Dilip Kumar-The Doyen of Bollywood

 

Dilip Kumar or Mohammad Yusuf Khan, passed away in the morning hours of July 7, 2021 at a private hospital based in Indian commercial capital Mumbai. The end came due to age related illness.

He had six decades long prolonged domination in Bollywood which is based in Mumbai. He was born in the year 1922 on December 11 in erstwhile Peshawar in undivided India (now Pakistan). His native place was at Awan in Qissa Khawani of the above stated city. He hailed from a merchant family and also had the pleasure of having close and amiable friend another legend in the film industry Raj Kapoor. His preliminary was spent at Pune which was also part of undivided India which now falls in Indian state of Maharashtra.

Dilip Kumar who passed away during the morning hours of July 7, 2021 had the inherent talent to act in diverse kinds of roles. He also worked under various talented directors in those days such as Bimal Roy, Tapan Sinha, Amiya Chakravarty, Nitin Bose, Kishore Sahu, R.C.Talwar, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Ram Mukherjee, B.R.Chopra, Subhas Ghai, Yash Chopra etc various luminary directors of Bollywood pertaining to Hindi movies in those days.

Dilip Kumar's debut in Hindi took place in the year 1944 from where he finally retired in the year 1998. Already I have stated the names of reputed directors under whom he had the pleasure in working. Now coming to the numbers of films he worked with was 62 what a mammoth numbers he worked with in his prolonged innings of 98 years which was close to two short of centurion mark. Among the prominent films he acted was Jwar Bhata (1944), Pratima (1945), Milan (1946), Ram (1947), Nadiya Ke Par (1948), Shabnam (1949), Amar (1954),Tarana( 1951), Devdas( 1955) Madhumati( 1958),   Kranti( 1981), Sagina Mahato( 1972 in both Hindi and Bengali- the original story was written by Gour Kishore Ghosh), Saudagar( 1991),  Mazdoor( 1983), Shakti( 1981) etc various other reputed films in Hindi in which Dilip Saheb had the privilege to work with. In whatever the films he worked with he won innumerable accolades by the directors he worked with. His wife Saira Banu was also a prolific actress in those days plus he worked with other reputed actors like Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Shammi Kapoor, Raj Kapoor, Sanjeev Kumar, Dev Anand, Vaijayantimala, Utpal Dutta etc various others reputed film icons of those days.

During his tenure as actor in Bollywood Dilip Kumar was regarded as tragedy king who indicates his versatility in various kinds of roles especially the serious ones. Apart from serious kinds of roles he was well adept in other kinds of roles like tyrannical, comedian and also croquet roles by which he was successfully being able to create a niche in  the mind of all his innumerable admirers based in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan( his birth place) plus rest of the globes. Apart from being an actor of repute he was well versed in Hindi and English literatures. Apart from his contributions to Hindi films Dilip Kumar along with Saira Banu and Vaijayantimala acted remarkably well in Sagina Mahato's Bengali version though Bengali was not his mother language. The director and writer of the film Tapan Sinha and Gour Kishore Ghosh spoke remarkably about Kumar Saheb's talent as a brilliant film actor. Key forte to his success was his utmost dedication in the field. In this regard one point is always clear that in the area of fine art if we are not dedicated then we might not succeed in the field.

It was during his last days in his posh apartment at Bandra Palli Hill in Mumbai Dilip Kumar along with his spouse Saira Banu lead an in ostentatious lives thereby giving imparted his valuable guidance to the modern generations Bollywood actors so that they are able to perform remarkably well in later part of their lives. That is why in his last journey towards burial ground at Bandra despite imposition of Covid-19 protocols there was massive turnout of film fraternities who paid their deepest homage in the last journey of the thespian. That was the reason why modern actors revere him as a fatherly figure or doyen till his last days in this eternity.

Conclusion:

Now Dilip Kumar is in a different world but it is our firm belief that wherever he remains he will continue to bless the younger Bollywood generations for their successes and prosperities in the field. Every human being has to depart for eternal peace and salvation like Dilip Kumar but talented souls will always remain alive and vivid among all his friends, families along with near and dear ones.


Sujayendra Das is a
Kolkata-based senior columnist.