Dev is famous for “discovering” and launching actresses, through out the many decades of his career he had several hit jodis, none particularly more notable than another.
He didn’t have a great pairing anywhere close to Raj and Nargis. So far as I can tell, this isn’t any particular Dev song, more just evoking the feel of him and one of his 1960s heroines together. It was so distinctive, and Dev kept working for so long, that it became simply “hero” rather than Dev in particular. This same “hero” style is imitated by Aamir Khan’s character in Raja Hindustani and Hrithik’s in Koi Mil Gaya. He also developed a way of dancing and moving loose wristed and stiff backed. Dev in his later years developed a distinctive style, above and beyond the role he was playing, involving a scarf and a jaunty hat. He continued playing hero roles after his contemporaries had decided they were too old for such parts. Dev Anand began as a hero in the same era as Raj Kapoor, young and devestatingly handsome. The song moves on to Bipasha and Shahrukh playing Heroine and Dev Anand. And thus we have this very fun song that hops between eras and stars, and also a moment of character growth.
To her, he is a combination of every movie hero in Hindi film in one person. In this song, Anushka goes through the whole history of onscreen romance in Indian film and pictures Shahrukh playing the roles.
She likes him like she likes the movies, she loves him like she would an onscreen hero, he isn’t “real” to her. And it indicates to the audience how shallow the connection is between Anushka and the fake-Shahrukh. Anushka doesn’t consciously know this is a fake person until the very end, but this song indicates that, on a subconscious level, she does know. And so his character is a movie hero come to life, speaks only in one liners, dresses impractically, has wild unpredictable emotional shifts, and all the rest. In Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, Shahrukh creates a false identity to cheer Anushka up based on the idea that movies cheer her up. Thank you Emily for the suggestion! This is the perfect song to do a lazy Saturday when I don’t want to think that much.