• Top Story
  • Weekly
  • Latest
  • Editorial
  • Opinion
  • Interview
  • Feature
  • Sports
  • News
  • J&K
  • World
  • Education
  • Health
  • Economy
  • Culture
  • Literature
  • Lifestyle
  • Books
What's Hot

Belt and Road Initiative: How Real is ‘Debt-trap Diplomacy’?

January 8, 2025

Why Pegasus Report Must be Made Public

December 25, 2024

America’s Waning Global Position

November 4, 2024
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Trending
  • Belt and Road Initiative: How Real is ‘Debt-trap Diplomacy’?
  • Why Pegasus Report Must be Made Public
  • America’s Waning Global Position
  • Book Review—Shawls and Shawlbafs of Kashmir
  • Hundreds of Sheep Face Starvation as Forest Officials Bar Grazing
  • Photo Essay: Fire Fighting Service In Dal Lake
  • Pheran—How Kashmir’s Traditional Attire Evolved Through Centuries
  • Pheran—How Kashmir’s Traditional Attire Evolved Through Centuries
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
 Kashmir Newsline – Expression Unleashed Kashmir Newsline – Expression Unleashed
  • Weekly

    Weekly Dec 25 – Dec 31, 2022

    December 25, 2022

    Weekly Dec 05 – 11 Dec,2022

    December 7, 2022

    Weekly Nov 28 – Dec 04, 2022

    November 30, 2022

    Weekly November 21-27

    November 22, 2022

    Weekly November 14-20

    November 16, 2022
  • News
    1. India
    2. South Aisa
    3. World
    Featured
    Recent

    Belt and Road Initiative: How Real is ‘Debt-trap Diplomacy’?

    January 8, 2025

    Why Pegasus Report Must be Made Public

    December 25, 2024

    America’s Waning Global Position

    November 4, 2024
  • Feature
    1. Interview
    2. Literature
    3. Editorial
    4. Opinion
    5. Top Story
    6. Books
    7. View All

    Interview: ‘Travel, Observing and Tasting is the Best Way to Learn’

    October 2, 2023

    AS Dulat’s Kashmir Stories

    February 4, 2023

    Interview: ‘People are Deeply Pained by Mirwaiz’s Absence from Jamia Masjid’

    November 16, 2022

    ‘Abrogation of Article 370 has Made Kashmir More Dangerous than 1990s’

    October 18, 2022

    The Poet of Love—Daagh Dehlvi’s Poetry has Native Idiom and Sufi Undercurrent

    May 30, 2023

    The Breadth and Sweep of Sahir Ludhianvi’s Works

    March 8, 2023

    Memories of Gulmarg

    January 28, 2023

    ‘If This Language Lives On, Rahi Also Lives On’

    January 18, 2023

    Kashmir Needs Collective Fight against Glaring Drug Abuse

    December 27, 2022

    Healthcare Emergency

    December 7, 2022

    Traffic Mess: Who is to Blame? 

    November 30, 2022

    Give the Artists the Space They Need

    November 23, 2022

    Belt and Road Initiative: How Real is ‘Debt-trap Diplomacy’?

    January 8, 2025

    Why Pegasus Report Must be Made Public

    December 25, 2024

    America’s Waning Global Position

    November 4, 2024

    Writer’s Block What!

    October 8, 2023

    Belt and Road Initiative: How Real is ‘Debt-trap Diplomacy’?

    January 8, 2025

    Why Pegasus Report Must be Made Public

    December 25, 2024

    America’s Waning Global Position

    November 4, 2024

    Book Review—Shawls and Shawlbafs of Kashmir

    September 12, 2024

    Book Review—Shawls and Shawlbafs of Kashmir

    September 12, 2024

    Book Review: The Divine Dialect of Flowers

    October 5, 2023

    The Collision That Birthed Religion

    March 18, 2023

    Book Review: What is the Meter of the Dictionary?

    March 2, 2023

    Belt and Road Initiative: How Real is ‘Debt-trap Diplomacy’?

    January 8, 2025

    Why Pegasus Report Must be Made Public

    December 25, 2024

    America’s Waning Global Position

    November 4, 2024

    Book Review—Shawls and Shawlbafs of Kashmir

    September 12, 2024
  • J&K

    Hundreds of Sheep Face Starvation as Forest Officials Bar Grazing

    March 14, 2024

    Photo Essay: Fire Fighting Service In Dal Lake

    March 8, 2024

    Tatakooti—Challenges of Owning a Towering Peak

    October 5, 2023

    Interview: ‘Travel, Observing and Tasting is the Best Way to Learn’

    October 2, 2023

    What is Ailing the Apple Farming?

