Dev Anand, the man who never slowed down.Balasaheb, the cartoonist who turned into a force

Dev Anand with Balasaheb Thackeray. And that copy of Saamana in hand.

Bombay in one frame.

Dev Anand, the man who never slowed down. Fast talk, faster walk, always chasing the next idea, the next film, the next moment.

Balasaheb, the cartoonist who turned into a force. Sharp mind, sharper pen, and a newspaper that spoke exactly the way he did.

They go back a long way.

Before the power, before the stature. Girgaum days. Studio corridors. Chance meetings that turned into a friendship that quietly stayed.

Later, different worlds.

One built cinema that travelled across decades.
The other built a voice that shaped a city.

And yet, when they met, it wasn’t actor and politician.

It was familiarity.

A newspaper in Dev Saab’s hand, almost like a nod. Not just to a publication, but to the man behind it.

No stiffness. No ceremony.

Just two men who had already made their mark, recognising it in each other.

That kind of equation doesn’t need explanation.

Copied .

It carries its own history.

Syed Afzal Ali shah Moududi