Into his 50th year in films by end-1995, the spell cast by Dev Anand remained unmatched up to that point. After all, he had won his spurs as one who ranked alongside Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor in forming The Triumvirate without parallel in the lexicon of our cinema. Those 72 years thus sat lightly upon Dev's stylish shoulders, as his screen appeal had remained undiminished through 50 years. This while Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor had shed much of their mystique by the turn of the 1970s itself.
Even as Dilip Kumar's careergraph was showing a sharp downward curve with the bombing of Dil Diya Dard Liya (1966), Aadmi and Sunghursh (both in 1968), even as Raj Kapoor went into cold print noting that he had lost Rs 56 lakhs (a fortune those days) on Mera Naam Joker, Dev Anand was riding handsomely high with Johny Mera Naam (1970) opposite a Hema Malini at her ravishing peak.
Such a runaway success had Dev Anand's Johny Mera Naam proved to be (under the innovative direction of Goldie Vijay Anand) that Raj Kapoor even accused the film's producer of having bought out all tickets of his Mera Naam Joker and sold them at half the price on the sly!
That is as may be, but the point to underscore here is that every change of trend witnessed Dev Anand's lustre remaining undimmed. Take the issue of Kishore Kumar's having emerged as the neo-voice of the neo-heroes with Aradhana (1970). The Rajesh Khanna wave left no hero untouched, so much so that Dharmendra was even heard to make a snide reference, in Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Guddi (1971), to that superstar's dizzying hold on the public imagination.
But even as the older line of heroes struggled to make the vocal switch from Mohammed Rafi to Kishore Kumar, Dev Anand came out of the skirmish without a scratch. If anything, sounding even younger on the screen than Dev had before. If only because Kishore Kumar had been his ghost voice from the word go -- in Dev Anand's maiden production for Navketan, Baazi (1951), there was Kishore Kumar, going characteristically on Dev Anand, via the S D Burman-tuned Mere Labon Pe Dekho Aaj Bhi Taraane Hain.
Both Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor, by the 1970 Aradhana turn of tide, were fighting a grim rearguard action to sustain their distinct screen identity. Yet, for Dev Anand, Rajesh Khanna was no real competition! Even Amitabh Bachchan's seizing the mantle from Rajesh Khanna with Salim-Javed's Deewar (1975) saw Dev Anand suavely retaining his magnetism. Nor did Dev Anand blink when Raj Kapoor challenged his ultra-glam Zeenat Aman connection cinematised as Satyam Shivam Sundaram (1978).
Also Read: Dev Anand: Bollywood's man for all seasons
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