NEW DELHI: Critically acclaimed and popular Indian actor Om Puri died at his Mumbai home on Friday following a heart attack. He was 66.

Before winning the hearts and minds of moviegoers in India, the United Kingdom, Pakistan and Hollywood, Om Puri went through gruelling training in theatre that followed a life of hard struggle. This included a stint as a dhaba apprentice to serve tea.

Initially self-conscious about his spoken English, and with a Punjabi-accented Hindi, the actor worked hard on both to endear himself to India’s respected theatre guru Ebrahim Alkazi. His education with Alkazi at the National School of Drama (NSD) primed him to set his eyes on Mumbai. Om Puri’s rough-hewn face mocked the soft-textured heroes of the time like Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan, but he began with a vertical ascent in what was variously known as art films or parallel cinema.

The break came when he joined the Poona Film and Television Institute and became one of its 16 graduates who decided to do a film on Vijay Tendulkar’s socially provocative play, Ghasiram Kotwal, in 1976. This turned out to be the beginning he was looking for.

Soon, Om Puri and his NSD buddy Naseeruddin Shah were to be the pioneers of the parallel cinema movement in India together with the likes of Amrish Puri, Smita Patil, Pankaj Kapur and Shabana Azmi. Directors like Shyam Benegal, Mani Kaul and Kumar Shahani moved their focus away from tinsel cinema and these actors became their means to achieve what was unthinkable. Having polished his delivery in Urdu and acquiring a capability to toggle roles between Indian dialects, it was Om Puri’s acting genius that he was most acclaimed for Aakrosh (1980), in which he had no speaking role at all. He portrayed a poor tribal, falsely accused of murdering his wife.

The only time he was heard in the film came at the end when he helplessly let out a searing cry that still haunts his fans.

Aarohan (1982), Ardha Satya (1983), film after film, he was turning into the perfect portrayer of a familiar but mostly unnoticed Indian. It was with Kundan Shah’s rip-roaring spoof on media’s collusion with the establishment in Janey Bhi Do Yaro that Puri’s funny bone was revealed.

The 1990s saw him getting into serious roles that reflected the times. They included Narsimha (1991), Droh Kaal (1994) and Maachis (1996), which dealt with the complex and sensitive subject of the brutal way in which the Sikh uprising was crushed.

This was mixed with films like Chachi 420 (1997) and Hera Pheri (2000), which he enjoyed for comic opportunities.

Om Puri said he enjoyed working in Pakistan and he became unpopular with nationalist hawks for advocating peace. The Pakistani film, Actor In Law, was made in 2015 and released in the UK in September. The story is about Fahad Mustafa who wants to be an actor, but succumbs to pressure from his father and takes on the role of a lawyer.

In a Hundred-Foot Journey, Om Puri played an Indian patriarch who decides to open a restaurant in the French countryside, directly opposite a Michelin-starred joint run by Madame Mallory, played by award-winning Helen Mirren. East is East, Wolf and Gandhi gave him an opportunity to woo and impress western audiences.

Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri were life-long friends since NSD. Recalled Naseer in a book on his friend: “In the fledgling days of his movie career, Om Prakash Puri, Padmashree, OBE, was struck by severe doubts over whether he would be confused with and perhaps lose his identity to Om Shivpuri, a former theatre doyen and unremarkable character actor in countless Hindi films. So our Om considered adopting a pseudonym! My two suggestions, ‘Vinamra Kumar’ and ‘Antim Khanna’ were rather impatiently turned down.”

Trivia addicts may remember that in one or two of his first films he was actually billed as ‘Vilom Puri’ and ‘Azdak Puri’, both names he considered and then wisely discarded, finally deciding that the one his parents thought up was indeed the best. “And damn, he was right,” said Naseer. His grieving fans would agree. The centre-stage was where Om Puri was.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2017