The legendary actor, director, producer Dev Anand sahab is no more. We pay our tributes to this great legend and pray for his soul to rest in peace. Among all the films Geeta ji sang for, her maximum number of songs (in terms of quantity as well quality) might very well be from films starring Dev sahab.
One can see Geeta ji-Guru Dutt ji with Dev Sahab, and Johny Walker sahab in the above pic. We all very well know that Dev sahab was a close friend of Guru Dutt ji and information about their friendship is available everywhere on the internet.
Geeta ji, the queen of “Bhaav Gaayaki” has sung such a wide range of songs for all these films. Here is an almost complete list of such films:
Jeet (1949)
Khel (1950)
Birhaa Ki Raat (1950)
Dilrubaa (1950)
Afsar (1950)
Stage (1951)
Nadaan (1951)
Baazi (1951)
Zalzalaa (1952)
Tamashaa (1952)
Jaal (1952)
Armaan (1953)
Ferry/Kashti (1954)
Humsafar (1953)
Baadbaan (1954)
Munimaji (1955)
Milaap (1955)
Dev Anand in Goa (Alias Farar) (1955)
Pocket Maar (1956)
CID (1956)
Paying Guest (1957)
Nau Do Gyarah (1957)
Love Marriage (1959)
Manzil (1960)
Kaala Baazar (1960)
Ek Ke Baad Ek (1960)
Film Hi Film (1983) — The song Hum Khoob jaanate hain starred Dev sahab.
The film worthy a special mention is of course Baazi. It was an unique phenomenon — Geeta ji sang for both Geeta Bali and Kalpana Kartik. All those songs were solos sung for the debonair hero Mohan aka Dev. Not only that, Geeta ji sang for the director Guru Dutt [whom she didn’t even know], not for her lover off screen. But when Geeta ji sang Aaj ki raat piya dil na todo OR tarrarrum, tararrum ye kaun ayaa… she was singing very much for the character on screen and the person off screen Kalpana Kartik who was headlong in love with Dev Anand and so was he…. so much so that they tied the knot right in the sets of Baazi!! Chetan anand had introduced Kalpana for the first time who was a girl from Shimla.
An interesting aspect of “Two Geetas” and Dev sahab.. Dev sahab acted With Geeta Bali ji in seven films : Baazi, Jaal, Zalzala, Ferry, Farar, Milap, Pocketmaar. All of them had at least one song by Geeta ji, in fact she was one of the primary singers for all the films except Pocketmaar.
The only time when the viewers of Hindi cinema got to see the glimpse of Geeta ji on the silver screen was also from the Dev Anand film “Kaala Baazar”
The director-singer couple can be seen in the video below at 2:55 minutes arriving at the premiere of Mother India. Dev sahab plays the role of a person who sells the theater tickets in black (hence the name of the film is Kaala Baazar).
There are close to five dozens or more songs of Geeta ji from films starring Dev Sahab. She was very much a part of his films, specially in the early to mid fifties. Here is one fun-and-romance filled song featuring Dev sahab, Nalini Jaywant ji and Pran sahab from the film Munimaji (1955), a rare occasion where Geeta ji says a few lines apart from singing.
The legacy of Dev Anand, the eternal romantic hero will live on forever. Rest in peace Dev sahab.
Acknowledgements:
We are thankful to Haimanti Banerjee, author of the book “Geeta Dutt — The Skylark” and our dear friend Sounak Gupta for their contributions towards this tribute.
* This post was originally posted as a tribute to Dev sahab on December 3rd, 2011. We lost some pages due to technical issue. Now we are in the process of re-publishing these articles.