By Jagmohan Singh Barhok
On His Birth Anniversary
Om Puri was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He also lacked physical attributes or masculine appeal. Puri hails from Punjab. Born as the youngest of eight children (of whom only two survived). He was underprivileged and undernourished, too. His interest in films, on attaining puberty, took him to NSD. From NSD to TV and Radio and then to FTII Pune where he took acting course and became a friend of Naseeruddin Shah.
He was in dire financial straits when he retuned to Bombay. After his short association with Roshan Taneja as a teacher in his acing school, Om started staging plays. It was here that Govind Nihalani happened to witness his performance. Convinced that the young man had sparks of acting in him, cast him in his first film “Aakrosh” to play the hero. The film won national acclaim and recognition for the director as for the actor. Puri won National Award for the the Best Supporting Actor . Nihalani repeated him in his “Ardh Satya” (1983) opposite Smita Patil. With this film his career-graph shot up sky- high. He won Best Actor National Award for the film becoming a celebrity from a nonentity. He earlier won another National Award for Best Actor in Shyam Benegal’s “Arohan”. His chemistry was wonderful with Smita Patil (may her soul rest in peace).
Puri worked in many Hollywood movies including “Gandhi” and “The Jewel in the Crown” besides many Punjabi, Haryanavi, Kannada and Telugu films. His prominent Hindi movies are “Sadgati”, “Mandi”, “Kalyug”, “Manthan”, “Marte Dam Tak” and “Singh Is King”, to mention only few. Among his TV successes are “Tamas”, “Khandaan”, “Bharat Ek Khoj” and “Kaka Ji Kahen”. “Dirty Politics (2015) & “Mirch Masala” (1987) are other notable films of the actor, the latter a ‘Must See’ movie. starring Suresh Oberoi, Naseeruddin Shah, Smita Patil & Dina Pathak to mention few. The film won many accolades including National Award for best Film & individual Best Supporting Award for Suresh Oberoi .
I met the actor during the shooting of film “Angaar” at Lokhandwala Complex, Andheri (W) and later during the press conference of “Sadiyaan” (2010) at Hotel Taj, Chandigarh starring Love Sinha, son of actor Shatrughan Sinha. ‘Married Seema Kapoor (1991) & later Nandita Puri- (1993-2013).
