The making of Shakuni Mama!
Sarabjeet Singh Paintal nee Gufi, was an Indian actor, film director and casting director.
Born in a middle-class Sikh family in Lahore, Pakistan, his father relocated to Delhi, where he owned a small studio and was a veteran cameraman of his time. As per his father’s desire Gufi graduated in engineering and joined the TELCO in Jamshedpur, Bihar and thereafter got a transfer to Bombay.
As his uncles were in the armed forces, he too joined as a gunner during the Indo-China war in 1962, when the government gave a call to young men to stand up for the country and also served during the 1965 war with Pakistan. There was no TV and radio for entertainment at the border, so he and his fellow army men often enacted Ramleela in their leisure time and he used to play Sita, thus kindling his interest in acting. A soldier playing Ravana, would kidnap him on a scooter!
After seven years in the Army, he shifted to Mumbai where his younger brother comedian Paintal had started making strides in the film industry. His success spurred the latent dream in Gufi and he first took up modelling and in 1978, Gufi joined B.R. Films first as technical head, ads division and later as an associate director, casting director and production designer. His first assignment was the 1980 The Burning Train.
Soon he faced the screen as well. Beginning with the 1975 film Rafoo Chakkar, he worked in films like Dillagi, Des Pardes, Suhaag, Maidan-E-Jung: The Revenge: Geeta Mera Naam, Kaalo, Mahabharat Aur Barbareek, Daava and Samrat & Co., his last film in 2014.He also directed a film on Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the 16th-century Lord Krishna devotee.
His television forays included CID, Hello Inspector, the crime series Kanoon, Sauda, Akbar Birbal, Om Namah Shivay, Mrs. Kaushik ki Paanch Bahuein, Karn Sangini, Bahadur Shah Zafar, Mahabharat, Ssshhhh Koi Hai, Dwarkadheesh Bhagwaan Shree Krishn, RadhaKrishn, Bharat Ka Veer Putra- Maharana Pratap, Karmaphal Daata Shani, etc. He directed Vinod Khanna in a teleseries on Maharana Pratap. Last he was seen in the mythological TV show Jai Kanhaiya Lal Ki, on Star Bharat, which was a huge hit.
As casting director, Gufi had actually no plans of starring himself, but impressed with his acting skills, B.R. Chopra, on the basis of the complex character of Sir Thomas Metcalfe, the British resident of Delhi played by Gufi in Chopra’s tele-series Bahadur Shah Zafar, zeroed on him for the role of Shakuni mama, the manipulative uncle of the Kauravas in his popular tele series Mahabharat.
It made him a household name, and so associated was he with this character, that he even presented a satirical news show on Sahara Samay Rashtriya channel in the get-up of the sinister uncle dressed in black outfits. It was Gufi’s idea to add a limp to Shakuni’s signature walk which made his appearance ominous.
Backed by the layered writing of Rahi Masoom Raza, he managed to show that there was more to Shakuni than just a master of who operates with conceit and envy. In the fight for dharma, here was a brother standing up for the rights of his sister. Shakuni became his calling card, and finding its depth loaded the dice of destiny in Gufi’s favour. He recalled how once when he and Mukesh Khanna, who played Bhishma had to travel by local train, he was denied a seat!
He had once described B.R. Chopra as a very educated man, a deep thinker, who made pictures 20 years ahead of their time. In 2010, he was appointed head of facility at the Abbhinnay Acting Academy, Mumbai.
Gufi passed away in Mumbai due to heart failure, aged 79. A widower, he is survived by his son, daughter-in-law, and a grandchild.
A. Radhakrishnan is a Pune based freelance writer, poet and short story writer.