December 11, 2020 8:08:39 am
Dilip Kumar turns 98 today. (Express file photo)
On Google, you will find many old images of Dilip Kumar (he turns 98 today), Dev Anand and Raj Kapoor, the ruling triumvirate of Bollywood’s golden age. In most of them, viewers can notice their magical chemistry. The images belie their intense rivalry on screen. In one black and white photo, a mischievous Dev Anand is digging from Dilip Kumar’s plate while in another the evergreen star has his arm around Kumar (while BR Chopra looks on) as if he is Kumar’s little brother. In another, Dilip Kumar, dressed in the white clothing brand of his later years, is affectionately tugging on the cheeks of his childhood friend Raj Kapoor. There are also images of Kapoor and Kumar playing cricket. (Kumar’s father was a great friend of Prithviraj Kapoor’s father, Basheswarnath Kapoor, from his days in Peshawar.) In almost all of them, there is tacit recognition of Kumar’s status as the Big Brother of this 1950s club. That should come as no surprise. Dilip Kumar, a Bollywood actor and the original Khan, was the oldest of the three. Together, they formed the holy trinity of Hindi cinema of the 1950s and yet it was only Kumar who developed the plan that all future heroes of Hindi cinema would borrow.
Consider the 1950s. Raj Kapoor, who used to direct his own films, had been inspired by Chaplin’s Tramp. As the protagonist of a young and independent nation, his cinema, aided by the poetic vision of Shailendra, Shankar-Jaikishan and KA Abbas, leaked into socialist ideology. Dev Anand, on the other hand, was an urban star, known for her Gregory Peck-Cary Grant sophistication and jovial approach to acting. His urban blacks, elegant personality, and lighthearted comedies made women swoon. Meanwhile, Dilip Kumar stuck to serious and tragic, even tearful, roles and was an advocate of the sober and naturalistic acting style. The original source of this inspiration may have been Ashok Kumar, who had a lasting influence on the young and upcoming star. The King of Tragedy, as Kumar came to be known, was unconsciously developing a method of acting. Javed Akhtar once claimed that Kumar was the first method actor in the world. According to Akhtar, he was doing method acting long before Marlon Brando, the method monarch, redefined Hollywood histrionic and even before the term itself was coined by a Russian acting teacher.
Dilip Kumar and Suchitra Sen in Devdas (1955). (Express file photo)
In Bollywood, you can’t become a star if you don’t have a little Dilip Kumar in you. From Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan to Aamir Khan, Govinda and Shah Rukh Khan, the influence of Kumar can be felt in every generation of stars that came after him. Amitabh, a fervent admirer, used to study Kumar’s performances, especially Gunga Jumna’s in which Kumar’s character, Gunga, spoke Awadhi with such fluency that an astonished Bachchan, himself a speaker of Awadhi and Bhojpuri from Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, he was forced to conjecture: “It was very difficult for me to imagine how someone outside of Uttar Pradesh could pronounce, represent all the nuances of the Awadhi language.” In a blog he wrote on the day of Kumar’s 89th birthday, Big B He said: “His presence, his aura and his dedication to cinema will be documented as ‘before Dilip Kumar and after Dilip Kumar.’
Dharmendra, a small town boy, was so inspired by his matinee idol that he decided to leave his village in Punjab and rush to Bombay to become an actor. Years later, he would poetically reflect: “Dilip Kumar is the brightest star whose brightness I stole to illuminate my wishes.”
The King of Tragedy may have unknowingly become a model and an institution in a career that began with Jwar Bhata in 1944, but the surprising fact is that he never wanted to become an actor in the first place. He has called himself an “accidental” actor. Born Yusuf Khan in Peshawar’s Qissa Khawana Bazaar (the Kapoor clan also hailed from there and so did the Shah Rukh Khan family), his father was a fruit merchant. Yusuf was educated in Nashik but eventually the family moved to Bombay. Kumar’s father, called “Aghaji” at home, had no love for the world of louche cinema. When he learned that his friend Dewan Basheshwarnath Kapoor’s son Prithviraj (Raj Kapoor’s father) was acting in films, he is believed to have rebuked Basheshwarnath: “Respectable families like us don’t send our children to the movies.” Imagine young Yusuf’s trauma when Devika Rani of Bombay Talkies offered him the acting job for a monthly salary that was far more than Raj Kapoor earned. The studio had come up with screen names for the next star. These included Yusuf Khan, Basudev, and Dilip Kumar. The young man finally read his name in the advertisement for the film in a newspaper. He had been christened Dilip Kumar. A popular story has it that Basheshwarnath Kapoor tried to pacify Aghaji by showing him a poster of Jugnu (1947). “Don’t bother,” he said. “Your son has adopted another name to keep the honor of the family intact.”
Dilip Kumar in Gunga Jumna. (Express file photo)
And so Yusuf Khan became Dilip Kumar. Jugnu was his first big hit. He soon followed Shaheed, Mela, and Andaz, quickly making him a superstar and a box office sweepstakes. For a true appreciation of his work, most critics and viewers turn to classics like Devdas, Yahudi, Naya Daur, and Aan. During the launch of Kumar’s autobiography Substance and Shadow, Javed Akhtar said: “Over time, we are realizing how successful we were from the beginning. We are understanding the nuances of your work. His greatest is still dawning upon us. “That is true of Mughal-E-Azam, who is often seen as a Madhubala-Prithviraj Kapoor vehicle. But look at it again and you may realize how spectacularly and consciously underrated Kumar is. , like Prince Salim. While the rest of Bollywood of the time was hammering and screaming, here was a man who kept it subtle. Due to Kumar’s understated elegance, Madhubala’s demure courtesan and Prithviraj’s bombastic Emperor Kapoor find their perfect balance.
Kumar’s talent for tragic roles in which he suffered for the character’s cause led him to depression and seek psychiatric help. He was advised to completely stop immersing himself in his roles. The gloom had to be cleared. For the sake of his health, he started doing comedies. Here too he stood out, revealing a comedic side in which leading actors, even today, are discovering new facets. Lighter roles in movies like Shabnam, Azaad, Kohinoor, and Ram Aur Shyam brought the house down and proved that he could be as versatile in comedy as serious and meaningful roles. The writers Salim-Javed, who all their lives wanted to work with Kumar, finally gave the actor a farewell shot in Shakti (1982). At a film awards ceremony in 2001, Shah Rukh Khan asked Kumar about the quality that makes his films so durable. “No actor can be greater than the substance he portrays,” Kumar replied. Then he took Khan’s hand.
Dilip Kumar in Karma. (Express file photo)
“For any good or long-lasting performance, Shah Rukh,” the actor continued, “you have to have a good story, good character equations, sound conflicts, and enough opportunities for you to get through it later. Because then you have substance to deal with, not just shadows. “It’s tempting to wonder if the title of the superstar’s autobiography came from there. Meanwhile, those are words of wisdom that many future stars can swear by.
Scholar, a man of culture, tehzeeb and poetry and utmost sophistication, Dilip Kumar is the last of the moguls with old school values.
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