TOM ALTER : THE VETERAN ACTOR

                                                  -AACHAL BURANDE

   

 “Bahar ki duniya mein kadam rakhte hi tumko pata chal jayega ... Ki zindagi kis berehami se mushkilon ka samna karati hai”
                   A dialogue from the film Ashiqui, A gold medalist in acting from the Film and Television Institute of India to a consummate actor in films and on stage, Tom Alter had an indomitable spirit to ace the screen. He was the composite actor who looks directly in the eyes of his audiences. The recipient of Padma Shri, Alter, even played Indian scholar and the senior Muslim leader of the Indian National Congress, Abdul Kalam Azad, in filmmaker Shyam Benegal’s TV miniseries Samvidhaan: The Making of the Constitution of India in 2014. While schooling, he fell in love with the movies, in specific Indian cinema. In that era television was not common in India and so most people went to the movies, often several times a week.
              Alter was enamored by the films and in June 1972, after noticing a small classified ad in the newspaper, he enrolled at the prestigious prestigious Film and Television Institute of India of Pune. Alter was one of two people selected out of more than 1000 applicants that year and he learned his craft at the FTII, where he studied with the likes of Benjamin Gilani, Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Mithun Chakraborthy and others.

            
 In a career spanning 40 years, Tom Alter had earned respectful credentials in the field of acting. From performing on the traditional medium of theatre to giving a daily dose of entertainment as Mahaguru and Don Keshav Kalsi on television, to essaying supporting yet essential parts on the big screen, Alter had a lot to offer in every format. 

             Alter stepped into the acting world with 1976 action thriller Charas. He played the role of an intelligence officer in search of a group of smugglers. The film saw him share screen space with industry veteran and superstar of that time, Dharmendra. He then went on to work with Satyajit Ray in the legendary filmmaker’s 1977 movie Shatranj Ke Khilari, where he portrayed the personal secretary to General James Outram (Richard Attenborough). Along with them, in 1980’s he worked with luminaries such as V Shantaram, Raj Kapoor, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Manmohan Desai, Manoj Kumar and Satjajit Rai as well as a host of lesser-known directors. He has also acted in regional cinema - Bengali, Assamese, Telegu, Tamil and Kumaoni films. Alter was witness to the coming of television to India and worked on the small screen in a number of popular serials, the biggest of which was the popular drama 'Junoon' which ran for five years. In it, he played the role of the mob lord Keshal Kalsi - KK, as he was famously known - and his performance earned rave reviews. During this same period Alter acted in the ensemble comedy 'Zabaan Sambhalke', another drama called 'Ghutan', and hosted the health-based talk show 'Mere Ghar Aana Zindagi'.
             This great actor died at the age of 67 by the stage 4 skin cancer. His death leaves a vacuum in acting. 

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