Amrish Puri's stare and measured baritone make obedience seem expected rather than requested. We value the feeling behind his authority, even when the films use it to excuse fathers or make caricatures frightening.
Fi1m perspective
Amrish Puri holds a stare as though the other person has already lost the discussion. His baritone is carefully controlled, and the men he plays tend to expect obedience without having to ask twice. As Chaudhry Baldev Singh in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), he makes paternal disapproval difficult to shrug off. We felt our impatience soften because Puri gives Baldev enough feeling to make him difficult to dismiss. The acting earns that attention, even when we object to how much deference the screenplay expects.
Shyam Benegal's Nishant (1975) and Manthan (1976) belong to the parallel-cinema work that preceded Puri's mainstream villains of the early 1980s. Mogambo in Mr India (1987) fixed his popular image as an extravagant villain, but the move towards patriarchs in the mid-1990s did not require him to discard his methods. The unblinking look and carefully controlled voice could serve a father as readily as a tyrant. What changed was how readily the films expected us to accept his demands.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) gives him a much cruder figure to make convincing. Spielberg's Mola Ram is all eyes and teeth, and Puri commits hard enough to make a proper villain out of the serial caricature. That is a real contribution to a film whose action is skilfully built and whose treatment of India is lazy and unkind. Roshan Seth's Chattar Lal has the better-written adult part; Puri makes the menace work through his stare and physical presence. His conviction gives us something to appreciate without making the surrounding caricatures any less objectionable.
The difficulty with Baldev is that the film asks for our affection as well as our attention. In Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Simran Singh's freedom needs more justification than her father's authority, and Puri's persuasiveness helps the screenplay get away with that inequality. There is plenty to enjoy in Kajol and Shah Rukh Khan's comedy, though the lengthy family negotiations test our patience. Puri supplies enough feeling to keep us involved, but we would not mistake that involvement for agreement. Start with Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, and feel free to disagree with the father.
Biography
Amrish Puri (22 June 1932 – 12 January 2005) was an Indian actor who worked extensively in Hindi cinema and theatre. He began his career in the Indian theatre movement of the 1960s, collaborating with playwrights including Satyadev Dubey and Girish Karnad, before transitioning to film.
Puri became known for portraying villains. He played Mola Ram in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Khan in Gandhi (1982), Mogambo in Mr. India (1987), Chaudhry Baldev Singh in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), and Major General Khanna in Mohabbatein (2000). He appeared in numerous other films including Karan Arjun (1995), Baadshah (1999), Nayak: The Real Hero (2001), and Mujhse Shaadi Karogi (2004).
