Vijay Anand

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From Vijay Anand to Goldie Vijay Anand was popularly known as Goldie in the film fraternity. Redaers may wonder how did he get the nickname? Well when he was about 10 -12 year old he had golden hair with curls hence his friend in school began calling him Goldie. Goldie began writing script at tender age Vijay Anand was the youngest in the family and did not get mother’s love as she died when he was just 7 years. He was raised under the warmth of Bhahi-Maa, Uma, elder brother Chetan Anand’s wife, who brought him from Gurdaspur to Bombay. Since Chetan Anand was a brilliant writer and filmmaker of repute young Goldie learned the art of writing from him. In an interview Goldie informed, “I was deeply influenced by Chetanbhai’s brilliance and his writing. As a child, I used to stand behind Chetan bhai and study his writing style. Sometimes when he would be stuck and leave the desk and smoke in gallery thinking of the further plot I would take his pen and complete the lines silently. He would wonder at my intelligence and give a pad on my back. This encouraged me.” Goldie shot his first song for Chetan Anand when was just 21 year! Goldie’s creative inclination towards writing and film making was evident in his teens as he would keep writing stories under the guidance of his Bhabi Maa, Uma. While studying at Mumbai’s St Xavier College he would attend college less and spend most of his time at film studios. Readers would be surprised to know that once Chetan Anand was upset with his own song picturisation of a song in the film Funtoosh (’56) and left the studio in anger. Later he asked Dev Anand (Film Producer and Hero) to let Goldie shoot the song as he felt he was creatively genius and would better justice to it. The song was ’Ai meri topi palat ke aa.. and was brilliantly shot! At the age of 15 years he staged his first drama Goldie had a penchant for art and drama since childhood. At the age of 15 years he staged his first drama in the capital (New Delhi) in an All India Theatre Contest winning top honors.

Vijay Anand’s untold romance with Russian journalist Vijay Anand’s personnel life is not much known to the world. In the early 70’s he was frustrated with the fake world of Bollywood hence he had sought peace at Baba Rajneesh’s ashram in Pune. During the shooting of the film Jaan Hazir Hai, a lady correspondent from Moscow radio called Loveleen came to interview him. She was bold and beautiful and interested in acting in films. Hence Vijay Anand offered her the role in the film Jaan Hazir Hai but she declined as the movie was a launching pad for two new actors Shekhar Kapur (husband of Vijay Anand’s sister) and Prem Kishen (son of famous villain Premnath). Though Loveleen rejected the film, she fell in love with Vijay Anand and was quite pleased by Baba Rajneesh’s ashram in Pune. She began staying at the ashram and whenever Vijay Anand would visit ashram the two would have great fun. After a few years of romance Loveleen purposed Vijay Anand to marry her. Initially Vijay Anand declined but when Baba Rajneesh insisted Anand to marry he gave-in. The marriage was good for few years but soon clashes between the two began and the two divorced. Vijay Anand’s Second Marriage Years later Vijay Anand married Sushma (Kohli) Anand. She was actually Anand’s real sister’s daughter). Hence there was a lot of controversy, both in society and the family. He died on 23 February 2004 due to a heart attack. He was aged 70.

Goldie pens his first official film script in his 20’s While still in college at the young age of around 20 years Goldie penned his first official story and screenplay for the movie ‘Taxi Driver’ for his brother Dev Anand’s home production Navketan and straight away hit the bull’s eye. The success of the movie gave confidence to Dev Anand to hand over the megaphone to his younger brother for his next home production ‘Nau Do Gyarah’ which was inspired by Hollywood’s great hit ‘It happened one night’ by Frank Caper, but instead of a straight pick, Goldie gave a fresh desi look adding all the necessary integrants essential in an commercial Hindi movie and more importantly he concentrated on the music, giving it an innovative style both in terms of picturisation and lyrics. Remember that light romantic song – “Chod do aanchal zamana kya kahega Vijay Anand develops mastery in song picturisation Vijay Anand’s wisdom for song and dance was so precise that it may sound unbelievable but it’s true that for two of Navketan’s movie. ‘Hum Dono’ and ‘Teen Deviyan’ which he didn’t direct, (They were directed by Amarjeet), yet his service was hired ‘Exclusively’ for song picturisation! In fact film critics had categorized Vijay Anand as a sheer ‘Song Specialist’. Vijay Anand was a skilled screenplay writer Besides being a monarch of song technique Vijay Anand was a skilled screenplay writer. Once in an interview he has said, “I tie-up all the loose knots in my plot and never let my viewer’s attention to drift even for a split – second”. True indeed as his screenplays have always been tight and crisp. The best example of which is his slick and smooth screenplay of ‘Guide’ that he wrote out of R.K. Narayan’s sophisticated and dreary English novel, ‘The Guide’. The success of Guide’s Hindi version and the failure of its English version clearly prove the point. Readers would be stunned to know that he wrote the brilliant script of Hum Dono (’61) in flat 18 days and not a single line was changed from the script!!! Goldie was a master of suspense thrillers With Teesri Manzil (’66) Goldie proved he was a master of suspense flick. Further with Jewel Thief (’68) and mother of masala mix Johny Mera Naam (’70) he became Bollywod’s numero uno whodunits! But with failures of his other films like Blackmail, Chupa Rustom, Bullet he changed gears!