Great Indian Actors-Part II : Om Puri and the Illumination of Intensity
iView Author: Ram V (Bangalore, India)
Email: Shrey.dna [at]gmail[dot]com
Great Indian Actors-Part II : Om Puri and the Illumination of Intensity
“I’ve a little son. He needs careful nurturing. I can’t just sit back and relax. Naseer’s children are grown up. His responsibilities are over. And besides he has earned a lot more than me. I’ve been paid peanuts for my efforts. I was paid a mere 7 lakh rupees for playing one of the central characters and working four months non-stop in Raj Kumar Santoshi’s China Gate. I’m sure Naseer must’ve got five times more money for the same film. Surely big filmmakers like Santoshi Saab should be more cautious of my worth. But I’ve no complaints. I just want to take the next two months off. I may return to theatre, or do a small but meaningful film that gives me satisfaction as an actor.”
- said Om Puri (link) .
Words of discontentment, despair and agony from one of the best actors India has ever produced. An actor who bought in intensity, laughter and poignance with unassuming effortlessness to many a character to hit the silver screen. He was the thinking man’s/woman’s Amitabh Bachchan, the star amongst parallel and art cinema enthusiasts. But why should such an actor, of world class capabilities express concern on the way an Industry, which produces the maximum number of films in the world, treated him ? Before attempting to seek an answer to this angst ridden question mark, we can briefly examine the masterwork endowed onto the audiences lap by this artiste.
Bhiku Lahanya , Aakrosh (1980)
Bhiku Lahaniya is labourer, who is charged with the murder of his wife. Lahaniya’s trial is almost indefensible as he does not want to speak. The reason of his silence is a mix of shock, dismay, pain and anger against the atrocities done on him including rape of his wife, by the foreman. Lahaniya hides his uncontrollable rage, under his silence. What would one do when justice is denied and crime is left unchecked, by the institution of law?
See the first 3 minutes of this video, where Lahaniya lets out the suppressed ‘Rage’ (Aakrosh) when he realizes that his orphaned sister might be the next victim of the foreman’s lust.
Hari Mandal, Arohan (1982)
Hari Mandal is again a peasant who is caught in a struggle for land, and ultimately his landlord, Victor Banerjee, is the victor. This was Om’s first collaboration with Shyam Benegal and it earned him the best actor award in 1982
Anant Velankar, Ardhsatya (1983)
If Lahaniya had the power to react, if his conscience and disbelief in the system were wielded with authority, Inspector Velankar would be born. Amitabh Bachchan refused to take up this role. The character was a steadfast attitude and the drive to change the society lands him in trouble more than once. At last he is told either become part of the system or leave it. An amazing potrayal which won his the national award and catapulted him to stardom.
See this scene in which he reflects on his weakness, the lack of courage to stand up against his father’s domestic violence. Eyes speak more that words.
Ahuja, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron (1983)
One of the funniest and most clever films to be made in India, JBDY is a cult classic. Ahuja, the name itself evokes a loud laughter when one imagines ‘Bhim’ in dark shades, referring to his brother ‘Arjun’ as ‘Oye Arjun Singh…’. A master at work
Abu Miyan, Mirch Masala (1985)
When the whole village decides the defiant woman, Sonbai, who had shown ‘disrespect’ of the subedar to give in, Abu Miyan , the age old gatekeeper , stands up and declares “If anyone comes in I will fire”. A treat to watch, with brilliant performances by Smita Patil and Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri defies typecasting by playing this character, and showcases his versatility.
Nathu, Tamas (1986)
Nihalani went on to create the best television series to be aired on India with Tamas, based on Bhisham Sahni’s novel. He banked on the best actor around to play Nathu, the punjabi Hindu, who is torn between religion, community, nation , and misunderstanding. a highly intense performance from all of the cast spearheaded by Puri saab
Om Puri found good work increasingly decreasing year on year in Indian cinema. The focus was as always on stars. The band of rebels to which he belonged failed to bridge the chasm, that divided good and mediocre cinema in India. Bollywood was fully defined. Om went elsewhere.
Hazari Pal , City of Joy (1992)
Om Puri’s first major international exposure, was an artistically mediocre film, His performance, though was noted. Now a seasoned performer, played the part of the downtrodden destitute to perfection. Hazari Pal’s tribulations in the fictitious ‘Anand Nagar’ slum of Kolkata was staple diet for this actor.
