Calm in the storm

It was a typical weekday afternoon in Mumbai—busy roads, hassled faces. However, one of the busiest cafes in the Lokhandwala Complex—Love & Latte—was not buzzing with customers. Instead it was hosting a group of journalists who were there to interview Irrfan Khan who was promoting his latest film Qarib Qarib Singlle.

When I met him, Irrfan was rolling a cigarette in the cafe’s basement, away from prying eyes. He does not like the exercise of promotions before the release of a film. Given a choice, he would like to eliminate the process. But he tries to “make it engaging and entertaining” for himself. “Talking about myself is very boring,” he said. “I am not a good talker at all. But it is a part [of work] and I have to do it.”

It has been almost two and a half decades since he set foot in the acting arena and he still continues to enjoy the processes behind filmmaking as much as he did on the first day. The most exciting thing about filmmaking, he said, is that a film is made again and again at different stages. “The writers write one film. Then the director comes in and sees from his/her own perspective,” he said. “When actors come in, again, there’s a difference. More changes on the set and then on the edit table.” The exciting part, he said, is the one that you discover when it goes to the audience. “The audience reaction completely changes it again. There could be films that you enjoyed filming or watching when it was complete, but once the public watched it and scrutinised it, it changes for you. You discover a different element of the story or the characters.”

The exciting part about cinema is that one should be able to see it over and over again, picking out a different meaning from it every time you watch, he said. Irrfan talked about these aspects of filmmaking fondly. Is he interested in anything more than acting? “Oh I am interested,” he said. “I keep my eyes open, all the time. Sometimes I imagine—how will a scene be cut?” But having said that, he has no desire to direct. “Direction is a completely different craft,” he said. “And you need multi-tasking. I am a very single-tracked person. If I go to a mall which has too much in it, I get distracted. If I like something I will buy it quickly.”

However, it is not the same when he is choosing his scripts. According to Tanuja Chandra, director of Qarib Qarib Singlle, Irrfan took a long time to accept the script. “It’s not just this one, I think he takes a while to think through all the movies that he does,” said Tanuja with a laugh. She thinks he takes time to make the script his own and connect with it. “He kept thinking about it because he has never really played a character similar to it and has never really done a rom-com.”

A fun trip: Still of Irrfan Khan and Parvathy from Qarib Qarib Singlle.

Irrfan agreed. The films he does these days, he said, are not formula films, whether it is Piku, Hindi Medium or Qarib.... “When there is no formula to it, you gauge, you understand and see what’s going to work,” he said. “Then you test whether you and your director are on the same tangent.”

The only thing that he wants to ensure now is that he can do the kind of stories he likes, something that resonates within him, and ensure that those stories become viable for the producers and for the audience. “I don’t want to be in a situation where I have to do a movie just for the sake of money or business,” said Irrfan.

In Qarib..., Irrfan is paired opposite acclaimed Malayalam actor Parvathy. It is the story of an odd couple who met through a dating app. What intrigued Irrfan was how the story challenges certain conventions. “When a male and female meet, there are expectations, notions, misunderstandings, but the sexuality starts playing a big role, too,” he said. “That comes because we’ve been brought up like that. Society doesn’t allow us to be easy with the opposite gender. For me, I found a space to communicate that ease with the opposite gender.”

The actor’s interest in understanding people and their behaviour had once led him to study psychology. But now he knows “psychology doesn’t give you answers, it is life which gives you answers”. He remembers that in his younger days in a small town in Rajasthan, girls were an enigma, a mystery and an object of desire, because the boys and girls couldn’t be friends. And the belief was shattered when he grew up. “And our cinema, I felt, was misleading us too,” he said.

His first brush with exploring the opposite gender happened with Piku. “That was the first time I got a role where I could relate to a woman as a co-passenger,” he said. “You have interest [in the woman] definitely, but you don’t let it override. You test the ground and let the other person be comfortable.” He thinks that the play within the two genders is not being explored in films anymore. “It was a thing of the 1970s.” And without falling into the trap of formula films, he wanted to explore the subject. “Why should I believe hearsay? Let me experiment, explore things on my own,” said Irrfan.

This desire to explore runs deep. Maybe that is the reason he has pushed his elder son Babil, towards that journey too. He has assisted the cinematographer in the film. “We made him assist because he has taken a gap year before he goes to college,” said Irrfan. “It is my way of telling him to explore whatever he wants and reach his own understanding of things. See what interests you instead of worrying about the results or the monetary gains. Find your voice.”

It is a lesson from Irrfan’s own life. He ponders over it and goes back to the time when he thought he had achieved what he wanted to. “I had got fame, I had got money, but it didn’t serve me well,” he said. “I realised fame and money are not the way to happiness, engagement is.” That is what he is trying to do with every script that he is choosing now.