I wish I could spend more time at Gandhi Ashram: Irrfan

There are few places that give you tranquility like none other, and this is what Irrfan felt when he visited the Sabarmati Ashram on Sunday with his son. The actor, who plays a vigilante in his upcoming film, Madaari, shares with a clear longing in his eyes, “I wish I was alone there, and I wish I had more time to just experience the place where it all happened.While cities bore me, I have come to Gujarat for some really interesting films and that have allowed me to go to places like Gondal, where I felt at peace. But I would like to explore more,” says Irrfan about his love for places that are less crowded. Reticent, yet articulate, the thinking actor spoke to AT during his recent visit. Excerpts:
You have managed to sparkle the silver screen with your acting a number of times. How do you manage to do it time and again?
There are few characters that automatically bring that in you. When you feel the character from deep within, when you become the character that’s when you get the ability to involve the audience and take them far away from their reality. While I don’t think I have managed to do that well yet, there are few actors who just blow your mind with their personality, their static presence also tells more than many can with their physical presence.
So does it take a thinking person to become a good actor?
No. In fact, thinking, I feel becomes a hurdle sometimes to act intuitively. A thought can only make you understand the rational aspect of the story or the character. But life is not rational. Rationality is just one part, one aspect of life, which we only have created for us to survive. The other part is the non-rational aspect of life, that part if intuitive. And acting takes you there.
Is that what, according to you, cinema is?
That’s what cinema is, the other part of rationality. And that’s what penetrates you deep inside. It’s not the rationality of the story that strikes a chord, it’s the magic of it. And that’s why it is so unpredictable, and there are no formulas for a hit film.
Do you think you are a philosophical person? Because what you write on your social media pages is quite different from other actors.
I don’t understand philosophy. But I do seek things in a different way, I don’t know if you call it philosophy. I do have a poetic bend, but I only share things on social media that hit me. It’s not regular exercise for me to keep in touch, because I don’t believe in keeping in touch. That’s why I don’t have too many friends with whom I would meet regularly. Or I don’t have relations with people I work with, unless it happens organically.
So do you find yourself at home amidst all the cacophony of social media, promotions, travelling, internet?
I try to find my peace amongst all this. Ideally I would like to disappear and reach a point where I don’t have to go out and tell people to watch my films because somewhere there is a rebellion inside me who wants to defy marketing and make reliability more important than marketing. And social media has become a tool for those who want to vent their anger, and abuse anyone and everyone. It is also a tool for those who don’t have a voice. So it’s on us how we want to use it.