September 18th, 2007 
Deepak Mogambo khush hua. In this age of manifest evil, it is difficult to convey the shiver that went down every spine when Amrish Puri uttered those immortal words in 1987′s Mr. India. After Amjad Khan’s Gabbar Singh, Mogambo is probably Indian cinema’s most memorable evil man. And deservedly so.
The one-time employee of the Ministry of Labour, who cut his teeth on the theatre of Satyadev Dubey (he would be the “safe guy” who would drop all the heroines home in his motorcycle with a side car), became a must-have for every film in search of a villain. It could be the maniacal Kali worshipper in Steven Spielberg’s kitschy Temple of Doom in 1984 or the authoritarian father in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge in 1995.
The 72-year-old actor was seen little of late; a comment on cinema as much as society, where ends can triumph over means and what is villainous is debatable. Brother of actor Madan Puri, another celebrated villain. Puri’s trademark hat and deep baritone marked him out as a character. But unlike other screen villains, he infused so much dignity to evil that the person was never confused with the part.
Subhash Ghai, who worked with him often in a 25-year career, remembers how he was upset when Puri could not keep his date with him for the first schedule of Kisna. It was only later that he found out that Puri, who would always stand up and be counted for the film industry, had blood cancer. “But even then the will to live and the will to work was very strong,” he says. Govind Nihalani, whose association with Puri goes back to when he was lighting director and Puri the lead actor, recalls how he would stride across the stage, tall and imposing. “He was like my elder brother,” says Nihalani. He will miss him. So will Indian cinema.
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