The King Khan – Irrfan khan – A filmography
ok ok here is a post that was looooong due ….
Here’s a question – Who is the best khan in Bollywood ???? (meaning which one do u love the most)
Aamir-Lagaan and DCH being released in the same year might make you think that he is the best. Besides. He also is the ‘thinking Khan’
SRK - yeah …. sure ….
Salman – might be without his shirts off and if you are a female(or gay) that is.
Saif – post omkara, Saif has achieved a demi-god-ish status…
All are good but here’s the khan whose films I look forward to most eagerly…who sadly is not a part of the khan triumvarate (which is now also increased by Saif’s entry in it)
Irrfan Khan
For those who don’t know him (God help you if ever I see you guys), here’s an imdb on him
“Irfan Khan is from Jaipur, India. He was studying for his M.A. degree when he snagged a fellowship at (NSD) National School of Drama in 1984. After graduating in 1987, he moved to Mumbai. Theater and television kept him afloat till Mira Nair offered him a cameo in “Salaam Bombay”. But the role was edited out of the final copy.
He continued to dabble in television making impacts on various soaps and tele-historicals series. To break away from television Irfan featured in few main stream movies but none of them were a box-office success.
But things changed when Landon based director Asif Kapadia gave him the lead in “The Warrior”. An historical film completed in 11 weeks on the locals in Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan.
“The Warrior” stormed in international film festivals making Irfan Khan a noticed actor. His first Bollywood main lead role came in the movie “Rog”.
He is married to writer Sutapa Sikdar who’s also a NSD graduate and they have a son named Babil.”
I remember seeing him in a serial called Darr on Star, which was written by Anurag Kashyap. I saw one or two episodes and was scared in daylights. Irrfan as the maniac psycho – killer was terrifying. I also remember seeing him in Star Bestseller serials and Banegi Apni Baat. There was somehting about his eyes which struck me. Ironically, his eyes were scoffed at the most during his filmy struggling days. His dad used to say “Yeh aankhein yeh, ya pyaala ??” His bulging eyes and scary looks would make him look like a psycho. But trust me, there were somehting about his eyes. Anurag says acting lies in the eyes. For a proof look at Irfaan where he talks about his acting skills, roles and NSD.
Here’s my little tribute to him.
Ek Doctor ki maut – (The Death of a Doctor)
The film is about a Doctor-scientist who is trying to find vaccine for TB and succeds is his research, but is sadly failed, ridiculed and insulted by the system. The first of the realistic ‘man-against-system’ films I can think of. Pankaj Kapoor (yes u heard it right !!) played the protaganist and Shabana Azmi puts in a ’supporting role – arty’ performance. Acting with them as a minor-supporting character(a Biology student turned Journalist) must have been scary for Irrfan. Somehow, you see the film in hindsight and realise that Irrfan could’ve been given a stronger role, but nevertheless, the film is watchable more for Pankaj and Shabana, rather than Irrfan’s almost small apperance. He was strictly ok … nothing mentionable about him in that film.
Watch this film for pankaj kapoor and shabana azmi and a nice screenplay.
Ghaath – (Hurt)
A bollywood masala film about a wannabe cop (manoj bajpai), a corrupt cop (mukesh tiwari in a brilliant performance) and a shady/kameena politican/don – Mamu (Irffan). Irrfan was the side villan in this one, and the scene where he walks into Om puri’s house at night and offers him bribe …. is amazing … just from the dialogue writing and its enactment/execution point of view. That scene was the one which inspired me to try my hand at acting (with disastrous results however). The sheer audacity of Irrfan is noteworthy, the fact that his character is patronizing Om Puri’s character easily comes across. His ’seductive’ dialogue delivery, which was later to be explored in many other films … came into its full form in this scene !!! This film can be rented alone for this scene only. I must say everywhere else … he looks lame…possibly becuase the writers didn’t realise what a wonderful chance they had to explore Irrfan’s villany. Tabu, Manoj, Anupam and others … well the less said the better about them in this film. Mukesh Tiwari and Irrfan shine out. Although again, here, Mukesh Tiwari’s role (who had done a gabbar in Rajkumar santoshi’s Chinagate) was meatier.
Kasoor- (Fault)
This is such a shitty film that I don’t even want to discuss its story. As far as I am concerned, songs were good.. and Ashutosh Rana was pretty convincing as the sadist cop. Irrfan played the public prosecutor and I vividly remember the kool dialogue delivery wrt the accused “Abhi usko jaaney do… woh nahi bhagega … baad mein court mein dekh lengey” (Let him go now … he can’t evade prosecution …we’ll see him in court)
Another scene that I remember is where the main witness account is declared false..there is pandemonium in the court…and Irrfan is in two minds whether to raise an ‘Objection’ or not. He says it half heartedly..and that conveys his realisation that they’ve lost the case.
