Here's a biography of the persona not the person -"Helen - The Life and Times of an H-Bomb" by journalist Jerry Pinto examines the unique role of a woman who danced her way to stardom through 30 years of Hindi films without getting into any personal details.

The Mumbai-based author, who released his book here Wednesday evening, admitted that he had never met Helen. But it didn't matter, said the journalist-poet who described his book as a celebration to the iconic 'item girl'.

"I have written this book to celebrate a woman who has danced for 30 years in an industry which generally allows people couple of years of fame. She is the only actress who enthralled three generations continuously for 30 years with her scintillating dance numbers. There cannot be any other Helen in the world," said Pinto.

It was not a proper book launch in the sense that there was no personality unveiling the book. Pinto read excerpts from the book and tried to revive the Helen magic by showing some of her memorable songs like "Uima Uimaa ye kya ho gaya" and "Piya too ab to aaja".

"My book also talks about some important characteristics of Hindi cinema, including the creation of stereotypes and notion of how a woman is portrayed, how masculinity is portrayed and how Indianness is portrayed - because Helen was always that other person," said Pinto of the French-Burmese actress.

Pinto says he has no regrets about not meeting Helen.

He said: "I was never interested in Helen's personal life so if she chose not to speak to me, I don't think it has affected my book. In future if she agrees for an interview, may be a better book will come out."

The book, which is an intensive study of a dancing career that spanned over three decades and over 500 films, took Pinto three years to write.

Pinto explained why he referred to her as a H-bomb: "There was a time when Helen was such a challenge to masculinity, such a vivacious vibrant presence that she had all the explosive potential of a hydrogen bomb so they started calling her H-bomb and she said she quite liked the name."

He has seen more than 300 films of Helen, though the actress has said she worked in more than 700 films. Unfortunately, however, a complete filmography is not available, said Pinto.