Om Puri Movies
Described as "the finest actor of the post-independence generation" by one expert on the Indian cinema, Om Puri is one of India's most respected and prolific screen personalities, having appeared in over 140 films over the course of his career. Thanks to starring work in such films as My Son the Fanatic and East Is East, Puri has also earned increasing recognition among a Western audience, further establishing himself as an actor of great range and versatility.Born in a rural area of northern India in 1950, Puri grew up planning to be a military man like his father. His ambitions shifted when, as a student at a Punjabi university, he joined a theatre group. With the support of his parents, Puri studied acting for three years at the National School of Drama in New Delhi, where he performed in a wide variety of works ranging from Indian folk plays to Kabuki drama to Shakespeare, the last of which gave him the opportunity to play Hamlet in Hindi. The actor followed his studies with a stint at the Indian Film Institute in Poona and then decided to try his luck in Bombay, India's film capital. Although he lacked the classically handsome features of most Indian film stars, Puri was able to find work based on the strength of his previous theatre experience. Once he began appearing on the screen, he found himself in great demand thanks in large part to his seemingly limitless versatility, and he became established over the years as one of his country's best-known actors.
After a starring role in Satyajit Ray's Sadgati (1981), which cast him as a member of India's caste of untouchables, Puri began attracting the notice of Western filmmakers. He appeared in Gandhi (1982), Wolf (1994), and City of Joy (1992), the last of which cast him as Patrick Swayze's unlikely savior. He had his greatest international success to date as the star of My Son the Fanatic (1997), a British satirical comedy written by Hanif Kureshi. As Parvez, a liberal-minded Pakistani taxi driver living in northern England who cannot understand his son's sudden alliance with a group of Islamic fundamentalists, Puri turned in a vivid, wryly-nuanced performance that many critics deemed as one of the year's best. The following year, he earned another lavish dose of acclaim for his portrayal of George Khan, another Pakistani patriarch living in England in East Is East. Where Puri's previous character had been laid-back and open-minded, Khan was rigid and conservative (despite his untraditional marriage to an English woman), and critics and audiences alike marveled at the actor's capacity for carving such distinctive characterizations from a superficially similar mold. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
Anita Desai and Shahrukh Husain adapted Desai's novel for this comedy-drama about an Indian university teacher who encounters numerous hassles in his attempts to document the final writings of an ailing, alcoholic poet whom he idolizes. Score by Zakir Hussain and Ustad Sultan Khan. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shashi Kapoor, Shabana Azmi, (more)
Jack Nicholson becomes a werewolf in this bizarre comedy-horror film directed by Mike Nichols. Nicholson plays Will Randall, a book editor with a testosterone deficit who has just been sacked at his publishing firm by a new boss, Raymond Alden (Christopher Plummer). A colleague, Stewart Swinton (James Spader), whom Randall thought was his friend, betrays him. Randall's personality changes after he hits a wolf with his car and gets bitten by the creature. He immediately feels more powerful, has heightened hearing and vision, and sets about to right the wrongs in his life. He visits Alden at the publisher's mansion to protest his dismissal, and he is asked to leave -- but Alden's daughter Laura (Michelle Pfeiffer) asks him to stay for lunch. Laura loves to defy her father. Will tells her about the wolf bite, and she becomes attracted to him. But because werewolves usually kill the ones they love, Laura is in danger. Will reasserts his place in the publishing world, supported by his loyal secretary Mary (Eileen Atkins), and his relationship with Laura deepens. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Nicholson, Michelle Pfeiffer, (more)
- 1993
Akesh Gill stars in this emotional drama about Sanda, a Canadian woman of Indian descent who falls in love with Patwant (Ayub Khan-Din), a well-heeled college student from India. When Patwant is forced to return home, Sanda throws caution to the wind and leaves her husband behind to follow him, bringing her daughter with her. But Sanda is painfully unaware of how strongly Patwant's culture differs from her own, and she finds herself rejected by his family and associates. The Burning Season was the first feature film for director Harvey Crossland. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ayub Khan Din, Om Puri, (more)
