This refers to the report, “Om, the sound of silence! Fans feel it’s Ardh Satya” (January 8). A fine out-there actor, Om Prakash Puri represented the wealth of talent in Indian cinema for over a span of four decades. Acting was his forte and it came naturally to him. He was essentially a stage and screen actor, not a larger-than-life star or superstar with a mass fan following. His roles were depictions of ordinary individuals and they did justice to the human condition.
With like-minded peers like Naseeruddin Shah, he redefined the grammar of acting and made the ‘new-wave parallel cinema’ a significant medium of entertainment and edification despite his presence in the mainstream commercial cinema. On the wide stage of real world, Om Puri was the personification of essential goodness of human nature. Still he sometimes courted controversy by his outspoken comments. Recently, he raised his voice for freedom of the film-maker to cast stars of his choice and minced no words in expressing his aversion to narrow-minded, skewed and virulent nationalism.