Priceless

February 14, 2021

Dispute over pricing of Dilip Kumar’s ancestral home disappoints fans

Only when one thought that the promise of conserving the properties of Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor was being finally fulfilled, a dispute has arisen over the valuation of the property. According to media reports, the gap between the prices proposed by the buyer and the seller is too wide to be bridged and the deal is close to falling apart.

The property in question is the house that Dilip Kumar left as a child to go to Bombay with his family because it was though that the prospects were brighter in that big city for their dried fruit business in particular. The city obviously had a greater cash flow and the regular route of fruit business from the Afghanistan/Central Asia to the Indian subcontinent was facilitated by the businesses in Afghanistan and the then North Western Frontier Province.

Back then, no one knew that the son of a fruit merchant would go on to write the cinema history of the sub-continent. The industry made Dilip Kumar a household name and concomitantly the city of Peshawar proud. The property changed hands, as properties do with the changing fortunes of individuals and families, but remained under the spotlight as a prospective heritage site.

People are often reluctant to negotiate with the government when their private properties are being eyed for heritage, museum or conservation sites because they know that it involves high-handedness on part of the powers that be. The governments in our part of the world are more occupied with bread and butter issues than the rather far-fetched and intangible issues of cultural preservation. Many think that this is a luxury the government of a poor country can least afford. It is what the richer countries and societies are supposed to indulge in while the governments of countries desperately trying to balance their books, exercise high-handedness in putting a value which is often rather woeful compared to the market valuation of that property.

This appears to be the case with the said property where the price asked for is much higher than that being offered. Obviously, the owners don’t want to be the sacrificial lambs in the cause of heritage and culture. Actually, the property must be viewed as a prospective bonanza that can bring in a premium much bigger than the ones in currency because the property has certain specific value and significance attached to it.

The price asked for is much higher than that being offered. Obviously, the owners don’t want to be the sacrificial lambs for the cause of heritage and culture.

The relevant departments of the government should take all these facts into consideration and pay the price being asked for or close to it instead of imposing an irrelevant pricing mechanism. Such valuation on the whole appears grossly unfair. To acquire private property while paying a low price is hugely unjust.

There has been news recently that the River Ravi Authority is also facing citizen unrest as current residents are to be evicted and displaced from their houses, industrial units and agricultural farms. The question is again the same: an unjust system of evaluation that places the price bar much lower than the market.

Many properties are acquired by the government in the name of development projects, thoroughfares and public good; a piddling price is paid in return.

It would be a shame if the deal does not materialise. Dilip Kumr is now nearing the century mark. He has been a favourite idol for a huge number of Pakistanis and obviously a very proud son of a land that for no rational reasons has produced so many theatre and film stars. It could not only be because of the good looks of the people hailing from that region alone because looks can take you only so far. Talent has to be fostered for the good looks to be taken seriously and Dilip Kumar certainly had more talent that good looks.

Earlier, it made international news that the properties were being converted into heritage sites and the government was lauded for it. Given the prickly nature of India-Pakistan relations, it was also seen as some kind of a diplomatic coup but the news that the gap between the cup and the lip is only due to price haggling is rather sad and frustrating. It casts the government in very poor light.

Dilip Kumar has been lucky to visit his house twice since leaving it. Prithvi Raj and Raj Kapoor were not so fortunate, even though Raj Kapoor’s sons were later allowed to visit Pakistan. They also signed Zeba Bakhtiar for their film Hina. With their cash, they could have easily bought the properties for preservation, but the rules conditioned by the India-Pakistan rift disavowed any such an initiative.

One knows that the emotional bonding with the house of one’s birth and the city you have grown up in becomes overwhelming with age. The best gift to Dilip Kumar can be the making of a museum in his lifetime otherwise it might just be too late.


The writer is a culture critic based in Lahore

Priceless: Dispute over pricing of Dilip Kumar’s ancestral home disappoints fans