Out of India, GAUTAMAN BHASKARAN considers the current Indian and Bollywood Cinema.

BHARATH GOPI (1937-2008), who died a few weeks ago, was a brilliant Malayalam actor, who owes his screen career to Adoor Gopalakrishnan. He discovered him in his first film, Swayamvaram (One’s Own Choice, 1972). Many people may not remember him as the clerk in a timber shop who loses his job, and later confronts the new employee, played by Madhu. It was in Adoor’s second movie, Kodiyettam (The Ascent, 1977), that Gopi burst into prominence. As the protagonist, a drifter, he was the hero without looking an inch of it. The role fetched him his first National Award, and Gopi went on to become one of finest actors the world has ever known. His intense role in G. Aravindan’s Chidambaram, opposite no less an actress like Smita Patil, will go down the annals of cinema history as something magnificent. As a loving father, a passionate lover or a village simpleton, he broke the stereotype image of a hero with his dark complexion and almost bald head. It is tragic that Gopi always had a bad health. Some years ago, a stroke at the peak of his career left him handicapped, but after a long gap of eight years, he came back to the screen, taking up parts that suited his physical condition. And he was as great as before.