An actor whose IMDB account is brimming with films in different stages of production is spending his time babysitting son Kabir in Delhi. That’s Adil Hussain for you, an actor’s actor who feels roles you play in life enrich those you play on the sets and vice versa. As someone who’s interested in the craft rather than the perks that come with it, this actor’s dive into the cinematic depths was driven by monetary concerns. “When my wife Kristen was full-blown pregnant, I had just Rs. 3,000 in the account,” says Mr. Hussain. “I was teaching theatre at the National School of Drama as a visiting faculty. Even as we were contemplating how we would make it, I got a call from the producer of Gangor , who wanted to cast me because Irrfan (Khan) had left the film. I asked them to deposit the money in my account by a certain time and after that I didn’t have to look back. Thankfully, it turned out to be a good script.”
It is the same house in Greater Kailash where director Abhishek Chaubey visited to convince him to act in Ishqiya and over the years, the industry has come to terms that Mr. Hussain is based in Delhi. He is not overtly ambitious either. “The way the industry is offering me police officer roles, I am in danger of becoming the next Ifthikhar. I don’t want to. I am happy driving my Wagon R. In fact, I have told NSD that if they pay me well I would like to spend six months teaching.”
In between answering Kabir’s curious questions and caring for him, Mr. Hussain shows an equally curious set of photos from the sets of his forthcoming independent films. Bollywood may still be struggling to create space for the actor, but young independent filmmakers are challenging him. He’s played a myriad roles, from a small-time clerk who takes his father to Benares to fulfil his last wish to die in the holy city in Mukti Bhavana , to a transvestite doctor in Crash Test Aglae . He plays Mini’s father in Kabuliwala and a farmer in Love Sonia , based on child trafficking. But his most intriguing role yet is that of a police officer in search of his daughter in Sunrise ( Arunoday in Marathi), which will release in the U.S. later this month.
How does he describe such transformations? “It is not easy but simple,” says Mr. Hussain. “I am trained in the method school of acting where you use your emotional memory to create your own back story. It is an extremely efficient method. I had been following that but it was a burden on me. To be good, efficient, used to haunt me. It used to give me nightmares while I was doing Othello .”
However, in 2011, something interesting happened. He prepared a play called Karmnishtha and his mentor Dilip Shankar decided to take it to Puducherry where Mr. Hussain’s acting teacher Shaupon Boshu lives. “I was playing Arjuna and Dilip Shankar was Krishna. Till we went to Puducherry, we trained for just two hours every day and nothing was fixed,” says the actor. “Every rehearsal was so different that I was kind of lost. I began to believe that he will soon tell me where to stand and draw lines. He didn’t help. I never thought I would be in. But the play happened and it is the best performance I have ever given in my life.”
Mr. Hussain knew his lines, of course, but they didn’t work on emotions. “No characterisation,” he says. “The three things we discussed were that we will treat the audience as Kauravas and if I don’t understand the answer to the question, I would repeat it. He may ask me questions and I have to answer them as Krishna. And it just flew.” From that day on, the burden of acting to be good just left Mr. Hussain. The only thing he now prepares for is how not to think about what he is supposed to do. “It is the most difficult thing I have practised,” he says. “What I do is read and re-read the script. I just don’t entertain all the brilliant ideas that come to my mind and go as a blank slate or vessel.”
Mr. Hussain carried the practice to cinema with Sunrise . “I used to prepare the background of the character. I will do this or that… but now I realise that by doing so you are sowing the seeds of banality. Because subconsciously, these references come from what you have seen around you. You should not know how you will do it. It will happen. And when you have nothing to hold on to, it becomes scary. People don’t approach a creative activity this way. If you want to get rid of the barrier of mediocrity then you have to let go of all the things you know and magic happens.”
He says he has finally started enjoying acting after his days at National School of Drama. “NSD gave me the tools and skills. And skills are dangerous because sometimes if you are not vigilant your skill remains. Skills should not be seen. It should be an effortless process. Like when you would go to hear Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, you didn’t hear the skill, you just heard the song. Also, skills are seen when the person is not comfortable and there is an unwillingness to do something. Like Govinda enjoys what he does but not everybody can be comfortable in that space.” One reminds him of Naseeruddin Shah in Dirty Picture , and Mr. Hussain nods.
He recommends the intuitive process to every actor. “You have to be silent to hear that inner voice. It is a very humble voice, just requesting or maybe telling you, ‘ Udhar nahin, idhar jao na ’ ”.
Coming back to Kabir and an actor’s everyday life, the actor says years of practice have taught him that there is no difference between acting in a given space and acting in everyday life. “Acting teaches you that you have to be calm and stable. I believe quietude is the fundamental demand of acting. And those skills have to slip into your life.”
During his NSD fellowship, he wrote a research paper exploring the relationship between the life in a given space and the everyday life of an actor. “I feel the only difference is that when you are in a given space you are being commanded and surrounded by certain situations created by a writer. Here, those situations are created by you or by life. There is a Kabir situation, a Kristen situation, a political situation, a neighbour situation….” It is not about, he maintains, killing one for the other. “One enhances the other. Because of my acting, my life has got enriched. It has helped me transgress my moral boundaries, my judgments and the idea of myself.”
One of the biggest inhibitions an Indian actor needs to get over, he says, is expressing intimacy on screen. One remembers the unease of Om Puri in Aastha . “I am equally sincere with my female actors in intimate scenes as I am towards Kristen. As I say, ‘I love you’ to Kristen, the Kristen-ness of Kristen evokes certain things in me, which are unique.” Of course, people around you should understand your process. He gives the example of the much-talked-about intimate scene between him and Radhika Apte in Parched , which is running in France. “I discussed it with Kristen and she said, ‘do it well’. It may not be the case with many actors. It should be both ways. When we discussed the scene before the shoot, Radhika talked about her experiences with her English husband.” Kabir is back, and we can’t ignore him anymore.
