join the ICS and even went to England along with another illustrious classmate from Lahore, Khushwant Singh, to appear for the exams. Both men flunked. Bureaucracy's loss was filmdom and journalism's gain respectively. Chetan Anand came to Mumbai, the Mecca of Hindi films, to sell the script on King Ashoka and during his meetings with people from the film world, he was introduced to veteran director Phani Majumdar. Majumdar took an instant liking to the curly-haired young man and cast him as a hero in his film Rajkumar, which was released in 1944.

This was the beginning of a film career spanning over five decades for Chetan Anand, who soon took to film direction with the well-acclaimed Neecha Nagar which bagged an award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1946.

After the critical acclaim of his directorial debut, Chetan along with his younger brother Dev Anand set up `Navketan Productions' in the early 50s. Afsar, starring Dev Anand and Suraiya, was the first film made by him under the banner. It turned out to be a moderate success. Taxi Driver and Andhiyan were other notable films he directed for Navketan.

In the 60s he set up his own production house Himalaya and directed Anjali, in which he also played the hero. Haqeeqat, the landmark film he made under the banner, brought him accolades and established him as a film maker of repute. Chetan cast Raj Kumar in a romantic role in Heer Ranjha, interspersed with poetic dialogues, opposite Priya Rajvansh with whom he was living. Some movies he directed for other banners include Hindustan Ki Kasam, Hanste Zakhm and Kudrat. Hath Ki Lakeerein, starring Jackie Shroff and Zeenat Aman, was his last film as a director.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.