The Khichdi Blog

Today is Amrish Puri's birthday. He would have 87 if alive. Google is celebrating his birthday by honoring him with a doodle. What comes to your mind when you hear his name? Perhaps a snickering laughter and him uttering “Mogambo... khush Hua!!” with a pause. Well, this is only one side of this versatile actor whose film carrier spans across 35 years. He has begun his film career with Dev Anand's 1970 “Prem Pujari” in a petty role of a Henchman. It was just a beginning before his becoming the Great Mogambo of Anil Kapoor and Shridevi's Mr. India (1987)


A huge list of 400 films in different languages, including Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Malyalam and Punjabi, Amrish Puri have been an institution and an actor exemplar. From the Baba Bhaironath of Shridevi's Nagina (1986) to Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge's Babu Ji 'Ja Simran Ja. Ji le apni Zindagi' fame, Amrish Puri has been versatile throughout his film journey. He has done inspiring roles of vehement villains and supporting actors with a comic touch. He has done the roles of most cruel some of villains in the history of Indian Cinema. He has been nominated 16 times for the Filmfare's Best Villain Award.

Besides this very image of the Badman of Bollywood, Amrish Puri has made some very promising roles in the cinema which is popular as parallel cinema. So, here is a list of some of those films which are known for Amrish Puri's contributions to the parallel Hindi cinema.

 

 

- Abu Turab Naqvi, Reading Time: 2 Min 37 Sec




While reading a book on the life of great physicist and Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman, I came across one of his sayings about the atoms. It goes like this......

Besides the scientific depth and philosophical meanings this one statement carries, there is something that got me wonder and re-read the statement and it goes again....... “attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another”. This sentence kept resounding in my mind until I was able to draw this analogy of human relationships with atoms attracting and repelling each other.

This tells about the art of balancing. Atoms attract when they are apart within a limit and they repel when the limit is crossed. In both the cases, there is this limit, the threshold distance that help balancing the conjugation of atoms to form molecules and so on.

This is exactly what happens when we are about fall in love or already in a relationship. The attraction comes within the circles of certain distance. We attract each other, we meet, have coffee or tea, go to movies and roam around hand in hand. This is perfect until we start feeling that “squeezed into one another” situation. This is where the problems begin. This is when the balance breaks.

I have learned from others and from my own experiences that relationships need some kind of balance in their pursuit. Both distance and getting closer should be balanced if we want our relationships to sustain. It is same as the old dictum of “respecting the personal space”.

But this “respecting the personal space” kind of confuse some of us and we end up being too careless while maintaining the “space”. There comes the atomic theory of relationships.

It tells you that you should keep up a certain distance that you don't get apart or get squeezed too much that you had to face repulsion. After all, whatever we see around us is the clustered manifestation of millions of atoms guided by the same principle of maintaining the distance. Re-read that saying of Feynman..

It says “In that one sentence ... there is an enormous amount of information about the world”. This is what compelled me to think this way about the relationships and draw an analogy with atomic way of attracting and repelling each other when crossing the threshold of a moderate distance. This is the atomic theory of relationships.

I am glad to initiate a series of Poetry Recitals in my voice as "Arz Kiya Hai!" series. I have earlier shared some of Jaun Elia's and other Poet's ghazals and nazms on my YouTube channel. I love reading and reciting poetry. Here I present a beautiful ghazal of famous Urdu poet Irfan Siddui. It's my pleasure to share his ghazal in my voice because, in my opinion, he was amongst the finest of Urdu poets that we have ever known. So, listen to this ghazal and let me know about your views. I will be glad if you leave suggestions in the comment section so that I can imrove my skills in future.