Om Puri could make an overbearing father funny and still leave us afraid for his family. We value the seriousness he brings to comedy, even when the film around him is less willing to face the hurt.
Fi1m perspective
In East Is East (1999), Om Puri makes a father's instructions carry the possibility of a threat. George Khan expects his children to accept his authority, and Puri finds humour in his inability to imagine that they might want lives of their own. He gives that certainty enough human feeling for us to understand George's wish to remain in charge. We never mistake understanding him for a reason to take his side.
His early work in Indian parallel cinema included Ghashiram Kotwal (1976), his debut. Director Govind Nihalani gave him two important roles: Lahanya Bhiku in Aakrosh (1980) and the conflicted police officer Anant Velankar in Ardh Satya (1983). The silence, gestures and expressions in Aakrosh show an actor able to convey complicated feelings with little dialogue. That patience is worth remembering alongside the certainty of George Khan.
The move into international work came in the early 1990s, with City of Joy (1992) among the films that took him beyond Indian cinema. He learnt to pull a rickshaw to play Hazari Pal in Roland Joffé's drama, a practical piece of preparation for a physically demanding role. Alongside such work, he moved between intense dramas and lighter comic parts in mainstream Hindi films. That experience helps explain his usefulness to East Is East, which asks for both at once.
Damien O'Donnell's family comedy gives him room to be funny, and Puri does not need to turn George into a fool to find the jokes. Linda Bassett and Puri make the household believable even when the humour grows broad. We were troubled by his performance because the threat behind George's instructions remained palpable when the film wanted us laughing again. He makes it difficult to accept this father as the lovable nuisance that family comedies so often offer us.
An actor this willing to make a father frightening needs a director prepared to stay with the consequences. O'Donnell sometimes reaches for another joke before the family has had time to be upset, and Puri's credibility makes that impatience harder to ignore. East Is East is worth choosing for him and Bassett, provided a reassuring family comedy is not what the evening requires.
Biography
Om Puri was an Indian actor who worked in Hindi art films and mainstream cinema as well as British and American productions. He trained at the National School of Drama and the Film and Television Institute of India.
He appeared in Gandhi (1982), East Is East (1999) as George Khan, Charlie Wilson's War (2007) and The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014). Puri received an honorary OBE in 2004 for services to British film and was nominated for a BAFTA for his performance in East Is East.