The Warrior-
A warrior for a feudal lord in rajasthan renounces violence in a moment of surrealism/realisation. He gives up his sword and tries to escape, but the warlord’s other warriors are after his life. He loses his son to them… and he cannot/does not want to fight back. A film of violence and redemption spawning over the intensely hot deserts of rajasthan and the serene hills of himalayas, the 100 minute film has barely 10 minutes of dialogue. Irrfan got the lead role as per Timangshu Dhulia’s reccomendation. The director, Asif Kapadia, was a UK based NRI shot to fame with this film. It got a BAFTA award and a whole lot of foreign awards but it was disqualified for entry into Oscars due to some linguistic considerations!! Irffan was called as ’sex-god’. From the horse’s mouth (from an interview here)
“What surprised me most after “The Warrior” was that people were talking about my looks and body language! I was even called a sex god when I was in London! This kind of critical pampering was new to me. I began looking at myself with new eyes. I’m indebted to Asif Kapadia for seeing a hero in me.
The character allowed me to convey everything from compassion to sensuality. People loved my big eyes, which were initially seen by some as a handicap. That used to hurt.”
He also talks about the start-to-end schedule of the film and how it drained him completely here.
The scene where he brandishes the sword to the little girl’s neck and looks at her talisman and realises suddenly he is in the snow would’ve looked really unconvincing and almost comical… had someone else played it. Throughout the film… Irrfan talks to you through his eyes … you can relate to his pain…its almost as if he had become a warrior.
On side track – the director Asif kapadia is a man to watch out for… even his first student film – The Sheep Thief was pretty good… minimalistic dialogues – “show more and tell less” – ala Satyajit Ray (ok this is a far call)
A must watch !!!! Not just for Irrfan’s performance .. but also stunningly beautiful photography and how to ‘tell a story in pictures’
Gunaah – (Crime)
How many films have u seen where, camera work is bad… acting in general is stupid … script sucks … music is a pain to the ears … the story is cliched as a grandma’s tale … but just one actor rises above the film and makes your entire laborious journey of watching the film less painful. Irrfan as the sadistic-malevolent villanish cop Digvijay Pandey (what a loathsome name by the way) eats up everyone else with his lines and performance. The manner in which he tells a prostitue “Nangi ho jaa phataphat” (Hurry up and take off your clothes) or he berates the female cop Bipasha Basu – “Sir ab aurat ko yeh kaam dogey toh aur kya hoga ??” is simply jaw dropping for the sheer arrogance of the man. His performance comes across as sheer kameena to the core… and completely convincing. In a scene, he asks a friend to urinate on the face of a journalist…and then after shooting the journalist off …says audaciously to a stunned constable “Ja Kachra saaf kar ” …asking the constable to ‘clear out the trash’ referring to the dead body. That character is mean and mean just for the sake of being of mean ..without any apparent motivation. Again you can take my word and watch this film in fast forward mode… stopping and playing whenever he enters the scene !!!
Supaari – (Contract killing)
Again..this film falls into the Gunaah category… I will never understand why the main villan -Nandita Das and why her sidekick -Irrfan chose this film ?? Except for the good songs here and there… there was nothing else to watch for this film. Irrfan and Nandita were criminally ignored/underused in this film. Even their charactert sketches are as sketchy as they can get.
The scene where Irrfan gives Uday chopra (yeah he’s there in the film too !!!) a rose after Uday’s first killing .. is another one which could’ve been carried off by Irrfan only.
Strictly ignore this film. Despite Irrfan being in it .. I walked out a good 20 minutes before the end.
Haasil – (Achievement / Achieve)
This one and the next two films of Irrfan…. the more they are written about .. the lesser it is. Haasil is the first of the Irrfan’s ‘great films trilogy’. An award worthy performance which for some strange reason ..was ignored by the National Award comittee. This film is also the explosive debut of Timangshu Dhulia, manirathnam’s assistant on Dil Se (and also the dialogue writer of the film.. WOW !!!) Timangshu was Irrfan’s junior in NSD (National School of Drama) Here’s some info on Tigmanshu
The film is set in UP with campus politics and eventually state politics as its backdrop. A normal guy (Jimmy) falls for a normal girl next door (Hrishita bhatt). Meanwhile Irrfan who plays Ranvijay Singh, uses his own backward caste status to get into politics. Pistol killings, betrayl, love, run, handmade grenades, small theaters, kumbh mela, cycle rickshaws …. wow….. u fall in love with the mileu (Sehar is another must watch just for the reason that it ventures out of Bombay and is set in UP !!!) There are scenes where it almost appears that the film has been directed by Manirathnam... the razor sharp characters and the cutting lines are there.. eg: the father-son cold war between Jimmy Shergill and Tinnu Anand… especially when they going to purchase Shirts. 95% of the film is brilliant … take away the forced Qawalli and u have a gem of a movie …
Enough said about the film (and enough digressed) .. this is the film in which Irrfan revels ..and blossoms … in almost like a role of a lifetime .. Gabbar singh … Langda Tyagi and Ranvijay Singh … are all in the same league. Fantastic villans ..and fantastic performances… Additionally, Langda tyagi has his handicap – lameness, Ranvijay Singh has his own handicap/inferiority complex (especially when it comes to girls) – his eyes. He does say “Aisi aankhein dey dee hain bhagwan ney !!” (God has given me such eyes). And both these characters… are villanous .. perhaps out of their handicap ??? Shades of Richard 3rd (hunchbacked) ??? Both use people around them for their own ego-power satisfaction…. Both are downright villanous …usurping and power hungry. Both are trusted by around them ..