Rajkaran is an ambitious man with no way of accomplishing his goals. He is in debt to moneylenders in a big way, and his dream of owning his own cab (he's a cabdriver) is as far away as it ever was, despite his penchant for pinching pennies. He lives with a woman who is as ambitious as he is, a woman who has run away from her husband to be with him. He learns of a scheme to put up an illegal factory which dyes textiles, and he borrows even more money from a local bigwig. When the factory is destroyed by authorities, he is forced into choosing sides in some of Bombay's gang wars, and things go from really bad to genuinely harrowing. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Om Puri, Shabana Azmi, (more)
In this drama, a wealthy American doctor learns some important lessons about life in one of the poorest cities on Earth. Max Lowe (Patrick Swayze) is a Houston surgeon who has grown weary of the bureaucracy of American medicine. When he loses a patient on the operating table, Max impulsively decides to leave America and travel to India in the hope of "finding himself." Not long after he arrives in Calcutta, Max is attacked by a group of thugs and left without money or a passport. However, a man named Hasari (Om Puri) comes to Max's rescue. Hasari had left his farming community to come to the city, only to be overwhelmed by its dirt, crime, and overcrowding. Despite their poverty, Hasari and his family take Max in and bring him to a medical clinic in the City of Joy, one of the poorest slums in the city. The clinic is run by Joan Bethel (Pauline Collins), an Irish-American nun who urges Max to use his skills to help the people of Calcutta who so desperately need it. Max signs on, and he finds that the experience changes his life. City of Joy was based on a novel by Dominique Lapierre. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Swayze, Pauline Collins, (more)
The lure of the big city is something that country dwellers around the world experience. In every case, the particulars are different. In this drama, two best friends leave their Indian village and travel to Bombay to try and get work. Though the filmmaker doesn't say this, they are lucky. They find a room to share (with lots of other men) and don't have to live on the sidewalks and streets like so many others do. They even find work of a sort, even though it isn't strictly legal. However, beyond that, things aren't very rosy. The married friend is able to invite his wife in from the country for a conjugal visit when a friend loans him the use of his apartment, but that's only one night. Meanwhile, one of their friends who stayed at the village has been putting all his energy into digging a well to get water. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shabana Azmi, Nana Patekar, (more)
- 1986
In a conventional Indian melodrama that underscores political ills such as corruption and social problems such as runaway popular beliefs, director Uptlendu Chakraborty wraps a larger picture around the long-suffering parents of a supposed "child-god." A woman named Sita gives birth to a three-headed baby, and her peasant husband immediately adopts the child out to the first taker. He later finds out that the "taker" is getting rich off the baby because he is touting him as the incarnation of a god. So the peasant comes home and after physically abusing his wife, he demands that she produce another such progeny so they can get rich too. The misery of their lives is told in flashbacks, and after awhile, it becomes apparent why the father reacted so severely. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Smita Patil, Sadhu Meher, (more)
- 1986
This hard-hitting political drama was hit equally hard by Indian distributors and television, who declined to run the film. The controversial storyline features a newspaper editor who uncovers corruption, murder, and bribery in high office. When a politician is killed, an journalist discovers that a member of parliament had the man assassinated. What's more, the same member of parliament is an underworld gangster. As the editor digs deeper, the complicity of higher-placed politicians comes to the surface, which leads to riots in one town and an attempt to suppress his story. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shashi Kapoor, Sharmila Tagore, (more)
- 1986
This is an intriguing political drama about competing unions and ideologies in one factory in India. Verma (Om Puri) is a Communist who leads one union and is willing to negotiate with the factory's management to attain the union's goals. His opponent leads the other union and resorts to violence, threats, and intimidation to increase his membership and frighten the managers. Verma is beset by many problems as he tries to maintain his union's superiority, handle sticky situations that arise during work (including injuries on the job), and fight off the immoral tactics of his brutal nemesis. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- 1986
