Dilip Kumar dies at 98: Era comes to an end, peerless thespian was the defining voice of Independent India

A few years ago, when Rajesh Khanna passed away, his death was not just his own for the fans, followers, and aficionados of Hindi cinema. As they bid adieu to Khanna, they had to relive the deaths of Kishore Kumar, SD and RD Burman, Anand Bakshi and a few more, who were associated with the superstar. With Dilip Kumar’s demise, a great epoch, perhaps one of the most significant ones in Hindi cinema, has truly come to an end.

The last surviving member of the fabled triumvirate that consisted of Dev Anand and Raj Kapoor besides him, Kumar played a significant role in not just defining Hindi cinema in the post-Independence years but also the newly independent nation in more ways than one could fathom. While the term ‘great’ is readily attached to actors these days, to say that Dilip Kumar was indeed in a league of his own would not be incorrect. Yet it would fall short in understanding what he meant to cinema in India.  

Goethe believed that a man’s shortcomings are taken from his epoch but his virtues and greatness belong to himself. Perhaps this single sentence signifies more about the contribution that Kumar made to the craft of acting in cinema than reams that could very well fall short in trying to comprehend the essence of being Dilip Kumar.  

Born Yusuf Khan in 1922 in Peshawar in undivided India, Dilip Kumar studied at the Barnes High School in Deolali, near Nasik, where his family owned orchards. Fate brought this young Pathan to what was then called Poona, and finally Bombay, where he met Devika Rani, the owner of Bombay Talkies. The first lady of Indian cinema, Rani took an instant shine to the strapping lad, and offered him a contract right away. In a matter of months, Yusuf Khan went from being a multifaceted helping hand behind the camera to being a leading man, now christened ‘Dilip Kumar’ in Jwar Bhata (1944).

These were tough days for cinema in India as the studio system was trudging to its end, a world war ensuring the rationing of film stock and a general change of guard on the cards. It was in this era of change that talents such as Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Sahir Ludhianvi, Naushad Ali, Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, Meena Kumari, Madhubala, and Nargis to name a few, began to appear, and soon became the mainstay of Hindi films.  

Inspired by the manner in which the American actor Paul Muni blended a sense of realism into acting for the camera, Kumar’s biggest contribution as an actor to the medium was the manner in which he made his craft look effortlessly organic. This made him stand apart from everyone else. It was Mehboob’s Andaz (1949), the film that also brought him stardom that for the first time, that showcased the sheer prowess of Kumar’s craf. His silent lover in the triangle, that featured Nargis and Raj Kapoor, practically redefined acting in Hindi films. He was the only one amongst the leading men of the era, including Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand, who could transcend genres, and not be limited to the romance, drama or social.

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In films like Aan (1952), Azaad (1955), and Insaniyat (1955, the only film to feature Dilip Kumar and Dev Anand together), he enjoyed tremendous success with action and created a more swashbuckling image. In the 1950s, he would become the ‘Tragedy King’ with hits such as Deedar (1951) and Devdas (1955), but also excel in the lighter roles, especially Kohinoor (1960), one of the films he undertook apparently on the advice of his psychoanalyst.

But what truly made him the go-to actor for a host of filmmakers was his ability to carve an onscreen identity that could address many complex issues within the realm of popular Hindi cinema.

In the Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema, Ashish Rajadhyaksha and Paul Willemen mention that Kumar’s “filmic identity offered a complex cultural/psychological terrain displaying the anxieties of Independence and the nostalgias of a pre-Partition childhood.” This separated him most notably from Raj Kapoor or even Motilal, who was famous for his natural acting style as well, as Kumar’s naturalist underplaying presented him as an innocent loner caught in and destroyed by conflicting social pressures. The two also go on to point how Bengali filmmakers such as Nitin Bose, Bimal Roy, and Tapan Sinha used this to address issues of identity in their Hindi films Deedar and Ganga Jumna (1961), Madhumati (1958), and Sagina Mahato (1970) respectively.  

In some way, Kumar was in fact the first amongst equals. One of the biggest indicators of this is not just what he did but also what he let go. At the peak of his popularity, Kumar was offered the role of Prince Ali in by David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia (1962), that made Omar Sharif a global name. It is said that Kumar did not want to be the second-lead, and somewhere also believed that he would be an outsider in the set-up. Besides rejecting the lead in Guru Dutt’s Pyasaa (1957), which prompted Dutt to play the depressed poet himself, Kumar also rejected Mehboob’s Mother India (1957) because he wanted to play the double role of both the father (Raaj Kumar) and the son Birju. But more than that, he could not wrap his mind around playing Nargis’ son whom he had romanced onscreen.

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Through the late 1940s till the late 1990s when his late film  Qilla (1998) released, Kumar continued to be a colossus, and witnessed many generations of later stars who entered and left in front of his eyes. Even when it came to sharing the screen with some of them, Kumar set such high standards that anyone in front of him had to bring their best game. Be it Manoj Kumar [(Aadmi (1968), Kranti (1981)>, Sanjeev Kumar [Vidhaata (1982)>, Amitabh Bachchan [Shakti (1982)>, Rishi Kapoor [Duniya (1984)>, Anil Kapoor [Mashaal (1984), Karma (1986)>, Sanjay Dutt [Kanoon Apna Apna (1989)>, and Govinda [Izzatdaar (1990)>, Kumar’s presence made them come up with some of their best performances.  

Off screen, there were some instances where Kumar’s actions generated controversy as well; such as in the early 1980s, when he publically declared his second marriage to a divorced Hyderabad-based socialite Asma Sahiba or the time where he refused to return the Nishan-e-Imtiaz , Pakistan’s highest civilian honour, in the wake of the Kargil war in 1999. In a life that was truly large and spanned nine decades, there are bound to be some probable regrets and some unfulfilled dreams that Kumar might have had.

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But the one that perhaps pained both the late thespian and his fans equally would be an incomplete film called Kalinga. Even though Nitin Bose is credited as the director, it was public knowledge that Kumar had, in fact, directed most of Ganga Jumna, and later some portions of Ram Aur Shyam (1967).  Kalinga was supposed to be his official debut as a director. Produced by Sudhakar Bokade [Izzatdaar, Saajan (1991)>, Kalinga was a family drama that featured Kumar along with Raj Babbar and Raj Kiran, two actors that Kumar was said to be fond of, who were signed to play his sons. But the film went over-budget, and Bokade, who cited the perfectionist within the thespian as the reason for the project going awry on all fronts, finally pulled the plug.  

Nonetheless, Kumar will be remembered for the peerless legacy he left behind as an actor, which continues to shape the craft of countless successors even today.

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