KALPANA KARTHIK ,HINDI ACTRESS , BECAME MISTRESS OF DEV ANAND BY SECRET MARRIAGE BORN 1931 SEPTEMBER 19

KALPANA KARTHIK ,HINDI ACTRESS ,

BECAME MISTRESS OF DEV ANAND BY SECRET MARRIAGE  BORN 1931 SEPTEMBER 19

Kalpana Kartik (born Mona Singha) is a retired Hindi film actress. She starred in six films in the 1950s. She is the wife of Hindi film actor and film maker Late Dev Anand.[2]

Mona Singha was a beauty queen while studying at St. Bede's College, Shimla. She was introduced to films by Chetan Anand of Navketan Films with the film Baazi in 1951. She co-starred with Dev Anand, whom she worked with in all her subsequent films. Her screen name - Kalpana Kartik - was given to her by Chetan Anand during this period.[3]

Her other films were Aandhiyan (1952), Humsafar (1953), Taxi Driver (1954), House No. 44 (1954) and Nau Do Gyaraah (1957)
Career

Mona Singha, aka Kalpana Kartik, was born in a Punjabi Christian family in Lahore.[4] Her father was a Tehsildar of Batala in Gurdaspur District, and she was the youngest of five brothers and two sisters. After the partition, her family moved to Shimla. She was a student of the prestigious St. Bede's College, Shimla. In her graduation year, she won the Ms. Shimla contest and was noticed by Chetan Anand, a film-maker from Bombay. He was there with his wife Uma Anand, whose mother is Mona's cousin.[5] He convinced her family to allow her to join his fledgling film company, Navketan Films, as a leading lady. Thus, Mona Singha was re-christened Kalpana Kartik and she moved to Bombay (now known as Mumbai). Her first film Baazi was a huge success and went on to become a landmark in Indian cinema. Baazi was a gamble that defined the destinies of many luminaries all of whom got a career boost from the film.[citation needed]

Kalpana Kartik, became a part of Navketan when it was beginning to spread its wings. She was associated with the film company during its most momentous years. She started with Baazi, the debut of Guru Dutt and ended with Nau Do Gyarah, the debut film of Vijay Anand. Between these two films came Taxi Driver, which was the 'coming of age' film of the Navketan banner. It was Navketan's first super-success and also the film on whose sets Dev Anand secretly married Kalpana Kartik during a lunch break. Kalpana's time in Navketan saw four different directors take reign - Guru Dutt, Chetan Anand, Mandi Burman and Vijay Anand.

Kalpana Kartik worked as an associate producer for Tere Ghar Ke Samne (1963), Jewel Thief (1967), Prem Pujari (1970), Shareef Budmaash (1973), Heera Panna (1973), and Jaaneman (1976). Dev Anand played the lead role in these movies.

Personal life
In 1954, Mona and Dev Anand got married secretly while on a break during the shooting of Taxi Driver.[6] They became parents in 1956 when Suneil Anand was born. They also have a daughter named Devina. After Nau Do Gyarah, Kalpana quit films to become a home maker. Suneil has also acted in films.[7]

When Dev Anand played the role of the suave poet in Teen Devian in 1965, he left women audiences literally swooning due to his amazingly crisp looks and smooth dialogue delivery. He was after all the most handsome actor of his generation, who in his five decades in showbiz, had given the ‘big break’ to some of the big-name actresses of today, including Hema Malini, Zeenat Aman, Tina Munim and in more recent times, Tabu. But he had his big break with the one woman he couldn’t get. This is the story of Dev Anand’s marriage, and his love life.
In spite of decades of being a heartthrob to millions, and the undying love he had for Suraiya, Anand stayed espoused to one woman, Kalpana Kartik, for all his life. However, the one failed relationship with actress Suraiya precedes Dev Anand’s marriage. Post-marriage though he was involved once with the actress Zeenat Aman but that was not for very long, and the matter fizzled out soon.

If Raj Kapoor was the showman of Indian cinema, Dev Anand was the show-stopper who could transfix your attention, by what his brother Chetan Anand described as, ‘those smiling eyes.’ We take a closer look at the love life and more of the legendary Dev Anand.
In 1947, the relatively unknown Dev Anand was offered the leading role opposite the much popular actress Suraiya. Suraiya was born Suraiya Jamaal Sheikh in 1929, and was a playback singer and actress- adept at singing and acting, and the first in the league of established singer-actors like Kishore Kumar, Sulakshana Pandit, and Farhan Akhtar of the post-independence era.

The first film of Dev Anand and Suraiya was Vidya in the year 1948, and it happened so that during the shooting of a song on a river, Anand and Suraiya’s boat capsized. Suraiya did not know how to swim, fortunately Anand did, and he swam holding Suraiya to the bank thus saving her life. Needless to say Suraiya felt indebted to Anand, and the two soon became friends. Their film Vidya was a success, and the Anand-Suraiya pair became the hit formula for producers to make the cash registers ring. The two were signed together time after time; at one point for three films at a row, which eventually led them to spend a lot of time in each other’s company.

