Dilip Kumar, Ram Aur Shyam and Trend-setting in double roles.




Dilip Kumar, Ram Aur Shyam and Trend-setting in double roles.

Dilip Kumar played his first double role in bollywood film Ram Aur Shyam. In the late 60s, Dilip Kumar’s performance created a landmark trend which was followed in other bollywood films later on.

Chanakya, the director of Ram Aur Shyam, gave two contrasting characters to Dilip Kumar, one being a docile character, the other one being a smart character. While Ram was savagely beaten by Pran, the brother in law of Dilip Kumar, Shyam took revenge and taught Pran a lesson.

Both the Dilip Kumar’s were emotionally involved with Mumtaz and Wahida Rehman. While the tragic andaz and comedy andaz of Dilip Kumar mesmerized the viewers in the film, the romantic sequences in the film created storms as for the first time shooting was done in Kodaikanal in South India. Rafi’s songs “aye hai baharen dekho zulmo sitam”, “aaj ki raat mere” composed by Naushad, written by Sahir Ludhiyanvi and picturized on Rafi created landmark in bollywood history. All the songs of the film became super hit.

After the success of Ram Aur Shyam, most of the directors were provoked to make films with the same formula. Seeta Aur Geeta in early 70s became super hit with the same formula, Chaalbaaz in the mid-80s did great business with the same formula, and Kishen Kanhaiya in the early 90s did fantastic business. Hema Malini, Sri Devi and Anil Kapoor played the double roles like Dilip Kumar in Ram Aur Shyam.

Dilip Kumar had remained a trend-setter in respect of tragic performances which other actors like Manoj Kumar, Rajender Kumar and Shahrukh Khan had followed. Even if they did not imitate Dilip Kumar, they were influenced by Dilip Kumar. Even character actor Kader Khan was influenced with Dilip Kumar’s style of acting. In respect of type of films where Dilip Kumar played the lead roles, the films had remained trend-setter.
Dilip Kumar’s Devdas had been remade a number of time, and whoever played the role of Devdas, they could not resist themselves from following few expressions of Dilip Kumar. Same is the case of Ram Aur Shyam. In the history of bollywood films, the first film which entertained the viewers with double roles of contrasting characters was Ram Aur Shyam and the film had not lost its appeal even today, after 40 years of its date of release. The film and the music should be restored.