Fifty-three years in show business. It’s been a long innings. A flawless performance. Hooking bouncers, ducking under them. Striking boundries, negotiating googlies. Steadily... patiently... dilligently. While younger colleagues have retired hurt and some others, even younger, are waiting, to join him on a sticky wicket hoping he’ll help them survive a hostile spell.

On December 11, he enters his 75th year. But as someone remarked with wide-eyed wonder just the other day, "He hasn’t changed much, has he?” Not much, you had to admit. If anything, the fine network of wrinkles and the few extra pounds have made the once larger-than-life movie moghul less awesome, more human. Easier to approach and not quite so intimidating. The second generation producers like Subhash Ghai and Umesh Mehra who once daren’t even dream of going to him with an offer are today directing him and marvelling at his “co-operation and dedication”. And exploding many myths. At last the world’s beginning to realise that Dilip Kumar is not the ogre he’s made out to be. He won’t just swipe the director’s chair from under him and take over the project. No, he’s no Goliath despite his towering, almost omnipotent presence.

He’s pure magic for directors. Someone who gives their project the seal of approval as soon as he gives the nod. And for the stars of today and tomorrow he’s a muse they can rely on, always. An institution in himself. Just watching his films is a comprehensive acting course. Shah Rukh Khan, who’s often been compared to the legend (“maybe it’s because of the way I look, even my parents commented on it when I was born, or maybe it’s my hairstyle”), rates DK on par with the Hollywood giants like Marlon Brando and is convinced that if he was born across the seven seas he’d have most definitely won several Oscars. “When people take our names in the same breath, it belittles the importance of Dilip Kumar. It’s flattering to me but I can’t even dream of reaching the position he’s in today,” says a not-usually-modest Shah Rukh.

Dilip Kumar certainly inspires a feeling of awe. And while most actors would feel angry and humiliated if they’re told to just imitate another matinee idol, they don’t mind if that idol happens to be Dilip Kumar. Jackie Shroff openly admits that during Ram Lakhan and Khalnayak he could see that Subhash Ghai was missing the thespian... searching for him in Jackie. “I was always told to keep him in mind,” Jackie confesses candidly and it’s obvious he didn’t mind Ghai’s instructions.

He’s the stuff legends are made of. A neighbour remembers how whenever he strolled into Otter’s club, Bandra, a hushed silence would descend over the premisis. Every eye would be turned on him, and Dilip Kumar, knowing very well the effect he was having, would walk into the spotlight... slowly, sedately, with majestic stateliness. There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that Dilip Kumar is a star... a superstar... a phenomenon. And he knows it. He knows that he only has to flash that smile, switch on his charm and turn those compelling eyes on someone to bowl that person over. And yet, that knowledge, amazingly, hasn’t turned him into a megalomaniac. The metamorphosis into Dilip Kumar, the moghul, hasn’t wiped out the memory of Yusuf Khan. He can still savour the taste of a keema pau. He can still be charmed by the birds in his garden. And he can still leave you speechless with yet another shot. A few of his colleagues, his directors and admirers whose life has enriched at one time or another say why Dilip Kumar is THE LAST EMPEROR.

(...contd)