Memorable scenes of Irrfan which can be seen 10 times =
1.The very first scene where he is running from Ashutosh rana’s goons … and when he says (despite being hurt, outnumbered, out of breath and life) “Pandit humko maar do …aur agar hum ach gaye … tu maarney main deer nahi lagayengey” (Kill me … if i escape then I won’t delay in killing you)
2. his immidieate reaction after killing pandit where everyone around panics and he calmly tells his cohorts “Shambu talkies 9 sey 12″ (Meet at Shambu cinema haall for the 9 pm show)
3. his insanic response when he gets to know that his entire family in village has been masaccered by Ashutosh rana
“Tum log humko gauri shankar key taap sey bachaa rahe ho ..woh saala chinal hai sarkar ki…. Raat ko chupke sey aaya … aur chori sey maar kar chala gaya … gaay aurat bacchcha … ”
His visceral scream of “Gauri Shankar ………………… Pandey” with a pause in between. Wow !!! May God bless Timangshu’s soul for creating such a character !!!
The mad rush of anger can only be gauged by the fact that his cohorts TIE UP HIS HANDS SO THAT IRRFAN DOES NOT RUN ONTO KILL.. IN RAGE. They are even forced to shut his mouth with a cloth !!!
4. Who can forget the classic arrogant line before he has his revenge(when he shoots Ashutosh Rana) – “Netaaji Pranaam”
5. The scene where he shoots at Prithvi Zutsi .. and asks “Left haand pey maara hai… rightey haand sey khaatey ho na tum log bread aur butter ??” (Don’t worry .. I’ve only shot u on your left hand ..ur right hand is still free to feed you your bread and butter)
6. The curse – “Maarey Lappad tohar buddhi khul jaaye” (One slap and your brain will open up)
7. The scene where he beats the chief minister of the state with his slippers !!!! Which villan has ever done that ??
8. The confrontation scene with Sharad Saxena “Ladki badnaam thi …par humney phir bhi shaadi key liye haan kari. Aur yahaan hum subah sey tayyar baithey hain … Gaon bhar sey Dost-rishteydaar aa rakhey hain ..lekin aapse ho gayi galti ..aur ladki ho gayi phurr “ (The girl was infamous, and yet I agreed to the wedding..and now she is absconding !!!)
The threat – “apni bhaari aawaz sambhalo aur apni beti ko dhoondney mey lagao ..warna shaam ko toh hum aa hi rahein hein …aur aapki biwi ko hi utha ley jaayengey ..aur ganga kasam humein koi rok nahi sakta” (If u don’t search for the girl .. I will come and take my mother in law as my wife ..and nobody will be able to stop me !!!)
9. The climax .. where he tells the heroine -“Mein tumharey liye mar key dikhaonga aaj !!!” (I will die for you today !!)
A bravora performance and an Amazing ..amazing film ..highly under-rated classic… a film which Irrfan can gladly take to his epitaph when he dies (God forbid)
Contd. in part 2
Tags: Acting
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Jale pe namak Kartik…..I have met ur God thrice…kya beta….
Dec 17 2005
Dec 22 2005
Feb 17 2006
\:d/\:d/\:d/\:d/\:d/\:d/\:d/\:d/\:d/\:d/\:d/
May your wish be fulfilled soon…and he brings to life the chars.you have been writing for him…..
Hail Irrfan[he is "rr" now]
grrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Vasan .. I’m so jealous of u
Good one Kartik. But I believe his best performances were the ones the audience never saw! The one – offs directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia for star tv… What performances! I must have seen each episode atleast 5 times. Even the director has not surpassed what he did with Star bestsellers.The one where Irrfan is an old pathological liar and Mita Vashisht is his daughter. Then the absolutely brilliant one where he is a shopkeeper and thinks Himani Shivpuri, his new neighbour is trying to hit on him and seduce him. This one got Raghuvir Yadav as well. There was one story (not by Tishu) where he played the role of a psychotic clerk who has a phobia of machines. Wallah! Oh, Star bestsellers deserves a seperate post for itself.
