Life of an Infinite Actor - Irrfan Khan

Irrfan Khan. Undoubtedly, the best actor of this generation who gave a stunning range of films that will keep resonating as long as we go. Whether it's a blink-and-a-miss role in "Spiderman" or a brief role in "Slumdog Millionaire" or any of the stylish performances in "Piku", "Talwar", "Pan Singh Tomar", "Life of Pi", "Maqbool", you cannot take your eyes off screen when Irrfan Khan is emoting. It doesn't matter what he is wearing or how he's shaved for the film, you have to be at your best hearing sense to grasp all the text and subtext in his acting with his murmuring accent and a swagger that doesn't look seem like a swagger.

In "Piku" you can see the sweat and blood of Deepika Padukone and a herculean effort by Amitabh Bachchan to compete for the attention of the audience whereas Irrfan Khan made it look so effortless on screen. Likewise whether he is explaining a Siska bulb benefits or a Vodafone recharge ad or doing a jig with Shah Rukh Khan at a film festival whether art films are as good as mainstream films. In spite of the irony of the 2000s where a lead actor's remuneration become as big an overhead as a budget of a film, Khan's swashbuckle and finesse in acting became a toast of every film he got associated with. Hollywood also cast him in many films but when it comes to Irrfan's lines, there was something always ethereal, magical and evocative than the other actor's lines. Yes, and the subtlety he brought to screen didn't threaten the other actors sharing space with him unlike say, a Shatrughan Sinha but enhanced the "repeat watchability quotient" of the film without an elaborate overlay or an over-assertive baritone like that of Nana Patekar.

While we never noticed who really took the baton from the arty films caravan of actors like Naseruddin Shah, Irrfan Khan created his own inimitable and enduring shelf-space in a world dominated by the three Khans until a few years ago. And unlike Naseruddin Shah, Irrfan took the torch of towering performance from film after film and passed the baton to actors like Nawazuddin Siddiqui and many other stage actors and superstars in mainstream plots and commercial films. Thank God, Tollywood also cast him in a forgettable role as a comic villain in "Sainikudu" with Mahesh Babu and Trisha. But Thank God, Tollywood didn't checkmate his fledgling career with fat cheques that would have merely created another Prakash Raj or Shaji Shinde in South Cinema.

In the finite gallery of films that Irrfan Khan got associated with including the many international collaborations that put him limelight as a draw for Asian audiences, it will remain a nonpareil feat for any other actor to beat in this generation. Most actors of his calibre would have wasted their raw talent with more commercial themes or silly gaffes or sundry makeups of a granny or a transgender or a bandit and so on. Not so in the books of Mr Khan. When he dons a role, the role becomes a reprise in the interpretation of the irrepressible Khan himself - no need for any bells and whistles of the character or any set property. It therefore becomes important that the legacy of Irrfan Khan is a fascinating history of how a late-bloomer annexed chartered and uncharted territories across the globe and built a space that even time cannot erase forever. There will be many more odes to Khan as the world wakes up to cold fact that he is no more. One of them will be how Irrfan Khan's latest film "Angrezi Medium" got released on the OTT platform amidst the Covid blackout of theaters world over. This may well be the future of all small and medium budget films and to get associated with the debut on an OTT platform also goes to the credit of Irrfan Khan. As he passes out in the holy month of Ramzan, I pray that Irrfan Khan finds peace wherever he goes next and strength to his young family who survives him. You were quite a draw, Irrfan whether we saw you first on TV, Silver screen or OTT.

Here are my top picks of Irrfan Khan's filmology:

1. LunchBox

2. Talwar

3. Piku

4. The Namesake

4. Maqbool

5. Life of Pi

6. Life in a Metro

7. Pan Singh Tomar

8. Hindi Medium

9. Qarib Qarib Single

10. Carvan

#IrrfanKhan #IrrfanKhanFilms #LegendsOfIndianCinema #WorldCinemaLegends #Bollywood

"The Lunch Box" (Hindi Film Review)

Some films are born great, some films have greatness thrust on them and some films attain greatness, to borrow a bard's phrase. "The Lunch Box" is a film that is earmarked for greatness because of a mesmerising story, bewitching script, almost flawless execution and a starcast that comes tailor-made. It has already been premierred on most film festivals from Toronto to Cannes and has won rave reviews before being showcased in India.  Director Ritesh Batra has given one of India's finest film in years with a story that is as improbable as a six sigma error in the delivery system of the famed "Dabbawallahs". 

