His brooding eyes ooze a roguish intensity and with smoke billowing from his handcrafted cigarette, Irrfan Khan looks straight from a Sudhir Mishra thriller. Unlike his more popular counterparts, this Khan is in no mood to retire with just one image on the celluloid. He has quietly worked up his way in Hollywood and now with Padma Shri as his initial, Irrfan is saying “Thank You” to variety.
“It is recognition, a reaffirmation that what you are doing, the efforts you are putting in are being noticed at the highest level and it is overwhelming to note that there is a deeper impact of what you do on screen. I could have lived with the intense tag for my entire career but it would have been boring. After ‘Haasil', I used to get two offers a day to repeat myself but I didn't accede. It is not that I got success early, I achieved ‘Haasil' after a long struggle but still I didn't want to repeat myself as it amounted to dishonesty to my art,” says Irrfan, who did films like “Salaam Bombay” and “Ek Doctor Ki Maut” but took considerable time to get “Maqbool”.
“Sometimes it seems like a miracle. Life surprises you.” Very much like his latest release, “Yeh Saali Zindagi”, where he is “used” by the lady he loves! “Yes, Sudhir wanted to write a romantic film but ended up writing a thriller. It has his deft touch,” promises Irrfan.
Has he outgrown Bollywood? “Not at all! Jungle mein mor nacha kisne dekha? So I will do a ‘The Namesake', I will do a ‘Spiderman' and will do Anees Bazmee's ‘Thank You' as well.” Irrfan feels cinema exists somewhere between a product and expression. When he acts, he makes sure people notice that he is acting. “It should be subtle, but effective. Too much realism sometimes passes off as non-acting. I don't completely agree with those who believe cinema is all about message and has a bigger role. Message is important but it doesn't mean being preachy or boring. To me cinema has to be engaging, entertaining but there can't be one dimension to entertainment.”
Reality bytes
But is the Hindi film industry listening for it is offering him “Knock Out” when Ang Lee is choosing him for “Life of Pi”? “Please tell them to write more roles for me,” Irrfan quips. Seriously, is his talent being underutilised? “One has to understand where we are coming from. Our films have roots in Parsi theatre while cinema in the West always had a tinge of realism. We are catching up and almost every week we are making new strides. It is no longer just about hero-heroine….”
Of course, but are we in danger of perpetuating new types. Even the title of “Yeh Saali Zindagi” is offending many. Too much realism! “To me the word denotes a relation and is commonly used in a colloquial sense,” notes Irrfan. The point is people use invectives when they find it difficult to express themselves. “True, but what if the character finds himself unable to express himself in a literary way. Doesn't it amount to double standards…First you demand a tinge of reality in cinema and when some filmmaker attempts it you look the other way.”
Ready for release shortly will be Vishal Bhardwaj's “Saat Khoon Maaf”, where he plays a poet, one of Priyanka Chopra's seven husbands. “The challenge was to play a shayar . Usually, poets are good with words but they are not usually considered ‘attractive', unless you are a Gulzar. The idea was to bring his kind of appeal to the character.”
He has just returned from a schedule of Marc Webb's fourth sequel of “Spiderman” where he is playing Van Adder, a little known villain in the comic series. What will be the scope to perform from behind the mask?
“I don't pre-judge the films. A film goes through a long process before it reaches the audience. I was expecting a big role in ‘Slumdog Millionaire' but half of it got cut on the editing table. Had it been retained, I could have been nominated for Awards but did it affect the film, no. On the other hand in ‘The Namesake', mine was not the central character in the novel and the script but the way it turned out, Ashoke became crucial to the film. Now, I can show anybody the DVD of the film and say see my work. ‘Spiderman' has many villains but the one I am playing seems pivotal to the plot. Let's see.” Irrfan says there is no Asian reference to the villain and he has not been asked to work on his accent. “‘The Namesake' demanded Bengali accent, so I worked on it.” And how!
