Happy birthday to Deven Verma

Happy birthday to Deven Verma.

All the viewers of bollywood films and admirers of Deven Verma wish him happy birthday on the 23rd of October. Comedians in Indian films had never been honoured inspite of their huge contribution in the field of comedy. Excepting Johnny Walker, Mehmood and Asrani, hardly any comedian in Indian films had received any respectable stardom.

Deven Verma had created his identity in realistic films of Basu Chatterji, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Gulzar and other directors where the masala required to storm the box-office were not used. He played a very decent role in Farooq Sheikh’s film Kisi Se Na Kehna. He played the role of the brother of Dipti Naval who changed girlfriends the way a person changes clothes. He created a relationship with a singer but left her after she lost her melodious voice. In Rang Birangi, he told a golden lie to Dipti Naval that her husband Farooq Sheikh had a relationship with Parveen Babi and that led to destruction of family peace. He had confess about the lie at the end of the film bring him peace and harmony in the family.

In Gulzar’s Angoor, he accompanied Sanjeev Kumar in a double role. The film was based on Shakespearean play Comedy of Errors and Uttam Kumar’s Bengali film Bhranti Bilas. He played the role of the servant of Sanjeev Kumar which was played by Bhanu Banerjee in the Bengali film.

As the two servants were twins, Sanjeev Kumar and all his family members including Moushumi Chatterji (his wife) and Deepti Naval (his sister-in-law) had problems recognizing him. The entire story was based errors which led to utter confusion which was resolved at the end of the film when the identity of the twin masters and the twin servants were disclosed. The song in the film “pritam aan milo” was also funny.

Deven Verma also acted in serious films like Devar, where he acted with Dharmender. After the 80s, comedy got a new definition with the arrival of new comedians like Johnny Lever, Rajpal Yadav and others who had showed sometimes idiocy, at other times aggressive expressions related to comedy. Even in that age Deven Verma got character roles like the one played in Rishi Kapoor’s film Bol Radha Bol and Amir Khan’s film Ishq. Deven Verma made very notable contribution mainly in those films where scripts were very strong. He had depicted the innocence that was necessary in the respective roles which had compelled the viewers to both appreciate him and also have sympathy towards him.

He was brilliant in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s film Golmaal where Utpal Dutt and Amol Palekar gave a new definition to comedy films. The strong personality of Utpal Dutt and the timid expression of Amol Palekar balanced the theme of the film. Deven Verma advised Amol Palekar to play a double role of two brothers with one having a moustache and the other being clean shaven. Amol Palekar acted on his advise and went on telling one lie after the other. When the actual identity was disclosed Deven Verma convinced Utpal Dutt about the genuine character of Amol Palekar and agreed to get him married to his daughter played by Vindiya Goswami.

His viewers and admirers expect him to continue his performances in bollywood films and enrich them with his timing sense and effortless expressions.