Writer and theatre practitioner Sohaila Kapur reflects on the creation and success of Anand Hi Anand, a unique theatrical tribute to the Anand brothers that blends nostalgia, storytelling, music, and Indian cinema's enduring cultural legacy.

Have you ever felt such strong nostalgia that it brings tears to your eyes? I have.

I have been experiencing this for the decade of the 1950s, when everything seemed simple, beautiful and mysterious. The world had yet to recalibrate post-World War II. The transition period was romantic and full of hope.

The emotion was so strong that I wondered if I had lived another life in that era. It was almost like a distant memory of the time and people. My only answer was that perhaps my addiction to films (both Hollywood and Bollywood) of the post-war decade had an effect on my psyche. All the heroines were beautiful and clueless princesses, waiting to be rescued by their swashbuckling heroes, wearing their hearts on their sleeves!

It was a time of innocence. I even dreamt of it. I saw my parents as young people, sharing the idealism of their generation. My uncles, Chetan, Dev and Vijay, were rising to stardom in that decade and somehow, their stories and films intertwined with that dreamy vision.

About three years ago, that emotion got stronger, aided by the fact that the uncles were no longer alive, nor was my mom, the storyteller. The euphoria changed to a strange longing. When it got unbearable, I decided to express it in order to exorcise it. I read books and articles on them, combined with my experiences of meeting my uncles many years later, as a child.

From Personal Memory to Performance

I wrote a personalized piece. Being in the theatre business, I decided to make it into a script for dramatized reading, with the inclusion of some comic interludes and jokes (to keep it from becoming an information overload), and include some of their hit songs. Initially, I did think of creating a play out of it, because plays are what the audience expects on stage. But nobody would sit through such a long script, I counter-argued, especially with one narrator.

I contacted my producer, Anuradha Dar of Three Arts Club, about it. She was excited at the idea. But try as we might, we could not think of actors playing the roles of the three Anand brothers. They would get reduced to caricatures, especially Dev Anand, who has many mimicry artistes on YouTube imitating his mannerisms.

Also, it is very difficult these days to get good, committed actors. Many skip rehearsals because they have overcommitted themselves and then use the usual excuse of Delhi’s maddening traffic, which you can’t even argue against!

But Anuradha ended the search abruptly. She is that kind of person. Decisive, firm, a no-nonsense woman who doesn’t believe in wasting time. She was convinced. She fought my hesitancy in sitting alone for 90 minutes and rattling off my script, with brief interludes of video clips. People would either sleep or walk out of boredom, I argued. You are family, she scolded me. This is a family story that no one has heard. People would love to hear it from the niece of the three legends!

The First Show and Audience Response

She somehow convinced me and we had our first presentation at Triveni Auditorium, Mandi House, on December 5, 2024, to an overflowing house. I was unnerved by the crowd. I could see them clearly because I was sitting at their level, under a spot, and the stage was left free for the screen and its clips.

To the credit of the audience, they stayed put for the 90 minutes, listening attentively to the Anands’ story. There were also some fans in the audience who came dressed as Dev Anand and sang his songs after the show. The story narrated not only their successes but their failures as well, their shortcomings, family disputes and their eventual coming together. I got a standing ovation.

There were detailed reviews in the papers. One prominent English daily did complain that there should have been more on Dev Anand, with which I disagreed because this was the story of all three and, even though Dev was the star, the other two had carved important niches for themselves. Chetan Anand won the Palme d’Or at Cannes way back in the ’40s, a feat which has not been equalled by any Indian film to date. Some felt it could have been edited for more video clips. But one is also aware of copyright law, even though this was not a commercial show.

But it was successful enough to hold 11 shows, which included those in other cities like Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Dehradun and Shimla, where we were invited.

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Taking Anand Hi Anand to New Audiences

We then decided to translate it into Hindi for greater exposure. We got a co-narrator, Nidhikant Pandey, who had earlier worked with Aaj Tak as an Executive Producer (which involved writing, anchoring and directing). He was also a veteran actor with the Three Arts Club and so became the obvious choice. He translated and “trans-created” (as he calls it) the script. The result was that we got a combination of a dramatized reading and on-the-spot repartee situations, which gelled well with the audience.

The video clips remained; some were edited for time now that other elements were being added. For the singer, my music teacher, Sujitkumar Ojha ji, named one of his main disciples, Devanand (that was another sign perhaps!), to us for Dev Anand’s popular songs. Jha has a warm, velvet voice and has created his own audience through these performances. If things are meant to happen, they do, they say!

The Hindi version opened at Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre, on June 22, 2025. We had a full house again. And from there it has gone on from success to success. We have travelled to Mumbai twice with it. It was interesting to have the Anand family and people from the film fraternity as part of the audience for the shows.

I must thank my cousin Ketan Anand for all the support and encouragement he gave me in terms of material from his book and film on his father. He turned up at one Mumbai show, at the end of which he said, “Bravo, she did it her way… like an Anand!” I must say I swelled with pride that day. As I write this, we have had a total of 21 shows of Anand Hi Anand (both English and Hindi) and have another one at Museo Camera, Gurugram, on June 7.

Dev Anand, Legacy and a New Format

Later, I carved an exclusive Dev Anand story out of my research, which we translated into Hindi again and presented in the same style, on his birth anniversary last September, at the Gaiety Theatre, Shimla. Our second show was on May 28 this year, at Triveni Kala Sangam, Mandi House, New Delhi. The crowd was overwhelming and difficult to control. We got a standing ovation at the end. It just showed us how much Dev Anand is still loved in this country.

An ex-director of the National School of Drama, who had seen the production, told me that we had created a new format. Frankly, it just came out of the process and seems to be working very well. The story of Anand Hi Anand has been recorded quietly in the halls by some unscrupulous people and we have seen videos appear with facts that were given out only by us, without any credit being given. It is annoying and we have had to announce that nobody should record us on video or audio. But one can only do that much. Someone advised us to take it as a kind of compliment!

Keeping Cultural Memory Alive

We have understood there is huge nostalgia amongst people over 45 to hear the stories of the stars they grew up seeing on screen and singing their songs. After Anand Hi Anand, we produced a tribute to Dharmendra a few days after he passed away. That was also a house-full show. Then there are shows on Balraj Sahni and, as I mentioned, Dev Anand.

We need to keep the legacy of our great artists alive, especially when our cultural history is under scrutiny. And our audiences, who have given us overwhelming support, seem to agree!

Shows in June

June 13: Dastaan-E-Dev Anand, Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. Tickets on BookMyShow.

June 14: Meri Filmi Atmakatha….Balraj Sahni, Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. Tickets on BookMyShow.