Even PM Sharif is all praise for actor’s actor Om Puri who is no more

By Moniba Ali

(Pak Destiny)   Om Puri, the actors’ actor died here today. He was 66.

Puri’s death was equally mourned in Pakistan as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif paid him respect saying he was a ‘great movie star’ of all times.

Puri was considered a pro-Pakistani when he raised voice for the Pakistani actors working in India. The India media lashed out at him for speaking for Pakistani actors but he never bothered and stuck to his stance.

According to TNN, Puri, whose haunting eyes and deafening silence captured the history of violence endured by an ordinary tribal in Aakrosh (1980) and whose portrayal of an upright cop simmering with coiled rage in Ardh Satya (1983) vaulted him to the pantheon of Hindi cinema’s finest performers, passed away on Friday. He was 66.

The Ambala-born actor died following a heart attack “around 6-6.30am” at his residence in Lokhandwala’s Oakland Park. “He was lying on the kitchen floor,” his estranged wife Nandita told news agency PTI. He also leaves behind a 19-year-old son, Ishaan.

With Naseeruddin Shah, Smita Patil and Shabana Azmi, Om Puri was part of the Fab Four considered the pin-ups of parallel cinema in the 1970s and ’80s. His pockmarked face and lean frame challenged and redefined the idea of a male lead. His early award-winning performances in Shyam Benegal’s Arohan and Govind Nihalani’s Aakrosh were marked by a hitherto-unseen intensity that had the critics in swoon and the audience in awe.

Several stellar acts also came on the small screen, notably Satyajit Ray’s TV film Sadgati, Nihalani’s Tamas and Benegal’s seminal Bharat Ek Khoj, where he notably played the 13th century Delhi Sultanat ruler Alauddin Khilji and 16th century Vijayanagar King Krishna Deva Raya II. Basu Chatterji’s biting political satire Kakkaji Kahin underlined his flair for the funny, first unveiled in the classic feature, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron.

Over the years, Om Puri not only made a seamless transition to mainstream Bollywood (Ghayal, Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha, China Gate, Mrityudand, Chachi 420) but also became one of the most recognizable Asian actors in British cinema (My Son the Fanatic, East is East) and Hollywood (City of Joy with Patrick Swayze, Wolf with Jack Nicholson, to name just two).

That he had a 2014 box-office smash, The Hundred-Foot Journey, with Oscar-winner Helen Mirren, is a tribute to his durability and the spa ce he had carved out for himself.

Swayze, co-actor for the much-talked but little-watched City of Joy, once said that Om Puri at least deserved an Oscar nomination for his performance as the rickshaw-puller Hazari Pal. “As an actor he has such diversity and depth. You look into his eyes and you read volumes,” wrote the Hollywood star in the foreward of Unlikely Hero, a candid biography penned by Nandita, a former journalist.

Not all roles in Hollywood were as substantial; The Ghost and the Darkness and Charlie Wilson’s War (where he played Pakistani President Zia-ul-Haq) being two apt examples. But his ouvre abroad only serves to underline the actor’s long journey from an impoverished family in hinterland Punjab to one of India’s most feted actors ever.

The biography reveals how at the age of seven, Om Puri washed cups and glasses at a tea shop while his father was in prison, how he gathered coal that fell from passing trains for fuel at home and how he took tuitions to support himself after being thrown out of home.

As a child, Om Puri wanted to be a soldier but was gradually drawn towards acting. Impressed by his performance in a Punjabi play, Anhonee, in college, the respected Harpal Tiwana invited him to join his influential theatre group, Punjab Kala Manch, where he took his first serious steps in learning the craft. He was paid Rs 150 per month; part of his job involved fetching eggs and babysitting.

It was a struggle, both social and financial: From overcoming his complexes for not being good at speaking the English language at National School of Drama to gathering funds to sustain himself at Film and Television Institute of India.

But after Nihalani’s Aakrosh (1980) and Ardha Satya (1983), arguably the biggest success in the history of alternative cinema, hit the theatres, his hard times were over. – TNN/Pak Destiny

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