The Urdu-speaking angrez passes away: Fare thee well, Tom Alter

Rahiye ab aisee jagah chalkar jahan koi naa ho

Hum sukhan koi naa ho, hum zubaan koi naa ho

(let’s go and live in a place where there is no one to talk to or share feelings and thoughts)

This is a verse by Mirza Gaalib which Tom Alter recited recently in an interview with Rekhta and finally, he has reached a place beyond the reach of the people of this world.

Tom Alter was an excellent actor, an advocate of Urdu language, and passionate about cricket. He was cinema’s favourite Briton. But people who saw him perform on stage know that he made alive any character he played. When he played the role of the last Mughal King Bahadur Shah Zafar, the audience could only witness and feel the tragic deprivation and loneliness of Bahadur Shah Zafar- such was the intensity of his performance.

Tom was an Indian-American, who was born in 1950 in Mussoorie. Because of his fair skin, he often got roles of a British officer or villain in Indian cinema. Apart from Hindi he played the role of a British officer in Bengali, Assamese and Malayali films too.

He debuted in Hindi cinema with a role in Dharmendra-Hema Mailini starrer flick Charas, which went on to become a super hit. But Tom established himself as a serious actor with his roles in Satyajit Ray’s Shatranj ke Khiladi, Richard Attenburough’s Gandhi and Raj Kapoor’s Ram Teri Ganga Maili. In Manoj Kumar’s Kranti, which was a super hit in the 1980s, he wooed the audiences with his powerful performance as a British officer.

Once in an interview Tom had said that he had performed the roles of Maulana Azad, Mirza Ghalib and Sahir Ludhiyanvi also and no one paid attention to the colour of his skin. So, he firmly believed that if the performance is powerful, the audience wouldn’t pay any attention to the skin colour. Such was the intensity of his performance that he could transcend the boundaries of social cultural prejudices related to skin colours.

Tom worked in about 300 films including some English films also. It is said that Rajesh Khanna’s super hit Aaradhna brought about a significant change in Tom’s life because it is after watching that film he decided to become an actor and took admission in FTII, the premier institute of film and television training. In 1977, he along with his friend Naseeruddin Shah and Benjamin Gilani, established a theatre group called Motley.

He had a keen interest in cricket. Tom was the first one to interview cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar in 1988 when he was only fifteen.

A person, who was so much in lime light was often alone in his fight with cancer. He was being treated for skin cancer in Mumbai’s Saif hospital. He had actually expressed this loneliness of his in his interview with Rekhta..

Padiye agar beemaar to naa ho koi teemardar

Aur mar jaiye agar to nauha khwan koi naa ho

(If per chance one falls sick, then there should be no one to take care, and if one dies, no one to weep for you)

Farewell Tom Alter! A lot of us are there to mourn for you, your style of speaking will be missed, your performance on stage will not be forgotten, and we will never forget the angrez who was an Indian from heart and an Urdu patron