By
Tanveer Zaidi (Actor, Author, Educationist)
Lots and lots have been written and said in praise of Dilip Kumar aka Yusuf Khan, the legend, and if, I stand in the same queue and say that Dilip Kumar was an actor par excellence, would be to state the obvious. Undoubtedly, He was, a University in himself, the best actor this Planet has ever produced. He was one of the very few best actors of this planet earth, To every performance of Dilip Kumar he added that special midas touch (Dilip magic), making them praise worthy. In His films Mughal-E-Azam, Ram aur Shyam, Ganga Jamuna, Devdas, Aan, Daag, Madhumati, Mela, Azaad, Andaz, Naya Daur, Shaheed and Kohinoor he gave his best to the characters he lived in them, winning him Billions of fans across the world. He made every character as they were tailored for him. When he did double roles in Ram Aur Shyam it became iconic till date. In the modern film industry when double roles, with the help of computers and application softwares are much easier to perform and shoot.
I had the privilege of meeting Dilip Kumar, the legend about a dozen time and whenever I met him every time I get mesmerized by his charismatic persona.
The very first time we met at Jogger’s park, Carter Road,Bandra, he was holding a stick in his hand, and jogging with an attitude of an army officer, I was with my niece Ali, all of us were jogging, obviously on the track, I went exactly in front of him, and interrupted his walk, he stoped and said, “Yes ?” I said, “Sir, if you allow me, I need your few precious minutes.” “Ok”, he replied with a smile on his face, I introduced my niece and said, ” Sir, he is Ali, he is so lucky enough that he has received a trophy from your hands, when you were the chief guest at the annual function of his school recently”, Dilip sahab took a pause and asked me, ” was that Rizvi’s Spring field school ?” And Without waiting for my reply, He continued, ” yes, yes I remember this genius and cute boy.”
..And then I properly introduced myself to him, ” I am Tanveer Zaidi , an actor and need your valuable tips and advise to groom my self “, once again he smiled and pronounced my name, ” Tanveer,” I was thrilled with goose bumbs all over my body, he said, “all right, come to my place sometime in the evening, but do not forget to inform me through a phone call before you come.” Now it was my turn to smile, I took his phone number and kept it in my wallet, and then we started jogging once again. The world knows that Dilip Sahab was a master at underplaying his characters. In his well-known films of his second inning which I saw were Kranti, Karma, Vidhata, Shakti, Mashaal with all the great actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjeev Kumar, Naseeruddin Shah, Shammi Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha, Shashi Kapoor, Manoj Kumar, Anupam Kher and many others but Dilip Kumar won all the applause in every film.
The second time when I went to meet him, I saw that the gate of his bungalow was crowded and the watchman was busy arguing with a dozen of men and women. I told the watchman that I have an appointment with Dilip Sahab, the watchman went inside, probably to inform Dilip Sahab about my presence, in-between all the men and women came closer and told me, that they are from Pakistan and two of them were from Russia and they have come specially to meet their ideal Dilip Kumar , I assured them to let me meet Dilip Sahab and I shall convey their messages to him , meanwhile John, secretary to Dilip Sahab came out and called me inside the bungalow, I went in , after walking few steps I saw Dilip sahab was instructing his Gardener for some work, he saw me and said Hello, he came near by me, I stretched my hand for a handshake, he took my hand gently and hold it until two chairs were brought for us to sit.
We sat and chatted for an hour or more, he gave me many tips and advised me not to hurry, he said, “wait until you get something very good to perform, till then groom yourself by doing some theatre activities”. He said, ” it looks like you are comfortable with English, Urdu and Hindi and that’s very good, take out time for some Radio programmes, and always try to learn from the atmosphere around you, never think that you are done and now you don’t require to learn more, the process of learning should go on till our last breath,”
Dilip Sahab was speaking and I was literary mesmerized. He continued, ” Do you know I have learned many things from my Gardener, washerman, carpenter and the people whom I have to interact daily ? “
” I have used this experience in many of my films.”
Amidst our conversation John, his secretary came and told Dilip Sahab about some phone calls and I also told him about the fans from Pakistan and Russia waiting outside since morning to meet him.
I saw that he was getting busy so I took permission to leave with a promise to meet him again and again.
-Dilip Kumar, the greatest of all time said Good bye to the Planet at Hinduja Hospital, Mumbai, on 7 July 2021 at 7:30 am, aged 98, after a prolonged illness. He had been suffering from several age-related issues and was diagnosed with pleural effusion.
