Teen Devian

Plot synopsis:
Teen Deviaan starts off to commentary by Ameen Sayani, as the camera moves through Calcutta's streets, the pretty Nanda (Nanda) finds herself, as she sees it, being followed. The man, Dev Dutt Anand (Dev Anand) has been sitting in the bus beside her, and has bought a ticket for Dalhousie (after she’s bought one) and has now even followed her into the boarding house where she lives. At this point, Nanda loses her temper and yells at Dev, threatening to call the police. Instead, her shouting attracts the attention of the boarding house’s owners, Mr Pinto (Harindranath Chattopadhyay) and his wife (Ruby Myers). Mr. and Mrs. Pinto assure Nanda that she’s misunderstood, this Dev being their new lodger. Nanda is sheepish and embarrassed. But Dev forgives her readily with a remark quite apparently aimed at her, though he’s in his room and she’s in hers, watching each other only through a gap.
Within a couple of days, they’re good friends. In fact, Nanda is pretty much in love with Dev. He flirts with her, is sweet to him, even goes off on a day trip into the countryside with her.
Meanwhile, Dev starts working at Merry Musical Stores. His boss, I.S. Johar (I S Johar) flies off the handle when Dev turns up late on the very first day. But one day, I.S. Johar happens to come across a poem that Dev’s written and is so impressed that he quickly forgives Dev and all his shortcomings and prays that Dev’s poems will soon get published. Hopefully some of Dev’s subsequent fame will rub off onto Merry Musical Stores too.
One evening, Dev’s sitting on a bench in a park when a passing car goes hurtling through a puddle, and Dev is liberally splashed. He calls out to the driver Kalpana (Kalpana) that something’s fallen off her car. Curious, she reverses, then gets out of the car to have a look around. This giving Dev an opportunity to have his revenge for the drenching he received. He’s been fiddling with a hosepipe all this while, and now turns it on her, leaving her wet and furious.Even worse, when she gets into her car and tries to start it, it won’t start. Soon, a bunch of stragglers gather around. Instead of helping her, they spend all their time ogling her and passing comments. Finally, Dev takes pity on her and offers to attend to her car; the engine kicks in immediately, and Dev takes it upon himself to drive her to back home. She makes it quite clear that she doesn’t want his help, but Dev insists, and leaves her with no option but to agree. By the time he reaches her house – having draped his coat over her wet and shivering shoulders – this mysterious lady is rather more kindly disposed towards Dev, though she doesn’t show it. However, when he’s gone and she’s changing her wet clothes, she looks fondly down at his coat and sees his notebook of poems sticking out of the pocket. She has a look through it.
Next day, I.S. Johar has a piece of very good news to share with Dev his book of poems has been accepted by a publisher and the first proof copies have arrived. I.S. Johar sends out copies to some of Merry Musical Stores’ clients. One of these is the wealthy and influential socialite Radharani ‘Simi’ (Simi Garewal). Simi receives a copy of Dev’s book of poems and is completely bowled over by them. Dev happens to come to her home to deliver a piano and tune it for her while she’s reading his book, and Dev owns up to being the poet. Then, a couple of days later, a lady resurfaces in Dev’s life: the unknown woman to whom he had lent his coat. It turns out that this woman is Kalpana (Kalpana), and she’s a famous actress. Her life is a whirl of men trying to flatter her, making promises of laying their hearts at her feet, and so on. Dev’s failure to even recognize her has endeared him to her. She likes his candour, and the fact that he treats her as a friend, not as an idol. She even buys him a new coat, which she hands over to him in the car, insisting that he should wear it in exchange for his old coat. And that isn’t the only time they meet. One day, Kalpana wheedles Dev into accompanying her for a shoot in the countryside. They have a minor mishap along the way, the car goes into a ditch, and Dev and Kalpana spend an interesting day getting to know the locals. Few days later, Simi had an invitation to a party at her home. Dev is reluctant to go, but I.S. Johar persuades him. Simi is vastly influential; she knows everybody worth knowing. She can give his writing career the boost it needs. Dev must go and so he does. He is an instant success. And he manages to convince both Simi and Kalpana that he is singing for her. At party Dev gets drunk so much that Simi has to drop him to his boarding house. Nanda notices Dev and helps him upstairs to his apartment. Next morning, Nanda gets angry with Dev about his drunken act the earlier night. Dev apologizes and takes Nanda to the countryside where Nanda proposes Dev to marry her. Dev asks her to wait till the right time comes. One evening genteel Simi who is eager to spend money on Dev, to further enhance his career convinces Dev to participate in a Mushaira at Srinagar which is to be aired on All India Radio. After a few days they reach Srinagar to participate in the mushaira where Dev performs perfectly. Later at night when both of them are sitting in Shikara at Dal Lake, Simi asks Dev to come to Gulmarg. There she proposes Dev to marry her but Dev asks her to give 4 to 7 days to answer. On returning from Gulmarg, at the hotel in Srinager, Dev finds Kalpana with sadness in her eyes, which he correctly guesses to be loneliness. Kalpana admits it to him, that, she has seen the superficiality of the life that surrounds her, and she longs for someone to truly understand her, as a person, not just a beautiful face. Even here, Dev asks her to give 4 to 7 days to answer. Returning from Srinagar, Dev is in a lot of confusion about the three ladies, Teen Devian, and knowing well that he cannot marry three women in his country, a tortured and uncertain Dev finally makes his mind and decides to go with Nanda as his life-partner.

