Once Upon a Cinema 5: Who was Gavin Packard?-Entertainment News , Firstpost

Once Upon a Cinema is series which will illuminate the dark, unexplored crevices of Indian cinema. In it, the writer will showcase stories and faces long forgotten, share uncommon perspectives about stars and filmmakers, and recount tales that have never been told.

Between 1942 and 1945, more than two hundred thousand American soldiers had arrived in India. The Great War raging across the world had reached Indian shores, and with that came the US Army, which was fighting the war alongside Britain. For the length of the war, the American GIs stayed here and came in touch with the cultural spectrum of India, which was a shock to many of them. They had seen the opulence of the Orient in Hollywood films, with swashbuckling kings, serpents and exotic dames. But what they witnessed around them was abject poverty and squalor under the British Raj.

The soldiers mingled with Indians partly out of compulsion, and partly out of the condescending fascination and “kindness”. But the mingling definitely occurred, and many of the Americans found themselves getting assimilated in the cultural melting pot that was India. One of the American soldiers who stayed on in India even after World War II ended and most of their brethren had gone back to the US was John Packard. Technically, Packard was more Irish than he was American. He settled in India and raised a family here. John’s son Earl Packard married Barbara, who was a Konkani. By this time, the Packard family was decidedly Indian.

Gavin, Earl and Barbara’s son, didn’t have a trace of the Irish accent or demeanour. He was born in Kalyan and grew up as a Bombay boy. The only thing that betrayed his ancestry was his appearance. The blond hair and the colour of his eyes gave him away. Earl and Barbara Packard had five children, of whom Gavin was the eldest. Though a lot is not available by way of stories from his childhood, one would reckon he loved sports and physical fitness as a young boy. By the time he was in his early twenties, Gavin had made a name for himself in bodybuilding and modelling. He is said to have won various awards in Bodybuilding as well.

To trace what happened to Gavin Packard after that, one has to talk about Karan Shah. In the past few years, Shah has co-produced a number of major Akshay Kumar starrers in recent years, including Baby (2015), Rustom (2016), and Naam Shabana (2017). But in another life, Karan Shah was a promising newcomer in Bollywood. He burst into the scene with Jawaani (1984), which also introduced the heroine Neelam Kothari. But besides Karan and Neelam, another young actor was silently making his debut in Hindi films. In the film, gangster Uncle Joe (Sadashiv Amrapurkar) asks Karan (Karan Shah) to pass on a red pouch to a stranger – a hippie – at a party. How would he spot the man, Karan asks. To this Uncle Joe provides a sublime solution. “Simply say ‘honey honey’, and he will come to you!”.

And thereupon begins that seminal song, “Halla gulla maza hai jawaani” which contains the strain “Arey honey honey honey honey/ Chini mini chini mini!”. In the middle of the song, a white man sporting a saffron robe walks in and starts grooving. This “hippie” of course, was Gavin Packard. So Jawaani became his first film, in a manner of speaking. Although the role was not of any consequence, and he wasn’t on screen long enough for people to even process him, forget about having an impact. Gavin’s first speaking role was in a Malayalam movie directed by Priyadarshan. But all his dialogues in the film were in Hindi, a language he was fairly conversant in (though in a majority of his Bollywood films, he either did not have dialogues or his voice was dubbed over).

The 80s were the period when gangster movies really came into their own in India. While Mani Ratnam’s Nayagan (Tamil, 1987) was a high watermark in the genre, there had been films like Rajavinte Makan (Malayalam, 1986). Priyadarshan started his career by making screwball comedies and romcoms in Malayalam. His debut film featured Mohanlal, with whom he ended up making around 29 films within a span of three decades. One of his earliest forays into the action genre came with Aryan (1988), also starring Mohanlal. It was about a Malayali youth running away to Bombay (now Mumbai), and his run-ins with the city’s underworld. For the film, Priyadarshan had been looking for a well-built actor who could be convincing in the role of a street toughie, and who could speak the language. He spotted the strapping Gavin Packard riding on his bullet, and the decision had been made.

Gavin Packard with Suniel Shetty

Gavin played Martin, a thug who Devan, Mohanlal’s character, keeps running into. In one particular scene, Martin is in possession of something very dear to Devan, and the only way to take it back, Martin quips, is to beat him in combat. They collide, and the ensuing action scene is captivating. Gavin doesn’t have a lot of screen time but he does make an impact. Mohanlal and Gavin Packard would team up again the following year for Season (1989), directed by the prolific Padmarajan. This time, the role is far more etched out and stronger than any other part he played. Gavin was the chief antagonist, and the film was about the two men constantly being pitted against each other. But writer-director Padmarajan ensures that Gavin’s role never degenerates into a hackneyed villain. In fact, the film begins with Jeevan (Mohanlal) in prison reminiscing about Fabien Ramirez (Gavin Packard). We find them in a sawmill, with Jeevan and the Greek god-esque Fabien sawing wood and hatching a plan. Gavin is quite an imposing figure in the film, and there are moments one is tempted to think of him as the anti-hero.

And then Bollywood discovered the strongman Gavin Packard, opening the floodgates to an array of roles as the textbook Hindi movie goon, destined to be bashed up by the hero. Gavin appeared in film after film after film as the quintessential hoodlum, where his chiselled body was on display merely to prove how strong the hero really was. He appeared in films like Ilaaka, Tridev, Thanedaar, Aankhen, Waqt Hamaara Hai, Jagruti, Na Insafi, and a plethora of similar-sounding titles. On Sadak, Gavin goes head-to-head with Sanjay Dutt, in a final face-off scene where his physique and stance call to mind the young Sylvester Stallone. Gavin was also known as a trainer to Sanjay Dutt and Suniel Shetty. Bodybuilding remained a passion for him.

Gavin Packard passed away on this day, ten years ago. Though he became a recognisable face among the Bollywood baddies, he enjoyed more adulation and fan-following in Kerala, primarily because of those two films he did back in the 80s. He is often mistakenly clubbed with Bob Christo as a foreigner who became a Bollywood villain. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Bob Christo was an Australian who stumbled onto Hindi films by accident. Gavin Packard was a Mumbaikar, born in Kalyan.

Amborish is a National Film Award winning writer, biographer and film historian. 

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