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Journalism of Courage
General chatter was reduced to hushed tones, followed by silence, once the song Suhana safar aur ye mausam haseen began in the background. This classic, sung by Mukesh for Madhumati (1958), seemed apt as the film’s leading lady, veteran actress Vyjayanthimala took the mike to congratulate her co-actor Dilip Kumar on the launch of his autobiography, titled Dilip Kumar — The Substance and the Shadow (Hay House Media; Rs 699), on Monday evening at Grand Hyatt Mumbai.
Calling her first film, Devdas (1955),with Dilip saab, a turning point in her career, she recounted, “I was playing Chandramukhi and for my first shot, I was to say ‘Aur kitna piyoge Devdas?’. I was rehearsing this line, nervous that my south Indian accent would ruin it. But when the camera rolled, Dilip was missing because he was outside, running around the studio compound to make sure he looked his part of a breathless drunk with bloodshot eyes. That was the first of many lessons in acting I learnt from Dilip saab over the seven films we did.”
At the book launch, nostalgia was the dominant emotion as several film industry stalwarts — Kumar’s friends, colleagues and admirers — spoke of how the actor has impacted their lives. Karan Johar played host for the evening, while Madhuri Dixit-Nene and Priyanka Chopra lit the lamp with Vyjayanthimala. Singers Shaan and Javed Ali sang a medley of Kumar’s hit numbers. Amitabh Bachchan read an excerpt from the autobiography on Kumar’s first moment in front of the camera for the film Jwar Bhatta (1944). Aamir Khan read out a poem, penned especially for the veteran actor by Prasoon Joshi.
The hour-long programme, that had Tina and Anil Ambani with mother Kokilaben, Javed Akhtar, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Rajkumar Hirani, Zeenat Aman, Prem Chopra, Salim Khan and Kiran Rao, among others in attendance, drew to a close with the book’s unveiling. Holding on to Saira Banu, Kumar stepped on stage to reveal the book’s cover with Bachchan, Dharmendra, Aamir Khan and journalist Udaya Tara Nayar, who helped the actor write the book.
EFS
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