Dharmendra No More!

A Hero adoration, fascination and love for whom never left my heart—from my childhood days to the present day. Yes, the Hero for me! Embodiment of a person I could trust and depend upon since my tenderest years! Let it be just a screen person or an image only, he lived in my heart like the dearest member of the family! Yes, he's been family, also like a father figure, like my own father! A protector, the He-Man who destroys evil with his bare hands; an umbrella that covers the weak or the vulnerable at every dark corner; and the Hero who conquers all obstacles and hurdles with smiling ease! Dharmendra! The name itself is a legacy and the countless images that follow and immerse the legacy in colorful vastness! My heart housed in an ageing frame now is still immersed in the legacy! What a hero Dharmendra (1935--2025) has been! Almost hero-worshiped him @5 and still adoring him @65, and mourning his loss today with an inconsolable heart! Kudos for one of the greatest movie heroes of world cinema of all times!

A few days back rumours about Dharmendra's demise flooded the social media and even some irresponsible mainstream media. So much so that Hema Malini had to post clarifications about his wellbeing and later his successful homecoming. But alas! The Hero could hold that Destiny back only for a few days more, finally calling it a day at a Mumbai hospital today. After nearly a 7-decade long career in Indian Cinema during which he never called it a day as long as screen performances were concerned. His two brilliant actor sons, Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol adored and loved him as much, often bringing him in a movie project for the love of his never-fading screen presence. Not just his sons, but many other top actors also brought him in for the unique opportunity to perform with him. A Legend!

No! It's pointless to write about his career and work! It's available everywhere in huge and loving abundance. I'll only write about a simple feeling about him in me when I was a primary school child. My father used to send us, with an escort, often to the movie houses for mostly action-adventure movies involving King Kong, Dara Singh and, of course, Dharmendra. My younger brother and I wept in the theatre when we watched Dharmendra getting stabbed and dying, writhing on the floor in pain, in that particular movie in the early sixties. But toward the end of the film we erupted in ecstasy when we saw him active and alive again. In that tender age we could hardly decode a flashback! Yes! Flashbacks can really help now and forever! We can fly far back to Phool Aur Patthar or Satyakam or Mera Gaon Mera Desh or Anupama; move forward to Aankhen or Raja Jani or Pratiggya or Sholay or Chupke Chupke or Hukumat; and back and forth to numerous others like on a time travel! Forever Dharmendra!