Page 34 - Seniorstoday December 2022 Issue

Special Feature – Dilip Kumar @ 100

Dilip Kumar:

Timeless music

Haresh Engineer enumerates the mastery of the great actor’s versatility in Hindi
cinema’s songs

In the 60’s and 70’s three actors dominated to a little wooden puppet. Without the
Hindi cinema. Raj Kapoor who mirrored glamorous sets of Bhansali’s Devdas,
the mannerisms of Charlie Chaplin, Dev Dilip Kumar’s acting stood his ground
Anand forever romantic hero and Dilip and perhaps it’s a lesson for all future
Kumar who could enact tragedy as if he had filmmakers who attempt to remake a Dilip
actually suffered the entire scene in real Kumar movie that they are bound to fail.
life. He was known as the Tragedy King; the
“method actor”. He believed in internalising
and externalising every character that he
played and in the process brought about a
rare combination of restraint and intensity
to the screen.
His role as Devdas, the travesty of a man
drowning himself in alcohol and a life of
despair was perhaps one of his finest. His
ability to hold on to the moment in silence,
the faraway look — no one could enact or
portray across the screen, stillness and Lonely in Sham e gum ki kasam
silence, the way Dilip Kumar articulated The loneliness of Sham e gum ki kasam to
the mood . Shahrukh Khan in Sanjay Leela the romantic Udde jab jab jhulfe teri, and
Bhansali’s Devdas, in comparison is akin the swag in Mera pairon mein ghunghroo

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