“He Retired 40 Years Too Early,” Kamal Haasan On Dilip Kumar

Kamal Haasan who idolizes Dilip Saab reveals he wanted to remake one of his most beloved Tamil films Thevar Magan into Hindi with Dilip Saab and himself as father and son.

But Dilip Saab declined.

“I even offered to move out of the project, thereby foregoing the pleasure and honour of working with my idol. I thought Dilip Saab was not comfortable with the Tamil-Brahmin ambience of the original. So I offered to turn the father and son’s characters  to Pathans and cast Shah Rukh Khan as Dilip Saab’s son. But he still declined.”

 It was then that the mighty Thespian came out with the real reason for his reluctance to  do the Thevar Magan remake.

“He found the theme too violent.And he  has sworn never to do violent films,” reveals Kamal Haasan.

The ultimate method actor who regaled audiences with his pitch-perfect performances in Bimal Roy’s Devdas, Nitin Bose’s Ganga Jumna  and K Asif’s Mughal-e-Azam couldn’t bring himself to do violent roles and films.

 Reveals Kamalji, “As a child he had witnessed the  savagery and brutality of Partition in his home town in Peshawar. His  family was butchered. He escaped the bloodshed by hiding under a bed without food and water for many days. And you know what kept him alive?A little sparrow that perched itself near his hiding place and reminded him there was life outside.But  Yusuf Saab could never face violence after that even on screen.”

Kamal Haasan is very upset with the awesome Dilip Kumar for giving up too early. “He had no right to retire so early. I think he gave up 40 years too early, thereby depriving us of many path-breaking performances that may have happened if he hadn’t lost interest. But what he has done in the past is staggering.Mughal-e-Azam and Ganga Jumna make my jaws drop every time I view them. I can’t see a single flaw in his performance. Best actor this country has ever produced? Hands down! He is beyond a national treasure.”