Tags: romantic

Review:
Is it possible to fall in love with three women simultaneoulsy?.
I think it was way back in 1987 that we had our exams and my friend and I saw in the papers that one of the theatres was playing 'teen deviyan'.
We decided to go just for the heck of it without hoping anything great.
But we were in for a pleasant surprise.
The movie was made in 1965 but even by today's standards, the plot was absolutely modern and way ahead of its times.
The music was wonderful and Dev Anand as a city bred looked and acted his best.
I still remember that elated feeling when we came out of the theatre after the movie was over.
Whoever thought of this story of one man falling for three very different girls at the same time?
No he is not three timing or fooling them but he genuinely likes all three of them for different reasons.
One is homely, one is an actress and the third is a 'high society' girl who can also help Dev in his career as a poet.
The question is which one is the 'One' for him.
What makes the matter worse is that all three of them like him too.
When things come to an impasse, a hypnotist takes him in and in his hypnotized state he dreams of his future with each one of them and reaches the right decision.This dream of his which is the only colored part in an otherwise black-n-white movie is the crux of the film but surprisingly is edited out from most of the versions available today.
If you want to watch this movie make sure that this part is intact.
In case you watch this movie without this part and get confused, don't worry because you just watched an incomplete movie..
The story has a deeper meaning than apparent.
For all intents and purposes, 'Teen Devian' might seem like just another lightweight Bollywood musical.
To some extent, this might even be true, especially because the producers had to be sure that the film succeeded with the masses.
But somewhere behind the scenes, either Sadashiv Brahmam (who had the 'idea' for this story) or Amerjeet (who directed the film) decided that there would be a twist to the usual formula, and succeeded perhaps beyond even their own expectations.This is not simply about a handsome man flirting with 3 women, undecided on whom to choose as his life's partner.
Dev Anand's character was really in love with each of the 3 women at various times, and they with him, despite being aware of the other two.
Dev Anand's relationship with Simi and Kalpana is particularly interesting - in that each of the women comes to depend on him heavily.
There are quite a lot of suggestive teasers in the stars' body language that lend themselves to imagination depending on the viewer's maturity.
The theme is surprisingly adult and after all that it was ashame that the ending was tame, obviously designed to please the masses and deflect criticism..
Great Film.
Teen Deviyaan is a great film.
A very breezy entertainer and a very modern film for its time in the 1960s.
The Music and songs are terrific though the lyrics of Majrooh are meaningless at places.
Dev Anand is a tremendous star and as usual does great justice to his role.
Kalpana is sexy and Nanda is OK.
Simi too is just about OK.
The film has terrific dialogue by Vrajendra Gaur who wrote most of Dev Anand's films like Mahal, Duniya, Warrant, Jaali Note, Manzil, etc.etc.It is a story of Dev getting attracted to three females - the mod Kalpana, Simi and the homely Nanda.
He eventually opts for Nanda.
The story is about OK but its been narrated in a gripping way and the dialogue and Songs and the great Dev Anand are the highlight of the film.
A must watch film for all Dev Anand fans..
Superb movie, a must see.
I saw Teen Devian in 1993 telecasted in Doordarshan on a Friday night, and could scarcely believe that such a remarkable film was ever made in Bollywood.
It was mind blowing  a film with a "modern" storyline, superb music, three lovely ladies and my fave superstar Dev Anand.In this unusual storyline, Dev falls in love with three women  the simple Nanda, the ravishing Kalpana and the sophisticated Simi.
They too are enamored with him and want to marry him.
This puts Dev in a dilemma (which is the crux of the storyline)- whom to marry?.
He consults a hypnotist who asks Dev to gaze into a crystal ball.
Dev finds the answer and marries Nanda.
Beautifully directed (most probably by Dev saheb himself & not by Amarjeet the official director) the B&W classic has evergreen music  some of SD Burman's (helped generously by RD Burman) best compositions.
"Uff kitni thadni hai yeh ruth" is the probably the most sexiest song ever composed in Hindi films.
Credit should also be given to Majrooh Sultanpuri for penning the memorable lyrics Teen Devian is a breezy musical which completely suited the style of Dev Anand and he did full justice to the role.
Unfortunately Teen Devian has never received the recognition & popularity it richly deserves.A must see for any Hindi film buff, I will rate the eternal favourite 9.5 out of 10..
A film seems to be ahead of its time in contemporary India..
One of the best romantic classic,teen deviyaan is a film which is all about selecting among equals your most soft emotion,love.This is a simple story of a middle class man who came into limelight by his poetic talent and charming personality.
He is attracted towards three women and vice versa, one a Hindi movie star, the second a rich lady and the third who lives in his neighborhood.The situation put him in confusion as he has to decide one of them as his life partner.He asked for few days from all of them.Ultimately he goes to a astrologer and asked him who he loves most.His confusion is no more and he came to know the lady living in his neighborhood who really cares for him and loves him is his true love.Devanand played the lead character and has fully justified his contemporary romantic image.