The six sigma error is  what changes life for a middle-aged wife Ila (Nimrat Kaur) when the lunch box that she packs with utmost affection and consummate culinary skills gets swapped by the Dabbawallahs with a box that reaches one Mr Fernandez (Irrfan Khan) who is on the verge of retiring as a Senior Accountant in an Insurance Company. He has a new under-study Nawazudding Siddiqui who is deputed by the owner to learn the ropes quickly. A subtle romantic track develops between the exchange of the "Dabba" between Irrfan Khan and Nimrat Kaur every day, appendixed with handwritten letters inserted in the box. "The food was tasty but salty" and other inane messages soon develop into gut-level communication between two adults caught in their own worlds of loneliness and desperation; Nimrat has a happy home with a school-going girl and a workaholic husband who is insensitive to her, her sole refuge is an elderly neighbour Aunty who stays one floor above her flat but helps her with all the recipes and the sage counsel she needs. Irrfan, on the other hand, is a loner (lost his wife) who is good at work but unfriendly coach to over-enthusiastic Nawaz. His zest for life and empathy for others including kids who ball around in his home environs were inscrutable, until  both Nimrat through her tasty cooking and Nawaz through his simplicity and cheerleading enthusiasm  mend Irrfan's mental makeup for better. 

The film builds up in 110 minutes of pacy narrative with sharp characterisations. Ritesh Batra has earlier made a documentary on "Daabwallahs"; now he creates a story of a lunch box mistakenly delivered by them. That could be a reason to fuss and file defamation charges from the gangs of dedicated workers who were invited for Prince Charles's wedding and etched into a Harvard case study. But the film stands out for transmitting the DNA of the times, for telling a story with a freshly different pair of Director's eyes, without pretensions, different values and uninhibited by the compulsions of cinema. Entirely shot in Mumbai's local trains and the nerve-center of Mumbai's concrete jungles of Malad and Dongri, there must be around 350 picture shots that make you live in the office and residential spaces of a society that thrives on chaos, packed with people like swarms of bees yet friendly and humane. Soundtrack of the film is by some foreigner, makes a point with regular musical instruments at just three to four instances in the film but by and large relies on the natural sounds of the deafening dins of moving locals, orchestral nature of an office canteen bustle. Occasionally, the kids on the moving locals break into a hit Kumar Sanu song and that becomes a lead sound track for the next few scenes. 

Personally, I felt a cute connect between visual and verbal literacy in this film. At a time when the biases of the film-makers are mostly towards song-and-dance and surrealistic and loud entertainment, Ritesh Batra re-creates a story that gives out as much from the imagery as from the words spoken by the three main characters - Irrfan Khan gives his best messages to Ila only in English and he gives almost a Thoreau-like commentary on issues of happiness and misery, Nimrat Kaur (that Cadbury girl caught in traffic jam with a mouthful of Five Star) is innocent, adventurous and vulnerable at the same time. Nawazuddin Siddiqui is at his entertaining best rubbing shoulders with an elegant Irrfan but has occasionally stolen the thunder; all three characters speak as much with words spoken as with their body language. In that sense, the verbal literacy is probably taken to newer highs than the visual literacy of the film. References to the 80s TV classic, "Yeh Jo Hai Jindagi" and old victorian values of diligence and restraint are messages the director wants the audience to take home despite an ending that is not so poetic. There are references to Bhutan's Gross National Happiness as opposed to our own GDP fixation.

When a film's reputation darts faster than the buying interest in India, you have to expect the Goliaths of the industry to rally behind it. No wonder, "The Lunch Box" is now a collaboration of Indo-German-French productions and the two Goliaths here are Karan Johar and Ronnie Screwala. That must give all the push needed to qualify this as India's sole entry to the Oscars. Because of the screenplay and the pacy narrative, you wouldn't feel bored even for a second. But there are flaws in this notable experiment, mostly loose ends the director forgot to tie in his stickiness to the main storyline. When Ila's husband tells her why she is making Aloo Gob every day for lunch, we don't get that. When the Dabbawallah refuses to accept the mistake of  swapping of boxes, he doesn't give a credible answer but a Harvard student might know what the director concealed. Again, not once does it occur to the two characters corresponding over lunch box to connect with the new modes of mobiles and emails. One more, Ila discovers she is trapped in a sex-less marriage because her husband is having an affair, but that is left unconfronted till the end. Obviously, there are quite a few gaffes in a film that seeks to break new ground in story-telling. But as the line in the film goes, sometimes, " A wrong train also can take you to the right destination." Ritesh Batra and team deserve a thumping watch for "The Lunch Box". My rating is 4.75 out of 5.