THE INTERNATIONALLY KNOWN PAKISTANI POET AHMAD FARAZ STRUGGLES TO DESCRIBE DILIP KUMAR

Ali Peter John

I have never claimed to be a writer or a poet, I only write what I feel, like my guru K.A.Abbas whose one line description about himself was “I write as I feel” and called himself a communicator and it was communication that he did through all his writings, his films, his plays and whatever he did in the field of entertainment, journalism, politics and every field of life he knew like the back of his palm.

I was never ambitious, because I didn’t know what ambition was till I met Abbas Sahab. I lived in an area where the ultimate ambition of boys of my age was to be a bus conductor, a waiter or to “work in an office”. My English teacher Mr. Linus Cerejo was the first to recognised my ability to write good English.. My Vocational Guidance teacher had advised me to be a stenographer as he said I would get a job anywhere in the new offices that where coming up in the sixties. Isn’t it ironic that my handwriting even today looks like the scrawl of the short hand notes taken by a stenographer ? And isn’t it more ironical that I still don’t know anything about typing and forget what I know or don’t know about computers and other such mordern technological equipment , but I have survived for fifty long years ?

I first had a hang about my ability to feel and write when the first girl I loved broke my heart and my intire being when she left me to become a nun and I wrote four lines about how I felt when she finally left me.. but, not for the life of me could I ever imagine that writing could give me a living one day.. it all started when I started working with Abbas Sahab who kept encouraging me to write and done I never stopped and I am still going on..

It was the year 1986. The film industry had decided to walk into the streets to protest against the heavy taxes levied on it. Almost everyone who was anyone in the industry was dresssed in black and had marched from Opera House to Girgaun Chowpatty where they had a public meeting. There were lakhs of people who had gathered mainly because of the coming together of all the stars on one platform. There were many other speakers like Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand and other legends. It was the turn for Dilip Kumar to speak and once he started speaking, there was the kind of silence all over that I have never experienced again.

When I wrote about the meeting, I had written about how I felt that the waves in the sea , the sky, the sun, every grain of sand,stood silent to listen to Dilip Kumar and the birds flying in the in the sky,the leaves on evey tree had stopped swinging or swaying as if they all where interested in listening to the legend speak. That was the magic of his language, his command over the subject and the eloquence and passion with which he spoke.

I have heard Dilip Kumar speak on any number of occasion and he has held me spell bound everytime. I must Thank the pandemic for giving me all the time to watch certain videos I had never watched before, on my mobile. It was during one of these discoveries on my mobile that I saw Dilip Kumar and his wife Saira Banu at a meeting in Peshawar his native place in Pakistan. The poet Ahmad Faraz had to introduce him to an august gathering. He started off by saying how difficult it was even for a” baazigar” of words to describe Dilip kumar and he started reciting a poem he had written in honour of the thespian who he called “Yusuf Jaan” he then spoke out the line he had written to describe the man who he said he found very difficult to describe. And what he said was almost like what I had written after that meeting at Chowpatty where Dilip Kumar ruled with his magical and miraculous words.

I give you the poem Ahmad Faraz recited on the stage in Peshawar so many years ago I will try to give you a rough idea of what the poet said till then and for those who know poetry and understand Urdu, here are the lines..

