Dilip Kumar: The Substance and the Shadow
Page 31
A LIST OF SOME OF DILIP KUMAR’S SHELVED/INCOMPLETE/UNRELEASED FILMS
Bank Manager (shelved)
P: R. C. Talwar
D: R. C. Talwar
M: Madan Mohan
C: Dilip Kumar, Meena Kumari
Taj Mahal and Aakhri Mughal (planned/shelved)
P: K. Asif
D: K. Asif
C: Dilip Kumar
Chanakya Chandragupt (shelved after extensive preparation)
P: Kishore Sharma
D: B. R. Chopra
M: Naushad
C: Dilip Kumar, Dharamendra, Hema Malini, Parveen Babi, Helen and Vijayendra
Haar Singaar (1950) (shelved after a few reels)
P: Allied Art Productions Ltd.
D: Mahesh Kaul
M: Anil Biswas
C: Dilip Kumar, Madhubala, Kuldeep, Baby Zubeida, Bikram Kapoor and Moni Chatterji
Janwar (shelved after a few reels)
P: K. Asif
D: K. Asif
C: Dilip Kumar and Suraiya
Shikwa (launched in early 1950s – shelved after a few reels)
P: Rajendra Jain
C: Dilip Kumar and Nutan
Mera Watan (shelved)
Samandar (shelved)
Kala Aadmi (after much research, shelved)
P: Ramesh Saigal
D: Ramesh Saigal and Dilip Kumar
C: Dilip Kumar
Untitled venture (shelved after mahurat)
P: Nasir Hussain
C: Dilip Kumar and Asha Parekh
Kalinga (1995) (incomplete)
P: Divya Citizen Combines
D: Dilip Kumar
C. Dilip Kumar, Raj Babbar, Amjad Khan and Meenakshi Seshadri
Aag Ka Dariya (completed and censored in 1995 but unreleased)
P: Premalaya/R. Venkataraman
D: S. V. Rajendra Singh Babu
C: Dilip Kumar, Rekha, Rajiv Kapoor and Padmini Kolhapure
Asar (2001) (shelved after mahurat and some shooting)
P: Dinesh Patel
D: Kuku Kohli
M: Nadeem Shravan
C: Dilip Kumar, Ajay Devgan and Priyanka Chopra
SOME OF DILIP KUMAR’S LEADING LADIES (WHO WORKED IN MORE THAN ONE FILM WITH HIM)
1. Nalini Jaywant 1948 Anokha Pyar
1953 Shikast
2. Kamini Kaushal 1948 Nadiya Ke Paar
1948 Shaheed
1949 Shabnam
1950 Arzoo
3. Madhubala 1951 Tarana
1952 Sangdil
1954 Amar
1960 Mughal-e-Azam
4. Meena Kumari 1953 Footpath
1955 Azaad
1958 Yahudi
1960 Kohinoor
5. Nimmi 1951 Deedar
1952 Aan
1952 Daag
1954 Amar
1955 Uran Khatola
6. Nargis 1948 Mela
1949 Andaz
1950 Babul
1950 Jogan
1951 Deedar
1951 Hulchul
7. Nutan 1986 Karma
1989 Kanoon Apna Apna
8. Rekha 1995 Aag Ka Dariya (unreleased)
1998 Qila
9. Vyjayantimala 1955 Devdas
1957 Naya Daur
1958 Madhumati
1959 Paigham
1961 Gunga Jumna
1964 Leader
1968 Sunghursh
10. Waheeda Rehman 1966 Dil Diya Dard Liya
1967 Ram Aur Shyam
1968 Aadmi
1984 Mashaal
11. Saira Banu 1970 Gopi
1970 Sagina Mahato
1974 Sagina
1976 Bairaag
1984 Duniya
LIST OF AWARDS
1. 1953 Filmfare (Best Actor): Daag
2. 1955 Filmfare (Best Actor): Azaad
3. 1956 Filmfare (Best Actor): Devdas
4. 1957 Filmfare (Best Actor): Naya Daur
5. 1960 Filmfare (Best Actor): Kohinoor
6. 1964 Filmfare (Best Actor): Leader
7. 1967 Filmfare (Best Actor): Ram Aur Shyam
8. 1982 Filmfare (Best Actor): Shakti
9. 1991 Padma Bhushan (awarded by the Government of India)
10. 1993 Filmfare–Raj Kapoor Lifetime Achievement Award
11. 1995 Dadasaheb Phalke Award 1997
12. 1997 Nishan-e-Imtiaz: The highest civilian award of Pakistan (presented on 23 March 1998)
13. 1997 N. T. Rama Rao Award 1998
14. 1998 Ramnath Goenka Award 1998
15. 1998 Lux Zee Cine Awards (presented on 14 March 1998)
16. 2000 Rajiv Gandhi Sadhbhavna Award (presented on 20 August 2000)
And many more, far too numerous to list here.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Words cannot adequately express gratitude. yet, the most urgent of all duties when a dream task is completed with a sense of pride is to express thanks to all those who contributed to the fulfilment of the dream.
