Biography
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!
Career & Achievements
Vijay Anand infused new vigor in Hindi version of Guide which its Hollywood version failed With Guide, Vijay Anand was immortalized in the annals of Indian Cinema, and wrote his name in Golden letter in the hall of fame of Indian Classics directors! However few know the film was initially to be sleeved after its English version had failed miserably. Dev Anand feared Guides contemporary ‘bold’ theme might misfire ‘even’ with the Indian audience. However Dev Anand gathered strength and decide to make it under Chetan Anand direction but distributors backed out as Chetan Anand had a poor box office record. Disheartened Dev was above to wrap the Hindi version when Vijay Anand requested Dev Anand to give him an opportunity. It’s interesting that Dev Anand had never considered Goldie’s name for direction as he felt he was too young to handle the matured theme of marital conflict between husband and wife. But on Goldie’s sincere request Dev Anand nodded and rest is history.
Awards (1)
- Filmfare Awards— Best DirectorforGuide
