DEV ANAND'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY 'ROMANCING WITH LIFE' PROMISES TO BE A GUIDE TO GOOD CINEMA OF YORE

Not content with his first book which is going to be released on September 26 by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, veteran actor Dev Anand plans to start writing another book soon.

"I am very excited and anxious to know the people's response to my book. It covers my 62 working years in the show business. But there is still so much to say. Such a long journey cannot be entirely covered in one book," said Dev Anand.

"My life is still going on and will go on, no matter what people say. I am still functioning and growing with very experience, which means I am still strong enough to continue further. One book is finished. But the life has not stopped," the evergreen actor said.

Dev Anand's autobiography Romancing with Life, published by Penguin, will be released on September 26 by the Prime Minister in Delhi. UPA Chairperson and Congress President Sonia Gandhi will be the chief guest at book release function.

"Imagine a man of 62 years of standing in the show business, on his own strength making original movies, no remakes, no plagiarism. We have made 36 motion pictures, with every movie different from the other. We are still making films," he said.

The legend goes that the darling of the masses, Anand began his career in the military censor office at Churchgate, Mumbai, for a salary of Rs 160. Even as he stayed as a paying guest in the innumerable cheap guest houses in Mumbai and also with some of his friends, Anand always knew that he would soon be part of the elite circle of glamour and flashbulbs.

He was soon offered a break as an actor by Prabhat Talkies to star in their Hum Ek Hain (1946) during the shooting of which he struck a friendship with fellow actor Guru Dutt.

From swapping shirts to double dating and sharing dreams, they went on to make a pact: if Anand produced a film, Dutt would direct it; if Dutt produced a film, Anand would act in it.

As destiny would have it, Anand was offered his first big break by Ashok Kumar, his favourite star. Kumar spotted Dev hanging around in the studios and picked him as the hero for the Bombay Talkies production, Ziddi, costarring Kamini Kaushal (1948) after which he never looked back.

In 1949, Anand turned producer and launched his own company Navketan along with his elder brother Chetan Anand which continues to churn out movies even now.

As promised, Dev placed his bet on Guru Dutt as director for the crime thriller, Baazi (1951). The dice rolled in favour of this creative collaboration; the Sahir Ludhianvi, lyricist song, Tadbeer se bigdi huyee taqdeer bana de, (transforming bad fortune into good though prayers) proved prophetic and Anand became a true blue star.

He never shied away from playing out roles with grey shades. His grey character role in films like Jaal (1952) in which he played a gambler, a smuggler and a blackmarketeer was well appreciated by the audience.

The year 1954 was a crucial one. Anand was one of the earliest Indian stars to visit Russia. His starrers, Rahee and Aandhiyan, were screened there along with Raj Kapoor's Awaara.

In the same year, Taxi Driver was declared a hit. Dev's heroine was Kalpana Kartik and the two soon got married in a quiet ceremony.

There was no doubt that Anand was a 'man of style' but his detractors cast doubts on his acting abilities and even questioned his inclusion in the hallowed Raj Kapoor-Dilip Kumar league.

But Anand, proved his detractors wrong with his classic act in Kala Pani (1958), as the son who is willing to go to any lengths to clear his framed father's name. He won the Best Actor Award for the film.

He followed it up with an interesting double role in Hum Dono (1961) as a mustachioed major and his clean-shaven lookalike.

But what was the most celebrated was the film Guide (1965), directed by younger brother Vijay Anand.

Dev Anand played Raju, a voluble guide who supports Rosy (Waheeda Rehman) in her bid for freedom but is not above thoughtlessly exploiting her for personal gains. Combining panache with probably his best performance, Anand gave an affecting performance as a man grappling with his emotions in his passage through love, shame and salvation.

He reunited with Vijay Anand for the much-hyped Jewel Thief, featuring a bevy of beauties led by Vyjayanthimala Bali, including Tanuja, Anju Mahendru, Faryal and Helen.

With their next collaboration, Johnny Mera Naam (1970), Anand proved that he was worth his weight in gold. The film was released in the same year as Raj Kapoor's magnum Mera Naam Joker, and was a golden jubilee hit while Kapoor's film bit the sand at the box office.

CHANDRABABU NAIDU'S ROAD SHOW IS NOT EXACTLY A GREAT SHOW

TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu has asked youth and women to fight against the government for closure of belt shops. "There are belt shops everywhere but there is no drinking water rural areas," he said.

Addressing meetings at Kothavalasa and along the route to S Kota, Naidu, who reached Jangalapalem, the border village, two-and-half-hours behind schedule from Visakhapatnam in an open top jeep, said, "My only wish is too see the poor and the farmers happy. The TDP will stand by them."

Expressing satisfaction with the good response from public to his roadshow, Naidu said NTR had founded the party with an aim to uplift the poor, and the partymen would rededicate themselves to cherish the founder’s goal.

