'The audience is alive and so Dev is alive'

Dev Anand on finding the next Zeenat Aman for his next film Chargesheet and re-releasing Hum Dono in colour, 50 years since it hit the screens

Sinking into a plush chair at his makeshift Khar office (his penthouse-cum-studio is being redone), Dev Anand breaks into a loopy smile and says, "Shoot." The pace is frenetic, as always. When his office boy brings in coffee sans sugar, Dev shoos him away with "Keep the cups quickly and out ufffd out! My flow of thought will break." However, when a song from Hum Dono filters in from the next room, he can't resist a grin.


Dev Anand in a still from Chargesheet that's expected tou00a0 hit theatres
by the end of this year

Later, he takes a voluntary break to show us his swollen finger. "Look, at my hand, I don't type. I use pen and paper. Once I am in the frame of mind to write, I can ready a script in just eight days."
Excerpts from an interview:

Navketan celebrates 60 years in 2010 (Afsar was released in 1950); and you are the only filmmaker from that era who's still making films.
But I feel that I'm just starting off; and have just got off at Bombay Central station, as I did back in 1943.

How do you look back?
Look at my span. Today, I'm on a high because I have seen it all, experienced it all, learned from it all, and am still passionate about films. I'm also on a high because I'm in a unique situation ufffd I have two movies coming up for release ufffd my latest film Charge Sheet and the colourised version of Hum Dono (1961), which will be released 50 years after the original. hit the screens.u00a0

To have two films in theatres at the age of 87 is remarkable. But certain purists have reservations about colourising classics.
I have not colourised the film. Some people from Hyderabad have picked up my film for colourising. Initially, I did not agree. Hum Dono was released in 1961 and it will be 50 years in 2011; so I thought: Why not? And it has turned out beautifully. Hum Dono had the beautifully-penned song by Sahir ufffd Main zindagi ka saath nibhaata chala gaya ufffd which has become my philosophy of humanity and positivity.

What is the enduring quality about Hum Dono?
Hum Dono was an outstanding super duper hit ufffd and now it will be in colour. The film's theme about war and morality never gets backdated. So I thought it's a good idea. Do you think it's a bad idea?

A classic with two pretty heroines (Sadhana and Nanda) and a legendary handsome hero in a double role ufffd what more can the audience want? Ironically, though, both the heroines of the film have quit.
Everybody has quit. My own colleagues don't make movies. Sadhana and Nanda are there, but not there for the movies. Music composer Jaidev, lyricist Sahir are dead; but the audience is alive and so, Dev is alive.
It will be interesting for the audience to watch the two films because I am different now from what I was in 1961.

Physically, yes. But how else?
Talent-wise, I have grown ufffd good or bad is for the world to judge. I am doing what I think I should do today and playing my age.

You have been pretty low key about Charge Sheet.
I will now take it to Delhi and flaunt it. A friend says this picture will do well; and I too think it will because it is a good picture. Charge Sheet is a taut, two-hour long suspense thriller. The story is fiction ufffd no names, no identification of events ufffd but it's believable. It stars Naseeruddin Shah, Jackie Shroff, Divya Dutta and myself. There's a new girl Debashi, who is outstanding ufffd I think she will be the next Zeenat Aman.

Have you have been charge sheeted or filed a charge sheet against anybody?
I have never been charge sheeted. I don't put myself into trouble. As for charge sheeting somebody, you waste a lot of time because the whole system is so slow.

Is your character on the right side of the law?
He is on the right side of the law, but you may misunderstand him in certain scenes of the film.u00a0
u00a0
You have enjoyed playing the anti-hero.
Yes, all the time ufffd Jewel Thief, Taxi Driver, Baazi, Jaal, even Guide. A role with slightly grey shades is more interesting than a goody-goody person. No matter how good you are, there's always something that's ugly within.

Our great-great-great grandfathers felt the same things we do today ufffd they had a wife, maybe a sweetheart. They had kids, but there were temptations, perhaps a desire to kill, to grab, to own a woman! So when you work on a script, you work on these emotions. Man may have become more sophisticated, but his instincts have remained intact. If the human emotion in a film is strong, it works. Forget the technique.

You always make new fangled films.
When you are experimenting, there are chances of being disappointed, but if you strike jackpot, you hit big.

Don't you ever feel like resting on your laurels and opting for an easy paced life?
No. I will quit only if I am disabled. But moviemaking is a brain activity; you can sit on a chair and direct a film. When people say Dev Anand is a legend, I feel happy; but I am still competing ufffd as an actor, director, producer and scriptwriter ufffd with everybody today. And I don't mean just people in this country because this country cannot be isolated from this world.

Would you call yourself a happy man?
I am very selfishly contented as I am very involved with my movies. I eat, drink, and sleep cinema. Whatever I have done so far has been conceived, written by me. Some people criticise me; but a film, like a book, is finally an auteur's point of view.

The writer is the Editor of Bollywood News Service