First and foremost, I must thank Saira’s only brother Sultan Ahmed (Sultan Bhai for all her friends) for finding time to read the chapters objectively and giving valuable suggestions in his own gentlemanly manner.
My thanks also to my dear colleagues in the media, Satya Swaroop (managing editor) and Dev Varam (group editor), who have been leading the New Media group for many years now. I owe my gratitude to them for sincerely egging me on to take up the challenge and go full steam into the assignment and offering all help from the creative team at New Media, especially from Santosh Nawar, the art director.
I am grateful to Farida Dadi (famous child star Baby Farida now sought after by television channels) for sparing time from her busy work schedules to segregate relevant photographs from Saira’s unlimited collection for use in the book. Thanks also must go to her assistant Anil Rawate for helping to make the photographs and the audio and video tapes available at short notice.
My thanks to Murshid Ali Khan, Dilip Sahab and Saira’s secretary, for assisting me with the documenting of the manuscript at various stages and coordination with the publisher.
I am indebted to Hygino D’Costa and Bashir Colombowala, secretary and manager respectively, in Dilip Sahab’s secretariat for their legal advice under Sultan Bhai’s competent guidance.
My thanks to Dilip Sahab’s ardent fan, Himanshu Kumar, for his encouraging words through many phone calls from Kolkata.
My gratitude to Bhupendra Valji Sachade and Vijay Bhupendra Sachade, of Mulund, Mumbai, who gladly offered to share the blurbs, photographs, newspaper and magazine write-ups they have collected over decades out of their deep admiration and love for Dilip Sahab.
A final word of thanks to Naqi Ahmed for simplifying the chaste Urdu that Dilip Sahab spoke at times. Like any admiring listener, I sat wonderstruck by his absolute command over the pristine language and did not dare to butt in and spoil Sahab’s mood. It was very kind of Naqi to listen to the audio tapes and educate me later on.
– Udayatara Nayar
REMINISCENCES
RAIHAN AHMED *
DILIP KUMAR. THE VERY SOUND OF THIS NAME RAISES EYEBROWS and [quickens] heartbeats in respect. Very few privileged people know that this name is not just a name of a legend but a magical name. I for one have been privileged to experience this. Being his nephew is the greatest gift God gave me. My Yousuf Uncle as I call him is a person of so many talents that words cannot describe and a book cannot contain. To write my experiences with him will require several volumes. To pen my memories of this great man is difficult as I cannot hold back tears, as every memory has his love, care and a child-like innocence attached to it.
Travelling with Yousuf Uncle is guaranteed fun and adventure. Rain or shine we never had a dull moment with him. He would pass the wittiest comments keeping a straight face leaving us laughing till our cheeks hurt. Road trips were the best as he would make us try all kinds of street food, while my aunt would try her subtle best to stop him, but to no avail.
He insi
sted we eat idlis [a typical South Indian breakfast dish] every morning in Kashmir, which was in total contrast to the [cuisine] of that geographic location. He would have a mischievous grin and tell us: ‘Idlis taste better in the North than in the South’, something our young brains couldn’t fathom but took his word for it.
He would constantly play pranks on us, keeping us wondering what would he pull off next. He has the ability of blending in with any age group, keeping us intrigued by [accounts of] his camping trips in his youth.
Kite flying with Yousuf Uncle is an experience only a few lucky people can mention. He has a huge trunk filled to the brim with custom-made kites, specially made for him by kite masters. Selecting a kite as children was the greatest honour of the day. He would let us choose the kite and fly it for us. He would cut most of the kites engaging him that day, making him the master of the sky as well. He would accept defeat with such humility that the winner would bow down to him.
