On 29th April 2020 Indian Cinema lost one of it's finest stars Irrfan Khan or popularly known as Irrfan to a long fought battle of cancer.
Irrfan came into the fray as a powerful actor in 1988 with his debut film Salaam Bombay but this turned out to be an unrequited story for Irrfan, whose performance was conspicuously missing in the Oscar winning Film. The story of day to day lives of slum children made a mark on the audience but Irrfan's role did not make it to the final cut. This start sort of remains a bit portentous, given how he has left us today. His impact is huge but he is not there. His life was about the journey and never the destination.
He went on to play a series of roles in films that failed to propel his career forward, he received critical acclaim for films like Haasil (2003) and Maqbool (2004). It was only in 2007, acting in the life drama, Life in a Metro changed Irrfan's career and got him his Filmfare award for the best supporting character among other praises.
Irrfan born into a Muslim family in Jaipur, completed his MA from Jaipur before joining National School of Drama in Delhi. During this time he showed interest in acting under the influence of his maternal uncle who was a theatre artist himself.
In his early days in Mumbai, he took up a job as an air conditioner repairman and later landed up in Salaam Bombay. After this he played Lenin in a teleplay on Doordarshan titled Laal Ghaas Par Neele Ghode, he was then cast as a psycho killer, the main antagonist of the show, in the serial Darr which was lauded by the audience. Khan worked in a series of television serials throughout the 1990s until he landed up in famous movies like Ek Doctor ki Maut in 1990. Asif Kapadia cast him as the lead in The Warrior, a historical film completed in 11 weeks. In 2001, The Warrior opened at international film festivals and received rave reviews from the critics.
Between 2003 and 2004, he acted in Ashvin Kumar's short film, Road to Ladakh; the film received rave reviews at international festivals. That same year, he played the title role in the critically acclaimed Maqbool, an adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth. Later Irrfan Khan played phenomenal roles in the biographical sports drama of Paan Singh Tomar. Some lighter roles in Khan's bag include films like Piku and Qarib Qarib Single.
When it came to international fame Khan played a police inspector in the 2008 film Slumdog Millionaire, for which he and the cast of the movie won Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. In 2009, he featured in the film Acid Factory. He appeared as an FBI agent in New York (2009), and opposite Natalie Portman as a Gujarati diamond merchant in the Mira Nair directed segment of the 12 part feature New York, I Love You. In 2010, he worked on the third season of the HBO series In Treatment, enacting the part of Sunil. Khan played Dr. Rajit Ratha in The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012. He played the adult version of Piscine "Pi" Molitor Patel in Ang Lee's film adaptation of Life of Pi, which became a critical and commercial success worldwide.
When it comes to ongoing projects and brand associations Angreji Medium was Irrfan's last release and he was the first actor to be roped in by Mastercard for their commercials. He was associated with brands like Syska and Treebo among others. He has also shot for Vodafone, Nerolac and Rajasthan Tourism.
His rise to fame and recognition was not easy and that is what we need to learn from his trajectory. Like Naseeruddin Shah says “For those who come to Mumbai looking for a break and decide to go back in two years if they don't make it..” Irrfan Khan is an example of sheer resilience and confidence under every and any circumstances.
The actor was an extraordinary soul and these were his words during his last days- “As I was entering the hospital, drained, exhausted, listless, I hardly realised my hospital was on the opposite side of Lord’s, the stadium. The Mecca of my childhood dream. Amidst the pain, I saw a poster of a smiling Vivian Richards. Nothing happened, as if that world didn’t ever belong to me… Once, while standing on the balcony of my hospital room, the peculiarity jolted me. Between the game of life and the game of death, there is just a road. On one side, a hospital, on the other, a stadium. As if one isn’t part of anything which might claim certainty – neither the hospital, nor the stadium. That hit me hard.”
Like Mira Nair said in an interview recently- He knew he had something extraordinary and he took care of it and did not let it fritter away.