Simply streetsmart (Aar Paar)

I'm quite glad I saw Aar Paar. It shows Guru Dutt in a very different light. Here he carries his Bombaiyya swagger with elan. He floors girls like nine pins and cares two hoots about impressing his ladylove's father. He woos the well-off Nicky knowing full well that the task is already done and when rebuffed for the advances, shifts gears to approach the attractive but dangerous Shakila, aware that the tactic will pull Nicky towards him once again.

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The original don (China Town)

So you thought Amitabh Bachchan was the original Indian don? Rubbish. Shammi Kapoor started it all. In Shakti Samanta's gangster flick, China Town, Kapoor essayed twin roles of the stylish smuggler Mike, as well as his lookalike, the smart undercover agent, Shekhar. The difference? Unlike the later film starring Bachchan, where the two men were not related to each other, in this 1962 thriller, the two men are shown to be identical twins. A more plausible script, therefore.
Shammi Kapoor, I have always maintained, was a stylish man. His clothes, attitude, hairstyle, mannerisms, everything screamed of panache.

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Due credit (C.I.D)

Dharam Dev Pishorimal Anand writes his heart out in Romancing with Life, his autobiography. He traces his roots to Gurdaspur and recalls his struggles as a strapping but thin 25-year-old jobhunting in busy Bombay. He dots the narrative with multihued incidents from his film career and personal life that made him DEV ANAND, the star. While doing so, he credits Vijay Anand's Baazi for making him a household name.

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