Veteran actor

Amrapurkar dead
Avijit Ghosh
New
Delhi:

Sadashiv Amrapurkar, whose pitch(

) (a speech or act which attempts to

persuade someone to buy or do something: ) (She made a pitch for the job but she
didn't get it. )-perfect portrayal(

) ( to represent or describe someone or something

in a painting, film, book or other artistic work: ) (The painting portrays a beautiful
young woman in a blue dress. ) of the oily yet menacing (

)gangster Rama

Shetty Ardh Satya' (1983) created in ` one of the most iconic (

) (The definition of

iconic is someone or something that is a representation of something else. ) (An example of

iconic

is

the

Eiffel

Tower

being

symbol

of

Paris.

(very famous and well known, and believed to represent a particularidea)

(His photographs have become iconic images of war.) villains of Hindi cinema, passed away at
a private hospital in Mumbai on Monday . The 64year-old had been battling a lung
) (a disease in a part of your body that is caused by bacteria or

infection. (

a virus) (a serious infection)

Before making his Hindi film debut with `Ardh Satya', the actor had already etched
(

) (to cut a pattern, picture, etc. into a smooth surface, especially on metal

or glass, using acid or sometimes a sharp instrument: ) (He etched his name on a piece
of glass. )a special place for himself in Marathi theatre. But the part not only earned
him a Filmfare Award, it also ensured amiable (

) (describes a person or their

behaviour that is pleasant and friendly: ) (He seemed an amiable young man. )
employment (

) (when someone is paid to work for a company or organization: )

(Are you in employment at the moment? )for him over the next three decades (

).

(a period of ten years, especially a period such as 1860 to 1869, or 1990 to 1999)
Amrapurkar worked hard on the role and developed the character's body
) (FORMAL a particular way of walking:) (He walked with a

language, gait (
slow stiff gait.)

and speech. He was simply brilliant, remembers the film's director

Govind Nihalani.
His second Filmfare award came playing Maharani, a transvestite goon who runs a
brothel, in the box-office smash `Sadak' (1991).`Sadak' is a rare Bollywood movie
remembered

for

its

villain.

When

you

think

of

the

film,

you

think

of

Maharani.Amrapurkar created a largerthan-life character, bringing something extra to

the part, says director Mahesh Bhatt, who reveals it was the actor's idea to wear a sari
in the film.
A gifted actor, Amrapurkar's eyes could articulate both rage and hilarity . But
Bollywood never fully made use of his copious creative talent so visible in Shyam
Bengal's seminal `Bharat Ek Khoj' and the Marathi film, `22 June 1897'. It was,
perhaps, the curse of the times. In the 1980s and 1990s, during Amrapurkar's prime,
neatly written parts were scarce in mainstream Hindi cinema. The Ahmednagar-born
actor drifted in and out of scores of good, bad and mostly indifferent films. In many of
them, he played the comic villain: David Dhawan's blockbuster Aankhen' and `Coolie
No. 1', ` to name a couple. To survive in the hypercompetitive industry , Amrapurkar
delivered similar over-the-top performances in several asinine action flicks such as AK47, Tada, Daku Ramkali and Mafia Raj. However, his last film, Bombay Talkies (2013),
showed that the integrity of his craft was intact amid the rubble.
Nihalani says he was engaged in social work. Sadly , Amrapurkar was beaten up by
a bunch of goons after he protested against wastage of water in a rain dance in Versova
during Holi last year.

Bhatt says his nephew, director Mohit Suri, wanted the actor to do the small role of
a eunuch in Murder 2. He came and told me, `Mahesh, no matter how much we try we
cannot recreate Maharani.' In life, we should always be upright and brave enough to
say no. Sadashiv Amrapurkar was certainly both upright and brave.
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