But then, every movie set in Mumbai these days claims to show the city as a character. Only one as rare as the Dev Anand starrer Taxi Driver (1954) has the gumption to make that assertion explicit by cheekily slipping in ‘city of Bombay’ in its opening credits alongside other ‘guest artists’. Like many Dev Anand films, Taxi Driver is as much an ode to the idea of romance as it is a love letter to Bombay. The most unusual thing about the evergreen Anand films is that they depicted Bombay as a lair of crime and shallow glamour. Though inspired by Hollywood noirs, they sweep you into the world of urban underbelly with distinctly Indian twists. With their moral ambiguities and focus on rapidly changing social and cultural mores, they portray a city at the cusp of modernity. In them, the post-Independence optimism is very much in the air but often, the protagonists find themselves greatly torn apart by the corrupting influence of the metropolis. Anand’s other iconic hits of the era like Baazi, CID —best known for the city’s de facto anthem Yeh hai Bombay meri jaan—and Kala Bazar are perfect examples of what you might call the ‘Bombay films’. For old souls, there’s an unmistakable joy in seeing the then-Bombay at its charming best in these golden-era classics. So much has changed about the city’s character since and yet, much else remains the same. For example, one of the pleasures of watching the Taxi Driver song Jaayein toh jaayein kahan on YouTube is not just to hear a young Lata Mangeshkar’s nasal pitch but also to see an almost pristine Worli sea face where the only time you spot a crowd is when a throng of onlookers gathers behind, perhaps to catch a glimpse of Dev Anand. Today, the Worli sea face neighbourhood is a different beast altogether, though some of the old bungalows are still standing, biding their time as the last surviving link to its idyllic past.