OBITUARY
GUTS & GLORY
Veteran action director Veeru Devgan passed away recently.
Devesh Sharma provides a brief profile of a real-life fighterV
eeru Devgan’s
life reads like
one of those
’70s masala
films, in which
he made his mark as an
action director. It’s said
four of his friends and
he ran away from
home in Amritsar
and travelled ticketless
to Mumbai to make it as
‘heroes’. The year was
1957 and the teenagers
did it more for a lark than
with serious intent. They
were caught by the railway
authorities. Since they
had no money to pay the
fine, they were sentenced
to jail for a week. The
other three, shaken by
the experience, turned
back. But young Veeru,
emulating the screen gods
he admired, headed for
the city.
For one year, he washed
taxis during the day and
slept in them at night.
He also tried to make
ends meet by assisting a
carpenter. His maternal
grandfather found him
after a year and took him
back to Amritsar. But the
Mumbai bug had bitten
him well and truly. He
sulked his heart off,
insisting that all he wanted
was to chase his dreams
in ‘Bombay’ till his elders
reluctantly agreed.
He grew wiser with
VEERU
DEVGAN’S
FIVE BEST
FILMS
z Roti Kapda Aur
Makaan (1974)
z Aakhri Rasta (1986)
z Mr India (1987)z Henna (1991)z Jigar (1992)time and noticed that men
more handsome than him
were being turned away in
droves by the studios.
Freestyle wrestling came
to his rescue at that point
in life. The sport, similar
to the bouts we see on
WWE, was made popular
by Dara Singh. It was a
hit among the blue-collar
workers, hailing mostly
from North, as also from
Maharashtra’s hinterland.
The immigrants took to
the glamorised version of
their favourite pastime,
where muscled lothariosheaved each other on the
mat. Veeru joined one
such pehlwan, learnt the
intricacies of wrestling and
strengthened his body in
the bargain.
Most of these fights
were merely for show,
with the emphasis more
on enticing eyeballs than
anything else. Veeru
inadvertently learnt the
basics of screen fighting
while grunting it out
on the mat. His antics
caught the attention of
fight master Ravi Khanna,
who took him as one