Desi Train

You have a usual morning. Your usual cuppa tea or coffee. Switch on your pc. Type in your usual url which connects you back to India. The news this morning was not the usual ones though. Amrish Puri - had passed away. I forgot all the work on my desk, all the calls I had to return, everything took a back seat….a person whom you never met just saw on the tv or the movie screens…someone who had been a part of most of your life (and you realized that now) - was no more…No more would AP stare at you from those screens and make you hate him, cry for him…laugh with him…perhaps the performances by AP are so intertwined in my psyche…I had to write a farewell….
Perhaps it had to do with watching him while growing up….I don’t remember much of him in Reshma aur Shera, Bhumika or Nishant…though I remember seeing those movies with my parents - massive movie buffs themselves…I was too young then. But the first impact of Amrish Puri, was when I saw Hum Paach. Opening shots….AP offers his morning prayers, chickens dancing all over the courtyard, suddenly a cloth falls on one of them, AP picks up the chicken and with such coolness looks right across the camera, passing the chicken with one hand to his cook on the right, simply say “Nashta…”….how many just how many others could have carried out that scene with such cold blooded coolness…?

The booming voice, towering personality and defined sharp acting to boot, made AP the best character actor in the 80s uptill yesterday. But its strange how life works…considering he got his initial movies after he turned 40. That inspite of being the younger brother of a well established character actor Madan Puri! Persisitance, dedication, honesty and pure discipline is what I get AP was, when I read all about him. Largeness of his heart too comes up in snippets I’ve read over the years. I remember reading once, that he gave away his scooter during his theater days to Rohini Hattangadi as a wedding present.

He become the ideal onscreen foe for Amitabh Bachchan in the 80s and 90s. The ideal counter to the hero, possessing the height, impactful voice and towering personality. So much so that I’ve seen directors virtually introducing scenes where AP’s on screen persona would be toned down.

Perhaps one his most under rated performances, which I found to be one of his creative best was in Ghatak. When a new personality is brought forward on screen which resonates with the audience, that character is destined to be written down in movie history…AB’s angry young man, Rakesh Khanna’s lover boy image, Raj Kumar’s “fu** you” I don’t care about you cool attitude among many others. AP in Ghatak brought the lovable grumpy Papa and hit the bull’s eye. Many have done this character before, but AP perfected it. You laughed at his scoldings to Sunny Deol in the movie…”Are bewakoof….kya kahan doctor ne…”, or when you cry when he realizes he has cancer….Directors realized the genius that went into that character and used it often after that. Raj Kumar Santoshi again used that same persona of a grumpy lovable old man in China Gate, and most recently you may have seen that in Hulchul.

Never once in Hulchul did AP have to mention that he was a man of principles, loved his kids…blah blah blah…but his way of creating the character…all these traits become so transparent and apparent to the viewer watching him…

And there was Mogambo…made eternal…atleast till Bollywood remains…
Bollywood needed a strong villianish personality which would make the audience justify the hero bashing up the villian in the end…and AP was the answer. I know I did. I thought Amitabh was right after slashing AP in Andha Kanoon, I thought Mogambo deserved what he got in Mr.India and the list goes on….

Amrish Puri will not longer create new characters to make us laugh or cry…I grew up watching him, going to see Hum Paanch in my short chaddis and the family bai holding my hand tightly so I wouldn’t get lost in the crowd at the theater. Things have changed since then its been roughly 25 years now, there’s grey in the hair, I have to think twice before climbing those stairs, there’s that regular muscle pulled on lifting a 5 ounce book….but AP was the same - tall, standing erect and entertaining me all these past 25 years….and now nothing. just a vaccuum…

Thanks Amrish for entertaining us all these years…May your soul rest in peace. Pray to God to give strength to your family.

the usual morning, the usual cuppa tea, back on the drawing board…but AP won’t be there wearing a new character, waiting for us to come back home, and play his movie so he could entertain me and my friends for the next few hours and let the memory of his character linger in our minds for days….its a sad sad day…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 12th, 2005 at 9:51 am
Filed under Bollywood
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