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Refuge Actor: ‘Irrfan khan’

Irrfan Khan has dropped the weighty ‘Khan’, a magic surname given the ruling Khan triumvirate, from his name is a rarity for doing so.

Deepika Padukone, irrfan khan Actor Irrfan who has dropped the weighty ‘Khan’, a magic surname in Bollywood given the ruling Khan triumvirate, from his name is a rarity for doing so. Although he has not articulated that thought, the actor is chipping away the conventional idea of stardom.

Actor Irrfan who has dropped the weighty ‘Khan’, a magic surname in Bollywood given the ruling Khan triumvirate, from his name is a rarity for doing so. Although he has not articulated that thought, the actor is chipping away the conventional idea of stardom.

Unlike his peers with the same surname, the actor, pushing 50, has emerged quite the go-to guy for Hollywood and film-makers that steer away from the formulaic story-telling.

The Lunchbox, a love story between Ila, a lonely housewife and a crusty old accountant Sajjan Fernandes that develops through a mistakenly sent dabba, has been lauded worldwide. The film which released in 2013 in India is still running in theatres in different parts of the world and was recently nominated in the foreign film category for BAFTA.

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That apart, the newly released Qissa by filmmaker Anup Singh starring Irrfan has won rave reviews in film festivals across the world. And then again, he has been pencilled in for Inferno, toplining Tom Hanks and there’s a Jurassic World that has him playing Simon Masrani, the dynamic owner of Jurassic World too.

In fact Irrfan’s character is a part of the two versions of the 3D game game released by LEGO. It’s another matter that he had to let go of Ridley Scott’s next for Shoojit Sircar’s Piku —although there are a whole lot of small and big Hindi projects lined up, a couple of them like Madaari and Talwar under his own production banner.

Festive offer

And in all this straddling of different kinds of cinema successfully, he has earned his spurs as an actor who displays sheer brilliance. Director Anup Singh who thinks he is the best actor since Balraj Sahni, describes the actor thus, “One of the million reasons to cast Irrfan was that I always felt that his relationship with acting was one of a refugee— the way a refugee comes to a new land and finds what his relationship with that land is. That’s why every time he gets a role, he approaches it like a refugee. He never repeats himself—he’s always a new actor, a new person.”

Despite the great run of his film, The Lunchbox,much critical acclaim for Qissa and a string of exciting projects in the pipeline, actor IRRFAN refuses to settle down into stardom. In a quick conversation, he sums up why home to him lies where his heart is—in acting Irrfan in the thought provoking Qissa.

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It was on the heels of that intriguing definition that we interviewed Irrfan just before a screening of Qissa, wherein the actor spoke at length about his foray into different kinds of cinema and why he does not belong to any one cinema or country. Excerpts:

Irrfan, Qissa, which is a traumatic partition story has already won rave reviews at festivals around the world, but what was it that made you sign up for it?

■ Ninety per cent of the times, films evoke familiar emotions, the excitement that takes you to a new place in your subconscious and the way it is told. There is a pain, I used to tell Anup, ‘why do you want to make a film in which you are in pain, I am in pain’? In one of the scenes you see my character singing a soulful raag, that has sadness and sorrow and he’s going through pain. It made me think ki that approach (singing instead of just saying lines) is interesting so when we started shooting the film, the kind of camera work that I saw when they are shooting in my character’s house in Punjab, suddenly got me out of my realistic zone. Every film kind of creates an atmosphere for itself. To portray sorrow in a realistic way is very boring, but the way Anup was handling it made my job easier.

Would you agree with Anup’s observation that your finesse as an actor, you made the film rise several notches?

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■ Having said that, no actor on his own is in a position to make a film stand on his own. An actor helps a bit with what his market is, what people like him for and that can give a little push, but a film cannot stand on an actor’s stature alone. Whether it is Marlon Brando or Jack Nicholson or whoever, they cannot make the film survive just on their own stature. They are just a part of that machine.

Qissa is about partition so tell us a little more about what makes the film different from other partition dramas.

■ It starts with partition and deals with all kinds of partition. Somebody was asking me if it was about the Indian obsession with sons. For me, that’s a very superficial meaning. I don’t approach it like that because I don’t identify with that. For me that was not the film. Qissa is about certain basic concerns that you are obsessed with. You are in love with those concerns, you fight with those concerns, you are at war with them. It’s like being pushed into the sea and you have to find a kinara. Until then you are propelled through different engagements, but there is some kind of seeking all the time which doesn’t make you feel like you are at home. For me the film is that.

Would you agree with your director’s analogy of you approaching each role like a refugee?

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■ He’s put it beautifully. I feel like a refugee all the time, I still don’t know where I belong, but I have no sense of belonging except of my childhood days. In a way, that’s right ki you are new and you want to be new and that makes it fun and keeps it alive all the time.

Once an outsider or a refugee if you will, in the film industry, how do you feel when mainstream stars speak of you in glowing terms and express their admiration of your work and talent as an actor?

