'Dev Anand @ 100' film festival kicks off with 'Johny Mera Naam', 'Guide' screenings
Mumbai (PTI): A film festival celebrating the birth centenary of screen icon Dev Anand, opened on Saturday evening with packed shows of the actor's popular films "Johny Mera Naam" and "Guide" at PVR Juhu here.
The two-day event named 'Dev Anand @ 100 - Forever Young', curated by Film Heritage Foundation (FHF), is showcasing four of the actor's movies. The other two films "CID" and "Jewel Thief" will be screened on Sunday.
Waheeda Rehman, Dev Anand's co-star of films such as "CID" and "Guide", actor Jackie Shroff, filmmaker Sriram Raghavan, and FHF director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur introduced the two titles marking the opening of the festival.
Rehman recounted being introduced to Dev Anand on the sets of "CID", the 1956 film which marked her Hindi cinema debut.
"I feel very lucky that I did my first film 'CID' with Dev sahab. When we were introduced, I called him 'Dev sahab', he said 'Waheeda, you won't call me Dev sahab'. I said 'I'm not that ill-mannered, you are elder to me and such a big star. This is my first film. How can I not call you Dev sahab?' He said, 'I don't feel comfortable when someone calls me 'sahab', I feel like a school teacher. So, just call me Dev'," the 85-year-old star said at the event.
Dev Anand was the "only actor I addressed by first name", she added.
"Not once did he make me feel that he is such a huge star or older to me in age. He made me feel comfortable and was cooperative. I'm proud to have worked with a legend like Dev Anand. I wish he was here. I'm sure up there he must be feeling happy. He has received so much love from us," the actor said.
"He was, is and will remain evergreen. He was a charming personality, dedicated, punctual and a thorough gentleman," she further said.
Rehman also credited the late actor for her casting in "Guide", the 1965 film directed by his brother Vijay Anand. Dev Anand produced and starred in the film.
"It was such a pleasure to have worked with him. He was the one of the reasons behind me being (cast) in 'Guide'. He had said 'No one will play Rosie other than you, Waheeda'," she said.
The screening was also attended by Vaibhav Anand, son of Vijay Anand, the families of Dev Anand, Chetan Anand, Prem Nath and Jagdish, as well as actors Mink Brar and Divya Dutta.
"The response has been amazing. The cinema halls were packed in many parts of India. It was so good see such a young crowd come and watch these films. It was an amazing experience. It's almost houseful everywhere," Dungarpur, also a filmmaker and archivist, told PTI.
Ahead of the festival, FHF ambassador, megastar Amitabh Bachchan, also took to X to congratulate not-for-profit organisation for the retrospective.
Bachchan said Dev Anand signified something that was endless, "a continuity which we all took as a given".
"The fact that we can watch these films almost 70 years after the first one was released, is because they have been preserved and restored.
"This only reaffirms the importance of saving our films for future generations to enjoy. Don't miss the opportunity to watch Dev Anand back on the big screen this weekend. @shividungarpur @FHF_Official," the 80-year-old wrote on the platform.
The festival, held jointly in association with NFDC-NFAI (National Film Development Corporation Of India - National Film Archive of India) and PVR INOX, is taking place across 30 cities and 55 cinema halls all over India.
The restoration of the films for 'Dev Anand@100 - Forever Young' was undertaken as part of the National Film Heritage Mission and funded by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
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SC stays CBI probe into West Bengal govt officials' role in teacher recruitment scam
New Delhi, Apr 29: The Supreme Court on Monday stayed a Calcutta High Court order directing the CBI to probe the role of West Bengal government officials in a teacher recruitment scam. It, however, refused to stay for now the cancellation of the appointment of over 25,000 teachers and non-teaching staff.
The top court was hearing a plea by the West Bengal government against a high court order invalidating the appointment of 25,753 teachers and non-teaching staff made by the School Service Commission (SSC) in state-run and state-aided schools.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra, however, refused to stay the high court order cancelling the appointments and said it will hear the matter on May 6.
Observing that taking away the jobs of about 25,000 persons is a serious matter, the top court asked if it is possible to segregate the valid and invalid appointments on the basis of the material available and who the beneficiaries of the fraud are.
"We will stay the direction which says the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) will undertake further investigation against officials in the state government," the bench said.
Calcutta High Court had said the CBI would undertake further investigations with regard to the persons in the state government involved in approving the creation of supernumerary posts to accommodate illegal appointments.
If necessary, the CBI will undertake custodial interrogation of such persons involved, it had said.
Challenging the order, the state government, in its appeal filed before the top court, said the high court cancelled the appointments "arbitrarily".
"The high court failed to appreciate the ramification of cancelling the entire selection process, leading to straightaway termination of teaching and non-teaching staff from service with immediate effect, without giving sufficient time to the petitioner state to deal with such an exigency, rendering the education system at a standstill," the plea said.
Calcutta High Court last week declared the selection process as "null and void" and directed the CBI to probe the appointment process. It also asked the central agency to submit a report within three months.
"All appointments granted in the selection processes involved being violative of articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India, are declared null and void and cancelled," the high court said in its April 22 order.
The high court said those appointed outside the officially available 24,640 vacancies, appointed after the expiry of the official date of recruitment, and those who submitted blank Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheets but obtained appointment to return all remunerations and benefits received by them with 12 per cent interest per annum within four weeks.
Observing that it had given "anxious consideration to the passionate plea" that persons who obtained the appointments legally would be prejudiced if the entire selection process was cancelled, the bench said it hardly had any choice left.
The high court held that all appointments involved were violative of articles 14 (equality before law) and 16 (prohibiting discrimination in employment in any government office) of the Constitution.
"It is shocking that, at the level of the cabinet of the state government, a decision is taken to protect employment obtained fraudulently in a selection process conducted by SSC for state-funded schools, knowing fully well that, such appointments were obtained beyond the panel and after expiry of the panel, at the bare minimum," the high court had said.
It said unless "there is a deep connection between the persons perpetuating the fraud and the beneficiaries" with persons involved in the decision-making process, such action to create supernumerary posts to protect illegal appointments is "inconceivable".
The division bench had also rejected a prayer by some appellants, including the SSC, for a stay on the order and asked the commission to initiate a fresh appointment process within a fortnight from the date of the results of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
The bench, constituted by the high court chief justice on a direction of the Supreme Court, had heard 350 petitions and appeals relating to the selection of candidates for appointment by the SSC in the categories of teachers of classes 9, 10, 11 and 12 and group-C and D staffers through the SLST-2016.
In its 282-page judgment, the high court had said retaining appointees selected through "such a dubious process" would be contrary to public interest.
