An affair to remember: World Book Fair celebrates cinema

It's a packed house at Hall No 7 at the ongoing World Book Fair as "Sahib, Biwi aur Ghulam" plays on screen, the black and white film having the desired effect on its audience when its heroine Meena Kumari shyly lowers her eyes to Guru Dutt's drawling voice.

Literature's date with celluloid has been a long one during the 100 years of Indian cinema and celebrating this appropriately the Delhi World Book Fair 2012 has chosen "Point of View: Towards Hundred Years of Cinema" as its theme.

"From the beginning, books have been the inspiration for films and it is wonderful that this year it is also being celebrated as the focus of the fair. "The big debate on what is better films or books will always continue but it is time we stop looking at the relationship as films vs books and rather look at them in totality," says noted film critic Aruna Vasudev as she mused about filmmaker Satyajit Ray's celluloid adaptations of Rabindranath Tagore's short stories and novels.

With entries of 300 titles on Indian cinema, visitors can have an insight into the world of Bollywood at the nine-day fair as screenplays, scripts and dialogues of classics like "Mother India" and "Pyaasa" adorn the shelves at the pavilion.