“Impossible to find another ‘Mama Shakuni’-- our mentor- versatile actor Gufi Paintal was the ultimate,” say co-actors Surendra Pal, Sagar Salunke, Harish Bhimani, Puneet Issar. --- by Chaitanya  Padukone

Still I haven't bee able to  reconcile with the harsh reality that versatile actor-director-casting-director-lyricist Gufi Paintal (real name Sarabjeet Singh Paintal)  is no more. Ever since B R Chopra’s epic magnum opus ‘Mahabharat’  started airing in the year 1988, it was my honour to develop a warm sentimental bonding with Gufi-jee . We continued our rapport for over 30 years and we often kept in touch.  Down-to-earth, soft-spoken, spiritually-inclined with a smart sense of witty humour,  Gufi-jee  was always a pleasure to chat with. In fact when in 2008  he had  directed a movie, the witty Gufi-jee personally called me up on phone and jestfully said, “Chaitanya, you must come for one of  my  movie preview-screenings, I have dedicated an entire film to you. When I met him,  I realized only after I reached there that the mytho-movie title was ‘Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’, following which director Gufi-jee welcomed me with a warm hug and we all had a hearty laugh.

The otherwise previously fit and active  Gufi Paintal (78 years) succumbed on Monday morning to old-age related multiple vital organ-failure complications, after putting up a brave fight at the hospital. After the funeral rites (antim sanskaar) and religious  rituals got over at the Oshiwara crematorium, Gufi’s emotionally upset nephew actor Hiten Paintal shared with me, “ My uncle Gufi-jee was showing signs of recovery and we were optimistic that we would even get him back home But destiny decided otherwise,” said Hiten with tears in  his eyes.  Gufi-jee’s son Harry and his family and Gufi’s younger brother (veteran-acclaimed actor-comedian) Kanwarjit Paintal  were all grieving and were crying inconsolably. Said Harry Paintal, “ This was not expected –we were all emotionally shattered and shocked. Am sure my father  Gufi-jee will always live in the hearts of millions of his loyal fans. Please pray for his soul to attain eternal peace,” appealed Harry with tears in his eyes and in a choked voice

A large number of TV actors ( mostly the B R Chopra’s Mahabharat TV show cast co-stars) and movie actors either visited their residence or attended the cremation to offer their condolences to the bereaved Paintal  parivaar, Among the turn-out  were Deepak Parashar, Surendra Pal, Harish Bhimani,  Sagar Salunke, Arjun (Feroz Khan), Pankaj Dheer, Rajesh Puri, Mouli Ganguly, Renuka Israni, Kanwal Sharma, Deepak Qazir, and Puneet IsaarInterestingly, before it was finalized that he was to play ‘Mama Shakuni’ , Gufi-jee had very badly injured his hip-bone and upper limbs after a nasty accidental fall while executing a horse-riding shot on location in a feature-film  As a result of which he had a ‘limp’ while walking., Now genius Gufi used this off-screen ‘limp’handicap to his advantage while effectively portraying the wicked, scheming, manipulative, sinister Shakuni Mama.   Interestingly, Gufi-jee was a qualified engineer who chose to deviate into the manoranjan ki mayanagriRetired ACP  and  eminent macho-voiced actor Sagar Salunke ( “Balram”),  popular actor Surendra Pal ( “Dronacharya” ) and multi-faceted acclaimed voice-over artiste-actor-writer-anchor-author Harish Bhimani ( known for his mesmerizing voice-over as ‘Samay’) all acknowledge the fact that visionary Gufi-jee was indeed a “mentor-catalyst who was highly instrumental in their being selected and finalized for their respective role-assignments in B R Chopra’s Mahabharat” .

Says articulate Harish (‘Samay’) Bhimani who was in frequent touch with Gufi-jee, right thru. “There was much so much more to him than just ‘Shakuni Mama’, A gem of a caring gentleman, super-talented Gufi Paintal was more like a family member to me, an elder brother .  Do you know he convincingly played ‘five’ contrasting roles in my Doordarshan TV show Sukanya which Gufi-jee and I co-directed and I also acted as the husband opposite actress Natasha Sinha. I recall that Gufi-jee brilliantly wrote the screen-play ‘shot-divisions’ enabling us to shoot the scenes with perfect, fluent camera movements. We also decided that Gufi-jee while portraying those five different bi-episodic roles including that of a Marathi police havaldar, a Sadhu, a real-estate broker would not  use the real-life limping-walk movement in his shots. This was to ensure that TV viewers would not recall his mytho-character natural Shakuni limp in these contemporary characters,” discloses Harish Bhimani. As a fond-tribute Bhimani’s  message says, “Your departure is devastating, but not the end of our enduring friendship. Because say not in grief he is no more. But live in thankfulness that he was. Goodbye friend.”..

Eminent actor Surendra Pal ( ‘Dronacharya’)  recalls how Mukesh Khanna ( Bhishma Pitamaha),  Gufi and he shared a special bonding and spent a lot of quality time together. Informs Surendra, “We were also part of Puneet Issar’s live play—‘Mahabharat—The Epic Play where once again Gufi-jee played Shakuni Mama and I played Dronacharya. We performed for numerous live shows in different cities all over India. In fact since I became quite busy shooting in multiple TV shows  I had to amicably drop out from the live plays. So Gufi-jee used to miss me a lot, but we kept in regular touch. . Not many people know that kind-hearted Gufi-ji was a talented poet-lyricist and had a great sense of music. Fortunately, post-Mahabharat TV show, in real-life Gufi-jee had recovered from his limping handicap, many years ago, after he was successfully operated by the miracle-man senior ortho-surgeon Dr. Devesh Dholakia, who was incidentally his huge fan,” discloses senior actor Surendra Pal who is currently shooting  for TV shows including Teri Meri Doriyaann, Na Umra Ki Seema Ho, Corporate Sarpanch, etc

Actor-director Puneet Issar ( ‘Duryodhan’) in his fond tribute saluted the acting talents of  Gufi-jee and said that it was next to impossible to find another ‘Mama Shakuni’, because Gufi Paintal was the ultimate,