After this performance Om Puri went on to play several notable characters in a few American films. See the excerpt from an Interview below
Abhay Singh, Drohkaal (1994)
Betrayal is the name of the game. Everyone betrays everyone else in this cult classic. Kamal Haasan remade this into ‘Kuruthi Punal’ in Tamizh. I caught up with ‘Drohkaal’, later after viewing the Tamizh version. Om Puri swept my feet off the ground, the intensity he bought into the role is unmatched . There is a sequence when he drives back after his boss, Amrish Puri, who turned out to be a traitor, shoots himself. The camera focuses on Om Puri who is driving back home, the emotions that go through in his expressive face tells us a story which cannot be explained through sheaves of typed paper. He lost out the national award to Mammootty ( Vidheyan and Pondhan Mada)
Parvez, My Son the Fanatic (1997)
Om Puri must have been omitted from the Oscar’s by miracle, otherwise this performance should not have gone unnoticed, after missing the bus with ‘City of Joy’. A complex representation of a man who parenthood , desire, love and religion come to point of conflict. Om Puri pulls of this magic trick out of his hat, with the effortless potrayal of such a multi-layered character.
George Khan , East is East (1999)
George Khan was a father of BBCD’s (as Jhumpa Lahiri would have preferred to call British-Asians) , a Pakistani Muslim father to quintessentially British children. The bewilderment of George Khan at the wayward wards of his, and concern for the well being, brings forth perhaps some of the best moments of humor in British screen.
See Om Puri describe his character and also pour some thoughts on the experience of working on Art Films and International films
Apart from these Om Puri has played several roles in mainstream Indian cinema like ‘Chachi 420′, ‘Ghayal’, ‘Gupt’ and in most of the Priyadarshan remake movies which tickled the funny bones. His longlist of good films include ‘Bhavni Bhavai’, ‘Party’, ‘Current’, ‘Dhoop’ , ‘Maqbool’, ‘Dev’, ‘Mukhbiir’ and many more. While his international appearances in recent times include ‘The Parole Officer’, ‘Charlie Wilsons War’ where he plays Zia Ul Haque and ‘Shoot On Sight’
Hindi cinema, by severely under-utilizing this mega talent, has done injustice to the art form. The foreign film industry and Dollar/GBP Vs Rupee exchange rate came to the rescue of Om Puri, but how many other good actors have been this fortunate. Their dreams were crushed just because they acted a bit too well for commercial cinema to digest them. The ‘Aakrosh’ of this injustice will be heard in coming years, and the silence will be broken.
If you are planning to catch up with Om Puri sometime soon, look out for ‘London Dreams’ or ‘Don 2′ . Enjoy the Legend.
Tags: Om Puri
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Nice write up on one of my favourite actors. He is SO effortless.
@Kenny..thanks..he moulds himself into different characters with great ease…cutting the list down to 10 of his characters was difficult…as most of his on screen presence has been quite good…
@good post!
did i miss part-1 of it?? do post the link of part-1.
@crazyrals..thanks
http://passionforcinema.com/mammootty-and-the-depth-of-emotions/
Part-I was on Mammootty…
I was waiting for this article abt Om Puri. i love him, So many good movies. beside these, i saw “mere baap pehle aap” last year. And i love om-puri’s acting in that too. I have seen the starting part of that movies many times.
I like him in ‘chup chup ke’ and ‘malamal weekly’ too. And i have watched many scenes of these movies again and again.
I mentioned these, becoz these were not that very special characters. But he made them so interesting.
—
Though i was expecting, an article abt celebrating and feeling happy abt his acting. but it became more abt sadness.
well..This is an important issue too.
—
hmm, maybe when an actor becomes great actor, then he always needs a great director,great script, great dialogues etc.
Becoz the intelligent ppl, who understand such acting, they don’t watch movies only for acting, they mostly watch for director, and content.
–
Who shud be blamed ? i think, those intelligent-directors shud be blamed for not selecting him in their movies. I hope there are some such directors at this site, who will read this article.
And a little bit. those intelligent-reviewer of the masala movies. When they find him in masala movie, then instead of just writing a lot of negative things abt movies, and just writing a line “om puri was good”. They shud write atleast one paragraph describing in detail abt his character, what they liked. So that atleast masala director may realize that ppl like having om-puri in the movie.
——
Maybe there is one more problem, I don’t know how to put it.
For example, here in award list, we chose, actor in leading role, supporting role.
shabana aazmi got 18/629 votes.
Maybe becoz her character was short, or the character was not that powerful, or she really didnt act that well. or maybe few ppl watched that movie, but still they thought they deserve to vote even without watching all movies. or it was director, or camera angles, which made her bad. or maybe acting is related to character too.
