Dilip Kumar’s best encapsulated the finest in popular cinema. Secure in his craft, he acted only in 60-odd films in a career spanning more than five decades. Kumar, whose real name was Yusuf Khan, even refused the part that made Omar Sharif a Hollywood star in David Lean’s Lawrence Of Arabia.

His brooding intensity and comic flair influenced Bollywood A-listers such as Rajendra Kumar, Manoj Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan. An obsessive perfectionist, he learnt to play the sitar for a song sequence in Kohinoor. Kumar was so immersed in the self-destructive protagonist of Devdas (1955) that he had to undergo psychiatric counselling. The doctor advised comedies as therapy. And he excelled in them too.

In the pre-independence era, Pramathesh Barua and K L Saigal had swayed a million hearts as Devdas. Yet a generation later Dilip Kumar made the part his own. He induced intensity into loving and losing in a way that pain became indistinguishable from pleasure.

His most-remembered performances had distinct tragic undertones. As a conflicted prince who rebels against his father, the emperor, for the woman he loves, Kumar was starch-perfect with his diction in Mughal-e-Azam. A scene with Madhubala, where he fondles her face with a peacock feather, is iconic for its eroticism.

A notable moment in his career came with Ganga Jumna (1961) where he conveyed the despair of the innocent villager forced to become an outlaw. “To me, it was his ultimate performance,” Amitabh Bachchan told TOI in 1990. Ironically, the Censor Board recommended major cuts to it on grounds of vulgarity and violence. The film was released following Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s intervention. But the struggle to get it exhibited took its toll on him. He never produced a film again.

Like Raj Kapoor, and Shah Rukh Khan, Kumar’s roots were in Peshawar where his father was a fruit merchant. The family shifted to Deolali near Nasik, and Bombay, in late 1920s.

He loved watching movies. Kumar once said he had watched For Whom the Bell Tolls, starring Ingrid Bergman, 21 times in seven days. Among others, he was influenced by the 1930s Hollywood star, Paul Muni.

A chance meeting in Nainital with Devika Rani, a top star of the 1930s who co-owned Bombay Talkies, led to his debut in Jwar Bhata (1944). He picked the screen name from three options -- Vasudev and Jahangir being the others -- provided by renowned Hindi writer Bhagwati Charan Verma, then associated with the film studio, revealed film historian Sanjit Narwekar in Kumar’s biography, The Last Emperor.

After watching it, Baburao Patel, the much-feared editor of Filmindia, whose reviews could make or mar a film those days, wrote, “Dilip Kumar, the new hero of Bombay Talkies, is an anaemic addition…He looks gaunt and famished and strikes one as a long ill-treated convict who has escaped from a jail…His acting efforts in this picture amount to nil.”

But Kumar improved in Nitin Bose’s Milan (1946), a profitable adaptation of Rabindranath Tagore’s Nouka Doobi. Kumar once said, “I learnt from Nitin Bose the value of silence,” as evident in his signature pauses in later films. His first superhit was the tragic Jugnu (1947), with Noorjehan as leading lady.

Historian Ashok Raj describes the years between Jugnu and Ganga Jumna (1961) as “the classical period” of his career, ranging from tragic love stories (Andaz, Devdas), swashbuckling costume dramas (Azad, Kohinoor) and semi-socialist yarns (Naya Daur, Paigham) to the romantic supernatural (Madhumati), the experimental (Musafir), where he sang his only film song (Laagi nahi chhute), and even a Left-leaning project (Footpath), a proto-Deewar.

After Ganga Jumna, Kumar took a break, acting in only two flops in the next five years. His marriage to Saira Banu in November 1966 -- he was 44, she was 22 -- proved lucky for him. Kumar’s double-role venture, Ram Aur Shyam, celebrated its golden jubilee. But by then middle-age had crawled onto his appearance. In the 1970s, Kumar was largely reduced to a yesteryear star.

The thespian made a stirring return in Kranti (1981) and Shakti (1981).The new Kumar was occasionally over the top. But superhits such as Vidhaata, Karma and Saudagar introduced him to a new generation of film buffs. A secret marriage and divorce to a Hyderabadi socialite, Asma, became fodder for gossip magazines during the same phase. There were other unpleasant memories too when he was targeted for his efforts to bridge ties between India and Pakistan.

Now he is gone. But in every movie rerun, Dilip Kumar will continue to astound and enrich us with his gift to lift a scene with silence and soul.

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- Born as Yusuf Khan on December 11, 1922. He was born in the same month as Raj Kapoor and in the same place, Peshawar, but was two years elder. Yusuf Khan's father was a fruit merchant

- Before joining films, Yusuf Khan worked in a military canteen at Poona; set up a fruit stall next to it with his employer's permission

- He was interviewed for a film career by Devika Rani, wife of Bombay Talkies boss Himanshu Rai. She asked four questions: "Have you ever acted on the stage?"; 'No madam" was his reply; "Would you like to act in films?"; "Yes madam" he said; "Do you smoke?"; "No madam"; "Can you speak Urdu fluently?" "Yes madam"

- He lost his parents and his disabled brother Ayub Khan in rapid succession. This is believed to have deeply affected him in his youth

- The phase from Devdas to Mughal-e-Azam is considered to be the best in his work

- In 1961, he turned producer with Ganga Jumna

- In 1962, he was offered Lawrence Of Arabia, which he turned down. The role was done by Omar Sharif

- In 1970s, his career took a dip with films like Gopi, Sagina and Bairaag failing at the box office. He took a break for six years and returned with Manoj Kumar’s Kranti in 1981

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- Devdas Kaun kambakth hai jo bardasht karne ke liye peeta hai. Main toh peeta hoon ke bas saans le sakoon

- Saudagar Haq hamesha sar jhukake nahin... sar uthake maanga jaata hain

- Mughal-e-Azam Mera dil bhi aapka koi Hindustan nahi ... jispar aap hukumat karein Shakti Joh log sacchai ki tarafdari ki kasam khate hain... zindagi unke bade kathin imtihaan leti hain

- Vidhaata Jagawar agar zindagi mein bada banna hain... toh chhoti harkate chhod do

- Daag Din mein iski zaroorat hoti hai zaalim raat toh khud ek sharab hoti hai

- Aadmi Zindagi bhar doosron ka boj uthataa raha hoon aur aaj khud ek boj ban gaya hoon

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- Yahaan badla wafa ka bewafai ke siva kya hai Noorjehan-Rafi duet, composed by Firoz Nizami, was from 1947 hit Jugnu

- Gaaye ja geet milan ke Mela (1948) had great songs by Naushad. This one, sung by Mukesh, was memorable

- Meri kahani bhoolnewale Deedar reinforced the tragedy king image. This Naushad tune was sung by Rafi

- Yeh hawa yeh raat yeh chandni Talat Mehmood’s voice suited the thespian; this one by Sajjad Hussain is a classic from Sangdil (1952)

- Aye mere dil kahin aur chal From Daag (1952), composed by Shankar-Jaikishen and sung by Talat Mehmood

- Hum aaj kahin dil kho baithe Naushad’s score and Mukesh’s sonorous voice from Andaz (1949)

- Suhana safar aur yeh mausam haseen One of Dilip Kumar’s personal favourites, from Madhumati (1958), rendered by Mukesh, scored by Salil Chowdhury

- Nain lad jai hain Dilip Kumar did a fast-paced folk dance for this Ganga Jumna (1961) number. Naushad-Rafi combination again