Page 27 - Seniorstoday December 2022 Issue

Acting was not considered a reputable who has renounced the world to live as an
profession then, so actors did not have ascetic. In Aarzoo (1950), his childhood
formal training; they went by the script sweetheart married another, believing him
and the director’s instructions and winged to be dead in a fire. In Babul (1950), he is
it. Dilip Kumar developed his own style of caught between two women vying for his
naturalistic acting, speaking his lines in love, and losing them both. Hulchul (1951)
measured tones, and using his expressive has him jailed for a murder he did not
eyes and voice to great effect, fitting commit, and losing the woman he loved.
perfectly well in the soft, romantic, often
tragic roles that he came to be known
for. He was an instinctive actor, hitting
on the right, understated notes in his
performances—method acting before it
became trendy. The plots of the films he
did, were melodramatic, and by today’s
standards, excessively morbid.
Most of Dilip Kumar’s early films were
like preparations for the classic Devdas. His
very first film, Jwar Bhata (1944) had him
playing an alcoholic pining for the woman
he cannot marry. In his next, Pratima (1945)
he again played a man whose parents do
not approve of the women he loves. In
Milan (1946), he has to go through a lot of
trouble to reach the woman he intends to
marry because of a boat accident in which
the brides of two men get swapped. Jugnu
(1947), his first big hit, also had a lot of
romantic complications between the lead
pair. In Ghar Ki Izzat (1948), he turned to Deedar (1951) was by all standards, the
drink when his wife was ill-treated by his height of romantic masochism, in which he
family. played a blind man whose sight is restored
In Shaheed (1948) he played a freedom by a kindly doctor; when he sees that his
fighter, in Mela (1948), he goes to jail, sweetheart is to marry the same doctor, he
framed by the villain for the murder of the blinds himself again, because why see the
woman he was to marry. In Anokha Pyar world without her in it?
(1948), he played an impoverished writer, In Tarana (1951), after much scheming
who went to some very strange plot twists and plotting by the villain, the man played
before he is reunited with his beloved. by Dilip Kumar is finally reunited with
In Mehboob Khan’s love triangle Andaaz the village belle he was in love with. The
(1949), his unrequited love for a woman leading lady was played by Madhubala,
leads to misunderstanding and murder. In and here began the ill-fated romance that
Jogan (1949), he falls in love with a woman ended with the real life courtroom drama

SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #42 | DECEMBER 2022 27