Ramulu (Om Puri) is a master weaver whose excellence is noticed by a female government official, and his work is selected to represent his country in an exhibition in Paris. Unfortunately, the selection brings about worker discord and jealousy. Ramulu alienates his daughter by using the fine silk intended for her wedding dress for a piece he submits to the international exhibit. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Om Puri, Shabana Azmi, (more)
- 1986
This is a simple, straightforward tale about the rise and fall of human civilization that focuses solely on four characters: a farmer (Naseeruddin Shah), a weaver (Om Puri), a trader (M.K. Raina), and a woman (Shabana Azmi). At the beginning of the story, the workers in a decaying village are offered food and water if they work for the local lords. The farmer and the weaver refuse. The farmer grows food for them both, and the weaver creates textiles that uses to barter with an itinerant trader. One day a frightened, lonely woman arrives on the scene and she is taken in by the two men. She cooks and cleans, and before long becomes a source of contention. Meanwhile, the trader is observing these events from the sidelines. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah, (more)
- 1985
This routine drama of romance and intrigue, with only two songs (unusual for any Indian commercial film!), focuses on Rahul (Amol Palekar), a sleazy, self-promoting industrialist, his affair with his son's nurse, and the workers that the nurse champions. Rahul intends to take over the company when his elderly father-in-law dies, but his ambitions find an obstacle in his wife's shady cousin (Girish Karnad), who has his own designs on the business. In the meantime, Rahul's employee's are rebelling -- they want better working conditions and a decent wage. Sooner or later, something will have to give. Rahul just does not want to be that something.
~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Smita Patil
- 1985
A landmark work of Indian feminism, Spices was made by famed filmmaker Ketan Mehta, featuring Smita Patel in the leading role. Patel, possibly the greatest actress of her generation, plays a woman who faces the oppressive realities of life as a woman in India. Spurning the advance of a corrupt tax collector, the heroine is forced to take refuge in a pepper factory. Spices is a Hindi film with English subtitles. ~ Sean Hurley, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Naseeruddin Shah, Smita Patil, (more)
- 1984
This film by Indian director Ketan Mehta, whose socially conscious work has been compared to Spike Lee, centers around Holi, the Festival of Fire in India. A group of college boys are dissatisfied with their school's policies, including the announcement that they won't be getting the day off from classes for the holiday. The students are angered, and one of them is expelled for injuring the principal's nephew in a fight. The students gather in resistance, and as events and tension escalate, the students turn against the school and burn their furniture and textbooks in an impromptu festival of fire. Loyalties among the students are tested and broken, and tragedy becomes inevitable. The emotionally charged content of this film, tempered by the emotional distance of Mehta's directorial eye provides a rare glimpse of unrest in India. ~ Jonathan E. Laxamana, All Movie Guide
- 1984
When an Untouchable wins the elections for mayor in his small village in northeastern India, deadly rioting forces an impoverished couple to escape to Calcutta where they can hopefully find work. Instead, they end up sleeping on the streets until they have a chance at earning a little income -- a man has asked them to take his herd of pigs across a fast-moving river. The current is dangerous, and worse, the wife is pregnant and this would not be an easy task even if she were not. Undaunted and desperate, the couple accept the job and enter the river to face their destiny. Both the acting and the cinematography and music are excellent in this slow-paced, but engaging drama from director Goutam Ghose. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, (more)
With songs and musical numbers that are woven through the storyline, this unevenly-paced drama is about a brothel that has been an institution in a small town for a very long time. The women entertain the local clients with suggestive songs and dances and are not the type of prostitutes that ply their trade in New York City, for example. Unfortunately for the business of the brothel, a developer wants to schedule some new buildings for the town, so the madam is forced to move her women to the outskirts, and things will just never be the same again. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, (more)
- 1983
