‘In earlier times one had to be a fabulous actor to play villain in films so as to enhance the image of film’s Hero, and Madan Puri was one of those actors.’ Tom Alter was interacting with a select audience at Kitab Khana during the post-release discussion on a book My Father The Villain, written by Colonel (Rtd) Kamlesh Puri, son of an iconic movie villain, Madan Puri. Vivek Tandon and Tom Alter read out a few passages from the book and quite a few anecdotes were shared which brought an electrifying, fun loving, robust, jovial punjabi side of Madan Puri to the fore. The book tells about Madan Puri, the real person who happened to an actor too.
Madan Puri (1915-1985) was working in Calcutta and since he was always fascinated with acting, used to visit film studios where K L Saigal, who happened to be his cousin, used to shoot and did a few bit roles. During partition, since the base of film industry was shifting to Bombay from Lahore, Madan Puri shifted bag and baggage to Bombay to become a hero. He did 4-5 films as a hero but success eluded him. Dev Anand advised him to try character roles and Madan Puri got himself established as a villain with films like Jeet, Vidhya, Namoona till Purab Aur Paschim, wherein Manoj Kumar successfully pulled him out of villain mould. He regaled audiences with his comic timing in Dulhan Wahi Jo Piya Man Bhaye. He acted in more than 400 films, some of them being Howrah Bridge, Ittefaq, Waqt, Talaash, Hamraaz, Kaala Patthar, Aradhana, Amar Prem, Hero, Kranti, Vidhata.
He endeared everyone who came in contact with him and was repeated by all the producers and directors. ‘The day Madanji shot with BR films, he was family’ Ravi Chopra told his son. In Kranti, there was no role cut out for Madan Puri but Manoj Kumar gave him just two lines and asked him to improvise and that role in Kranti is still remembered. Surprisingly none from the Puri family even visited a film shoot and realised his popularity only on his funeral day, as almost everybody from the industry was there and even studios were kept shut for a few hours because the workers and junior artist wanted to pay their last respects. ‘And Sanjeev Kumar who was then admitted to the Breach Candy hospital came for the funeral carrying an oxygen cylinder’ reminisced Kamlesh Puri.
Unfortunately Sanjeev Kumar expired within four months of the above incident and one can imagine that Madan Puri must have welcomed him with a warm hug in the heavens.