Born in Peshawar, arrested for an anti-British speech, got into films against his parent's wishes, raised money for charity, loved, lost, loved again & married. Loved cricket, served parliament. And was a peerless actor Dilip Kumar's story is so woven into our nation's fabric! - Joy Bhattacharjya
The Substance and the Shadow:
What else can be given rather than 5 stars.It is the autobiography of the best actor our film industry have ever had.The book took the reader to a wonderful voyage of Yousuf Sahab's life.What a great actor and person he is. Long Live Dilip Kumar. - Harsh Sharma Mar 22, 2015
read this book to know what a legend Mr.Dilip Kumar is..i personally think that it is more of a biography because,with due respect,Dilip sahab's memory and recall are not fully functional for the past many years..anyways it is a very well written book and after reading it i think that Dilip Sahab deserves a Bharat Ratna for sure!! --Tabish Mar 1, 2015
Autobiography gives you an insight to the persons life. Many known and many unknown facts. The struggle, the sacrifice, the love of the family, the mistakes committed in life, the efforts put in to get the desired results, the humane side of the person and the suffering undergone in life - all these - helps the reader to know the individual. A good inspiring book. --S.M.A.Millath Dec 19, 2014
The Substance And The Shadow: An Autobiography is the autobiography of the veteran actor, Yousuf Khan, popularly known as Dilip Kumar. This book consists of various interesting anecdotes from the life of Dilip Kumar, the legend who captured many hearts with his prolific performances.
Dilip Kumar, arguably the greatest Indian actor to have ever blazed the silver screen, is an icon in every sense of the term. His journey in movies is nothing short of a roller-coaster ride. This book covers his whole journey right from his struggling days to his meeting with Devika Rani which led to him getting a break in movies to the glorious era of movies like Andaz, Daag and Devdas to name a few.
It also covers sensitive areas such as his own affected psyche because of playing a tragedian in movies time and again and how he recovered from it by doing rib-ticklingly funny movies. Moreover, the book also gives us an insight into the fairy tale love story of Dilip Kumar and the ethereal beauty Saira Banu and their wonderful marriage.
The Substance And The Shadow: An Autobiography will prove to be an enjoyable book for any Bollywood movie buff as it gives them an opportunity to get insights about the biggest star of Hindi films from the legend himself. The book is in its first edition and was published by Hay House India in 2014. It is available in hardcover.
One reader write about this book, 'There are moments in the book which made me cry like when his brother dies and moments that made me laugh like Persian Cats warming bed or Mukri getting into Nadira's room at night and she screaming in fright.Its factual and gives us insight into his life from his birth till now,but I hope it was first written in Urdu then translated.Because Uday Tara Nayar's writing is uninspired,she has low imagination and lesser vocabulary.I had read Dev Anand's autobiography and it was sweet and words were used like pearls to let the readers imagine.Here the writing is drab and she herself acknowledges she has no knowledge of Urdu in which Dilip Kumar speaks.Hope he had got it written in Urdu then read himself and do corrections,then later on get it translated in different languages.Even a video release of the conversation would have been great.Its a moment lost.Though its still a great book and still there is a lot to know so hope there is Part-II too.'
Author: Udaya Tara Nayar is a famous journalist and writer who penned the thoughts of Dilip Kumar for his autobiography, The Substance and The Shadow: An Autobiography.