India, March 5 -- There are actors with stage presence, and then there are those whose presence alters the air itself. Some command a room with flamboyance; others enter quietly, settle into a space like breath into a body, and change its temperature without fuss. Vijay Crishna was the latter. His passing marks the end of a presence never noisy, yet always deeply felt - on stage, on screen, and in the lives of those who worked alongside him.

My first clear recollection of Crishna dates to 1981, when I was barely three. He was playing Biff Loman in Death of a Salesman, my mother Linda, under my father's direction. I remember little of the evening except the force of his performance.

Nuance over ornamentation

For decades, Crishna inhabit...