Skip to main content

Rendering Of A Charismatic Legend (Book Review)


Book: Dev Saab - A journey with the legend Dev Anand
Author: Vijay Kumar
Publication: Notion Press

 In his wonderfully articulated book, 'Dev Saab', Actor/TV Presenter/Author Vijay Kumar has chronicled his entire experience and cherishable moments with the legendary actor, Dev Anand. Vijay makes us look at Dev Anand through his eyes and takes us through his upbringing and circumstances that led him to dream of becoming an actor in Bollywood. Like million other die-hard fans of Dev Anand, he too is mesmerized by his mannerisms, charisma, style and his unparalleled acting skills that in turn fuels his acting dream.



Vijay makes us experience his intense struggle in Mumbai, something that every aspiring actor has gone through and he too, has to walk through the fire path. Only that, he had to do it a bit longer. Some give up, some struggle but Vijay moves on like a juggernaut. Since childhood, Vijay has nursed a single dream of meeting Dev Anand and work with him. He tells us about his journey of leaving his home town for Mumbai and in the process of meeting Dev Anand, met a lot of good people in Bollywood who treated him nicely and wanted to give him a chance too. He tells us about the lovely, worth cherishing moment when he finally gets to meet his idol, and a beginning of what we can call, a lovely friendship for a lifetime.

He beautifully explains his moments of working with him, acting for his movies, listening to his stories, his philosophies, experiences and how like a dutiful student ever-hungry to learn lapped up everything what he said. He takes us through moments of intense happiness, and also disappointments arising out of his own ambition of becoming an established actor. He tells us how Dev Anand was a man of his words, and that his vision and approach of making a movie was completely unordinary. What fueled him was his 'never say die' attitude and intense positivity that he exuberated to others around him too. Vijay is fortunate to have known and been with him as he too, exhibits this positivity that has lead him to many achievements.

The book treats us with numerous photographs that Vijay has clicked with Dev Anand and other actors, directors with whom he has worked. A real-treat to watch them. As a reader, I experienced Vijay's moments of joy, sadness, disappointments, endless struggles. But then, above all I saw a beautiful soul of a person, Dev Anand.

Do read this book if you are a huge fan of Dev Saab.   


My rating: 4 out of 5.

I received a review copy of the book from the author in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. 

About The Guest Reviewer:


Varun N Rao is a Senior Content Specialist at a US-based software company in Bengaluru. In his 'strictly me' time, he creates realistic portraits with pencils and paints, paintings and funny caricatures. He also creates digital works and explores new trends in the art world both, digital and fine art. Follow his works at www.facebook.com/vartoonss/

Apart from this, he helps his wife to create delicious, mouth-watering chocolates under the banner Eat More Chocolates (www.facebook.com/eatmorechocolates).

When not creating portraits or preparing chocolates, he indulges in some lazy time to read biographies, fiction and non-fiction books, editing his wife's articles/blogs/short stories or just watch movies, comedy serials etc.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

So, Are You A Good Person Or A Nice Person?

So, are you a good person or a nice person? It’s not always good to be nice, you know. Sometimes it’s okay to be ‘just you’.   We often end up mixing the two attributes - good and nice – assuming them to be the same. But there is a vast difference between the two. What is the difference, you ask? Or is it just that I am going bonkers? Well, by definition … ·          A nice person is someone who is pleasant to be around, has good manners, and is cheerful; ·          A good person on the other hand, is someone who is honest, helpful, and morally good. A person who has generally been good tends to be nice to others, most of the time. However, the question is: should they be nice to people, even if they don’t want to? Would people consider them as ‘good’ if they are not nice any longer?   The Burden of Being Nice Here’s what I think: you might be a good person, who doesn’t want to intenti...

A Soul Stirring Journey! (Book Review)

Image Source   Book: The Seeker Author: Karan Bajaj The climax of the book is just unexpected. Well that's not how you would expect me to begin a review, but it's simply not what I had anticipated. In fact with the twists and turns I actually had no idea how the book will end. Had completely given up all my presumptions. I'll be honest, first few pages were a little boring for me. Perhaps, because the beginning is slow or maybe because I thought this packing your stuff and going away is a 'very guy' thing. Alright, the fact is I was jealous of Max, that  he could just walk away from his corporate life towards a different life...... However, I continued to read; I was curious to know   how far does Max go in order to reach that state where he feels detached from the world yet one with every tiny bit of the universe. And boy what a journey that was! I enjoyed it :)

Book Review: Suryavamsha

Book: Suryavamsha: The Noble Kings of Ancient India Author: Manjunath Dattatreya  Publication: Notion Press Mythology, I believe, encourages us to question, reason, comprehend the metaphors, go deep into philosophies and develop our own understanding of it. Suryavamsha: The Noble Kings of Ancient India , by  author Manjunath Dattatreya  does exactly the same. This book consists of several stories from the solar dynasty in brief snippets. The key essence of these stories is then highlighted. These stories attempt to answer the question of ‘why’. ‘Why or how did that event find a place in the ancient texts?'; ‘are they still relevant?’; ‘what are they trying to tell us?’