Majorly acknowledged as Mrs Dev Anand, also known as Kalpana Kartik. She is now in her early nineties, devotes her time to spiritualism and devours ancient classic books.
Kalpana decided to stay away from the cinema after six important movies in the 1950s, satisfied to be megastar Dev Anand’s wife following the hit movie Nau Do Gyarah. Mona, an enjoyable hill girl, graduated from St. Bede’s College in Shimla, wherein she entered a beauty pageant and was crowned ‘Miss Shimla.’ Kalpana Kartik says that “It was during this contest that filmmaker Chetan Anand’s eyes spotted me. He persuaded me to join films and also gave me the screen name of Kalpana Kartik.” who currently lives in Mumbai in peace.
Kalpana, who is in the early nineties, devotes her attention to spiritualism as well as devours ancient classic books.
In 1951, Kalpana made her debut in Navketan Films’ Baazi, alongside Dev Anand. Guru Dutt’s movie catapulted her into the spotlight.
Kalpana says, “In 1952, Chetan Anand again cast me opposite Dev Anand in Aandhiyan along with another stalwart of the era, Nimmi. In spite of brilliant direction and music by Ali Akbar Khan, Aandhiyan flopped. So did Navketan’s fourth film Humsafar with Dev Anand and Smriti Biswas directed by Anadi Nath Banerjee.”
“It was at this juncture that Uma Didi (Chetan Anand’s wife) and my to be brother-in-law Vijay Anand came up with the taut script of Taxi Driver,” she adds. The movie, which starred Dev Anand, Kalpana, and debutant Sheila Ramani, was indeed a watershed moment in their career. Chetan accepted the task of creating a movie history as just a task. Taxi Driver was indeed a genuine movie that included the metropolis of Mumbai as a leading character. This was filmed primarily just on roads of Bombay using a video camera mounted on the back of a taxi. Just on the production of the movie, celebrity Dev Anand and timid Kalpana fell madly in love.
They planned to marry in secret since they were deeply in love. “My midnight marriage with Dev Anand took place on the sets of the movie as we were shooting in full swing. It was the most spontaneous event to have occurred in my life,” she said. Although she recalls all of her favourite Anands, she simply thinks back to that same movie’s phrase, “Kyun Jane Diya?”
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