Reach out to make a Dilip Kumar museum out of the actor’s ancestral home
By ET Bureau | Updated:
Diplomats are usually, by nature, fond of films. Subcontinental diplomats are, again, usually, fond of Hindi films, many going to lengths at dinner tables to explain to their foreign counterparts that Indian cinema is not synonymous with Bollywood, the same way non-alignment never meant not taking a stand. With the passing of Dilip Kumar on Wednesday, the chance for mandarins of both India and Pakistan to show their fondness for Dilip saab has emerged. The haveli in which Yunus Khan, a.k.a. Dilip Kumar, grew up as a boy is in Peshawar. It needs to come alive. Declared a national heritage site in 2014 by the previous Pakistani government, the sprawling, dilapidated building has become the property of the Pakistan directorate of archaeology since last month. It now has to become a Dilip Kumar museum.
Soft power is always a hard sell when it comes to India and Pakistan. But India’s external affairs ministry could reach out to its counterpart and help establish a tasteful, aesthetic museum, with a cinema showing Tarana, Naya Daur — why, even Azaad — regularly. Old films should be digitised and cleaned up. Whatever details need to be worked out, the Peshawar museum can certainly — rather, obviously — be named Mughal-e-Azam. No brick should be left unturned to fulfil this task. The Peshawari Pathan more than deserves this.