He is a sportsman to the core, be it soccer, badminton, cricket, hockey, golf or chess, he mastered it all. Few people know that he is a great magician and has a box full of tricks which, he would pull out and keep us wondering how he did them.
I can go on and on and about my life spent with Yousuf Uncle and every experience is better than the last one. He has been there for us in every walk of life, supporting us and protecting us, guiding us and educating us with his great wisdom.
I owe everything to him. I thank Allah for Yousuf Uncle and letting me grow in his shadow. I wish I could be a fraction of him, but I realize no one comes close even to his shadow. Allah made just one DILIP KUMAR and I am fortunate to be one of his loved ones. LOVE YOU YOUSUF UNCLE ALWAYS.
*Saira’s brother Sultan’s son.
SHABANA AZMI
Hamare yahaan yeh maana jaata hai ke apne se badon ki tareef karna bhi badtehzeebi hoti hai … hum kaun hotey hain tareef karne wale? Hum to bas sar jhukakar apne ehtraam ka izhaar kar sakte hain …*
I FEEL HUMBLED AND DEEPLY HONOURED TO BE joining the ranks of those writing about Dilip Sahab. My inclusion in this book is not because of any merit on my part but because I have been such an admirer of his persona and his craft.
He has inspired generations of actors in the Indian film industry – some have survived by directly imitating him; others have drawn succour from his incredible body of work. Unknown to him, I have been an Eklavya to his Dronacharya. I’ve watched him from afar and learnt from him that an actor’s resource base must be life itself; that an actor must be interested in poetry and politics; and that an actor must have a strong social conscience.
Acting is not a horse race in which the one who runs the fastest past the post is the winner. An actor can play a definitive Hamlet but be a disastrous Othello. How then is he to be judged? Surely, versatility is the true hallmark of an actor. And Dilip Kumar stands tall when it comes to that yardstick. Who can forget the intensity of Devdas, the insouciance of Gunga, the irreverence of Shyam, the depth of romance as Salim in Mughal-e-Azam? Each performance finely calibrated. He plays the sophisticate and the rustic with equal felicity. Drama, comedy, romance – he is a master of them all. He has become a reference point for actors working within the paradigms of mainstream cinema, yet being able to find truth in the larger-than-life context. I remember my director Vinay Shukla tell me during the making of Godmother (1999) ‘bring to the character of Rambhiben the truth of Dilip Kumar’s Gunga – a constructed reality but one that is entirely credible’.
Dilip Sahab has changed the course of acting in Hindi cinema, which largely survived on ‘representative’ acting in broad strokes – laugh when happy, cry when sad, raise your eyebrows when surprised – much as it happens in dance, in nritya. Dilip Kumar showed us how the subtext can be revealed, how to play against the emotion, how less is more and how simulated spontaneity can be as effective as the real thing.
Paeans have been sung in praise of the actor Dilip Kumar. But there are other aspects of his behavioural conduct that are exemplary as well.
The first image that comes to mind when you think of Dilip Kumar is dignity. He arouses awe and respect. He walks into a room and people automatically stand up because such is his aura and his commanding presence. He has always been a cut above the rest because he has never succumbed to anything crass in the name of popular appeal. He has entertained without ever having to resort to crudity. Lessons that we will do well to learn.
The long and the short of it is simply this: if you desire legitimacy as an actor and as a human being, simply follow in the footsteps of Dilip Kumar.
There is no other like him!
*In our place, it is considered uncultured if one praises one’s elders … who are we to praise them? We can just bow our heads and express our respect to them …
V. BABASAHEB *
I KNEW IT WOULD BE A GREAT ACHIEVEMENT IN MY TRACK RECORD if a sequence came alive on the screen the way Dilip Sahab had visualized. But I was at a loss as to how we would do it. I was thinking about it even in my sleep and I was seeing dreams of utter failure.
When the day arrived to shoot that particular scene for Gunga Jumna, I confessed to Sahab that it was not possible. That was when he showed me what he had worked out on paper. He had calculated the speed of the train and the galloping of the horses precisely and he asked me and the fight master, Azim Bhai, only one question: Were we afraid of taking risks?