    September 16, 2023
  • Lifestyle

    Eating Together Binds Families

    November 22, 2022

    How Smartphones are Harming Children

    October 25, 2022

    Raising a Champion

    October 11, 2022

    The Reluctant ‘Urban Poor’

    August 28, 2022

    The Reluctant ‘Urban Poor’

    August 21, 2022
  • Economy

    Explained: What is a Credit Score and Why is it Important?

    December 27, 2022

    Rights of Special Bank Customers

    November 30, 2022

    How to be a Socially Responsible Investor

    November 23, 2022

    Stock Exchange Crimes

    November 16, 2022

    Avoid Debt Trap

    November 8, 2022
  • Culture
  • Entertainment
  • Sports

    Tatakooti—Challenges of Owning a Towering Peak

    October 5, 2023

    When Salim was in the Mood

    July 12, 2023

    Why Does Team India Fail Consistently?

    December 27, 2022

    Hail Ben Stokes and Co.

    December 7, 2022

    England Tour of Pakistan

    November 30, 2022
 Kashmir Newsline – Expression Unleashed Kashmir Newsline – Expression Unleashed
Home»Top Story»Satyajit Ray’s Ultimate Method Actor
Top Story

Satyajit Ray’s Ultimate Method Actor

Kashmir NewslineBy Kashmir NewslineDecember 7, 2022No Comments6 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
Dilip Kumar didn't have an ideal start to his film career with a disastrous debut and a couple of subsequent flops. But once he found his idiom, there was no looking back.
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

Dilip Kumar embodied the zeitgeist of an era gone by and they don’t make them like that anymore.

Shabir Hussain

Dilip Kumar’s entry into the world of cinema was as phantasmagorical as his rise to superstardom after some initial hiccups. When the glamorous actor-producer Devika Rani offered him a job in her production house as an actor, he was reluctant but agreed only after Rani quoted a monthly salary of Rs1250, which was a fortune back in the day.

He had inhibitions also because his strict father was dismissive of cinema and would never have wanted him to become an actor. It’s because of this reason that Rani had to rechristen him as Dilip Kumar from his original name Yusuf Khan.

After a couple of shaky initial performances including the disastrous 1944 debut movie Jwar Bhata, Kumar found his histrionic idiom and never looked back, scripting one iconic performance after another.

He rounded off the formative forties with a power-packed performance in Mehboob Khan’s Andaz (1949) that also featured his childhood friend Raj Kapoor and the leading lady of the day, Nargis.

With Dev Anand, Kapoor and Kumar formed the formidable trinity on which the Indian cinema rested through the fifties and the sixties. While Kapoor and Anand reigned equally supreme at the box office giving flurry of hits, Kumar stood out for the depth of his craft and the selection of films.

Come 1950 and Kumar, still in his twenties, had seasoned into a mature performer adored by masses and classes alike. But his best was yet to come. Fifties was the decade that would register him as a colossus towering over his contemporaries and those who came before and after him.

1950 was also a landmark in the world of cinema as it saw the introduction of Marlon Brado with the release of The Men, a film that failed commercially but earned praise from the critics. It also won Brando much acclaim. While Kumar was an absolute novice and a reluctant actor when he accepted Rani’s offer, Brando was an actor by choice and had learnt the ropes at Broadway theatre before venturing into Hollywood.

He had done plays and had also appeared in the 1949 TV series Actors Studio. Kumar had no such privilege before embarking on his screen journey. But he more than made up for it through sheer handwork, observation, application and brilliance of mind. Kumar gorged himself on Hollywood movies. James Stewart and Ingrid Bergman inspired him profoundly.

Both the thespians epitomised the art of method acting. While Dilip Kumar earned ‘the ultimate method actor’ epithet from the globally acclaimed director Satyajit Ray, Brando was billed as Hollywood’s poster boy of method acting, a tag he wasn’t too fond of, though.

Kumar’s versatility prompted filmmaker V Shantaram to pronounce: “Had Shakespeare met Dilip Kumar, he would have added one more character to the already well-defined ones he had created.”

It isn’t just his understated body language and the depth in his eyes, but also his impactful and impeccably measured dialogue delivery that mesmerised the audience and continues to do so to this day. When he is playing a withdrawn character, he lets his eyes and pauses between words and sentences speak and when the character demands passion and aggression, his vocals can explode.

Two contrasting cases in point here can be two spectacular scenes from Andaz and Mashaal (1984). In the Andaz scene, when Nargis introduces him to Raj Kapoor, he hardly says a word but the hate and displeasure of a jealous lover is unmistakably portrayed through his eyes.