@AB…When I was researching content for this article..I realized in repeated interviews Om Puri himself has raised this issue..of the Bollywood producers not recognizing him..So I felt it would be illogical for us to ignore his plight when writing about him. Thats how the theme got a melancholcy strain to it…
I agree that, His performance in all Priyadarshan comedies and several others were too good..
I agree that the directors have to utilize him..Even he feels the same.. :-)
I felt both sad and happy to see reviewers from US and UK writing so many good things about him which I have not read in any of our movie reviews..
Even his miniscule but effective turnout in ‘Wolf’ and ‘G&D’ got great reviews…Where were our reviewers when he played ‘Sanathan’ in ‘Maachis’
@Ram V: yes, i did read that. i actually searched for ‘great indian actors part-I’
tats why i never found it. if its a series, plz serialize the names of topics, so there is some consistency and continuity…
@Ram
Excellent article, om puri has been an under rated and under utilised star for me. Love his work. slightly offtopic..How do you compare the performances of Kamal and Om puri in Kuruthi punal and Drokhal repectively..Havent had a chance to watch drokhal yet..Brangan once mentioned Kamals performance was slightly very slightly better than om puris..but i have known few other who claim om puri was better..whats your take on that…
@crazyrals…I send it like that only…but when it was posted..it appeared with ‘Great Indian Actors-I’… :-)..I donno how
@KPV Balaji…I felt KP first and DK later…I felt Puri’s was better…It was more natural and instinctive…
Ram- good choice of movies & videos.Whatever was missed out in the actual write-up has also atleast got a mention towards the end.IMO Om Puri is definitely a legend among Indian actors and can hold his own against anyone.Govind Ninhalani brought out a real casting coup by bringing Om Puri & AB together in Dev and it was a treat to watch.
@crazyrals..my comment 9 has a typo…’it appeared with’ should be read as ‘it appeared without’
@Sethu…thanks..agree with you completely on the fact that Puri Saab stands on his own even in the international arena..Dev had some good performances from both…but was a dissappointment screenplaywise though…
great insightful write-up. the introduction sort of shakes u up. n i really didnt know abt the peanuts om was paid for china gate..!
.
i liked his comic act best in chachi 420. all priyan movies are sort of repetitive for him. unlike naseer, he has given us more variety ever since they both hv come to the mainstream cinema.
.
the filmfare lifetime achievement award to him is just a drop in the ocean to what he actually deserves. he should get a much higher civilian honour by govt. of India asap. imagine the British govt. honouring him with OBE, and Indian govt just waiting for some unknown reason to honour his talent.
@Satyendra Jha…Thanks..It is sad that people in our Industry donot know to respect such a world class talent..Some no-gooder who does not have even a fraction of his abilities would be awarded doctorate or even would end up paying maximum income tax…a strange paradox…
Om Puri has been awarded a Padmashri and two National Awards for best actor…
Filmfare is not to be taken too seriously, they tend to always avoid good talent most often than not…Om Puri did get emotional during the award nite…especially when AB handed over him the dancing lady..
@ Ram V: i was not aware of the Padmashree to Om Puri. yeh, i did see that part of filmfare award where Om was overwhelmed by the honour of receiving the award from AB. his voice was giving away his lump-in-throat…
You forgot – Gandhi, Delhi 6, Hera feri, Pukaar.
@deepak..yes and many more were missed/ommitted ….great that you listed down those which you feel is good to recommend…readers can pick them up for viewing if they feel like…
Delhi-6’s Rakeysh Mehra..wanted Puri Saab to be part of RDB just because his presence would enlighten the project…
I liked his performance in Dev very much. He’s a great actor.
Someone who would have seen only one or two of Om puri’s performance would find him a good actor. But if he sees the entire gamut of performances, anyone would realize the effort Om puri puts in to become the character. An intolerant Khan in East is east, a composed leader in China gate, a hilarious assistant in Chachi 420, a vulnerable policeman in Maqbool, a south Indian producer in Bollywood calling (Nagesh Kukunoor) and a bong politico in Yuva.
@Christia…Yes, he is very good in Dev, as always
@Vinay..Yeah..His performances are extremely detailed..and even his ‘Junaid’ in the mediocre ‘Shoot on Sight’ was a delight to watch, he built in an uncanny cunningness into the character with his voice modulation and body language…
I choose that opening scene from Tamas for the sheer intensity of Om Puri’s performance. He is one of India’s finest actors, no question about that.
His comic act in Chachi 420 was great. Only found him a bit out of sorts in Yuva.
It is an awesome sequence…Vinayak…and the descrption in you blog details it very well too..He gets uncomfortable when the role does not have much depth…Thats shows in Yuva, I guess