We were standing in front of Sahab and his intense eyes were fixed on us, demanding an honest reply. Unanimously, we replied that we were not afraid. Sahab then explained to me how he wanted the camera to be tied beneath the door of the compartment to capture the hooves of the galloping horses raising dust as they advanced parallel to the running train. He had me strapped to the floor of the doorway of the compartment in such a manner that I could operate it from that position and get the shots.
There was a bridge under which the train had to pass and there was some worry about how we would synchronize the movements of the horses as the track narrowed before the train reached the bridge. Azim Bhai had to execute the action involving Sahab in a split second at a particular point and he did not know what to do as Sahab was not in favour of using a double.
We managed to complete the shooting exactly the way Sahab wanted only because he had done the arithmetic of speed and action so precisely in his preparation for the scene, which went on quietly for days in advance. It became the most talked about sequence in Indian cinema and a technical wonder even for the technicians of Technicolor laboratory at Pinewood Studios in London.
There was another superb scene in Gunga Jumna where Gunga flees from the village and runs as fast as he can to avoid the pursuing crowd. Sahab wanted the camera to be mounted on a lorry to capture the fast movement of Gunga’s legs as he runs through the wilderness between trees that have no leaves left on them to give shade and cover to a fugitive. Once again we achieved the impossible only because Sahab’s calculation was precise. Azim Bhai was in the lorry with me and he just couldn’t believe that Sahab could run as fast as he did. Later, Sahab told him he had been an athlete in his college days and covered 100 metres and 200 metres in record time.
Gunga Jumna gave me the opportunity to learn something new every day from Dilip Sahab. Why me, the make-up man, Sarosh Modi, learnt how to work on an artiste’s face according to the situation, the camera’s exposure, the intensity of the scenes and the texture of the artiste’s skin. He went on to become the most sought-after make-up artist in the industry after Gunga Jumna and Leader.
The scene that I can never forget is Gunga’s death scene. Sahab once again gave me an opportunity to know his genius. He briefed me that I should place the camera a few steps from the entrance of the set of Govindi’s* house erected at Mehboob Studio where we had done most of the indoor work. He told me I would get a signal when he would be at the entrance and the camera should run. He was going to take several rounds of the studio on foot, jogging, running, etc., in order to be out of breath when he entered th
e house and gave the climax shot. There could not be a retake because he would be so exhausted by then.
We were ready and I prayed and set up the camera at the point he had marked. I received the signal and I was ready when he reached the entrance. I saw him and the stunning expression on his face, but I think I missed the timing, so awesome was the moment! The entire unit was wonder-struck when he staggered in and moved to the position to collapse with the words, ‘Hey, Ram’. There was a lump in every throat and the silence was chilling. When Sahab recovered from the shot and I found the courage to go up to him, I told him that there was a possibility that I missed the initial timing. He was silent. I knew he was angry but he complied with my request for a retake. He went through the whole gamut again and with more intensity the second time and we canned the shot.
*A cinematographer by profession.
*The character played by Leela Chitnis, the mother of Gunga and Jumna.
AMITABH BACHCHAN
BEFORE I STEPPED INTO THE FILM industry, I had come to Bombay (now Mumbai) for a holiday and a friend took me to a restaurant for a treat. To my great surprise and joy, Dilip Sahab was with one of his friends at the restaurant. I wanted to get his autograph and so I rushed to a nearby stationery shop to get a proper autograph book. When I returned Sahab was busy talking to the many admirers who had surrounded him. I felt it would be improper to intrude and interrupt the conversations. So, somewhat crestfallen, I returned to my table.
After I entered the profession I briefly met Dilip Sahab at a get-together I was invited to. On both occasions I yearned for the day when I would be worthy of being in his presence in front of a camera – a dream that seemed like an impossibility then because Sahab chose the scripts he liked, the director he liked, the banner he preferred and the actors he found suitable to work with very carefully. I did not reckon then that an eventful day would come when I would be cast with Sahab in a film!
By the time Ramesh Sippy’s Shakti [released in 1982] was conceived as a film starring Dilip Sahab as the upright, unrelenting, duty-conscious police commissioner and Salim-Javed, the writers, told me I would be cast as the commissioner’s rebellious son, I had gained considerable experience in acting. For the film industry, and for cinema lovers, it was a momentous casting triggering unprecedented curiosity. It couldn’t have been otherwise since it was a healthy test of competence for any actor to match the class of Sahab’s work.