By Dr Afzal Mirza

CA

Indian screen idol Dilip Kumar will attain eighty-two years this year. The occasion prompted some writers to delve deep into the life and work of this legendry actor and in recent months as much as four books have appeared. Barring Bunny Reuben who has written the latest and the most voluminous biography of Dilip Kumar under the title “Star Legend of Indian Cinema”(Harper Collins 500 pages S25) all other writers have written shorter biographies.

The other writers are Lord Meghnad Desai who has authored “Nehru’s Hero: Dilip Kumar in the life of India (Roli Books, 140 pages, $15), Sanjit Narwekar whose book is entitled “Dilip Kumar: The Last Emperor” (Rupa 152 pages, $20) and Urmila Lanba with her book “The Thespian: Life and Films of Dilip Kumar (Vision Books, 160 pages, $ 20). All these books shed light on various hitherto hidden aspects of Dilip Kumar’s long career as a superb actor and human being.

Although Dilip enjoyed immense popularity in the sub-continent and there was always a craze among his admirers to have intimate knowledge about his life and dealings but no one in the past was willing to undertake this arduous task. Time and again many of Dilip’s friends tried to prevail upon him to write an autobiography but he always spurned the advice saying that he did not want to embarrass many people. The authors of these books have tried to answer many questions and what is missing in the other three books Bunny Reuben has filled the gaps by his exhaustive treatment of the subject matter.

First is the question as to how Dilip Kumar whose real name was Yusuf Khan came to be known as Dilip Kumar. Reuben tells us that in 1944 when the then famous heroine Devika Rani who had come to own the Bombay Talkies offered a role to Yusuf Khan the would-be hero told her that he came from a conservative family and his father would not allow him to act in films. They say that Devika Rani suggested three names; Dilip Kumar, Vasudeva, and Jehangir. He chose the first one.

The reason was that another actor Ashok Kumar was quite popular those days and Yusuf might have wanted to cash on that popularity of the suffix Kumar. But Reuben writes that when his father Sarwar Khan saw the picture of his son in a poster for the first time he remarked, “This man resembles our Yusuf so much.” Sarwar Khan belonged to Peshawar so Yusuf also passed his childhood in that city. He was one of the twelve children (six sons and six daughters) of Sarwar Khan. He was a beautiful child with fair color, red cheeks and pitch black hair. To ward off evil eye his grandmother used to shave off his hair and make a black mark on his face .This regular shaving of his head produced such thick crop of hair on his head that when he became a celebrity it became his hallmark and the youth of 1950s and 60s used to copy his hairstyle. With a shaven head in his childhood he avoided mixing with other children and became introvert and shy. Dilip attended school and college in Bombay and for sometime assisted his father in his fruit business. During a business trip to Nainital he luckily met Devika Rani and when she asked him to act in films he expressed his inability at first.

His first movie Jawar Bhata was a non-starter. It was his third film Milan (1946) that impressed the viewers. Reuben tells us that even after his repeated failures at the box office the prolific director Nitin Bose asked stars “to emulate Dilip Kumar’s studied attempts at being natural in front of camera and his journey as a superstar…. The story of how Dilip managed to unshackle himself from the chains of his non-conventional looks and persona and emerge bigger than the pack around him has become a struggle that every subsequent star had to live up to.”

The real break came when he acted in Jugnoo (1946) in which Noor Jehan acted as his heroine. The picture was a box office hit and that opened the doors of stardom to this modest hero. After that there was no looking back. By the age of 28 he had acted in 16 films and most of them were box office hits. During his three-decade career he had 57 films to his credit. His heroines range from Kamini Kaushal, Madhubala, Nimmi, Meena Kumari, Nargis, Vijayanti Mala, Waheeda Rehman, to his wife Saira Banu. In later years he also acted with Nutan and Rekha.

Did he have any affairs with his heroines? This question has been answered in all the books particularly in details by Reuben who had the privilege to enjoy the close company of Dilip. His most serious crush was on Uma Kashyab aka Kamini Kaushal who migrated to India from Lahore where she was a student of Kinnaird College and used to act in plays of AIR Lahore. They both acted in the film Shaheed for the first time. Together they acted in four films (Shaheed, Shabnam, Nadiya ke Paar and Aarzoo).

