Question: Smita Patil, Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah and Amitabh Bachchan are four of the five actors who have had the honour of a retrospective of their films being shown in Paris by the French Government. Who is the fifth?
I won't be surprised if most of us get this wrong. The answer is Malayalam film actor Bharat Gopi. Bharat Gopi expired today, Jan 29, in Thiruvanantapuram of a heart attack. He was 71. He was taken ill five days ago while shooting. My mother told me this when I returned home today evening. She liked Gopi as an actor and knew that I was also a fan of Gopi.
Gopi was at his peak during the eighties. He was famous for his roles in films directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Aravindan, K.G. George and Govind Nihalani among others. A paralytic stroke laid him low for a long time during which he faced a lot of difficulties. He turned to film direction later on.
In her tribute to Gopi written for rediff.com Shobha Warrier mentions how Gopi got noticed in his very first film Swayamvaram directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan. His frustrated face drew attention to it for the brief span that it was shown on the screen. The Guardian had an article on him titled The Face of Unemployment. Click here to read Goodbye Mr. Bharat Gopi, Shobha Warrier's excellent tribute to Gopi.
Some of his well known films include Kodiyettam (1977) which won him the National Award for acting. This award was known as the Bharat award in those days. It was after this award that he came to be known as Bharat Gopi. He had also acted in Mani Kaul's Satah Se Udta Aadmi and Govind Nihalani's Aghaat.
His book Abhinayam Anubhavam won the National Award for the best book on cinema (1994). His production Padhyam (1991) won him the V Shantaram award for the best film. A very intense person he overcame personal tragedy and put great passion into everything he did. He will be missed.
Links:
Wikipedia article on Bharat Gopi.
Tribute in the Hindustan Times
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3 comments:
He is a colossus. His school was experimental theatre that flourished during the 80s. I can never ever imagine anyone else in any of his unbelievable movies. To give you some context, the only name I can think of is Belmondo. He was that good!
His mere presence could pull off toughest of all protagonists ever to have appeared in Malayalam films. Kumar Shahani and Mani Kaul couldn't have ignored the supreme talent.
Like everything else in life, he was too good to last when a severe paralysis laid him low. But his spirit brought him back to write a major book on cinema and he has been back acting recently as if wreaking vengeance on the misfortune.
Even with his withered facial muscles and life-lorn limbs he was galaxies ahead of any pretender on celluloid.
He entertained me intellectually. How could an actor do that?
Now its time to resign to the flow of time and wistfully remember the artist.
Hi Rajesh .... would love to read a blog post on Gopi written by you...
Hi Dev,
Wish I could do it! Thanks for asking.
But you have done a decent job.
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