You could say Patel has shone a light on the man who was behind some of Bollywood’s most un-put-downable villainy. With 25 years of Gadar in the rear-view mirror, her take on Puri is one of a kind – less of the intimidation and more of the gentleness. The web is abuzz with it.
She can still see herself in that first Gadar scene, a head-on with Puri where the stakes were high. I was shitting bricks. I was shivering, she’ll tell you. But it didn’t last long; in no time at all, the old pro’s easygoing nature and the way he put her in the right headspace had her in a flow state.
Why Ameesha Patel still has a soft spot for Amrish Puri
For the rest of us, he was Mogambo or Ashraf Ali. For Patel, he was something else on the lot: warm, funny, and in a way, like a dad. You’d have him making a barbed joke in between takes, then he’d be in full character the second you called action.
It was the humanity of it. She was the new face in town, with her big break yet to come out. Puri didn’t put on airs, she says. He was more of a partner in nailing the scene than some senior type looking to put a rookie in her place.
A first scene with the pressure of a final
And it was a hard one to get to. Since you don’t always film in sequence, her day one was the post-interval tussle with her on-screen pop. She put up a wall at first, but he made it work and never let you feel small.
When she went in, she had Sakina’s whole history in her. The girl in the story had been through the ringer: left school, the Partition, family lost and written off as dead. Then there was the marriage in India to a Jat who didn’t speak English, the Hindu customs, a kid of seven. All of that was on her shoulders when she stood across from Puri.
The kind of on-set camaraderie that puts you at ease
Some actors just make you better, Patel will have it. They draw you in with their own force and the jitters become part of the job. Puri was one of those. Even for a greenhorn having a rough day, he made the hard parts doable.
It wasn’t just in front of the lens either. There was a time on the Lucknow run when his wife was around. She had a way of quieting things down and putting the cast and crew at rest when things were getting heated.
Then there was the laddoo incident
Anil Sharma, the director, came into the make-up van in Amritsar one day with a box of confectionery after some lathi charges and a crowd had built up. His idea was that Sakina ought to put on a few pounds for the camera and have some laddoos.
Puri put in a word before she even could. Yes, yes, let the heroine have her laddoos, but Sakina is where she should be. Let’s get the shot. Patel couldn’t help but laugh. It was like a father telling the room to leave his daughter alone. Unmistakably him.
What this means for the Gadar faithful now
It is a good time for these kinds of stories with the franchise in the news again. We are 22 years out from the first Gadar and the buzz is still there – Anil Sharma has even put to bed the fact that a third one is coming.
Patel has been asked about the talk she heard not to be put up with Sunny Deol because of the years between them. She saw it differently. The script made sense of it. You had Tara Singh’s rough edges and Sakina’s poise, and in the end, the heart of the movie made it work.
Here is what fans are latching onto
Some of the bits that have the internet talking:
– Ameesha on Puri being a mix of wit and father figure
– The opening for her was actually the post-interval piece
– “I was shitting bricks” before she found her footing
– How he stonewalled the laddoo order to protect her
– Word from Anil Sharma that Gadar 3 is on the way
In a way, Patel is redefining a legend. We were fond of the chills he put in our spines, but now we are seeing the other side: the co-star he had a laugh with, the quiet word to a director to let the actor be and roll tape.
That is the point of her words. It is a case for how the villains you root for in the theatre can be the ones looking out for you in the real world, and how that kind of giving makes for a performance you don’t forget.
Put it to her and she would be back in a second. If I could turn back the clock to those sets, I would, she says. And with that, you are right back in the middle of it all.
