Dev Anand obituary

The Indian actor, producer and film-maker Dev Anand, who has died aged 88, was the first and longest serving matinee idol of Bollywood cinema. The pinnacle of his career came with Guide (1965), a film based on RK Narayan's novel, in which Dev played the male lead opposite the classical Indian dancer turned actor Waheeda Rehman. Dev's talented younger brother Vijay directed it. During the golden age of Indian cinema, in the 1950s and 1960s, Dev, along with Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar, formed the trio of stars who dominated the silver screen. Dev's urbanity and quirky mannerisms made him especially popular among the young and women. He was born in undivided India at Gurdaspur, in the Punjab region. His father, Pishorimal Anand, was a leading lawyer. After graduating from the prestigious Government College, in Lahore, Dev tried and failed to enter the Royal Indian Navy. He finally decided to follow his older brother Chetan's footsteps to join Bombay's film world. Chetan was the eldest of the three Anand brothers and had established himself as an avant-garde film-maker with his debut film Neecha Nagar (Lowly City), one of the first Indian films to gain international recognition – it shared the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film at the first Cannes film festival in 1946. Chetan helped Dev to join the leftist Indian People's Theatre Association where he met many leading figures active in theatre and films. Dev was soon offered the lead role in the Prabhat film company's Hum Ek Hain (We Are One, 1946) directed by PL Santoshi. But the film that made him a star came two years later from the famous Bombay Talkies studio. This was Shahid Lateef's Ziddi (Stubborn, 1948). Kishore Kumar was introduced as a playback singer in this film for Dev, who became his romantic voice for many later films. In 1949 Dev and Chetan formed their own Navketan Films. Their first production, Afsar (1950), based on Nikolai Gogol's novel The Government Inspector, with Dev and the singing star Suraiya in the lead roles, and directed by Chetan, sank without a trace. But soon the company was placed on a firm footing with the blockbuster crime thriller Baazi (The Wager, 1951). In the 1950s and 1960s Navketan's Taxi Driver (1954), Nau Do Gyarah (Nine Plus Two Makes Eleven, 1957), Kalapani (Life Sentence, 1958), Kala Bazaar (Black Market, 1960) and Tere Ghar Ke Samne (In Front of Your House, 1963) kept Dev at the forefront of Indian cinema. The high watermark of his career as a film star came with Guide, Jewel Thief (1967), Johny Mera Nam (My Name is Johny, 1970) and Tere Mere Sapne (Our Dreams, 1971), all directed by Vijay. Dev turned to directing with Prem Pujari (The Worshipper of Love, 1970), a film about the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965. As a film-maker, his greatest successes came with Haré Raama Haré Krishna (Praise Rama, Praise Krishna, 1971), which dealt with the problem of drugs among the young; and Des Pardes (At Home and Abroad, 1978), about illegal immigration in the UK. Dev also had the distinction of introducing many talents and fresh faces to popular Indian cinema, such as Kalpana Kartik, Zeenat Aman and Tina Munim. Dev was a true democrat, which was apparent from the way he rallied against the ruling Congress government's suppression of rights during Indira Gandhi's Emergency era. He was also secular and broadminded. Though a Hindu by birth, he proposed to Suraiya, a Muslim. After being rejected by her family, he married Kartik, a Catholic. He heroically defied the ravages that time stamped on his once strikingly handsome physique and distinctive style of delivery. He continued to make films, with himself as the male lead against new young unknowns, until even some of his greatest admirers started to wish he would just call it a day. Yet, he kept going as though nothing had changed. In 2007, his insightful autobiography, Romancing With Life, was published. Dev is survived by his wife, their son Sunil and daughter Devina. • Dharam Dev Anand, actor, producer and film-maker, born 26 September 1923; died 4 December 2011, London.