By their fourth film, Jeet (1949), their love had blossomed and Anand finally proposed to Suraiya with a diamond ring. It was now clear that the duo were ready to take their relationship to the next level. Since they belonged to different faiths, they knew their families would never concede to their relationship. Therefore, during the making of the film Jeet they decided to slip out of the shooting with help of some friendly co-actors and crew members, and later eloped to get married. The plan for Suraiya and Dev Anand’s marriage would have worked, but apparently, the news reached the ears of an assistant director, who swiftly informed Suraiya’s grandmother, the family chieftess, Badshah Begum, who immediately rushed to the sets and dragged Suraiya home.

It was an emotional drama as usual. Suraiya’s grandmother Badshah Begum threatened to end her life if Suraiya tied the knot with Dev Anand, who belonged to a different faith. Many people say the old lady had a covert reason for opposing Suraiya and Dev Anand’s marriage, the fact that Suraiya was the highest earning member of the large family. Suraiya’s parents though were supportive but their opinion was harshly overridden by Suraiya’s maternal grandmother. Either way the relationship could not culminate into a wedlock, and Suraiya and Anand worked for one last time with the film Do Sitare in 1951. It is said after the completion of the film, the two met at Suriaya’s apartment, in presence of Anand’s elder brother Chetan Anand one last time. The doleful lovers sobbed throughout their last conversation, and later Suraiya threw Anand’s proposal ring into the sea. It was a sad end of a sweet love story, and needless to say the pair was shattered. The sweet dream of Suraiya and Dev Anand’s marriage was sent to it’s end.
Dev Anand was deeply depressed by his breakup with Suraiya, and it is said he almost decided to quit films. It was only when his elder brother Chetan Anand counselled him that he pulled up his socks and decided to to focus on his career. It was in 1951, that he decided to come out with his second home-production film Baazi, which was to be directed by filmmaker and Anand’s good friend Guru Dutt. Chetan Anand, who actually handled the production work at Navketan films, was looking for a fresh face for the part of the female protagonist. It is when he learnt about a 20-year old beauty queen from Shimla called Mona Singha, who happened to be in Mumbai around those days. Chetan Anand approached Mona with the offer for the film to which she obliged, and she was immediately bestowed the screen name Kalpana Kartik. Kalpana made her debut with Baazi (1951), which went on to become a massive hit.

It was deja vu for Anand, excpet this was to be a happy ending, with Dev Anand’s marriage. Just like it happened with him and Suraiya, Anand and Kalpana were offered numerous films together mainly owing to the success the pair brought to the box office. The pair went on to do six films together, and just how Anand fell in love with Suraiya by his fourth film together, he happened to develop amorous feelings for Kalpana during the making of their fourth film together Taxi Driver (1954). This time Anand did not waste any time, and gave out his feelings without hesitation, and surprisingly Kalpana reciprocated the same sentiment about him. Anand had the support of his elder brother, Chetan Anand. and it is said that Kalpana’s parents also assented their daughter’s decision, in spite of the fact that Anand and Kalpana came from different faiths (Kalpana was a Christian).

At the stroke of midnight, during the making of their film Taxi Driver, Dev Anand’s marriage to Kalpana Kartik was officiated at a quiet private ceremony. The sorrows and wounds of Dev Anand were finally healed, and he finally found his true soul-mate. Anand and Kalpana were blessed with a son, Suneil Anand, in 1956 in Zurich, where they were attending a film festival. They later had a daughter too, Devina Anand, thus completing their picture perfect family.
In 1971, Dev Anand discovered Zeenat Aman, an actress, who after a string of flops was all set to leave the country forever. Anand approached her for the role of his hippie sister in what would go on to be the cult classic called Hare Rama Hare Krishna (1971). Zeenat Aman decided to give it a shot and the film met a huge success mainly due to Aman’s true to life performance. It marked the beginning of yet another pair, and Anand went on to work with Aman in four more films.

Apparently, Anand soon started feeling enticed towards Aman by the end of their fifth film together Kalabaaz in 1977. But the progress of their alleged affair was broken by none other than the filmmaker Raj Kapoor, with Dev Anand’s marriage still going on. The story goes (and you need to have it with a pinch of salt) that Anand was all set to propose to Aman on one night, but before the date Aman had to attend a party. She asked Anand to accompany her, and he willingly tagged along. It was at this party that Zeenat happened to meet Raj Kapoor, who in his inebriated state, began flirting with Zeenat Aman in a raunchy manner. What shocked Anand next was the sight of Aman reciprocating Kapoor’s every racy move with equal zeal and excitement. Needless to say, Anand soon called-off the date, and the two moved away to their respective paths since then. Since then he was never linked-up with any other actress ever, and Dev Anand’s marriage to Kalpana was his only one.
Dev Anand and Kalpana Kartik remained espoused till his death in the year 2011. Anand surely left a lasting legacy, and his wife happens to be the only living member of the original Navketan films team, which gave some of the finest hits of the 1950s and 1960s. Kalpana Kartik now lives with her children and grandchildren in Mumbai, and in a rare 2015 interview she shared the following poignant words about her husband, the legendary Dev Anand.


“He was a really caring husband and father. People feel we separated, but that is absolutely false. Dev is very much in my heart even today, smiling and guiding me as only he can. I just cannot believe that he is no more. To me he is always Dev Anand my husband, right from our midnight marriage on the sets of Taxi Driver in 1954.”

– Kalpana Kartik in 2015 speaking about her late husband Dev Anand