Yesterday Dilip Kumar silently celebrated his 94th birthday at Mumbai. The legendary film actor is not keeping good health for the last couple of years and is on the wheel chair. Dilip Kumar has worked in only 60 films in about 60 years of his film career, meaning thereby that, on average, he worked one film a year.. He preferred quality over quantity. He was very choosy in the selection of his roles and that is the precise reason that while some of his films no doubt didn’t do good business at the box office, there never was any film of his in which he flopped. Every role that he played was exceptional.
Dilip Kumar has been a role model for all the film heroes who followed him in the film industry of the sub-continent. His pronunciation was excellent and he spoke more through his facial expressions than words. Amitabh Bachan has correctly billed him as the king of the understatement.
Dilip was a perfectionist, to a fault in every role that he played whether it was that of a prince, doctor, dacoit, singer, romantic hero, blind person, musician, lawyer etc etc. Actors like him are born once in a blue moon. They are a rare commodity indeed.
Dilip Kumar has won every film award one can think of. He is spending last days of his life in solitude with a very devoted wife Saira Bano who has been looking after quite well in the autumn of his life.

