But today, as you view it in perspective a near 65 years after Devika Rani introduced him to cinema with Jwar Bhata, you divine the dimension of icon Dilip Kumar has been to clinch this Lifetime Achievement award alongside Lata Mangeshkar. Both performers share the distinction of putting their craft before all else. Maybe, by so often appearing on the podium together, each merely served to burnish the other's image. Yet you have to agree that the image has been scrupulously guarded in the case of each.
The quest for sustained excellence has been the cornerstone of Dilip Kumar's approach to the motion picture arts and sciences. As a science student from Wilson College, Dilip Kumar (who initially wanted his screen name to be Jehangir) was so good at football that he could have taken up the game full time. But his fruit-trading family insisted upon his playing 'at-home' chess! This is what perhaps instilled in Dilip Kumar the urge to study every move he made, in cinema, with a mind all his own.
To think Yusuf Khan was but an average student at the Anjuman-e-Islam High School, in South Mumbai. Dilip had Dhyan Chand for his ideal in hockey, C K Nayudu for his model in cricket, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan for his favourite in music. Ghalib and Faiz are his preferences in poetry.
Yusuf Khan might have started out as a canteen manager on Rs 35 a month. But even here, Yusuf strove for a certain perfection in executing his job.
The zeal with which -- as the third in line -- he nursed his brothers and sisters reveals Yusuf to be the total family man. For all the leading ladies he had for the asking in films, Yusuf hadn't a single girlfriend in college! Somewhat like his making do without a proper heroine in Kidar Sharma's Jogan, a film in which Dilip Kumar revealed, early, all the subtleties of acting opposite Nargis.
In between two intense shots, Dilip would amuse himself by going in for a round of tennis-ball cricket. He had enough cricket in him not to look a raw hand even while playing in the super-stylist company of Mushtaq Ali, a batsman whom Dilip admired.
Dilip's pet cricket commentator, in the circumstances, had to be one considered to this day, by many, the best -- A F S Talyarkhan. Indeed, Dilip could mimic AFST's commentary to a T.
With books, Dilip had a special rapport from the time Bombay Talkies' chief Himansu Rai asked him to spend all his spare studio time in the BT library. My first Weekly Editor, Britisher C R Mandy, once shared a train journey with Dilip Kumar and told me he felt amazed by the range and depth of the man's reading.
His breeding came through in everything Dilip did. In high meridian, you had to speak to Dilip Kumar for just five minutes on the phone and you had a 1,500-word interview in which you were hard put to pick and choose. Gardening is but one of the many pastimes in which Dilip delighted. This Lifetime Achievement award, therefore, is fit recognition for one truly ranking among the most well-rounded personalities in Indian Cinema.
In the picture: Dilip Kumar with wife Saira Banu
Also Read: Why Dilip Kumar never married Madhubala
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