RIP Irrfan Khan: The maverick's five best movie performances
There has been no actor like Irrfan Khan, and there won't be another. Starting from his humble role as a letter writer in Salaam Bombay! to emerging as a successful standalone star, Irrfan's journey has been phenomenal. In every single scene he appeared in through his career, Irrfan made it count. Shortlisting Irrfan's performances is not easy, but these five roles immortalize the maverick.
Umpteen movies of Irrfan came before The Lunchbox, but this one revealed more about the actor than any of them. Irrfan's Saajan Fernandes is an aged, lonely widower. He is a man of few words. And, that's precisely where the beauty of Irrfan comes in. He doesn't have to utter words, it's his eyes that tell us so much about Saajan's many perplexities and dilemmas.
Maqbool was Irrfan's breakthrough into mainstream Bollywood. Even as the acting acumen of Irrfan needed no stamping, it was his portrayal of the troubled underworld don Maqbool in Vishal Bhardwaj's iconic Macbeth adaptation, which brought the man into the limelight. As a man torn between love and loyalty, Irrfan draws both your dread as well as your sympathy.
Tigmanshu Dhulia's ode to the feared athlete-turned-rebel Paan Singh Tomar got Irrfan a National Award. It is also that one iconic role that every actor dreams of landing. Irrfan does not merely act in Paan Singh Tomar. He gets under the skin of the brilliant athlete whose circumstances lead him to pick up the guns and wreak havoc in the ruins of Chambal.
Irrfan brought us yet another example of his never-dying versatility with his atypical role as Rana Chaudhary in Shoojit Sircar's Piku. As the chirpy taxi business owner, Irrfan's Rana, who agrees to take a road trip with the eccentric Banerjee family, is a treat to watch. While Rana comes with his own set of problems, he never shies from offering us a smile.
Apart from beautifully bringing out the dilemmas of cultural differences and generation gap, Mira Nair's The Namesake also brings us a subtle and nuanced portrayal from Irrfan as a caring and patient father. It was one of his earliest Hollywood outings, and also among his finest. In the movie, Irrfan's Ashoke dies early, leaving a void, which is not untrue of his real life.
