‘Mughal-e-Azam’ is one of the most romantic drama based on the golden pages of India’s history. The movie chronicles the most tragic love story of Salim, prince of Great Mughal emperor Akbar who married a Hindu Rajput woman. Salim falls in love with an ordinary girl named Anarkali.
Both love each other intensely and are ready to make any sacrifice to marry each other. Akbar the Great doesn’t like it and asks Anarkali to leave his son at whatever cost. Anarkali kicks the offer with the contempt it deserves, but agrees to sacrifice her love for the emperor.
This time round we have got the second version of the movie that is digital and in color. The legendary K. Asif’s movie was released on August 5, 1960 and attracted generations after generations. Undoubtedly, it was Asif’s dream project with the heaviest investments ever made by him.
Though most of the stars like Prithviraj Kapoor who acted as Akbar and Bollywood’s queen bee Madhubala who played the role of Anarkali are no longer there to witness the second version, Dilip Kumar who played the character of Salim, the lover prince, graced the premiere along with his star wife Saira Bano in Mumbai.
Dilip was taken aback when he listened to the dialogues delivered by him in 1960 to his one time beloved star Madhubala. The chemistry between the two – Dilip and Madhubala - on the screen has been beyond description. Naushad’s music too has been recorded in Dolby -digital.
When Dilip Kumar was asked whether the second version was comparable to the first, he became highly emotional saying that the legend of Salim and Anarkali was so great that any recreation of the story would be worthwhile to watch.
Commending the efforts of Asif, he said he could not blink while he had been watching the premiere. When the movie finished and the lights came on, everybody looked towards him and saw tears well up in his eyes.
Dilip Kumar said he still remembered all the dialogues of the film and could recite them without having the read them again. His wife Saira Banu said that it was after a long gap of forty years that Dilip Kumar had visited the Eros theatre to watch any film.