'Yeh mera deewanapan hai..': Dilip Kumar's incomparable acting, inspiring life

Debuting on screen in British India, appearing in some of Indian cinema's greatest classics and present in the hearts of a vast multitude of fans for over eight decades, Dilip Kumar was not just Bollywood's oldest living star but also an Indian institution.

The "Tragedy King" who excelled in broad comedy too, could play a prince or a peasant, a betrayed lover or a stern patriarch or with equal ease, display profound intensity or a jaunty nonchalance with the same skill, Dilip Kumar, who passed away on Wednesday, repeatedly reinvented himself as both an actor and a person.

"Taqdeeren badal jaati hai, zamana badal jata hai, mulkon ki tareekh badal jaati hai, Shahenshah badal jaate hai, magar is badalti huyi duniya mein mohabbat jis insaan ka daman thaam leti hai, wohi insaan nahi badalta..." he said, as Prince Salim in one of his most memorable roles. And this might describe Dilip Kumar's own long, inspiring life but not his acting.

For just over two decades later after masterfully playing the rebellious son facing-off a stern and dutiful father in "Mughal-e-Azam" (1960), he could take on the latter role in "Shakti" (1980) with same intensity, though not the bombast of Prithviraj Kapoor.

That was the calibre of Mohammed Yousuf Khan, alias Dilip Kumar, a natural actor using the "method system" before it was even named in a career lasting over half a century.

A Pathan boy who got personally picked by then Bollywood reigning diva Devika Rani to debut opposite her in "Jwar Bhata" (1944), he went on to become the tragedy face of Bollywood's first trinity – where he outlived and - arguably outperformed - Raj Kapoor's naivety and Dev Anand's cheerful insouciance. All subsequent superstars from Amitabh Bachchan to Shah Rukh Khan would owe him a debt.