A police drama is a rare film for 1980s Indian cinema, and a successful police drama with a bit of a moral is even rarer -- which makes this film by Govind Nihalani an unusual item. Anant Welankar (Om Puri) is an ethically strait-laced Bombay police officer who reluctantly joined the force at his father's instigation -- his father had been a career policeman. Once working in the precinct, Anant learns about bribery -- it seems that Rama Shetty (Sadashiv Amrapurkar), a well-known political aspirant known to be involved in a murder, has several of the police officers in his back pocket. Anant finds himself caught between the police violence and bribery on the one hand, and his desire to fulfill his duties to the letter on the other. In one unhappy moment, he is carried away by his fury against immorality during an interrogation and beats a prisoner so badly that the man dies. Stricken and yet unwilling to simply accept his suspension, Anant has to either hew to his own conscience and face the consequences, or ask for help from the notorious Rama Shetty -- a difficult decision when one's future hangs in the balance. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Om Puri, Smita Patil, (more)
It was Richard Attenborough's lifelong dream to bring the life story of Indian political and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi to the screen. When it finally reached fruition in 1982, the 188-minute, Oscar-winning Gandhi was one of the most exhaustively thorough biopics ever made. The film begins in the early part of the 20th century, when Mohandas K. Gandhi (Ben Kingsley), a British-trained lawyer, forsakes all worldly possessions to take up the cause of Indian independence. Faced with armed resistance from the British government, Gandhi adopts a policy of "passive resistance," endeavoring to win freedom for his people without resorting to bloodshed. In the horrendous "slaughter" sequence, more extras appear on screen than in any previous historical epic. The supporting cast includes Candice Bergen as photographer Margaret Bourke-White, Athol Fugard as General Smuts, John Gielgud as Lord Irwin, John Mills as the viceroy, Martin Sheen as Walker, Trevor Howard as Judge Broomfield, and, in a tiny part as a street bully, star-to-be Daniel Day-Lewis. Gandhi won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Director. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Kingsley, Candice Bergen, (more)
- 1981
Noted Indian director Satyajit Ray scripted and arranged the music, as well as directed this brief look into one moment in the caste system in India. When an untouchable (an out-caste, played by Om Puri) approaches the ranking village Brahman (the highest caste, known for learning and wisdom) to request him to set an auspicious date for his daughter's upcoming wedding the Brahman is willing to perform that astrological task in exchange for some labor on the part of the untouchable. Already ailing, the old man agrees and starts to work cleaning the Brahman's house and stables. When he is set the task of chopping a nearly petrified block of wood, his fury (at his fate? at the Brahman? at the caste system itself?) increases with each blow, and in the end, the battle is too much - he succumbs to his severe physical debilities and dies. Because his body is lying in a place where Brahmans go to get water, the Brahman uses a forked stick to pick up one leg of the corpse, ties a rope around it, and hauls the body off to a spot where untouchables and animals are cremated. There is no more concern for this human being than for a bag of garbage that has to be taken out before the smell becomes offensive. And for most viewers, there could be no more eloquent an indictment against the caste system itself. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Om Puri, Smita Patil, (more)
- 1981
Released in India as Aakrosh, Cry of the Wounded is reportedly based on an actual government coverup. Idealistic attorney Naseeruddin Shah takes as his first client a man accused of murdering his wife. The accused is a political activist, and after a while it seems apparent that the prosecution is pursuing the case at the command of the Indian government. Shah himself falls victim to coercion and outright threats while preparing his defense. The political issue becomes a moral one when the accused, on furlough from jail to attend the death of his father, kills his own sister for complex reasons of honor. Now Shah must ponder whether it's worth getting his client off from the first murder charge when he will obviously be condemned for the second killing. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Naseeruddin Shah, Smita Patil, (more)
- 1981
Surendra Om Puri, comes back to the village he had escaped as a child, filled with a desire to avenge the murder of his wesalthy father and his own wrongful treatment by the landed gentry many years earlier. Since his father's death was blamed on a "ghost," Surendra offers rewards for any ghosts that can be brought to him. Tragically, the simple villagers are only too eager to comply, and one heartless son kills his own father to heighten his chances at ghost-hunting. Athough Surendra has some success at exposing the fake exorcists in the village, the plan of tackling the superstitions of the villagers might have been a little too overconfident from the beginning - did he really have any idea of how deeply ingrained the superstitions were, or how hard it would be to change tightly-held beliefs? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Om Puri
