Dilip Kumar-Saira Banu celebrate 50 years of marriage - Page 4

Comedy and action were, in fact, an escape route for Dilip Kumar. He was in a dilemma after fielding grim drama. His mind and nerves were under constant stress. He craved relief from cerebral exertions. In his bid to get away from his mental skirmishes, he provided audiences with his distinct brand of action, comedy and excellent music.

He tells me that while doing these films, each day was full of fun, pranks and laughter. These films constitute class entertainment without so much as a smidgen of vulgarity or obscenity which today, alas seem to have become the ingredient of our cinema.

In Kohinoor, which is my personal favorite, with just a jerk of a shoulder while he is in disguise as Kohinoor baba, he sparked more comedy than those who hang upside down from trees, dive and roll in muddy puddles and slip on banana skin to evoke laughter.

Kohinoor had that marvelous mirror scene. Here was a wacky comedy achieved by a confirmed tragedian. Jeevan and he played it with deft timing. The mirror has slipped down from a dressing table, revealing the hero who had to hide behind the table on being interrupted right in the middle of a romantic inlerlude with Meena Kumari.

Dilip Kumar duplicates the villain's gesture, guttural sounds and squeaks as though he were Jeevan's exact mirror image. The scene was a riot. There was pinpoint precision as he imitated his adversary's reactions, irritation and exasperation. He counters the villain's every yelp, guffaw and flaying of hands. Here was unadulterated wit and mirth.

I have seen the scene copied by other filmmakers so many times that I have lost count.

...It is difficult to say which performance was better" the slick, smooth-talking collegian of Leader or the bellicose villager of Gopi who tugged at the heart strings while singing, Sukh ke sab saathi, dukh mein naa koyee.

The sedate, sober Dilip Kumar can be outrageously funny. He can mimic everyone from his closest friends to celebrities"you should see his glamours and alluring takeoff on Helen's cabarets or the way he can replicate the frenzy of Gopi Krishna's chakradhar, complete with the recitation of the toras.

He can be sharp and saucy. He can display his flair for comedy in many languages including Bengali, Marathi, Parsi, Gujarati, Punjabi, besides Urdu and English.

He has an atrocious memory. He con never remember the license numbers of his own car, he can't remember important days and dates. But when it comes to dialogue, thank God, Dilip Kumar is amazing. Apart from his own lines, he also remembers those of his co-artistes.

Azad (1955), Ran Aur Shyam (1967), Sagina (1974)

Dilip Kumar and Saira Bano in Sagina (1974)

These films catch him in other hues of comedy. He played these roles with compelling conviction, lacing humor with an inner meaning and social comment.

While Dilip Kumar was having a whale of a time before the camera, he was also making pointed social references. He was the crusader, the nemesis of evildoers.

The swashbuckling savior of Azad and the trade union leader of Sagina are as unalike as Ram is from Shyam. He can slip into disparate personalities as easily as a hand slips into a glove... which is why he's the actor I love to love - Saira Bano (Filmfare Magazine)