THE AGE OF FILMS
Rolling bones and moss
The contrast of creativity in seniority
Dev Anand
s I watched Max von Sydow play a mysterious immi-
grant and offer yet another mesmerizing performance
in the soon to be much talked about film Extremely
Loud And Incredibly Close, my mind went to Dev
Anand.
I have been thinking a lot about Dev Anand in recent
weeks. Like when I saw Christopher Plummer roll out yet another
solid performance in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in a career
that — like Von Sydow’s — has been going on for over six decades.
Von Sydow, best remembered for playing the devil chasing priest
in The Exorcist but whose best work is seen in many of the 11 films
he did for Ingmar Bergman, is in his early 80s. Plummer, popularly
remembered as The Soundof Music actor, is about 82 — not quite
as old as Dev Anand was at the time of his death (88) but neverthe-
less.
In The Girlwiththe Dragon Tattoo, Plummer walks into the view-
ers’ souls as a rich and powerful man obsessed with the disappear-
ance of a family member. The actor, who received his first Academy
Award nomination in 2009 as supporting actor for playing Leo
Tolstoy in The Last Station, has four films out in the next three
months. He might have another nomination for Beginners, a small
film compared to Dragon, as a father who comes out of the closet
near the end of his life.
A
And on the subject of octogenarians
whose creative juices are flowing steadily,
there is P D James’s latest novel, Death
Comesto Pemberley. It draws some of the
most beloved characters in Jane Austen’s
Prideand Prejudiceinto a web of conspira-
cies and murder. James, who is a
Conservative Party member of Britain’s
House of Lords, has been writing for over
five decades and has produced more than
25 first rate mystery books including Death
in Holy Orders which also serve as fine
morality tales. Many believe her latest is
one of her five best novels.
And once again I think of Dev Anand, one
of the busiest filmmakers in India who
must have been plotting his next film when
he died in London. I admire him much for making enjoyable films
like Tere Ghar Ke Saamne, Guide and Jewel Thief. Once upon a
time, he was so creative and daring — look at Hum Donoand Guide,
which went against the grain. But none of the nearly dozen films he
produced and directed in nearly 30 years (including Censor, Love At
Times Square and Solah Baras Ki) made any money, let alone win
any acclaim. And yet Dev went on making one flop after flop
because he could. His films cost little and his film lab brought him
steady revenue.
Some people admired this, saying his energy was exemplary, and
declared that his persistence was legendary. I wonder how many of
them saw the films Dev Anand made in the last two-and-a-half
decades.
When he was in New York to release his autobiography, I random-
ly asked over 30 hardcore admirers — some of them had brought
their grandchildren along, telling them they were going to see an
evergreen star — about the last Dev Anand film they had seen. Not
surprisingly, most of them had not seen a Dev Anand film either in
a theater or on television for over three decades. But they were cher-
ishing films like Guide and Hum Dono.
I remember a journalist acquaintance in Mumbai who sees every Dev
Anand film, saying that he saw the first show of the last Dev Anand
film, Chargesheet. He was afraid there would not be a second show.
ARTHUR J
PAIS
PARESH GANDHI
Max von Sydow
PABLO SANCHEZ/REUTERS
;Page A45
