Muhammad Yusuf Khan, popularly known as Dilip Kumar, is described as the ultimate method actor. He debuted as an actor in the film 'Jwar Bhata' in 1944, which was produced by Bombay Talkies, and his career spanned over six decades with over 60 films. Although there are number of movies, but we present here the top 10 among those, who are the most memorable one according to us.
Shaheed (1948)Shaheed is a 1948 Hindi film directed by Ramesh Saigal. It starred Dilip Kumar, Kamini Kaushal, Chandra Mohan and Leela Chitnis. The film depicts India's struggle for independence. After Jugnu (1947), his next major hit was the 1948 film Shaheed.
Devdas (1955)Dilip Kumar went on to have success in the 1950s with playing tragic roles in films like Jogan (1950), Deedar (1951), Daag (1952), Devdas (1955), Yahudi (1958) and Madhumati (1958). These films established his screen image as the "Tragedy King". He was the first actor to win the Filmfare Best Actor Award for Daag and went onto win it again for Devdas, which was directed by Bimal Roy, based on the Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay novel, Devdas.
Naya Daur (1957)Naya Daur is a 1957 Indian drama film starring Dilip Kumar, Vyjayanthimala, Ajit and Jeevan. Dilip Kumar was nominated for the Filmfare Best Actor Award for this film.
During filming, the film production was involved in a highly controversial and widely publicized court case. Initially the actress Madhubala was cast as the female lead. An advance payment was given to her and shooting began and continued smoothly for 15 days. Director B.R. Chopra wanted the unit to travel to Bhopal for an extended outdoor shooting. Ataullah Khan, the father of Madhubala, objected to this and claimed that the entire Bhopal schedule was a trick to give Dilip Kumar the opportunity to romance his daughter (Kumar and Madhubala were in a relationship at that point of time). Finally, Chopra sued Madhubala for the cash in advance she received from him and now had no intention of completing the film.
He replaced her with the South Indian actress Vyjayanthimala who acted with Kumar in Devdas. Madhubala obediently supported her father despite her commitment to Dilip Kumar. The actor then confirmed the facts in favor of the director B.R. Chopra, and had gone against Madhubala and Ataullah Khan in an open court. The case was lost by Madhubala and her father along with much negative publicity. During the case, the film was released and declared a success. Chopra dropped the case and saved Madhubala from the humiliation of a possible prison sentence.
Madhumati (1958)Madhumati is a 1958 Hindi film produced and directed by Bimal Roy, and written by Ritwik Ghatak and Rajinder Singh Bedi. The film stars Dilip Kumar and Vyjayantimala in the lead roles along with Pran and Johnny Walker. It was one of the earliest films to deal with reincarnation and had a gothic noir feel to it. The first and only collaboration between Roy and Ghatak, it was one of their most commercially successful and influential films.
Dilip Kumar was nominated for the Filmfare Best Actor Award for this film. Along with this, he had also done many tragic roles in films like Jogan (1950), Deedar (1951), Daag (1952), Devdas (1955), and Yahudi (1958). These films established his screen image as the "Tragedy King".
Mughul-E-Azam (1960)Mughal-E-Azam is a 1960 Indian period epic film directed by K. Asif and produced by Shapoorji Pallonji. Starring Prithviraj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Madhubala and Durga Khote in the lead roles, the film follows the love affair between Mughal Prince Salim (Dilip Kumar) and a court dancer Anarkali (Madhubala).
Upon its release on 5 August 1960, the film broke box office records in India, becoming the highest-grossing Bollywood film of all time, a distinction it held for 15 years. The film won accolades including one National Film Award and three Filmfare Awards.
Asif had initially rejected Dilip Kumar for the role of Prince Salim. The actor was reluctant to act in a period film, but accepted the role upon the insistence of the film's producer. According to Dilip saab, "Asif trusted me enough to leave the delineation of Salim completely to me". Dilip Kumar visited London to test the wig he would wear in the film. He also faced difficulty while filming in Rajasthan due to the heat and the body armour he wore.
Ganga Jumna (1961)In 1961 he produced and starred in Ganga Jamuna in which he and his brother Nasir Khan played the title roles, this was the only film he produced. Directed by Nitin Bose, it's a dacoit drama Bollywood film. The film stars Dilip Kumar and Vyjayanthimala in the lead with Nasir Khan, Azra, Leela Chitnis, Kanhaiyalal, Anwar Hussain, Nasir Hussain and Helen forming an ensemble cast.
Notable for its use of Bhojpuri dialect and its rustic setting, the film features real life brothers Dilip Kumar and Nasir Khan in the title role, is on the story of two brothers, Gunga and Jumna, the poignancy of two brothers on opposite sides of the law. The film and the lead actors, Dilip Kumar and Vyjayanthimala won a lot of accolades for their performance. Dilip saab was nominated for the Filmfare Best Actor Award for this film.
Ram aur Shyam (1967)In 1967 Dilip Kumar played a dual role of twins separated at birth in the hit film Ram Aur Shyam. Directed by Tapi Chanakya, the theme of the film owes its origins to Alexandre Dumas, pre's story The Corsican Brothers: twins who look remarkably alike but have very different temperaments. In The Corsican Brothers the twins grow up together. In Ram aur Shyam, on the other hand, they have been separated at birth and discover each other only towards the end. Lead actor Dilip Kumar won the Filmfare Best Actor Award for this film.
Shakti (1982)In 1976, Dilip Kumar took a five-year break from film performances and returned with a character role in the film Kranti (1981) and continued his career playing character roles in films such as Shakti (1982), Karma (1986) and Saudagar (1991). In 1982, he played the father of Amitabh Bachchan in Ramesh Sippy's Shakti for which he won yet another Filmfare Award for Best Actor.
Although the film was only a moderate success at the box office, it was notable for being the first and only film to feature veteran actors Dilip Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan together on screen. Big B easily steals the show in what is clearly one of his most memorable performances overshadowing Dilip Kumar, who won Filmfare award for best actor that year. The role was written more favorably for Dilip Kumar but Amitabh won the public accolades, despite of the fact that Amitabh was given very dialogues for his baritone. Well, reportedly this all resulted into Dilip Kumar deciding not to come together with Amitabh on screen thereafter.
Karma (1986)Dilip Kumar formed a successful collaboration with ace filmmaker Subhash Ghai starting with Vidhaata (1982) in which he plays an underworld don who tries to hide his lifestyle from his grandson Kunal (Sanjay Dutt). His second collaboration with Subhash Ghai came with the 1986 action film Karma. In this film, Kumar plays a jailor who hires three men to help him avenge his family's death by escaped terrorist Doctor Dang (played by Anupam Kher). The film also marked the first time Dilip Kumar was paired with veteran actress Nutan.
Saudagar (1991)In 1976, Dilip Kumar took a five-year break from film performances and returned with a character role in the film Kranti (1981) and continued his career playing character roles in films such as Shakti (1982), Karma (1986) and Saudagar (1991). In 1991, he starred alongside veteran actor Raaj Kumar in Saudagar, his third and last film with Subhash Ghai. On the other side, this was his second film with Raaj Kumar after 1959's Paigham. Saudagar was Kumar's last box office success, for which he was also nominated for the Filmfare Best Actor Award.
