Daily Times

Mohammad Yusuf Khan was born on December 11, 1922, in Peshawar in the house of a fruit merchant. In the late thirties, the family shifted to Bombay. Here, a chance meeting with Devika Rani, who was the boss of the famous Bombay Talkies, proved to be a turning point in his life. Recognizing his latent potential for acting, she selected him for a role in a new film Jawar Bhata, in which he shone to light with a screen name of Dilip Kumar. Though the film was a flop at the box office, it introduced the budding actor to the film world of which he was going to be the undisputed king for the next six decades.

His first film, which raised him to the status of superstardom, was Mehbub Khan’s Andaz (1949) in which he was paired opposite Nargis and Raj Kapur. The story revolved around a love triangle and was interspersed with drama and tragedy. Later, the fifties brought in the vintage Kumar with blockbusters like Babul (1950), Deedar (1951), Tarana (1951), Daagh (1952), Aan (1952) and Amar (1954). Later, with the release of Bimal Roy’s Devdas, Dilip became the “Tragedy King” of Indian cinema: the matinee idol of millions of cine-goers. Then there was no stopping him from being the undisputed “Love Legend” of the cinema. In all films made during that period, he was the most sought-after hero of film producers. Casting him in the film alone was a guarantee that the film would be a box office hit. Other films that proved to be smashing hits included Naya Daur (1957), Madhumati (1958), Kohinoor (1960), Mughal-e-Azam (1960) Ganga Jamuna(1961), Leader (1964), Ram aur Shyam(1967), Sanghrash (1968), Vidharta(1982), Karma (1986) and Saudagar(1991). In these films, he projected himself as “The Love Legend” of Indian cinema; an image of a soft, silent and introverted hero with an infectious charm and appeal. This stuck to him even in later films where he performed the role of a character actor.

The ebullience and overplay of most actors of the day was overshadowed by the subtlety and underplay of Dilip

Kumar’s film career stretches over six decades, during which he acted only in 58 movies. On the other hand, his other distinguished contemporaries, like Raj Kapur, Dev Anand, Raj Kumar and Rajender Kumar, had acted in far more films than him. Yet, the impact that he had left on the filmdom remains un-paralleled: both in the variety of roles and the depth of his histrionic talents. Moreover, he never worked for money. He chose to act only in a film that had a compact and convincing script and had characters with the widest range of emotions. He abhorred stolid, dry and static roles. This was why he declined some very lucrative offers for roles, which, according to him did not provide sufficient scope to his immense histrionic capabilities. It was due to this choice that the roles he chose to play not only drew unprecedented public admiration, but also won him eight Filmfare Best Actor Awards: a feat equalled only by Shah Rukh Khan in recent times. India’s greatest film-maker Satyajit Ray has rated him as “the ultimate actor in Method acting.” By method acting, he meant an actor who goes into the skin of the character and delivers a natural performance. Amitabh Bachchan, another icon of Indian cinema, declared him as the “greatest actor ever.” On the government level, he was conferred the highest civilian awards like the Padma Bhushan (1991), the Dadasaheb Phalke Award (1995), and the Nishan-e-Imtiaz (1997) by the Pakistan government.

What distinguished the thespian from his contemporary artists and placed him in a class apart from the rest, was his complete merger in the psyche of his character. He used to become his true incarnation to an extent that even many days after the role, the heavy impact of the traits and idiosyncrasies of his character would not forsake him in his private life. The role became, as it seemed, almost his second nature. This happened during the making of director Bimal Roy’s Devdas when the tragic nature of his character haunted Kumar in his private life for which he had to rush to England for his psychological treatment. This alone is a sufficient testimony of how seriously he took his role and how profoundly he portrayed it. And this happened during the early period of the thespian’s professional journey when his histrionic capabilities had yet to see their full maturity.

He excelled in the portrayal of tragic characters. In the words of his biographer Bunny Reuben, “For the first time in the film world, the introvert in him emerged from a mystic fusion of brain and heart, ensuring an economy of physical movement, when a gesture, an expression, a flutter of the eyelids, a look, or a vocal intonation did the work of a hundred spoken words and the tiresome bodily substitutes of acting.”

The ebullience and overplay of most actors of the day was overshadowed by the subtlety and underplay of Dilip. He was never so high sounding as to appear theatrical, nor dryly expressionless as to appear deadpan. His soft and measured delivery of dialogues was more eloquent and effective than the theatrical flourishes of most of his contemporaries. Spontaneity and naturalness were the greatest gifts of Kumar, which were acquired by him through hard work and graft. Nargis once complained, “Yousuf is selfish because he is so totally engrossed in his work that he lets nothing come between himself and his role”.

And this is the hallmark of a great actor.

Music was another great passion. Very few people know that he had recorded a song in the film Musafir with Lata Mangeshkar. It was this love for music that perfected his lip-synching of the songs posturized on him. For the filming of a smashing hit light classic song, “Madhuban Mein Radhika Nache Ray” in the film Kohinoor, his biographer Bunny Reuben told us that he learnt to play the sitar for a year from Ustad Abdul Hameed Jaffer before he agreed to appear before the camera. The movement of his fingers on the strings of the sitar, and the lip-synching of the words, the gesticulation and body movements accompanying the symphony of the orchestra were so perfectly done that the voice no longer remained that of Mohammad Rafi nor the marvellous display of sitar appeared to do anything with Pundit Ravi Shanker: it was all along with Dilip Kumar, who stole the show by taking the entire credit to himself in a rare display of his masterly acting talents. Dilip’s honing his talent in such scenes is reminiscent of the grooming of the talents of his Biblical heroes by the legendary and all-time great Hollywood producer Cecil B. DeMille.

His persona as the intensely emotional and tragic lover had established him as the Love Legend in the hearts of women all over the sub-continent. Even as great an actor as Raj Kapur confessed that whereas he (Raj Kapur) appealed to the poor and suppressed classes, Kumar appealed to the fair sex, “from lovely nubile females to the mature and sophisticated young women.” He was a dream man whose roseate soft image, with a pair of the most romantic eyes, flashing charm, wit and intelligence, had lighted amorous fires in the hearts of females of all ages. That made him earn the sobriquet of “The Love Legend,” which stuck fast to him for the rest of his life.

Though he had not pursued his formal education very far, he had assiduously read and studied literature, philosophy and psychology during his leisure, which made him a versatile actor. Knowledge of social sciences helps an actor understand how the human mind acts and reacts in the complexities of different situations. During his visit to Pakistan in the nineties, Dilip Kumar delivered several lectures on the dramatic arts in his peculiar inimitable style. His masterly analysis of his subject, his immaculate command of the English language, the wealth of his allusions to all great actors and playwrights anywhere in the world, and his grasp on the forms and varieties of histrionic talents kept his viewers spellbound for hours. In similar other talks telecast on TV, his command over chaste Urdu and his knowledge of contemporary literature and arts was startling. His charismatic personality exuded a rare charm, grace and dignity.

In his departure, the world of cinema has lost an icon, and the Indian cinema’s greatest age known as ‘Dilip Kumar’s Age’ has come to an end.

The writer is a former member of the Provincial Civil Service, and an author of Moments in Silence