In the Mashaal scene, he brings alive the helplessness and pain through his power-packed voice as he watches his wife die before his eyes. Very few actors could bring to the fore the intensity that the scene demands.

So involved was he in his pathos-ridden characters that earned him the sobriquet of ‘tragedy king’ that, on the advice of a psychologist, he had to periodically switch over to light comic roles that he rendered with equal ease as is evident in movies like Azad, Kohinoor and Leader.

It took him six months to train as a sitarist just to give a few perfect shots in Kohinoor.

There must have been a very special coordination between his brain and the organs of speech that gave his dialogues timing and impeccability, leaving the listeners spellbound. That perhaps was also the secret of his polyglottery. Kumar was fluent in Urdu, English, Hindi, Pashto, Hindko, Punjabi, Bengali and Marathi.

Kumar’s relish for languages and literature enriched his acting enormously.

He could masterfully transcend the barriers of language and dialect. That’s why he could comfortably bridge the gap between the chaste Urdu speaking Salim of Mughal-e-Azam and the rustic Ganga of Ganga Jamuna who communicates in Awadhi dialect. He played Sagina Mahato and spoke fluent Bengali that left the Bengalis in awe and admiration of him.

So gifted was he that when you listen to his duet with Lata from Musafir (1957), you feel he could easily have made a career as a singer.

No tribute to Dilip Kumar is complete without a word or two on Saira Bano — his better half, his alter ego and his doting wife. Bano, a wonderful actress herself, is a symbol of marital commitment who exemplifies what a life partner should be like.

It was this strong bond between the two that could weather the storm of Kumar’s secret marriage that was later terminated and which he refers to as lapse of judgement in his memoir. Kumar was 44 and Bano 22 when the two married in 1966.

An avid philanthropist, Kumar was also a champion of communal harmony. The way he reached out to communities to build bridges after the 93 Mumbai riots is exemplary. Whether he had to go to the suburbs of Mumbai for social service or to London to generate funds for Imran Khan’s cancer hospital, he was always ready to serve.

So charismatic and influential was he that when at the time of Kargil War in 1999, situation between India and Pakistan was tense, Prime Minister Vajpayee called Kumar over to Delhi and had him speak to Nawaz Sharif to ease the tension.

Kumar embodied the zeitgeist of an era gone by and they don’t make them like that anymore.

The article, written by editor Kashmir Newsline, has been reproduced with permission from Gulf News.

 

 

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
Kashmir Newsline
  • Website

Related Posts

Belt and Road Initiative: How Real is ‘Debt-trap Diplomacy’?

January 8, 2025

Why Pegasus Report Must be Made Public

December 25, 2024

America’s Waning Global Position

November 4, 2024

Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

Top Posts

Team India’s Next Big Thing

July 6, 202227,463 Views

Why This Alpine Lake Trek Stands Out

July 6, 202225,423 Views

India’s Majoritarian Politics and the Role of Media

July 6, 202224,120 Views

Fragile Media Economies and Lack of Opportunities in Kashmir

July 6, 202223,225 Views
Don't Miss
Top Story

Belt and Road Initiative: How Real is ‘Debt-trap Diplomacy’?

By Kashmir NewslineJanuary 8, 20250

BRI’s transformative potential extends beyond economic development. It has the power to reshape global trade…

Why Pegasus Report Must be Made Public

December 25, 2024

America’s Waning Global Position

November 4, 2024

Book Review—Shawls and Shawlbafs of Kashmir

September 12, 2024
Stay In Touch
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Vimeo

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest creative news from SmartMag about art & design.

Based out of Srinagar (Jammu & Kashmir) and brought out in print as a weekly with online presence as well, Kashmir Newsline is solely committed to ethical, fearless journalism. We at Kashmir Newsline cover politics, geopolitics, international relations, social issues, health, sports and almost everything else as objectively as humanly possible. Kashmir Newsline carries detailed reports and in-depth analysis on multiple developments happening in Kashmir and around the world.

Facebook X (Twitter)
Our Picks

Belt and Road Initiative: How Real is ‘Debt-trap Diplomacy’?

January 8, 2025

Why Pegasus Report Must be Made Public

December 25, 2024

America’s Waning Global Position

November 4, 2024
Most Popular

Team India’s Next Big Thing

July 6, 202227,463 Views

Why This Alpine Lake Trek Stands Out

July 6, 202225,423 Views

India’s Majoritarian Politics and the Role of Media

July 6, 202224,120 Views
Facebook X (Twitter)
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Politics
  • J&K
  • E-Paper
  • Contact Us
© 2025 Kashmir Newsline. Designed by NexG IT Solutions.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

Go to mobile version