Om Puri can make a domineering father funny without making him harmless. We value the warmth and force of his George Khan in East Is East, where a joke never quite stops us watching him warily.
Fi1m perspective
In East Is East (1999), Om Puri lets George Khan be funny without allowing his demands for obedience to seem harmless. There is enough warmth to make the family's attachment credible, but his insistence keeps interrupting our enjoyment of it. We laughed at the family's profane exchanges, then felt uneasy because Puri kept that demand present even when George was being funny. The performance makes it difficult to accept a joke as proof that everything is all right. He is a compelling reason to see a good, uneven film.
His rise in 1980s parallel cinema put him on both sides of authority. In Aakrosh (1980), he played Lahanya Bhiku, a mute tribal victim of oppression. Ardh Satya (1983) gave him Anant Welankar, a police inspector confronting systemic corruption, a part that drew on his ability to play internal conflict. These are useful places to look beyond George Khan, whose authority creates so much unease at home. His work with directors Govind Nihalani and Shyam Benegal is worth exploring alongside the comedies.
From the 1990s, his work expanded into mainstream Hindi films and more international productions. The physically demanding role of rickshaw puller Hasari Pal in City of Joy (1992) is one marker of that change. Commercial films also gave more room to his comic timing, though some underused him compared with his parallel-cinema work. That is a reason to choose carefully, not to dismiss the comedies.
East Is East earns its recommendation through Puri and Linda Bassett, though the film sometimes tries too hard to reassure us. It has an awkward habit of softening its harshest material, and the shifts into domestic violence need greater care. Puri does not let George's strictness become a harmless eccentricity that the family can simply wait out. The warmth helps explain their attachment; it does not oblige us to excuse his behaviour. Start with Puri and Bassett, but do not mistake the promise of a family comedy for a comfortable evening.
Biography
Om Puri was an Indian actor who appeared in Hindi films as well as British and American productions. He trained at the National School of Drama in Delhi and the Film and Television Institute of India.
He played George Khan in the 1999 British film East Is East. Other notable roles include appearances in Gandhi (1982), The Ghost and the Darkness (1996), Charlie Wilson's War (2007) and The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014). He received an honorary OBE in 2004 for services to the British film industry.
