Paintal-Inspired by Seniors

Accomplished comedy actor Paintal of Rafoo Chakkar (1975-acted with Rishi Kapoor) fame has been around in the field of movies from the early 1970s. Born Kawarjit Paintal into a Sikh family, he is now teaching acting besides working in movies and the small screen.
He says that it is only by humour that the comic actors like him charge other people, motivate other people and make them happy. He adds, “We also make them go through the tragedies and insecurities of life from a different perspective and we make them better human beings.”
For him, having fun is very important in life. He says, “It means laughing and it has also been medically proven that laughter is the best medicine.” He then pops me a counter question, “What other proof do you want of its importance?”
Talking about his favourites in his chosen, Paintal becomes diplomatic. He finds inspiration from quite a few seniors and colleagues in his field. He insists, “I would like to say that all the good comedians have been my inspiration. I will name a few of them and they deserve to be there as my inspiration. They are for example, late Om Prakashji, Mahmood Bhaijaan (all the film industry people would call late Comedian Mahmood as Mahmood Bhaijaan, irrespective of their age), Kishoreda (late singer, actor, director, music director Kishore Kumar).”
Now he comes to the reason behind his choices. He says, “All of them inspired me because somewhere they had a very good timing, very good reactions or some individuality about them. It would be difficult for me to say that only one of them is my favourite comedian. People like (late) Mukri Sahab, great performers like Keshtoda (late Keshto Mukherjee), many others like even Asrani Sahab. I have learnt something from each one of them. It would be wrong on my part to say that I have one favourite.”

This article was first published in Eve’s Times magazine and has been reproduced here with the permission of the editor, Swati Amar.