sunā hai log use aañkh bhar ke dekhte haiñ

so us ke shahr meñ kuchh din Thahar ke dekhte haiñ

sunā hai rabt hai us ko ḳharāb-hāloñ se

so apne aap ko barbād kar ke dekhte haiñ

sunā hai dard kī gāhak hai chashm-e-nāz us kī

so ham bhī us kī galī se guzar ke dekhte haiñ

sunā hai us ko bhī hai sher o shā.irī se shaġhaf

so ham bhī mo.ajize apne hunar ke dekhte haiñ

sunā hai bole to bātoñ se phuul jhaḌte haiñ

ye baat hai to chalo baat kar ke dekhte haiñ

sunā hai raat use chāñd taktā rahtā hai

sitāre bām-e-falak se utar ke dekhte haiñ

sunā hai din ko use titliyāñ satātī haiñ

sunā hai raat ko jugnū Thahar ke dekhte haiñ

sunā hai hashr haiñ us kī ġhazāl sī āñkheñ

sunā hai us ko hiran dasht bhar ke dekhte haiñ

sunā hai raat se baḌh kar haiñ kākuleñ us kī

sunā hai shaam ko saa.e guzar ke dekhte haiñ

sunā hai us kī siyah-chashmagī qayāmat hai

so us ko surma-farosh aah bhar ke dekhte haiñ

sunā hai us ke laboñ se gulāb jalte haiñ

so ham bahār pe ilzām dhar ke dekhte haiñ

sunā hai aa.ina timsāl hai jabīñ us kī

jo saada dil haiñ use ban-sañvar ke dekhte haiñ

sunā hai jab se hamā.il haiñ us kī gardan meñ

mizāj aur hī laal o guhar ke dekhte haiñ

sunā hai chashm-e-tasavvur se dasht-e-imkāñ meñ

palañg zāviye us kī kamar ke dekhte haiñ

sunā hai us ke badan kī tarāsh aisī hai

ki phuul apnī qabā.eñ katar ke dekhte haiñ

vo sarv-qad hai magar be-gul-e-murād nahīñ

ki us shajar pe shagūfe samar ke dekhte haiñ

bas ik nigāh se luTtā hai qāfila dil kā

so rah-ravān-e-tamannā bhī Dar ke dekhte haiñ

sunā hai us ke shabistāñ se muttasil hai bahisht

makīñ udhar ke bhī jalve idhar ke dekhte haiñ

ruke to gardisheñ us kā tavāf kartī haiñ

chale to us ko zamāne Thahar ke dekhte haiñ

kise nasīb ki be-pairahan use dekhe

kabhī kabhī dar o dīvār ghar ke dekhte haiñ

kahāniyāñ hī sahī sab mubālġhe hī sahī

agar vo ḳhvāb hai tābīr kar ke dekhte haiñ

ab us ke shahr meñ Thahreñ ki kuuch kar jaa.eñ

‘farāz’ aao sitāre safar ke dekhte haiñ

If you have read the lines above, you will know how Faraz tries his very best to describe the Magic of Dilip Kumar. He talks about how the legend doesn’t like poverty and disease and says that if he (Dilip Kumar)doesn’t like all that, he is willing to even destroy himself to be with him. He talks about how the actor spouts roses when he speaks and the poet says he can talk to him just to be amidst the roses of words. He talks about how the moon stares at him at night in admiration and how butterflies play with him during day and how fire flies dance around him to please him, how stars come down from the sky to have a look at him and how a pack of deer keep looking at him and the poet ultimately says that it is difficult to describe a man who is so very different from the other creations on earth. I wish everyone could understand what the poet says about the greatest legend of Indian cinema.

I have had the pleasure of listening to the “Shahenshah” since the time I was a little boy and when he had come to a function organized by Christians and how he had spoken in the most simple language and had appealed to the most ordinary people.When he said things like, “why do you people look at me if I am an animal in a Zoo.?Why don’t you understand that I am just like one of you ?”

I next heard him give a lecture on Bio-Economics in a function I had organised in my college and had invited the Head of Economics Department of the Bombay University to speak on Bio-Economics and he was the chief guest, but his speech stunned all the Professors and students who couldn’t imagine that an actor could speak on the subject with so much authority (Dilip Sahab later told me how he had read all about the subject so that he could speak about it “and not just be a decoration piece ”
I have been a witness to any number of meetings he has addressed and seen how people went into raptures.
I have seen him talking about games like football and cricket with all the authority and with facts, names and statistics. I have seen him sweeping women of all ages off their feet. I have seen him speak about politics like even the most efficient and enlightened politician can never speak. I have seen him addressing three different meeting in one day on three different subjects and working the same miracles with words each time.

It is now more than ten years that he has been ill and is spending all his time at home with his begum Saira Banu taking better care of him then Florence Of Nightingale. But the words he has spoken in the way only he could have spoken will live on and on and reverberate in the corridors and halls of time and times to come.

Will there be another Dilip Kumar ? I very much doubt if there can be another Dilip Kumar.

WHEN B.R.CHOPRA WAITED FOR “YUSUF “FOR TWELVE LONG YEARS….

He was one of the pioneers of Indian cinema and had a formidable reputation as a maker of socially relevant films

Every big actor wanted to work with him. He was however a great admirer of Dilip Kumar who was also his very close friend who he called “Yusuf”

Chopra had directed Dilip Kumar in films like “Naya Daur” “and “Dasstaan “which was a remake of his own first film
“Afsana “with his another friend and well wisher Ashok Kumar. His son, Ravi Chopra directed the legend in “Mazdoor ” which could make any impact.

Chopra made other films and even made the T.V.serial “Mahabharat”. But ,he had a story which he believed he could only make with Dilip Kumar.

It was one more story inspired by “King Lear “,the well-known tragic play of William Shakespeare.

Chopra kept pursuing Dilip Kumar to play the lead character,but for reasons best known to the thespian, he kept Chopra waiting and Chopra didn’t direct any film till he got an answer from his friend ‘Yusuf ”

I must have heard Chopra Sahab telling me the story several times which showed how obsessed he was with the it .

In the meanwhile, there were other films like “Avataar”and “Santaan”made which were based on the same subject, but Chopra Sahab still didn’t give up his plan to make his film.

Chopra Sahab was growing old and was also falling sick. He finally handed over his favourite subject to his only son,Ravi who made the subject into “Baaghban” with Amitabh Bachchan in the role which was to be played by Dilip Kumar…..

Dilip Kumar took a late decision to direct his first film and he launched “Kalinga”with himself as Justice Kalinga it was only after he had completed the film that directors like Vijay Anand and Subhash Ghai who were shown the film by Dilip Kumar realised that it was based on the same subject of parents being neglected by their children when they grow old and how an old father takes revenge on his own children…..

“Kalinga “has still to be released even after ten years of its completion.

Will “Kalinga” be released ? That is a question that is being asked for as many years as B.R.Chopra waited for Dilip Kumar to say yes to do Chopra’s film