This old man

HE is probably India8217;s youngest 80-year-old. Almost every other year, Dev Anand launches and completes yet another film. All with the s...

HE is probably India8217;s youngest 80-year-old. Almost every other year, Dev Anand launches and completes yet another film. All with the same half smile, sprightly step and hand flop that marked his old flickering black and white movies.

This year8217;s Dadasaheb Phalke winner already had a landmark moment in 2003. Anand spent his 80th birthday at New York8217;s Plaza Hotel with son Suniel, auditioning for his lead heroine in his new project Song Of Life.

Anand admitted that its idea first came to him when Norah Jones won her several Grammies. But when she protested 8212; along with father Pandit Ravi Shankar 8212; over her life being exploited on film, Anand demurred. Now the story is supposed to take off on a different tangent. On his birthday though, the Hindi film industry8217;s chocolate cream soldier had this to say: it was work that was his elixir.

For those who have met Anand, that much is evident. Curiously high on life, he moves about restlessly, talking endlessly on his future films. On the cards now is a movie whose title is self-explanatory 8212; Beauty Queen. 8216;8216;I8217;m looking for the most stunningly beautiful face for it,8217;8217; said Anand from Mahableshwar, soon after he was announced winner of India8217;s equilvanent of the Lifetime Achievement Oscar.

His magic may be fading but Dev saab still has that eye to to spot beauty. Among the many beautiful faces that he launched were Zeenat Aman in Hare Rama Hare Krishna and Tina Munim in Desh Pardes.

Born in Gurdaspur, Anand attended university in Lahore. And when he went back to Lahore on the diplomacy bus in 1999, Anand remembered his days spent studying English literature. But that nostalgia trip was an exception. The actor/film-maker rarely spends time in the past.

At times, though, he does recall those afternoons spent with film-maker Guru Dutt whose Baazi launched Anand into stardom. Yet sit for a chat with Anand and he8217;d prefer to discuss the ideas that bubble in his mind furiously. 8216;8216;I read just one page of a book and then I put it away. There are too many ideas. I have to get back to work,8217;8217; he once said.

As an actor, Anand essayed a range of roles 8212; the smuggler in Jaal, the pickpocket in Pocketmaar and the Guide who got greedy. He modelled himself on Gregory Peck but maintained that shiny boy next door look. Anand also kicked off various fads with his puffed hair, the carelessly tied sweater, floppy cap and the jaunty scarf. And most of all revelled in his Peter Pan skin 8212; the man who stayed young forever.

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This helped in his later films. With his Navketan banner that he set up with brothers Vijay and Chetan, Anand turned to direction with Prem Pujari in 1970. He continued to act with heroines half his age and the lover boy label stuck on.

But it was with India8217;s big flower generation tale Hare Rama Hare Krishna that he told his most heart-wrenching story. For years after that, he tried to spin stories around stuff that makes real life 8212; cricket inspired Awwal Number and the Censor Board was responsible for his Censor. But both failed to impress audiences.

But Anand has never let a small thing like that get in the way of his passion for films. He still runs around pixie-like in the songs of his most recent film Love In Times Square. And his quest for beauties has not quite ended.