Quila Of A  Film, Why Was The Great Dilip Kumar’s Last Film So Awful? Quila Completes 27 Years

The  mythical Meena  Kumari’s last film was  not the timeless Pakeezah but an atrocity  named  Gomti Ke Kinare where  she  looked  ill at ease , and not only for health reasons. And India’s  biggest celluloid  superstar  Rajesh Khanna’s swan song was the  terrible Riyaasat.

Hard  to believe  that Dilip Kumar’s  career as  an  actor ended with Quila  in 1998 …or did  Dilip Kumar  end  his career  prematurely  because of Quila,a purported suspense  thriller where  everything that could possibly go wrong, did  go wrong, leaving the Thespian’s  farewell performance  more than a tad misconceived.

Why did the great actor, perhaps the most accomplished  actor ever in Indian cinema, agree to be part  of a film so infuriatingly  infantile? When I  had asked   the Thespian  this question, he had smiled and  held his silence.

He then said, “One makes mistakes and  one learns  from them.Shooting for this  film was  a nightmare  I would  like  to forget.”

In Quila, released on 10 April  1998, Dilip Kumar was cast in a double role for the  first time since the  blockbuster Ram Aur Shyam in 1966.In-between  he did a  triple role in the disastrous  Bairaag.Quila was directed  by Umesh Mehra  whose track record was no great shakes.

Dilip Kumar’s co-star in Quila was Rekha  who also starred  with Dilip Kumar in the unreleased Aag Ka  Dariya. The  film directed  by  S V Rajendra Singh Babu never made it into theatres. There was  some talk of restoring and releasing the  film some years ago. Providentially all such talk died  a quiet death.

The same is true of Kalinga, the  film that Dilip Kumar was officially  directing in the 1990s. Unofficially he had directed several of his  films  including Ganga Jumna, Dil Diya Dard Liya . Kalinga cost its poor producer Sudhakar Bokade all his  wealth, savings  and  property. This was  also the last film that Raj Kiran  shot for before he disappeared.

A few years ago the nation woke up to the jolting news that  Kalinga would be dusted  off the shelf and released. The brainwave proved  abortive.In fact  posthumous  releases  must be  legally banned. You can’t do an Om Prakash Zindabad to Om Puri after he is  no more.