Last year on this day, Sahabzade Irfan Ali Khan, popularly known as Irrfan Khan or simply Irrfan left us. It was his personal choice to add an extra 'r' in his name. Irrfan Khan, a name synonymous with struggle, persistence and consistency is a phenomenal talent in the filed of arts. With no godfather in Bollywood or Hollywood, he had conquered the hearts of movie-lovers and left a lasting impression in the cinema world. Irrfan was described by Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian as a "distinguished and charismatic star in Hindi and English-language movies whose hardworking career was an enormously valuable bridge between South Asian and Hollywood cinema".
He did never typecast him and the adjective which describes him best is perhaps versatility. Born in Rajasthan into a Muslim family of Pathans with Rajasthani ancestry, Irrfan used to paly cricket well and was selected in the prestigious CK Nayudu Trophy for emerging players under 23 category. However, he failed to attend as he could not afford travel expenses. He was influenced by his maternal uncle who was a theatre artist in Jodhpur. He did a number of stage performances at his early age in Jaipur where he was introduced with noted theatre artists. On completion of his MA in Jaipur, he joined National School of Drama (NSD) in New Delhi in 1984 to study acting.
Just after his graduation from NSD in 1987, Irrfan made his debu with Mira Nair's 'Salaam Bombay' with a minor role. Since then, he acted in numerous television serials, teleplay, drama films as well as various other films. Few of them, which deserves special mention, are 'Laal Ghaas Par Neele Ghode' (he played Lenin in the teleplay), 'Bharat Ek Khoj', 'The Great Maratha', 'Chandrakanta' (90s supernatural fantasy period drama). Irrfan also played the famous revolutionary, Urdu poet and Marxist political activist of India, Makhdoom Mohiuddin in 'Kahkashan'. Few of his critically acclaimed films in his early career are 'Kamla Ki Maut' (opposite Roopa Ganguly, 1989), 'Ek Doctor Ki Maut' (1990) and 'Such A Long Journey' (1998). Unfortunately, all these went unnoticed! The historical film 'The warrior' (2001), where he was cast as the lead, opened at international film festivals. In 2004, his outstanding performance in 'Maqbool', an adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth, was very much critically acclaimed.
It is until 2007 when he came up with box office commercial hits 'The Namesake' and 'Life in a Metro', which won him Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award. The very next year came his international success with 'Slumdog Millionaire', for which he won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance. He will always be remembered for his remarkable performance in the title character in 'Paan Singh Tomar' (2011), which won him the National Film Award for Best Actor. He went on to gain critical acclaim for his starring roles in 'Life of Pi' (2012), 'The Lunchbox' (2013), 'Piku' (2015), 'Talvar' (2015), 'Jurassic World' (2015) and 'Inferno' (2016). His rejection to a big offer in the 'Interstellar' for 'Lunchbox' in 2013 shows his commitment towards work.
Irrfan's most commercial hits (highest grossing) came with 'Hindi Medium' (2017) and his final screen appearance was in its sequel 'Angrezi Medium' (2020). These two performances won him the Filmfare Award for Best Actor in 2018 and 2021 (posthumously). He has a National Film Award, an Asian Film Award and six Filmfare Awards among numerous accolades to his credit. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2011 and Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 2021.
Let me conclude with an incidence which shows his recognition in global level. Julia Roberts once stopped outside the Kodak theatre where Oscars were being staged, just to compliment Irrfan Khan on his brilliant performance in the movie 'Slumdog Millionaire' (2008).
Rest in arts Irrfan !!
Suman Sinha
29/04/2021
