KYA EK SHAHENSHAH KE LIYE HUM SAB MILKAR EK TYOHAAR NAHI MANA SAKTE ? By Ali Peter John

We as a nation are fast growing into a people who easily forget our greatest people as soon as they become a part of history and are of no use to our present- Ali Peter John

We may howl and cry and scream and threaten to commit suicide or immolate ourselves when they pass away into eternity ( or whatever that place is called ), but all this raving and ranting and tearing of hair in mourning and sorrow is just a brief interlude which ends with the passing of time.

All that remains of the great man or woman is a tombstone in a graveyard, a statue in a corner which is rarely dusted or washed or a photograph on some dirty and sinister wall in the office of a wild and wily politician or a sinister holy man .

These thoughts come to my mind as I pass the Juhu Kabristan where the mortal remains of Dilip Kumar rest.

And I think of all the millions of words of every language spewed out by hollow, holy and holier than thou men and women to express their emotions about the death of Dilip Kumar and the end of a golden era.

And I think and wonder if any of those worthy men and women even have a few words and thoughts to share about the man who knew how they would react to his passing away.

I too am a practical man and know that I have to live with this world, but I know that I can swear and say that I cannot fall to the lower depths to which some of my worthy human being friends fall .

I have kept a track of all the pledges and promises made by his admirers and disciples on the afternoon he was buried, but I also know that no steps I have been taken to keep any of those pledges and promises and even oaths.

They will carry their own crosses and pay for the wrongs they have done or are doing, but I will keep doing what I can do to keep his memory alive as long as I live .

December 11 will be Dilip Kumar's 99th birth anniversary. And his fans and admirers may do or not do things to observe his anniversary, but I have a humble plan which I cannot fulfill on my own, but a group of the Shahenshah's admirers can surely do.

There are two films of the legend of the seventy or eighty films he did during his entire life time which have been completed , but have unfortunately not been released .....

The first is " Aag Ka Darya" which he did for a South Indian producer called R Venkatraman and directed by a national award winning Kannada director S V Rajendra Singh Babu.

It had besides Dilip Kumar, Rekha, Padmini Kolhapure, Amrita Singh Rajiv Kapoor and Amrish Puri in lead roles.

The film took years to make and the producer finally went broke and Dilip Kumar gave him a place in his own bunglow to live with his brother Ahsan Khan.

Dilip Kumar made every effort to revive the film every time it was stuck due to financial problems, but nothing worked and the film is still said to be lying in the cans.

Dilip Kumar is said to have been the creative mind behind many of the films made with him, but he made his "official debut as a director with "Kalinga", with himself as Justice Kalinga, a retired judge who is ill-treated by his children and how he does justice to his cruel children.

The film could have been made without any major problems , but Dilip Kumar and his inexperienced producer Sudhakar Bokade had endless arguments and quarrels over petty matters, mostly about finance and the film was finally shelved

Efforts were made by Dilip Kumar to save the film. He even had a private show of Kalinga for two directors whose work he respected , Vijaye Anand and Subhash Ghai .

Subhash left the show without expressing his opinion and Vijay Anand stayed on to meet Dilip Kumar and tell him that he had not made a film according to his standards and that he could "repair" the film if Dilip Kumar trusted him . That was the last heard about the film .

What I want to say is that there must have been something good about both these films, especially because they had Dilip Kumar in them .

I am not saying that Dilip Kumar was God, but Dilip Kumar was at least one of the most brilliant talents we have had and one of the finest human beings created by God ....

It is in this light that I plead and implore with some great minds that we still have to have a look at both these films and place their hands on where they have their conscience and do something about the films and let the entire industry make all out efforts to see that two films are released on December 11.

That is the least this industry could do ( and can do ) for a man who could do and did all that he could to give this industry a status that it will remember and cherish for ages and generations to come .

KYA HUM HAMAARE INDUSTRY KO JAAN DENE WAALE INSAAN KE LIYE ITNA BHI NAHI KAR SAKENGE ? KAR SAKENGE TOH KHUDAH HUM SAB KA BALA KARE . NA KAR SAKE, TOH KHUDAH HUME DIL SE MAAF KARE