Dev Anand's bash and after

Suneil Anand is very happy with the way his legendary father Dev Anand’s fans and friends responded to his 89th birthday. “We had an afternoon tea party in Dad’s memory. That stretched on to the whole evening. Finally a group of us close friends ended up at dinner. So we were celebrating till the wee hours,” said Anand on the morning after Dev Saab’s bash. The proud and possessive son has future plans of making a docu-film on his great father’s incredibly long career as a matinee idol. And in order to ensure no one else jumps into the arena of a visual homage, Suneil has registered a number of titles for the purported documentary. Confirming these plans Suneil says, “Yes, the film is something I will do. We’ve already registered various titles with the necessary associations, one of them being The Legendary Dev Anand. To my mind he was a true legend.” While details about the film’s format are being worked out Suneil is in the throes of completing the construction of Dev Anand’s dream project, the Anand Studios. The work, says Suniel, is on full swing. The heartwarming news is that besides a section in the Studio’s lobby devoted to Dev Saab’s artifacts in the Studio (and not a separate museum, as wrongly reported) there would also be an office built for Dev Saab, a space he would have happily and comfortably occupied if he were alive. Says the emotional son. “Our Studio was my father’s dream project during his lifetime. We had torn down the old studio and decided to build a hi-tech all-purpose recording-dubbing-editing studio. Work had started while Dad was still around. He was very excited about it. So it’s only natural that the office space that he would have occupied remains, because I don’t feel he’s gone away. I feel his presence all around us.” On 26 September when the timeless Dev Saab turned 89, his son arranged a birthday party at the Sun ‘n’ Sand for friends from the film industry and the media. “No alcohol, because Dad didn’t drink. Just a tea party with lots of reminiscences and warm conversation, just like Dad would have liked.” Meanwhile, Suneil Anand has invited an acoustic engineer from Los Angeles to work on the sound at the Anand Studio. Informs the Legend’s sincerely devoted son, “The Studio will take about a year more to be completed. There are several levels of permission to be sought from the BMC, the final one being the occupation certificate. We hope to be fully ready by his next birth anniversary, along with a section within the studio devoted to Dad’s artifacts, his scarves, etc. We will also display the various cameras that were used to shoot each of his films including my Dad’s prized possession, the Mitchell camera.”