45. Remembering Irrfan Khan: A Legacy of Art, Grace, and Inspiration!
My Tribute to Irrfan Khan!
It will be five years since the passing of Irrfan Khan, an Indian movie actor who has captivated the audience worldwide. Here is an essay and tribute to Irrfan Khan that I penned during his passing.
My tribute to Irrfan !!!
Growing up in India, Bollywood movies and Cricket were huge part of us. If you ask any Indian kid who grew up during the 80s, knows that Indian cinema was at its peaks and emerging into game changer as new technology of VHS. I still remember during the early 80s, My dad with his partners use to run the small video parlor showing latest Bollywood and angry young mans Amitabh movies were in high demand, sipping coca cola and watching Amitabh on big screen was out of this world. During that period the idea of the movie just made everything so refreshing. Growing up during the VHS era, hardly watching the hazy screen but still it was so endearing to watch and used to lost in the moment.
The craze for movies just gotten bigger as I moved into teens, when movies was not just for entertainment but portrayal of art. The art of cinema started to get me slowly, mostly enjoying with my friends, during this time bunking classes and watching movies was all that we used to do.
After finishing my school I have moved to US, and cinema has become the part of me, getting frenzy about movies and stars, during early 2000s, Cinema as I noticed has been changing at home. For the first time, I have noticed the heartfelt part of the movies. I have realized something I haven’t done before was noticing the art of the movies. Prior I was more attracted to entertainment especially khans in 90s, which started to change my perspective towards the cinema.
It was this time during my post graduation, I have come across an actor during the movie Namesake by Miranair in the US. It was such a good portrayal of Bengali man immigrated to US, the way he acted just captivated me. That was the turning point of my liking towards the Irrfan khan as an actor.
Usually we all have our crazies about movie stars and celebrities and some times we go crazy for them and idolize. He was all in one. I was watching more of his films. Especially Pan Singh Tomar was another movie which has captivated the imagination as a failed athlete how things change during the circumstances. In fact it is something of a movie where it differentiates himself with other khans as how he struggled to be an independent actor. He won much deserved Indian national award.
Then came the Lunch box, I haven’t seen more classical acting than this movie. It takes into an emotional roller coster of amazing but powerful movie. There are whole bunch of movies he has acted in between them. He has equally contributed to the world cinema and Indian Cinema. He started early from alumni of Delhi acting school. He had a small role in Salaam Bombay. Since then he was unable to get the roles and struggled in 90s. Until he landed in small tv roles, then Maqbool, based Macbeth really changed the stardom for Irrfan.
As a boy who grew up in India, entertainment was mostly watching movie and craze over the Bollywood stars over the years. However there is no one like Irrfan who has captured the silver screen. Even working Amitabh Bachan in Piku, Irrfan still steals the show in the limited role.
I follow very few ppl on Twitter and Irrfan was part of my small twitter world. When he came out that he was diagnosed with a tumor, as a part of medical community, I knew this was serious and at some point things can get worse. As we all know the last movie Angrezi Medium, I thought the treatment might be working, to see him back on screen. Unfortunately short lived. Sudden news about his demise made vacuum in the Indian cinema.
He grew up very elegantly as a star, beating most of the fellow entertainers as he had no background nothing else but himself to fall upon as he had humble beginnings.
The life of a movie star means somebody who carries the role on their shoulders and not dependent on other actors. Someone who takes it to the next level. The talent of Irrfan was true and genuine. His screen presence was magnet to most people, especially me.
Irrfan was epitome of acting should be, it was so natural to him. The longing of his acting through out the movie world only add to the cinema glory. Thank you Irrfan for great art of cinema. I will cherish your acting throughout my life time.
Suman Manchireddy MD