He said that the State government had neglected the poor and encouraged contractors during its over three-year-rule. It was ready to allot hundreds of acres of land to rich entrepreneurs, but it was against giving 60 sq yards for construction of houses to the poor, the TDP president said.

The government acquired 350 acres of land in near Kothavalasa for a glass factory and paid Rs 1 lakh per acre as compensation to farmers. After the entrepreneur went back, the government sold the same land at Rs 3 lakh per acre to a cement factory, he said, and criticised the government’s anti-people policies.

He assured farmers of support in their fight against Jindal’s Alumina.

Earlier, at Jangalapalem and at Kothavalasa, Naidu unveiled the statues of late NTR. Party senior leaders P Ashok Gajapathi Raju, M V V S Murty, Y Ramana Murty and others accompanied him.

UPA GOVERNMENT SHOULD SCRAP NUCLEAR DEAL

Naidu said the UPA Government should scrap the nuclear deal with the United States in deference to popular opinion.

In a brief chat with reporters at the Vizag airport, he said the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) would bring pressure on the coalition not to budge under pressure from the Bush administration.

Stating that the deal would be counter-productive and not in the larger interest of the nation, he said the UPA would be held responsible if elections were thrust on the public.

Naidu said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi were acting like agents of the US, and feared that the US would start implementing its hidden agenda once the deal came into force.

He said only the Congress was keen on implementing the deal and claimed that all other major parties were totally opposed to the agreement known as 123.

PRATIBHA PATIL SWORN IN AS FIRST WOMAN PRESIDENT OF INDIA

Pratibha Patil was today sworn in as the country's first woman President. She was administered the oath of office by Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan at a function in the Central Hall of Parliament House here.

The function was attended by a host of VVIPs, including outgoing President A P J Abdul Kalam, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman K Rahman Khan, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Union ministers, former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, opposition leaders, governors, chief ministers and members of the diplomatic corps.

A 21-gun salute was accorded to Patil after she was sworn-in as the country's 13th President.

She solemnly affirmed by the oath, which she took in English.

PRATIBHA PATIL IS ELECTED INDIA'S FIRST WOMAN PRESIDENT

Congress activists in a jubilant mood ahead of the Presidential poll results on Friday in Allahabad

Pratibha Patil was on Saturday elected the country's first woman President, defeating NDA-backed independent Bhairon Singh Shekhawat by a huge margin in a bitterly contested poll following which he resigned as Vice President.

The 72-year-old UPA-Left nominee won by a margin of over three-lakh vote value while Shekhawat drew a blank in as many as four states and suffered cross voting against him in BJP-ruled Gujarat and Chhattisgarh and some other states ruled by its allies.

Shortly after the official declaration of Patil's victory, 84-year-old Shekhawat quit as Vice-President. He drove to Rashtrapati Bhavan and handed over his resignation to President A P J Abdul Kalam.

In the final count, Patil got a vote value of 6,38,116 while Shekhawat secured 3,31,306 in the electoral college of 10.98 lakhs. The winner got 65.82 per cent of the valid votes.

Most constituents of the Third Front having 12.5 per cent vote share in the electoral college abstained from the poll.

Patil, who will be the country's 13th President, would be sworn in on July 25 in the Central Hall of Parliament.

There were scenes of jubilation at the temporary residence of Patil in the South Avenue area of the capital as also outside 10 Janpath, the residence of UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were among the first political leaders to greet the President-elect, who thanked the people for her success. Patil said it was a "victory of the principles which our Indian people uphold".

Patil's election historic: Bardhan

Terming the election of Patil to the office of President as "historic", CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan today said those who opposed her have to reconcile to the UPA-Left candidate's victory. "It is a historic win and we have a woman president at the 60th year of independence...it is a great moment," Bardhan told reporters. "Those who have opposed her have to reconcile her victory," he said.

CONGRESSMAN FILES DEFAMATION SUIT AGAINST SIVAJI FOR TARNISHING THE IMAGE OF SONIA GANDHI AND MANMOHAN SINGH

A defamation suit seeking Rs 50 crore damages and a ban on the screening of Tamil Superstar Rajnikanth's latest blockbuster Sivaji: The Boss was filed in Madras High Court on Monday.

In his petition, M Sathiyamoorthy of the Congress contended the film was defamatory in nature, and aimed at tarnishing the image of AICC President and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The film dealt with the exploitation of education system by private institutions which collected capitation fees.

Fifteen minutes into the film, hero Rajnikanth, who plays the role of a US-returned software engineer, visits the place of Adikesavan, the villain and head of a private university, who is shown standing between the laminated photographs of Ms Gandhi and Dr Singh.

By portraying the senior Congress leaders with the villain, the image of the senior party leaders was tarnished, Sathiyamoorthy contended and sought Rs 50 crore in damages and a ban on screening the film.

Information and Broadcasting Secretary, Censor Board (Chennai), actor Rajnikanth, Film Producer AVM Saravanan, Director Shankar, and TDP President N Chandrababu Naidu were cited as respondents.

The petition was likely to be taken up for hearing on Monday.