In one scene, the evergreen actor, who also plays the hero, serenades a glass of whisky and, horror of horrors, in the other he actually tells the young heroine to relax and shed her inhibitions before the camera during a shoot.

Anand told Express Newsline that the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has clearly misunderstood the script as there is no use of innuendo. In the controversial scene, where an aspiring heroine is being groomed for a shoot, the director (Anand himself) merely asks the starlet to relax and ease up so that she does not appear stilted.

``The proposed cuts spoil the narration and half the song will be gone from the film,''says Anand in utter dismay. CBFC President Shakti Samanta told Express Newsline he had not attended the film's screening and that the cuts, recommended by the Examining Committee, had been upheld by the Revising Committee. ``I have advised Mr Dev Anand to go to the Appellate Tribunal,'' he added.

Earlier, the board's president used to personally view films up for censoring but the practice was later abandoned. Anand points out that the board is taking prudishness to a ludicrous extreme as films directed by him were certified with a `U' rating decades ago, when viewers were the first to baulk at the slightest hint of anything suggestive.

The board, whose members are shuffled at regular intervals, appears to have forgotten that Anand had sung `Din Dhal Jaye Haye Raat Na Jaaye' while clasping a glass of whisky in `Guide' more than three decades ago. That film, he points out, was given a `U' rating.

The censors' amnesia is especially disturbing as the board had cleared the 1984 hit, `Sharabi', whereAmitabh Bachchan too laces a song with the golden intoxicant. The list goes on but the board appears to have regressed with time. `Mai Solah Baras Ki' is the story of a teenager from America, a fan of Anand who is desperate to meet him. When she does encounter the veteran actor, who also plays the role of a director, he casts her as his heroine. While grooming her to stardom, the starlet falls in love with him but the wisened director advises her against a relationship.

``It is an honest depiction of myself because I have given so many heroines a break. Why should the censors object to my holding a glass of whisky in my hand while singing a song? If they cut the scene, half the song will go. Don't film directors drink whisky,'' he asks.

``In my film, `Hare Rama Hare Krishna', no cuts were effected even though I show the heroine taking drugs. Both these films were given `U' certificates. In this day and age viewers are used to so many undesirable things they view on satellite television,'' he says, addingthat the two `controversial' scenes in his film are anything but offensive. Cutting them will kill the continuity, he says.

Anand says he is not about to acquiesce to the board's whims. If the Appellate Tribunal is not amenable to reason, he says he may even go to court. This would delay the film's release, slated for June, he concedes.

``I think the guidelines are misinterpreted to suit the censors' convenience. We have to compete with the world market but our censors here behave like puritans,'' comes the parting shot.