(11 December 1922 – 7 July 2021)
An era in our celluloid history has come to a sad end today. The one and only Dilip Kumar is no more! The man who in his professional reel life was a purist par excellence and in personal real life was so sophisticated and refined that three generations of film lovers were in awe of him died today morning in Mumbai’s Hinduja Hospital. He attained the ripe age of 98 and was away from public life for quite some time but the fact that he was around was a huge consolation. He was the pulse of our entertainment industry and perhaps the strongest symbol of our soft power.
Born Mohammed Yusuf Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, Dilip Kumar debuted as an actor in the film Jwar Bhata (1944). In a career spanning over five decades he worked in over 65 films. He lived in each of his roles, whether it was the romantic in Andaz (1949), or the swashbuckling in Aan (1952), or in the social drama Daag (1952), or the dramatic tragedy in Devdas (1955), or the comical in Azaad (1955), or the epic historical Mughal-e-Azam (1960), or the social dacoit crime drama Gunga Jamuna (1961), and the comedy Ram Aur Shyam (1967) he did unparalleled justice to all. Later, as he graduated to character roles, ''Shakti'' and ''Karma" it did not matter because people would flock to the cinema hall to see him and the rest of the cast had to struggle hard to be noticed and remembered!
Dilip Kumar was an institution, a timeless actor and a legend who will continue to inspire generations to come. Chapters could be written on the cadence of each line he spoke and his dialogues and the gravity with which he delivered them will remain etched in our memory as timeless art and priceless jewels. In Sangdil (1952) he said “Duniya mein asli shaanti kisi ke sachche pyaar mein hi mil sakti hai, uske bagair duniya jise shanti kehti hai, woh shanti ek thakaan hai, shikast ya maut ka doosra naam hai”. This was a message as if the newly independent country was giving to the world! Who can forget his character in Mughle Azam (1960) and his inimitable style “Taqdeerein badal jaati hain, zamana badal jaata hai, mulkon ki taarikh badal jaati hai, shahenshah badal jaate hain, magar iss badalti hui duniya mein mohabbat jis insaan ka daaman thaam leti hai, woh insaan nahi badalta”!
Dilip Kumar was fluent in Urdu, Hindi, Hindko (his first language), Punjabi, Marathi, English, Bengali, Gujarati, Pashto, Persian and the Awadhi and Bhojpuri dialects. He was also a great music enthusiast and learnt how to play the sitar for a film. He loved cricket and played it often. He was appointed Sheriff of Mumbai (an honorary position) in 1980. He was nominated as a member of the Rajya Sabha, by the Indian National Congress for the period 2000–2006 from Maharashtra and he utilized a significant portion of his MPLAD fund towards the construction and improvement of the Bandstand Promenade and the gardens at Bandra Fort at Lands End in Bandra.
Dilip Kumar was nominated 19 times for the annual Filmfare award and won it on 8 occasions! He was decorated with Filmfare’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993. The thespian was honoured with the Padma Bhushan in 1991, Dadasaheb Phalke award in 1994 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2015 for his contribution to Indian cinema. The Government of Pakistan conferred Kumar with Nishan-e-Imtiaz, the highest civilian award in Pakistan, in 1998. His autobiography The Substance and the Shadow as narrated to Udayatara Nayar was published in 2014 by Hay House Publishers (India) Pvt. Ltd.
He is survived by his loving wife Saira Bano and countless of fans like me who feel a strange emptiness in their lives, now that he is no more!
Alvida Dilip sahib!
No comments:
Post a Comment