Dilip Kumar (1922-2021): The Bollywood's Tragedy King

Few actors in Bollywood have had as many clones as Dilip Kumar The assertion would seem like the greatest note of flattery in a film industry that survives and thrives on being inspired more than superlatives such as star superstar megastar thespian even legend for the word is often loosely used in Bollywood Dilip Kumar who passed away on Wednesday in Mumbai at the age of 98 was always the benchmark He had a direct impact on many actors who worked in his time from the forties to the nineties He continues to indirectly impact actors postnineties too for those who fashioned their acting after him continue to influence many rank newcomers of todayPerhaps that is the mark of a legend when the trademark style of your art continues to outlive you and find new ways to reinvent itself through budding talents who started out long after you quitFor the record Dilip Kumar quit acting in 1998 That was the year Yusuf saab as he was widely known to friends and fans alike last faced the camera for Umesh Mehras Qila If the actor was never seen on screen over the past two decades since its release the rest of the films primary cast including Rekha Mukul Dev and Mamta Kulkarni have also all but vanished and director Mehra stopped making films nearly two decades ago Qila an otherwise forgotten attempt will continue to garner recall value because it was the last film of one of Bollywoods greatestFlawed and over the top as the film was Qila gave Dilip Kumar a dual role as protagonist and antagonist or hero and iumliquestfrac12villain as masala filmdom loves classifying Somewhere in those portrayals lay the key to why he was hailed as the phenomenon back in the day when they showered him with epithets as Tragedy King and the Great Method Actor of BollywoodThere are tales about Dilip Kumars method acting The most widelyknown pertains to the selfproduced GungaJumna the Nitin Bose directorial of 1961 that many whisper was ghostdirected by the actor himself Coming immediately after his 1961 superhit MughaleAzam Dilip Kumar is said to have run all around the studio premise to the point of collapsing in order to get the right look and feel for his death scene in the film The performance is counted among one of the finest by any male actor in mainstream Bollywood and plot of the film would find resonance in many subsequent Hindi hits notably DeewarIf the subject of method acting largely defines Dilip Kumars oeuvre the actor himself tried to deconstruct it in his autobiography Dilip Kumar The Substance And The Shadow released in 2015 I am an actor who evolved a method which stood me in good stead he saysThat alone explains the consummate acting we saw in all his films right from his debut effort Jwar Bhata 1944 as well as other notable early roles in Milan 1946 and Jugnu 1947By 1948 only four years into the industry Dilip Kumar was a busy star He had as many as five releases that year Ghar Ki Izzat Shaheed Mela Anokha Pyar and Nadiya Ke Paar By the time the last film of the year released and went on to become the biggest hit of 1948 Dilip Kumar was one of Bollywoods exciting new sensations along with two others Raj Kapoor and Dev AnandThe trio would go on to define Hindi cinema in the next decade and be called Bollywoods Triumvirate Together they continue to shine the brightest at the mention of the Golden Fifties of Hindi cinema While each of them carved a niche to ensure greatness somewhere their individual images as stars summed up the essence of an era that continues to be regarded as the classiest that Hindi cinema has seenDilip Kumar would collaborate with Raj Kapoor incidentally said to be his childhood friend from Peshawar on Mehboob Khans 1949 love triangle Andaz that costarred the inimitable Nargis The film was a superhit upon release and for the second consecutive year Dilip Kumar would be part of the year highestgrossing film with AndazThat was just the start of a dream run The fifties saw him deliver innumerable superhits including Jogan and Babul 1950 Tarana and Deedar 1951 Aan 1952 Footpath 1953 Amar and Daag 1954 Devdas Azaad and Uran Khatola followed in 1955 Musafir and Naya Daur released in 1957 The spate of memorable roles continued with Yahudi and Madhumati in 1958 and Dilip Kumar ended the decade with Paigham in 1959If the decade that ended established the method about Dilip Kumars stardom in its versatility it also prepared fans for the one role that continues to draw automatic recall when you think Dilip Kumar The decade started with K Asif s epic MughaleAzam for Dilip Kumar after the successful Kohinoor the same year The film became the highest grossing Hindi film of all time upon releaseAfter the success of Gunga Jumna in 1961 Dilip Kumar would again essay a dual role of a very different mood in Ram Aur Shyam 1967 His other memorable roles in the decade were Aadmi and Sunghursh 1968He started out in the seventies with Gopi 1970 The sixties and the seventies however saw the actor slow down in terms of solo releases The advent of Rajesh Khanna brand of romance in the late sixties and Amitabh Bachchan Angry Young Man in the midseventies changed Bollywood trends The great socials of the fifties and the sixties seemed to be on the wane Dilip Kumar decided to take a break in 1976 after BairagHe would come back of course in Manoj Kumars 1981 release Kranti The film was a multistarrer Bollywood chosen genre of the eighties and Dilip Kumar found ready takers in such lavishlymounted productions that needed multiple heroes across age groups He was notably seen in the Subhash Ghai multistarrers Vidhaata 1982 and Karma 1986 as well as Saudagar in 1991 Twohero or multihero projects as Shakti 1982 Mazdoor 1983 Mashaal 1984 and Duniya 1984 mark his last phase as an actor one that culminated with Qila in 1998The five decades of acting is balanced by the irony that Dilip Kumar never released a film as director In his lifetime he is said to have been involved with direction twice He is said to have directed the 1966 drama Dil Diya Dard Liya along with the officiallymentioned helmer Abdul Rashid Kardar though he isnt credited as a director for the project Decades later he would launch the selfstarring Kalinga with Jackie Shroff Meenakshi Sheshadri and Amitoj Mann Some say the film was shot though it never saw light of dayFor a man known to take an active interest in all departments of some of the biggest projects of his heydays it remains a mystery why Dilip Kumar lost interest in releasing Kalinga Perhaps the phenomenon one of 12 children born to a Peshawari fruit merchant knew when to go cold on a bad business prospectVideo Veteran actor Dilip Kumar passes away at the age of 98This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its 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