IMPRESSIONS

Main Solah Baras Ki
DEV PLAYS DEV
For the first time in Hindi cinema a star holds a mirror to himself and his life and times with reasonable candour and gets away with it. In Dev Anand’s new film, Main Solah Baras Ki, the actor-filmmaker has attempted this experiment by weaving a story around a teenaged fan who follows him during his visit to the United States of America and becomes the star of a film project.

Dev has mixed realism with fiction in the telling of the story of the fan whose dream is to meet Dev Anand and work with him. The story idea was born during Dev’s tour of cities in the USA as part of the celebrations organised by NRIs in the USA on his completing 50 years as a leading man in Hindi cinema.

“While I was moving from city to city where felicitations were organised by the Asians who had been viewing my movies for years, a sixteen year old girl kept calling me and she was following me relentlessly.

“I was intrigued by this little girl’s overwhelming interest in a star who didn’t belong to her generation at all. I met her and I asked her a few questions and she confessed that she wanted to be a film star and she had read and heard that Dev Anand cast new stars in his films and they went on to become great movie stars.”

For Dev it was not an unusual experience. Besides the countless letters he receives from prospective entrants into movies every day the star-filmmaker has visitors walking into Anand, his theatre-cum-office complex in Bandra, Mumbai, seeking a meeting with him.

“Most people think I am inaccessible but I am not inaccessible. I meet people who travel from faraway places to have a word with me or a photograph with me.

“But this girl I met in the USA set me thinking. I couldn’t promise her a film because she didn’t have the star potential. Yet her story of the home she left quietly to follow a star in the hope of fulfilling an ambition fascinated me. As I have depicted in the film she was a lonely teenager who watched films endlessly and was drawn to the escapism our films glorify,” recalls Dev.

Dev got down to writing his script and he kept in mind a promise he had made to his NRI fans during his long celebration tour of America and England that he will return to make a film about their love for Indian stars.

The script he has evolved for Main Solah Baras Ki is rather close to the realities of the life of Dev Anand, the star. Subtly autobiographical in content, the screen play revolves round a 16 year old fan who meets Dev Anand and Dev gives her the leading role in his new film. She undergoes the transformation that all new entrants in filmdom have to willy nilly undergo. She achieves stardom overnight and, in the process, finds herself facing an emotional dilemma.

What is interesting in Main Solah Baras Ki is the novelty of Dev Anand playing himself — Dev, the legendary hero with his legendary style and identifications. Writer-director Dev Anand has managed surprisingly to give an honest appraisal of Dev, the star and starmaker. It is surprising because stars are seldom honest about themselves in their introspections and for just reasons, too. Period.

Though clumsy in parts, the effort deserves to be hailed because it takes some daring for a star to expose himself through a medium which has, ironically enough, given him the camouflages and trappings of stardom and, in his case, legendary stardom.

“Stories spin of just like that in my mind. I’ve often asked myself questions about Dev Anand, the star. At times I am amazed at the following I have. So I said to myself why don’t I present myself before the people who care for me as myself,” says Dev.

The famous walk, the smile, his love for certain things like scarves and caps, for instance, and so many other aspects that have been written about and have gone around curiously about a phenomenon called Dev Anand who has been a star for fifty long years and who has given so many stars to Hindi cinema, what is he really like, are all the stories about him true, what was the real relationship between him and the stars he created and in a nutshell what is stardom all about.

“I’ve tried an experiment,” confesses Dev. “I’ve kept the promise I made to my fans abroad, though I’ve shot in Scotland and not in America. When I finish one picture I move on to another. The finished picture makes way for the new picture in my mind. At this moment, it is the new picture that is on my mind. I will be making the announcement soon,” he smiles his famous smile.

Mother '98
A MATHER TO REMEMBER
Fifteen years ago, it is said, Saawan Kumar Tak approached Rekha with the subject of Mother and she told him that the time had not come for her to play the mother of a teenaged girl. So Saawan Kumar stored the subject in his safe deposit vault and waited.

Today the film is complete and those who have previewed the movie are delighted with Rekha who plays the title role with her characteristic liveliness.

In many ways, Mother 98 is bound to turn out as a different experience for Rekha’s fans. Set in Mauritius, the actress enacts the part of a high society Mauritius-based Indian woman who has had three lovers in her life. Jeetendra, Randhir Kapoor and Rakesh Roshan play the lovers and the comedy gets going at a brisk pace when the three men land at Mauritius in search of the same woman.

The film’s director and producer, Saawan Kumar is least worried about the prospect of the film at the box-office because he knows he has designed the movie for women viewers and coming as it does in the year of the woman, nobody will miss seeing his message to womankind. In fact, when Shashikala springs a surprise in the second half of the film by defending Rekha and paying a tribute to her, the filmmaker’s message is conveyed. Loud and clear.

The songs are well picturised and one sentimental number addressing itself to the mothers of the world is interesting and has emotional appeal.

Rekha looks fabulous and between the three actors there seems to be great rapport and understanding. Being real-life friends evidently helps in relating with each other before the cameras as well.

The new pair Sohaib Khan and Sanobar Kabir introduced by Saawan Kumar performs with surprising aplomb.