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In a few days from now, September 26 to be precise, one of Hindi film cinema’s most durable personalities, Dev Anand will celebrate his 85th birthday. Though he has not been scoring big on the box office in recent years — fact is, his films barely draw an audience even on the first day — he has not stopped pursuing his first love, cinema.
That’s all he loves, he says and that’s all he lives for. Whether crowds come to theatres or not, he continues to ideate, produce and direct a new film every two years or so.

Yet, even if he produces commercial duds (Mr. Prime Minister was one of his recent ones), Dev Anand remains one of film world’s most loved and liked stars. When his autobiography was released last year around this time, the function in a suburban hotel was packed with film industry colleagues, the media, admirers and hundreds of fans who had simply landed up uninvited. The man himself was mobbed relentlessly by soundbite-seeking television reporters; there were fans who had brought along old, frayed scrapbooks to show him. Now which octogenarian actor can boast of his kind of following?

A meeting with him immediately tells you why he remains so popular. Apart from his undeniable charm and savoir faire, Dev Anand displays the energy of a man at least four decades younger, always talking about his next project. Nostalgia has little meaning for him — notwithstanding his book, where he has talked about his life in detail, it is impossible to get him to talk about an old film. Sometimes one begins to wonder if he is superstitious about looking back; as if the world would come to a halt if he did not fully engage with the present and the future. But the world of course has moved on and he himself is the first to acknowledge that while his film-making mind and creativity are still not jaded, he has still to pick up the savvy marketing skills of today’s film makers.

Dev Anand reminds us of two very important things that we are in the danger of losing, if have not already lost. He represents a time when the film industry was not about just glitz, special effects, corporate money, NRI markets and ringtone rights. And he, along with compatriots like Lata Mangeshkar and Dilip Kumar belong to an era of true cosmopolitanism, not only in the film industry but in Mumbai (Bombay, then). He represents modernity and optimism: the quintessential Bombay hero.

In the 1940s, as the nation was shedding its colonial yoke, Lahore and Calcutta were the other big centres but Bombay was the clear film industry winner; all the big studios had set up shop here. Many creative people came here to try their luck. Sadat Hasan Manto, the well-known Urdu author, has written about K Asif, Noorjehan, Sitara Devi and Naseem Banu (mother of Saira Banu) struggling to find a foothold. The common point gleaned from Manto’s writings and Dev Anand’s own book is that it was a time of new beginnings, which means there were no film families to promote their own — everyone had to struggle equally.

The otherwise debonair Dev Anand could play street-smart characters because he had walked the city’s streets — it was first hand knowledge. A good actor need not have gone through the actual experience of being a beggar to play one, but a cocooned existence cuts you off from real life. Can we buy into the angst of a perfectly permed and muscled star who advertises for computers one day and plays a pining lover the next? Does he even have angst? Mind you, this is not a cry for the ‘good old days’ — a lot of fine films are made today, but how many of the pretty confections with large budgets and stars that are apparently hits at the box-office will be remembered five years later? Let’s face it: Bollywood — that vulgar term that defines Indian films today — is an embarrassment, even if it is making money worldwide.

For us in this city, especially in recent times, watching a film from that periodtriggers memories of a time when Bombay was cosmopolitan and proud of it. Other cities were parochial and insular; we looked outwards, eagerly absorbed new influences, many of which found expression in our films. For all the drum-beating about how ‘international’ Bollywood is today, let us not forget that western music and dance could be found in Bombay’s films even in the 1940s and after. This open-mindedness that was visible in our daily lives today seems to be dying a slow and painful death.

Today while the film industry continues to be secular and mixed, it has to worry whether its films will offend someone or the other. Can great art ever be created in such a situation?

It is therefore comforting to know that a sturdy pillar, from a more refined time, is still very much around. His films, his songs and even his mannerisms are not to be found on movie channels — nostalgia does not work with a youthful demographic — but hey, you can always buy the DVD. For those fortunate enough to have known him and spent time with him, it is a double bonus, because he shows how it is possible to remain young all your life. At 85, most people are just marking time till the end; Dev Anand is just about getting started.

Email: sidharth01@dnaindia.net