Writer Ismat Chughtai who authored Aarzoo once wrote that during the shooting of Aarzoo Kamini and Dilip used to hold hands on the sets but would cover their hands with the script. But Kamini was a married woman. A scandal broke out and Dilip was threatened by Kamini’s brother, an army officer, and the relationship ended. After that they never acted together again. Urmila Lanba rightly points out that “Dilip underplayed his emotions projecting both a certain helplessness and an inherent goodness of character, a deadly combination which never appealed to women cinemagoers. “

Reuben reveals that Dilip turned down the offer of B.R.Chopra to act in his movie “Gumrah” due to the precise reason that it projected the love triangle of a married woman. Then comes Madhubala, a ravishing beauty who kindled in him a love reminiscent of his first affair but this time her father Ataullah stepped in. Urmila Lanba writes that Madhubala was having a simultaneous affair with Premnath. However, the whole episode ended when Madhubala’s father did not allow her to participate in outdoor shooting of Naya Daur with Dilip and the film producer filed a suit against her. To her dismay Dilip testified against her on behalf of the producer. The incident left Madhubala shattered and she married Kishore Kumar in retaliation. The singing maestro embraced Islam and adopted the name Abdullah but renounced it after Madhubala’s premature death due to heart ailment. She was replaced in Naya Daur by Vijayanti Mala who was also shown as a favorite of Dilip. She also acted in Ganga Jamuna which was Dilip’s personal movie. No other liaison attracted that much attention as the first two.

To the surprise of everyone Dilip at the age of 45 married actress Saira Banu, the daughter of old days heroine Naseem. According to Urmila Lanba displaying his reputed goodness Dilip married this girl half his age because her mother told Dilip that the giggly girl was being wooed by Rajindar Kumar and therefore “Islam khatre main hae.” “But she (Saira) never let her in-laws forget how young she was and would address Dilip’s friends and colleagues as uncles,” she adds. All the writers have discussed in detail Dilip’s secret second marriage to Asma, a socialite from Hyderabad Deccan. What were the reasons for the second marriage ? Was Dilip unhappy with Saira or was it again a gesture of goodness to help that divorced woman? Anyway, when the mystery was unfolded Dilip took no time in divorcing her and it left a stigma on his personality. Though according to Lanba, Asma was also having a simultaneous liaison with her ex-hubby.

Reuben explains why Dilip refused to act in Guru Datt’s “Pyasa.” By then Dilip had played a number of tragic roles that had rendered him as an archetype and all offers were coming for similar roles. He was advised by his friends, especially Moti Lal who acted with him in Dev Das, to give himself a chance to be versatile and that was the reason he declined the offer. Guru Datt himself acted in the movie and with its success later bragged that good tragedy movies could be made without Dilip as well.

Of all his movies, Dilip likes Ganga Jamna most but he mentions that after acting in Dev Das he encountered psychic problem and had to consult a psychoanalyst. Lanba narrates that during Dev Das’ s shooting once every one except Dilip left the studio. He was planning to spend the night in the studio because the next day’s shots required an unshaven, sleepless look of him. That was one indication of his devotion to work. Regarding the influences on his work Dilip never concealed the fact that initially he was inspired by Marlon Brando and wanted to do something as Brando did in Viva Zapata.

Dilip’s image as a tragic hero restricted his repertoire and heeding to the advice of his friends he tried to act in some comedies. Those who had seen him in one of his initial movies Shabnam would remember that more than half of the movie was in a lighter vein and Dilip had amply demonstrated his prowess in comedy. Leader, Azad and Ram aur Shyam are examples of his versatility. But critics think that he also became monotonous in his comedy roles.

Then started a long period in which Dilip distanced himself from movies and participated in politics. The reason was that Dilip interfered a lot in his movies that were directed by directors other than Bimal Roy or Nitin Bose. So no lesser known or new director dared to sign him. He was resurrected by his admirer Manoj Kumar in Kranti and then came Saguna and award-winning Shakti. In “Nehru’s Hero: Dilip Kumar in the life of India” Lord Meghnad Desai presents an analysis of politics through the prism of cinema rather than the other way round, as has often been done. Lord Desai who lives in London and claims to have seen more than 15 times many films of Dilip Kumar has tried “to discover the parallels between the socio-political arena in India and its reflection on screen bringing fresh insight into the Nehruvian period of idealism and hope.” The issues that he discusses in the book are as varied as censorship, the iconic values of Indian machismo, identity, and secularism. According to Desai, “There has been no respite for (Dilip Kumar) since 1993. He is now a targeted man as far as the Shiv Sena is concerned. His one Pakistani award the Nishan-e-Imtiaz rekindled all the old animosities. That Morarji Desai and Vajpai have been also honored by Pakistan does not count. They are Hindus. Their loyalty is beyond doubt. He is a Muslim for some that is synonym of disloyalty. Having imaged the best of India in fantasy, it is Dilip Kumar’s fate to live a grim reality as Yusuf Khan.”