■ If you are not falling into the regular formula of the industry, the industry is always eager to accept you. But if you have other ideas, they don’t like it. They are giving you space so come and avail it and enjoy it, but if you have different ideas about yourself, then you have to fight and create a path which will take time. But what I am pleased by is the excitement of the audience, and they are ready to accept something which is fresh and can engage and entertain them. They are actually inspiring this whole thing. There’s a warmth; earlier they were intimidated because of the villainous roles I had done, but it’s very warm now. There’s a kind of apnapan, they are a part of your life, they have a right over you, to come to you and salute you, but I like it. Sometimes, you see a celebrity you are in awe of and, you can see that he feels somewhere that he’s not a part of that.

I don’t want to create that space even through my stories. I want to explore myself through my stories and that’s what charges me. And through that In a league of his own: Irrfan If you are not falling into the regular formula of the industry, the industry is always eager to accept you.But if you have other ideas, they don’t like it. They are giving you space so come and avail it and enjoy it, but if you have different ideas about yourself, then you have to fight and create a path which will take time process, I let the audience also explore themselves. I am not excited about those stories where I become a superhuman being for the audience to just look at with the aspiration to be like that character because he has more than them. It’s a very painful way to tell people that you are the chosen one.

Have you ever been accused of being repetitive?

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■ Many a times, I would hear that I was being repetitive, par kuch saalon se band ho gaya hai, phir vapas aa jayega. I have heard all kinds of criticism, but they have worked for me because they have made me aware that maybe there is something wrong with what I have been doing.

Did you anticipate the kind of success that The Luncbox has garnered?

■ I expected that it would be a very popular film all over the world, because it was a pleasant film; par itna lamba kheechegi, yeh mujhe andaaza nahin tha. Aur abhi tak chale ja rahi hai. It’s created a path for upcoming directors ki there’s a whole market out there that supports it. If you have a story just go out, there are people waiting for your stories.

You career trajectory has been an impressive example of dabbling in different kinds of cinema, do you think it has worked in your favour?

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■ Doing different kinds of films, I think has paid off very well, because I have worked with filmmakers like Tigmanshu Dhulia, Vishal Bhardwaj Ritesh Batra, Aasif Kapadia…. kabhi question nahin kiya unko because there was a freshness to them and it didn’t matter that it was their first film. Agar pehli film popular ho gayi to atak jaate hain ki doosri film mein kya karein! When you are working with directors pata nahin chalta ki first time hai, second yaa third time hai. They all behave in a similar way. Danny Boyle after so many films or Anup Singh in his first film—if they are on top of the situation, it doesn’t occur to you. You can see how they are setting the frame, where the camera is going and then it resonates with you. Sometimes, you don’t like it, but when you like it you submit yourself.

You have Piku coming up soon, so what is that film like?

■ I enjoyed myself immensely working on Piku. Kuch kuch filmein aisi hoti hain ki khatam ho jaane ke baad lagta hai khatam kyun huin and Piku is one of them. And everyone’s sentiments including Bachchan sa’ab and Deepika’s (Padukone) were similar. Sabko laga, ‘khatam ho gayi?We want to shoot more. There’s a Bangla song Bachchan sa’ab sings while we are travelling in the car which goes like ‘jayee poth jadi na shesh hoey’. Hame bhi aisa hi laga tha.

Were you enthralled by the experience of working with Hindi cinema’s biggest superstars?

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■ Ek cheez jo media se pata nahin chalti hai ki, he is such an earnest, hard-working and mouldable actor. Itni lamba journey karne ke baad itne accolades ke baad, kissi bhi actor ki mitti jo hai, hard ho jaati hai. Uska ek (image aur style)ban gaya hota hai, but he’s so eager. He’s like a kid. Kuch log hote hain jo insecurity mein hard work karte hain aur kuch log mazaa lete hai. He understands the hardship, the boring mundanity of being on the sets, but he makes it enjoyable not just for himself but for everybody around him. He keeps the atmosphere very playful which is very nice. Unka apna ek system hai kaam karne ka, jaise woh wahan baithe hue hain aur lines rehearse karte rahte hain zor zor se. Jab zor se bol rahein hain to aapko lagta hai jawaab de do, toh aap jawaab dene lagte hain, toh woh ek scene chalne lagta hai. Saara kaam chal raha hai— lighting aur idhar ek scene chal raha hai and suddenly main andar aa gaya toh hum khade khade wahan aapas mein scene kar sakte hain.

Is there any difference between film-making in India and in Hollywood?

■ There are a lot of differences. But primarily it is in the approach. Out there, story is the star and all actors and departments work towards a smooth telling of that story, it’s not like ki mera image aisa hai to story ghuma deta hoon uske hisaab se.  Hollywood caters to the world market so they have a kind of universal storytelling which they have mastered. Like The Lunchbox created a language that it could be watched by anybody, anywhere in the world. With collaboration such efforts are much easier.

Our industry still doesn’t have that multi-dimensional aspect to their stories. Jo meaning hai woh hai. It doesn’t have timelessness. Yesterday, I was shooting an ad and the shot was being discussed. It was like tum woh wala shot toh nahin lagoge kyunki woh subtle hai. But there was a production guy who said, “Sir, aajkal audience conventional cheezon se bore ho jaate hain. They want freshness.” Coming from a production guy it was surprising, but he was much more aware than members of the film industry.

 

First uploaded on: 27-02-2015 at 00:00 IST
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