Dilip
Kumar
was
a
great
mimic
and
used
to
imitate
the
dance
moves
of
Helen
with
effortless
ease,
according
to
his
wife
Saira
Banu.
She
recalled
this
trait
of
her
husband
in
his
autobiography
'The
Substance
And
The
Shadow'.
Banu,
who
wrote
the
foreword
to
the
book
published
in
2014,
wanted
his
admirers
to
be
acquainted,
through
incidents
and
episodes,
with
Dilip
Kumar's
"innate
simplicity,
straightforwardness
and
immeasurable
goodness
of
heart".
She
considered
her
husband,
who
passed
away
Wednesday
at
the
age
of
98,
a
man
full
of
joie
de
vivre
(the
joy
of
living)
and
as
mischievous
as
a
child
prankster.
"When
I
stopped
my
work
in
films
and
took
over
the
management
of
the
house,
sometime
after
marriage,
my
new
avatar
was
replicated
hilariously
by
Dilip
Sahab
a
few
times
having
me
and
my
mother
in
splits," she
wrote.
"He
would
perch
a
pair
of
spectacles
on
his
head,
a
telephone
diary
pressed
under
his
arms,
and
carry
a
dress
outfit
precariously
for
showing
to
the
tailor
in
one
hand
while
keeping
one
half
of
his
pyjama
drawn
high
on
his
leg
(much
like
me)
and
he
would
romp
around
absentmindedly
in
the
house
impersonating
me.
It
was
a
sight,"
she
reminisced.
Another
hilarious
and
perfect
copy
was
his
grand
depiction
of
the
dancing
queen
Helen's
famous
cabaret
item,
she
said.
"It
had
to
be
seen
to
be
believed!
His
imitation
of
the
'Monica,
O
my
darling'
number
was
mind-boggling!
I
was
amazed!
What
a
superb
duplication
he
did
of
Helenji!
He
seductively
projected
his
leg
out
of
the
slit
of
a
towel
and
with
the
batting
of
his
thick
eyelashes
to
give
that
come-hither
look,
he
paid
his
own
tribute
to
Hindi
cinema's
most
adorable
seductress," Saira
Banu
wrote.
"I
wish
I
had
filmed
it
quietly
to
show
all
of
you
what
a
good
mimic
he
is," she
also
mentioned.
Dilip
Kumar
once
also
tried
to
depict
the
difficult
steps
of
famous
Kathak
star
Gopi
Krishna
from
V
Shantaram's
"Jhanak
Jhanak
Payal
Baaje"
(1955).
"To
add
conviction
to
the
dance
performance,
Dilip
Sahab
would
recite
the
necessary
tabla
'bols'
(words)
exquisitely,
chanting
and
doing
'chakkers'
(rounds)
like
a
professional
dancer,
his
tousled
mop
of
hair
bouncing
in
a
frenzy
all
over
his
forehead
and
you
could
not
miss
his
mischievous
eyes
darting
to
and
fro.
We
rolled
over
on
the
ground
with
laughter," the
book
by
Hay
House
India
said.
Once
Gopi
Krishna
himself
was
a
witness
to
one
such
spectacle,
when
he
visited
the
couple
with
the
renowned
danseuse
Sitara
Devi,
it
said.
According
to
Saira
Banu,
a
man
like
Dilip
Kumar
walks
rarely
on
this
earth.
"I
started
my
life
as
an
admiring
fan,
and
fortunate
am
I
to
marry
him
and
see
the
different
aspects
and
qualities
of
this
great
human
being
who
was
not
like
any
of
the
people
I
had
met
and
spoken
to."