jo aadmii apne naseeb ko kostaa rahtaa hai, uskaa naseeb bhii use koste rahte hai.N

Film : Guide
Year of release : 1965
Spoken by : Raju (Dev Anand)
Spoken to : Rosie Marco (Waheeda Rehman)

Rosie takes an overdose of sleeping pills. Meanwhile, her husband Marco (Kishore Sahu) is away in the caves of Udaipur, exploring and excavating. Rosie does not die and as she is recovering, Raju goes and fetches Marco. Marco is very upset about having been called away from his passion - exploration of the caves. He accuses her of acting like this only to frustrate him. He says that if she actually intended to die, she would have taken a couple of more pills. He dares Rosie to commit suicide. Rosie runs out in a fit of anger and tries to jump into a lake. Raju, who is waiting outside, sees her and steps in to stop her from doing so. He also continues to follow her for a while, fearing she would attempt to do so again. Once the tension dies down, they start chatting and being the professional that he is, he starts explaining the view and the locales to her. He points to a small island in the lake which has a mausoleum dedicated to the king's dog. Rosie is surprised at the reference to 'kutte kee mazaar' (dog mausoleum). Raju says it was the king's beloved dog. Rosie sighs and comments that the dog was better off than her. Raju then turns around in what is now well-known as the 'Dev Anand style' and says

"jo aadmii apne naseeb ko kostaa rahtaa hai, uskaa naseeb bhii use koste rahte hai.N"
"जो आदमी अपने नसीब को कोसता रह्ता है, उसका नसीब भी उसे कोसते रहते हैं"

Guide is always referred to as a classic, though I am always reminded of the article titled 'Mis-guide' written by R K Narayan. I am also waiting to see the English version of Guide (which I am told is much shorter), but was never released in India. But then you take out Sachin Dev Burman's music from Guide, then what is left? I wonder!

Meraa beemaa sirf 1 laakh kaa hai aur aapkaa paanch laakh kaa

Film : Funtoosh

Year of release : 1956

Spoken by : Ram Lal Funtoosh (Dev Anand)

Spoken to : KaroRi Lal (K N Singh)

An old Dev Anand film talking about the dangers of taking too much insurance. 1 lac in 1956 (assuming a rate of 8% for the entire period) is roughly equal to 32 lacs in today's terms. 5 lacs is around 1.6 crores. I think one must think before buying too much insurance.

Sirf main hoon

Guide is is one of my favourite movies not because of any other reason but the music. I think SD Burman did a great job. I must have listened to the Guide - Jewel Thief cassette at least three hundred times during my teenage years, but I never realised that Kya se kyaa ho gayaa and Mose Chhal kiye jaaye are the same tune in two different voices. But then Lata and Rafi were great artistes and Shailendra was a great lyricist too. Enough raving about the music, come to the line featured here. This comes during the climax scene when Raju Guide (Dev Anand) is dying and he has a vision of his spirit (aatma) which goes into a Gitaesque gyaan session about how the spirit cannot be killed and is forever. But I really like the lines and I am going to repeat them verbatim

"maut ek Khayaal hai, jaise zindagi ek Khayaal hai. na sukh hai na dukh hai. na deen hai na duniya. na insaan na bhagwaan. sirf main . main hoon. main. main. sirf main"

"मौत एक ख़याल है जैसे ज़िन्दगी एक ख़याल है. न सुख है ना दुख है, न दीन है न दुनिया, न इंसान न भगवान. सिर्फ़ मैं. मैं हूं. मैं. मैं. सिर्फ़ मैं"

Now this is not a line that can be used unless you are dying and you have had a vision of your spirit. But the lines are powerful and can be used in a different way. We all live in a selfish world, where most of our actions are oriented towards pleasing one's own self. But at times you feel guilty about it. Selfishness is not a much appreciated quality - though we are all selfish. There has been no Gordon Gecko who has come and said something like 'Selfishness is good'. So whenever you need to 'justify' a seemingly selfish action. Use this line. For good measure use the entire dialogue. It works for me. Self is the only true god - worthy of worshipping.

"सिर्फ़ मैं हूं"