Indian actor Dilip Kumar dies at age of 98

Muhammed Yusuf Khan, popularly known as Dilip Kumar, one of India's most respected actors known for his characters as a tragic hero in Bollywood films, took his last breath on Wednesday morning, his family said.

Wednesday, 7th July 2021

India: Muhammed Yusuf Khan, popularly known as Dilip Kumar, one of India's most respected actors known for his characters as a tragic hero in Bollywood films, took his last breath on Wednesday morning, his family said. Dilip Kumar is very popular in the Caribbean region, his movies used to loves in the region. Dilip Kumar was 98 and had been ailing for a great time, one of the doctors treating him told reporters. "He had breathing problems...We tried very hard. We had believed he would reach 100," the actor's doctor Jalil Parkar noted. Mohammed Yusuf Khan born in 1922 in Peshawar, presently in Pakistan; the screen name knew him of Dilip Kumar once he entered Bollywood in the 1940s. He is sustained by his wife, Saira Banu, a topmost Bollywood leading lady in the 1960s & 1970s. Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan both showed condolences, with Modi stating Kumar was "blessed with unparalleled brilliance". "For my generation, legend Kumar was the greatest, also most versatile actor," Khan said on Twitter. The last funeral will be held later on Wednesday. Officials in Peshawar in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said they were planning to reestablish the actor's parental home in a narrow lane of the city. "We are now working on its conservation,” noted Dr Abdus Samad, director-general of the archaeology department. TRAGEDY KING After going from Peshawar to Pune, in India, Kumar did his first film, "Jwar Bhata", in 1944, which tanked. His finding role came in 1949, with "Andaz", where he played a jilted lover trapped in a triangle between the woman he loves & her husband. That role catapulted him to stardom, and was the start of a decade where he made a career of playing tragic roles. Bimal Roy’s adaptation of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s seminal novel "Devdas" was the turning position in an already prosperous career, catapulting him to super-stardom. His characterised as the doomed lover in "Devdas" made Kumar the epithet of “tragedy king” - the man who embodied melancholy on screen. "An institution has gone .. whenever the history of Indian Cinema will be written, it shall ever be 'before Dilip Kumar & after Dilip Kumar", actor Amitabh Bachchan said on Twitter. Dilip Kumar said he felt weighed down after years of performing tragic roles. In the late 1950’s, he made a conscious effort to play more upbeat roles, performing in romantic films like "Madhumati", "Aan", and "Naya Daur". Another significant career milestone was K Asif’s "Mughal-E-Azam", in which Kumar played Prince Salim, son of the Mughal emperor Akbar. In his following years, although the hits were more challenging to come by, Kumar retained his stature as India's 1st marquee star, whose face on a poster was enough for audiences to throng the theatres.