Dilip Kumar (1922–2021)

Too damn sanitized for a biography. Boring. Saira Banu's "Foreword" was overly fawning, off-putting. It didn't bode too well for things to come. Especially when you learn that the biographer and the star's wife are BFFs. If they had to include it, they should have appended it. So if you are not going to proffer any life lessons, what am I going to do with your glorified visiting card at this stage anyway? It's not like I am making a film and you're prospecting to act in it.

I also watched "Devdas" again in this interim just to be sure. I am inclined to think Dilip Kumar is more a "mannered" actor, like other contemporaries, than "method". Satyajit Ray's alleged "the ultimate method actor" epithet takes it a bit too far for me. Maybe a little bit for Devdas, but otherwise he had a patented manner that was unique to him and that he used for just about every other role. This is true for a lot of actors actually. So, if it suits the character, you cast the dude, and that is that.

The additional second star I give is for the description of his childhood in Peshawar. I might still go back and dip in and out of some other interesting bits. But for now it's into the deep freeze with it, if not the back burner.… (more)