December 25, 2003

Dear Dev Anand, c/o SKS

Congratulations!

With the entry of your name in that vaunted roster which includes Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Ashok Kumar, Satyajit Ray, Lata Mangeshkar, Majrooh Sultanpuri and others, you have embellished the name of the father of the Indian film industry, as much as he has yours, though his eponymous award. Interestingly enough, Dadasaheb Phalke?s found his vocation on this very day, in the year 1910, when he saw a screening of ?The Life of Christ? at the American-Indian theatre in Bombay.

Dev Anand ! A name that is naturally followed by a pulse-quickening exclamation point. Debonair, charismatic, charming, restless, a man of substance and style, and above all, uniquely original, (in spite of your reputed affectation of Mr. Peck), yours is indeed the name which belongs in the pantheon of the greats of the Hindi film industry and filmmaking in general.

And yet there is the nattering crowd that insists you should have stopped working after this film or that film, after this year or that year. Is there not an irony in that ? to persist in the argument that you should have stopped working at your avocation over a quarter century ago, itself only a partial window upon your vast horizon, coming from people who may not have toiled at a living for even a fifth or half of that period? Or who, at your age, would be lucky to be able to find their bed pans, leave alone producing, directing, writing and distributing films in the rough and tumble of India and the world beyond.

For to carp that Dev Anand should have given up a long time ago is to miss the very essence of your character ? rejuvenation. With every film, hit or flop (and there have been plenty of them, to be sure) you rise anew, ready to energize your own self, replenish your ideals and renew the adoration (or at least affectionate bemusement) of the countless millions of your fans.

?Not enjoyment and not sorrow is our destined end or way; but to act, that each tomorrow finds us farther than today?, has always been your guiding principle. This eternal optimism and ceaseless desire to strive is the fountainhead of your evergreen spirit, and the reason why you are younger at 80 than men half your age.

Like the mighty river that starts in modest trickles in the mountains and weaves it way to the ocean across dusty plains, sometimes muddy, sometimes errant, sometimes shallow, but in the whole a brilliant course, your career has been a silvery ribbon of elegance and majesty, from 1946 to the 21st century, a working life of almost sixty years. Bravissimo!

If Kipling wrote his popular ?If? with anyone in mind, it surely has to be you ?

?If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too?
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same..
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss..
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss..
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone..
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch..
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much..
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it?!?

Keep those films coming, Devsaab, for they are your very essence. As you have yourself said, the day you step back from filmmaking is the day you begin to die.
And when you visit Rashtrapati Bhavan this Monday, December 29, do give them a lesson in the science of the sartorial, starting with the hairstyle.
Best wishes,
Robin Bhat (fan ho to aisa!)