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Photo By Steve Ramos
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Om Puri
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Actor Om Puri is often mobbed by fans in his native Bombay. The 50-year old actor's 140 films have made him a familiar face. Hollywood productions like Wolf and The Ghost and the Darkness first introduced Puri to multiplex audiences. But it's two recent indie films, My Son the Fanatic and East is East, that have cast the veteran actor into an unexpected spotlight. Newfound recognition is just the latest chapter in Puri's 24-year film career.
"From 1980 to 1990, I did some of my best work back home about which I can be really proud," Puri says, speaking at last year's Toronto Film Festival. "The work will stay. It wont be dated, that kind of work, the India art cinema. But after 1990 the movement collapsed due to lack of finances, and those kind of films are hardly there. It's not that I just want to do the socially relevant or art cinema, but I do I feel cinema has the capacity to give people a great variety. It can also be entertainment but entertainment of what nature?"
In My Son the Fanatic Puri plays an easygoing cabdriver who is alarmed that his son has become a militant Islamic fundamentalist. His East is East character, George Khan, a Pakistani Muslim married to an Englishwoman (Linda Bassett) and trying to raise seven children in Manchester in the 1970s, proved to be a greater challenge. Khan is a brutish man who strikes out whenever his children reject their Muslim heritage. But Puri wanted to show the complexity behind the anger. Khan's outbursts stem from fear over the British Parliament's threats to revoke the citizenship of foreigners.
"There is something that we call as actors the subtext," Puri says. "It is not written in words, but you are supposed to dig out what this person must have been like throughout his life. I felt that there must have been happy moments with George Khan. I felt that he's losing the power of authority that he took for granted. He's losing it, and he doesn't know how to cope with it. I thought it was important to show this helplessness."
Movies have made Puri a true internationalist. He was born in the northern Indian town of Punjab, to a middle-class family. He went to the city to study political science and history, but soon fell in love with theater. A fascination with movies grew out of a film appreciation course. Puri honed his acting skills at the Indian Film Institute and the National School of Drama in New Delhi. Then, at age 25, Puri headed for Bollywood, India's Bombay-based film industry. What Puri lacked in leading-man looks, he made up with talent.
"There are no smaller parts," Puri says. "There are only smaller actors. I think all actors are character actors, and you have to be.
"We have commercial stars in India who charge 20 times more than me. But they may stay there only for five years. I've been there for 23 years and I'm going to be there until I decide not to be there. That much confidence I do have in my work and in my discipline.
"But sometimes there have been films where you do feel that the producer doesn't have the money, and you say to yourself: This is a good work. This is a noble work, and I will earn my money elsewhere. It is a social gesture. I don't want to be exploited and, at the same time, I dont want to exploit anyone. I must have the share I deserve."
Puri moved freely between both sides of Indian cinema. In 1981, Satyajit Ray, cast Puri in Sadgati, playing a rural shoemaker romancing an upper-caste woman. Puri has also made his share of Bollywood extravaganzas.
Puri's eclectic filmography is a result of career necessity. When funding for India's art cinema faded in the 1990s, Puri sought work in commercial fare.
Bombay is still home for Puri, his journalist wife and their three-year-old son. But Puri finds the idea of additional acting opportunities outside Indian cinema appealing. Basically, he's willing to go wherever there's quality work. He's already a star in his native country. For a moviemade internationalist, a new career in American film would be a natural next step for the 24-year screen veteran.
"Even whan I was only doing Indian films, I was always fascinated by traveling, because I could see all of India," he says. "And now I do make a conscious effort to work elsewhere. It is refreshing for me. It is a nice change for me. I really enjoy it. Now, if I don't get work outside, I would miss it." ©
