PM to release Dev Anand's 'Romancing With Life' on Wednesday

MUMBAI: The autobiography of legendary Bollywood actor, director and producer Dev Anand, "Romancing with Life" will be released tomorrow by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi.

Published by Penguins, Anand's account will be released on the occasion of his birthday which he coincidentally shares with Singh, in the presence of Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

In "Romancing with Life", the first-ever full-fledged memoir by a leading Bollywood star, he tells his remarkable life story -- no less dramatic and gripping than any of his films.

The book contains tales from Anand's youthful days in 1930s in Gurdaspur and Lahore, his years of struggle during 1940s in Bombay, his friendship with Guru Dutt, his doomed romance with Suraiya, his marriage to co-star Kalpana Karthik, his relationship with his brothers Chetan-- who brought him to Bombay and Vijay Anand who directed him in hits after hits, to his equation with S D and R D Burman who provided the memorable music for his films among many other celebrated moments of his cinematic journey.

The evergreen hero also narrates about his contemporaries Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor -- to whom he was very close. He also goes down the memory lane to remember his co-stars and heroines right from Geeta Bali, Madhubala, Meena Kumari, Nutan, Vyayanthimala, Mumtaz and Hema Malini to Waheeda Rehman, Zeenat Aman and Tina Munim, all of whom he launched.

Dev Anand has authored a book full of bittersweet reminiscences written in a pacy, effervescent style that carries the reader through Bollywood's sixty most interesting years.