Lights, Camera, Anand

Through her stage documentary Anand Hi Anand, actor and playwright Sohaila Kapur narrates the stories of her uncles, the three legendary Anand brothers-Chetan, Dev, and Vijay

- PANKIL JHAJHRIA

The 1954 film Taxi Driver is the story of a cabbie; his taxi vrooming across the streets of 1950s Bombay.

Dev Anand plays his trademark cheerful and optimistic character, alongside actor Kalpana Kartik; the two married secretly during a break from shooting the film.

The screenplay was written by Chetan Anand, his wife Uma Anand, and the youngest Anand brother, Vijay. This and other asides were part of a "stage documentary" titled Anand Hi Anand by actor-playwright Sohaila Kapur on her uncles' lives at a programme recently at the city's Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel.

"Chetan turned the streets of Bombay into a studio, mounting the camera on the bonnet of a taxi and shooting on the move!" recalls Kapur, niece of the Anand brothers. "The main actors took no money, and Taxi Driver went on to become a huge box-office success." The film was produced under Navketan Films, the production house founded by Chetan and Dev.

However, Taxi Driver was not the only memorable project. Kapur adds, "The making of Guide had as many twists as its story." When Dev Anand wanted to step into international cinema, he picked up R.K. Narayan's novel