Thought this might be of interest, Yusuf Khan has visited his home town of Peshawar whenever visas and nations permitted.
Dilip Kumar is 82
Syed Mazhar Ali Shah
Dilip Kumar has turned 82 on 11th December 2004. He is one of those rare film living legends of all times who, perhaps, need no formal introduction.
Born on 11th December 1922 in a religious, conservative family of a fruit merchant in Peshawar City, he was christened by his father Sarwar Jan as Yousaf Khan. Little did he know then that his son was to become a film legend one day who will be revered and looked up as a role model by almost three generations of film heroes of Bollywood and Lollywood. Dilip had to leave Peshawar quite early in his salad days when his father shifted to Bombay, now Mumbai, in search of greener pastures after his fruit business in Peshawar collapsed. It was in Bombay that he was spotted by that inimitable Deveka Rani, one of the pioneers of Indian talkies, who gave him a break in the world of celluloid. Dilip’s first movie was Jawar Bhata. Since then he has never looked back, albeit he hasn’t worked in too many films. This can be gleaned from the fact that in his film career spanned over 60 years, he has worked in only 55 films. This speaks volume for the fact that he believed in quality rather than quantity.
Some of Dilip’s films didn’t make big money at the box-office, but Dilip never flopped in any film. He was aptly billed as the King of Tragedy by the film critics for his superb histrionics, facial expressions and dialogue delivery. His tragedy roles in films like Devdas, Deedar, Andaz, Musafir, Dil Diya Dard Liya, Amar, Jogan, Shaheed, Yahudi, Insaniyat, Gunga Jamuna, Mughle Azam, Soudager, Mashal, Babul, Mela and Sangdil, to mention a few, are a treat to watch. But that does not mean that hallmark of his acting was his tragedy roles only. When he did comedy, as in Kohinoor, Ram aur Shiyam and Leader, he excelled in comic roles, to boot. The superstar of Bollywood, Amitabachan, who has been declared star of the millennium hit the right nail on the head when he said that Dilip Kumar is matchless. Dilip also lent his voice to a film song in his film Musafir. After listening to it one feels that had he persisted with singing, he would have turned out to be a very good singer also.
Age hasn’t caught up with Dilip. He is becoming more graceful by the year and this happens only to those who have inner peace: who are unassuming; who are content with whatever little they had in terms of material and who have no lust for the pelf. Dilip has all these qualities galore. He hasn’t made himself cheap by lending his face for television commercials. He also never danced with his shirt off as most of our present-day films heroes are prone to doing.
To quote an instance, the redoubtable Indian film director V Shantaram had signed Dilip in the leading role for his classic movie Parchayan. In one of the scenes of Parchayan, the hero had to remove his shirt before lying on the railway track for making an attempt to commit suicide. Dilip asked Shantaram to change the scene as under no circumstances was he going to remove his shirt. Shantaram insisted so Dilip refused to act in Parchayan. Shantaram had to do that role himself.
Again when another big name in the Bollywood, the illustrious film producer Mehboob Khan was making his film Mother India, he wanted Dilip to play the role of one of the two sons of Nargis. Dilip refused that role as he could not reconcile himself to act as son of Nargis who has always been his film heroine. Dilip thought it would also not go well with his cinegoers.
Dilip never used chemicals like glycerine for welling up tears in his eyes in tragedy scenes. He will work up his emotions, to a pitch where his eyes will automatically well up with tears. In Devdas he had to literally live on only water and juices for days together before coming up in front of the camera for that everlasting last scene in which he talks to his orderly, then tacitly disembarks his train compartment and takes a tonga for his last journey to the home of his beloved in front of whose house he breathes his last.
Shah Rukh Khan too has also done well in the coloured version of Devdas released almost 2 years back. While it is certainly more glamorous and colourful film but Shah Rukh’s histrionics as a drunkard and his pronunciation and dialogue delivery pale in comparison to Dilip’s performance in the black and white Devdas screened 45 years ago.
Last year, two biographies on Dilip Kumar have been published. The first one is captioned “Nehru’s Hero - Dilip Kumar in the life of India” written by Lord Desai, a member of the Britain’s House of Lords, and the other by Bunny Reubenn which is titled as “Dilip Kumar, Star Legend of Indian Cinema”.
The year 2004 has also seen the rescreening of coloured version of Dilip’s classic black and white film Mughle Azam after 40 years of its first screening. With the release of Mughle Azam, which was completed in 9 years, the Indian cinema had touched its zenith. Its dialogues, acting, direction and music are unsurpassable even today. Films like Mughle Azam, which is the epitome of performance, are no longer being made because commitment and patience which are required for creative works like Mughle Azam have sadly gone from the world of celluloid which now in its bid to make quick buck panders to vulgarity, sex crime, lustful dances and cheap poetry done on foreign locations for the sake of colour and glamour. By doing so, the present-day movie-makers try to cover up and make up for deficiencies in histrionics, good stories and melodious music which now appear to be things of the past.
In this scenario, the coloured version of Mughle Azam will certainly open up the eyes of colour-crazy young cinegoers to the natural beauty of venus-faced Madhubala, superb dialogues of Kamal Amrohi and excellent acting of Dilip Kumar and Prithvi Raj Kapoor.
Statesman
