One year without Dilip Kumar

On July 7, 2021, Dilip Kumar , arguably India’s greatest actor, breathed his last. It was frankly a release from years of suffering and ill-health. The rich and privileged can prolong the lives of their near and dear ones through very expensive artificial means. This is not an act of love, but a brutally selfish instinct to hold on to someone precious long after his or her expiry date. During the last ten years of his life, Dilip Kumar couldn’t recognize anyone, not even those who knew him very closely for decades. Some years before his death two actors in their 60s who were very close to both Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu visited him on his birthday. “It was heartbreaking. Dilip Saab couldn’t recognize us although we had been close to him for close to 40 years. We couldn’t see him like that. We fled from the birthday get-together.” Crowds confused the Thespian in his final years. Dilip Kumar was by nature an introvert. He could hold a crowd’s attention for hours with his oratorical skills. Listening to this actor talk was like opening up page after page of Wikipedia, only far more authentic and profound. And his replies were always measured but spontaneous. When asked what it felt like for so many beautiful women— Kamini Kaushal , Madhubala , Waheeda Rehman , Saira Banu—desirous of marrying him, Dilip Kumar looked at me with those eyes twinkling with mischief and said, “How do you know that only these women wanted to marry me? There might have been many more. It is not important who wanted to marry me. What is important is, whom I wanted to marry me. And she is sitting next to me.” Saira Banu, better known as Mrs Dilip Kumar, beamed with indescribable pride. She considered herself the luckiest woman in the world for marrying the man who according to her was the greatest actor in the world. See him in Bimal Roy ’s _Devda_s , Nitin Bose ’s _Ganga Jumna_ (which Dilip Kumar ghost-direct) or the little-known Amar….Dilip Kumar practiced method acting even before Method Acting was invented. Devdas (1955) was the ultimate saga of the loser-hero made monumentally memorable by Dilip Kumar’s internalized performance as Sarat Chandra’s defeatist self-destructive hero. Regarded by many as the finest performance by a male actor in Indian cinema. In Amar (1954) Dilip Kumar dared to play a rapist in this film about the dark shadows in the human heart where lurks forbidden emotions. Drawing a fine line between love and lust Dilip Saab’s character study was replete with deep layers that went far beyond the plot. Ganga Jumna is perhaps the crowning glory of Dilip Kumar’s illustrious but sparse career. The story of two brothers played by Dilip Kumar and his real-life sibling Nasir Khan warring in the Chambal Valley from opposite sides of the law contained what many consider Dilip Kumar’s best to date. As the outlaw on the run Dilip Kumar’s delivery of the Awadhi dialogues was exhilarating enough to earn this film a place among the biggest trendsetters of all times. Though officially credited to Nitin Bose for direction the entire film was ghost-directed by Dilip Saab. Yash Chopra’s _Deewaar_ was most directly inspired Ganga Jumna. Vyjayanthimala , who worked in six films with Dilip Kumar, singles out Ganga Jumna as her favourite. “It was a challenge. Here I was, this Tamil actress who could speak Hindi without any accent after much training and tutoring. In Ganga Jumna, I was expected to speak the Awadhi dialect, and that too without any accent.” She received tremendous support from her erudite co-star. “Dilip Saab would record the dialogues on tape and send them to me to rehearse and prepare. When we shot for the film, the words just flowed effortlessly. I think our onscreen chemistry was always special. But in Ganga Jumna it was extra-special.” She hopes to do another film with Dilip Kumar. “Up there. That would be our best ever film together, even better than Ganga Jumna,” Vyjayanthimala laughs as my heart melts. Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.