Om Puri

The unforgettable and versatile yet the greatest enfant terrible of the Bollywood.

- Shreeprakash Sharma

Om Puri, the veteran Bollywood thespian, who died of a massive heart attack in Mumbai at the age of 66, evokes the most unforgettable memories of a string of characters such as Lahanya Bhiku, accused of murdering his own wife, in Goving Nihalani’s debut film Aakrosh in 1980, Anant Welankar, a miserable police inspector fighting indomitably against the high-handedness of the officers and powerful superiors in Ardh Satya, a hard-core terrorist Sanatan in Gulzar’s Maachis, Banawari Lal, a mischievous secretary in Chachi 420, Ahuja, a corrupt sunglasses-wearing Punjabi builder in Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro and a lot of other superb characters in various films of Bollywood, Hollywood and a few of countries in the world.

Critically acclaimed for bizarrely unconventional roles in the mainstream commercial and art cinemas of the Bollywood Om Puri, as reflected and lived so vividly in his repertoire, was the epitome of the champion who found himself fiercely pitched against century-old stereotyped caste-based socio-familial-feudal outrages and exploitation that found their déjà vu in his various films like those of Ardh Satya, Dharavi, Sadgati, Mirch Masala, Bhavni Bhavai, Mandi, Nishant and a lot others.

Considered as pretty close to Balraj Sahni, Om Puri was arguably and unprecedentedly the first actor who broke the assumption of stereotyped conventional chocolate-looking, dashing and suave image of a hero’s personality for providing box-hit cinemas on the silver screen and also refuted the long-established belief that for scripting the story of epoch making successes and laurels in the world of glycerine and paint all dramatis personae must have a face appealing to the audiences and a personality which the contemporary young generation may die to emulate.