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Bollywood Actor Dilip Kumar
Dilip Kumar’s actual name is Muhammad Yusuf Khan. Dilip Kumar was born on 11th of December 1922. His birthplace is Peshawar, a city that is now part of Pakistan. Dilip Kumar had eleven more brothers and sister and his parents along with their 12 siblings moved over to what is today free India. Devlali in Maharashtra was home to the family in the 1930’s while after partition they decide to stay back in India and found a new home in Mumbai. In the earlier part of his career, Yusuf saab (we would refer where onwards to Mr. Dilip Kumar as Sir Dilip as his achievements for Indian cinema are incomparable and even beyond that) would run a small canteen business and also distribute dry fruits to local vendors. Sir Dilip’s introduction to Bollywood also has an interesting story that needs to be shared. Then Bollywood actress of national fame, Devika Rani spotted him and asked him to try getting into acting. She helped him by asking for aid from her husband Himanshu Rai who was the founder of the famous Bombay Talkies. It was none other than Devika Rani who told him to adopt the screen name of Dilip Kumar. Sir Dilip’s 1st release was Jwar Bhata that hit the sliver screen in 1944. He did not get recognized for the movie. For his first success he had to wait for 3 long years and that wait ended in 1947 with the release of Jugnu. In 1949 his movie ‘Andaz’ also starring Raj Kapoor was released, the movie proved to be a success. If we start talking about the many releases of his entire Bollywood career the list would be exhaustive and nearly impossible to fully cover. A few of the highlights of this great and legendary Bollywood actor would be enough to know that how many more great actors make their presence felt in Bollywood there can be no greater than Sir Dilip Kumar. Popular movies like Deedar released in 1951, Amar released in 1954, Devdas released in 1955 and Madhumati released in 1958 are all testimony him being the darling of the crowds and his acting being second to none. He is a versatile actor; he could portray tragedy, comedy and all other roles very well. Comedy also came naturally to him, in his movie ‘Aan’ released in 1952 he played the role of a swashbuckling peasant to perfection and then in 1955 released movie ‘Azaad’ he again played a comic role to perfection. This made everyone from critics to journalist and even the common man, be in awe of his acting capabilities. In the sixties too this trend of delivering a knockout punch continued, with almost all of his Bollywood movies being major hit it made him undisputed king of Bollywood. In 1961 Sir Dilip Kumar produced and acted in the movie Ganga Jamuna, despite achieving national success this movie proved to be his maiden film production and last as well. Though in the mid 60’s he went through a lean patch where there weren’t too many successes he snapped the losing trail by delivering another success in the form of ‘Ram Aur Shyam’ in 1967. Even during the early phase of his career he was cast opposite the leading ladies of that time though most movies were romantic flicks. He did movies with Nutan, Saira Banu, Mala Sinha among others. He was also fortunate to act with one Indian Cinemas greatest ever actress Meena Kumari. Through the 70’s and 80’s this trend continued. Though there was an influx of new actors who kept challenging him for the top spot he was never actually threatened at all. He also acted in the 1982 Bollywood film Vidhaata directed by Subhash Ghai co-starring with Sanjay Dutt, Sanjeev Kumar, Shammi Kapoor, Padmini Kolhapure, Amrish Puri, Madan Puri and Sarika. The likes of Mr. Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna and Shahrukh Khan too have been very successful but in true terms a comparison is completely unjustifiable. When Sir Dilip started acting there was no color movies in Bollywood, the facilities and the equipment was not at all adequate and neither was he paid so handsomely to live a life of our modern actors. Yet with his brilliant acting he kept us engrossed in his movies and made the people of those times forget for a while that they too have a struggling life waiting for them outside the cinema halls.
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