Shernaz Patel, co-actor of late actor Tom Alter's The Black Cat, that releases online this November, says that even though his thumb was amputed he was cheerful and never let anyone know he was sick
Tom Alter shot for Bhargav Saikia's short film, 'The Black Cat', in Uttrakhand this April. It is adapted from Ruskin Bond's short story of the same name and stars Shernaz Patel. Saikia, who had read The Black Cat in boarding school, says he was obsessed with it. After he got permission from Bond to go ahead with the story's movie adaptation, he mailed Alter. "He agreed immediately, without even reading the script. I knew of his friendship with Bond, and had no one else in mind.
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When Saikia met Alter, his thumb had been amputated, but the cancer was in control. "We never realised he was unwell. He was warm and cheerful during the shoot. He had even been doing theatre right before, and seemed fine. When he saw the film, he gave me a tight hug. That's a memory I will carry with me."
Patel describes him as a humane and loving person. "He was a ray of light," she tells us over the phone, remembering the "standing beacon of Indian theatre".
"There are so few of us who continued doing theatre despite doing films. And he has played iconic Indian lives on stage. No one would think he was a white man; his Hindi and Urdu put us to shame. I wish wherever he is, he keeps at it."
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