Film fraternity bids goodbye to stalwart

MUMBAI: Friday is an awaited day for the film industry but this one cast a cloud of gloom. Scores of artistes and technicians arrived to pay their last respects to stellar actor Om Puri in Andheri on Friday.The remains were consigned to the elements at 7.09pm at the Oshiwara electric crematorium. Priests chanted the Gayatri Mantra and urged the mourners to repeat a prayer for his well-being in the afterlife.Puri’s first wife Seema sat by weeping even as she received a flood of condolences from the fraternity. Puri’s second wife Nandita came carrying a crutch on one arm. She cried and leapt towards Om as his body was being led to the pyre and was restrained by a mourner.Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan reached a few minutes later as did Anupam Kher and Anup Jalota. Artistes from the world of film, television and theatre were visibly stricken by the suddenness of his death.Earlier in the day, even as the autopsy was underway at Cooper Hospital, crowds began milling around his residence at Trishul Apartment in Seven Bungalows, Andheri. The ambulance bearing his remains arrived at 4.51pm. Mantras were chanted in the lobby even as mourners, including Shabana Azmi, Javed Akhtar, Pankaj Kapur, Nadira Babbar, Ratna Pathak Shah, Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani, Nafisa Ali, Manmohan Shetty, Prakash Jha and Aruna Raje, stood on. Gulzar, Vishal and Salim Arif were close to the body as it was consigned to the elements. Among those who came to Puri’s apartment was yesteryear actor Shahnaz Anand of Saat Hindustani fame. She said, “Such a brilliant life cut short so prematurely. Om was a gentle soft-hearted man even though he may have appeared big and loud to outsiders. I have learnt that life’s like that. My own brother Jalal Agha died at the age of 49.” Each stalwart from the industry present at the funeral lamented the actor’s loss.