The whole country went numb with shock on Friday on learning about the demise of veteran actor Om Puri. The versatile actor, who was a super star of parallel cinema in the 80s, was one of the earliest international stars from Bollywood.
With movies like Ardh Satya and Mirch Masala, Om contributed much to the Indian New Wave with Naseeruddin Shah, Smita Patil and Shabana Azmi. One of his finest performances came in the 1983 satire Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, whose director Kundan Shah remembers, “The role Om did was to be played by Pankaj Kapur, but the actor who was supposed to play Tarneja backed out and Pankaj was given Tarneja’s role. I approached Om 15 days before the shoot. When I told about the role, he said, ‘Main kar loonga na!’ I barely had Rs 5,000 or Rs 6,000 to offer, and he said, ‘fine, no problem’.”
A hallmark of Om’s talent was his ability to imbibe the character’s spirit. “While dubbing for the movie, he used to arrive on a motorcycle as part of preparing for his role in Ardh Satya. He was learning to ride the bike to get into the skin of his character.”
A superlative actor: Juhi Chawla
I worked with him briefly in A Hundred Foot Journey. I was doing a guest appearance and had just two days’ shoot. Being in a totally new unit, I was a little awkward on the sets. The entire team had been filming in France and only the opening scene in India was left to be shot. They had come to Mumbai for the scene in which I was involved. I was the odd one out but Om Puri ji came to sit and chat with me to put me at ease. There was just one shot in which we were in the same frame. When I saw the film, I was amazed by his wonderful performance. Effortlessly funny, yet so effective in the emotional parts, he was superb. A superlative actor he is.
Man with no airs: Jayaram
He is an actor of international stature. May be because of a common theatre background, similar timbre in voice or in their way of acting, I have always felt certain parallels between Thilakan chettan and him. Therefore, I was imagining Thilakan chettan in the role in Aadupuliyattom had he been alive, and the next choice was Om Puri.
We had spoken over phone to invite him to the movie and later, the synopsis was sent. The air was tense on the day he joined the sets. All of us knew him only through the tougher onscreen charcters. We had no idea how he would react to things. To our surprise, he proved that he’s far behind the caravan era. He preferred to sit outdoors on a chair. It was as if he was there to act in his first movie. He asked me whether his dialogues were okay when I considered him a legend! He wanted to be in our company, enjoy the food we all had.
He liked my son’s (Kalidas) performance in the Cadbury ad and called him up to appreciate it. The void he’s left is irreplaceable forever.
(with inputs from Meera Manu)