I hear Irrfan has given a rocker of a performance in the yet unreleased ‘Dubai Return’as aftab angrez!
yeah chaitanya … i loved him in those two episodes… the one with hiimani shivpuri … and the one with machines, (wasn’t a snake his weapon there ??) I think they all were directed by our Tigmanshu only … right ???
Yes star best sellers does deserve a sperate post …
My friend saw Dubai Return at a festival and slept through it !!!!
I’m not sure if that is a great movie ..will wach it nevertheless when it releases for Irrfan sahib
I remember seeing Irfan in Salaam Bombay, he played a petty letter reading-writing guy on the street(kaagazi).
You should see him to believe how impoverished he was. Talk about a struggling actor!
I don
Correct! that was the one i was trying to remember for a long time… Bhawre ne khilaya phool. Very good treatment for that story too.
I’m always excited to see Irfan as I always rate him. You didn’t mention Rog, a movie I liked for both its music and movie as such.
It was a nice read. Oh & another thing I didn’t know is he’s from Jaipur. ;-)
excellent tribute to the most under-rated khan of indian film industry karthik…i agree wen u say he was GOD in haasil..mind-boggling performance maan..but i think in GHAATH his talent was grossly misused..n after watchin films lyk supari i sumtimes i wonder y do actors like him choose such roles and AK’s wrds strt ringin in mind(paisa yaar)..does any1 no where can i get star-bestsellers ka cd??
@tushar i remember that episode of bhaware ne khilaya phool..it was too good maan..wish they can come up wid sumtin lyk dat now instead of crappy saas-bahu shit…btw has any1 seen STAR STUDIO(a la star best sellers though with better budget) which used to be aired on STAR ONE at the arrival of channel..1 episode starring mandira bedi and ram kapoor is must watch if it gets aired again (sorry for digressin..but cudnt resist)
@windmill, yes he is from Jaipur, I missed him by just 20 years
he left the town in the 80’s. they hardly have any encouragement for actors there, a very miniscule theatre scene and a dead film industry. the city churns out student politicians, tourist brochures and rich NRI connections, but hardly any room for cinema. they r contemplating makin a film city there a la Ramoji Rao film city, but i wonder if it will happen n be pratically feasible even if made.
sorry for the Jaipur trivia.
@sammy, never seen Star Studio. I gave up watchin soaps ever since the K series invaded. on soaps though, i used to like the new wave stuff like Mahayagya, ye shaadi nahi ho sakti, life nahi hai laddu, just mohabbat(by deeya n tony singh of banegi apni baat), aahat, n the likes…
Tushar, I know the ins and outs of Jaipur very well. ;-) Thats like my second home in India and I love that city for several different reasons. I was there last month and will be going back in couple of months.
but hardly any room for cinema.
Thats why i was surprised. I’m not saying no artist can and might not have come out of the place but I have hardly heard of the theater scene there so yeah, no surprise, he had to leave.
@windmill, arey waah, finally found someone from Jaipur
ok, I wont do those filmy scenes(….where on rk street? #45! i stayed in #45 too…bhaiyya!!!>:d<)
i go there once an year, for obvious reasons.
the city remains an inspiration for many but ironically does not have a base for artists. the only good thing that happens on the arts front is the folk theatre and dance festivals, i shot 3 days of folk plays there when i went in sep, and its absolutely fantastic. u feel good on seeing such dying arts come to life. i was so enamoured by the contrasting and coexisting realities of the city that i made a short film on it, still plannin to wrap it up though…
Dubai Return is a bloody funny film..and the friend who slept through it should not do it the next time..
i rate HASSIL among the top rated college politics or youth street fighting bollowood movies..
its true that most of the lines u mentioned here seems to be exceptionaly well executed on screen by irfaan… one more frm my side when iraffan argues with jimmy by saying “matlab Bhiyya ..tumhare kehene ka matlab hai ki hum ladki nahi pata sakte hain….ya phir bhaiya dekho humare jaison ko ladkiyan pasand nahi karti hain….bas tumhare jaise chikne hi….”
There was one serial that used to come on Zee some 6-7 years back. It starred Sachin Khedekar..In that Irfan played the role of a shayar or some thing like that…He was amazing in that also.
i think he has bee in swabhimaan also…
@Chaitanya and Tushar – There seem to be a lot of revived intrest in Star best sellers of late on pfc !!! even hansal mehta talked about the ‘Ae Motey’ episode with saurabh shukla on one of his posts
Tushar – all my posts seem to take people back to their roots… the No smoking one became a benaras journey and this one a trip to Jaipur .. ehh ???
@ Windmill – Rog, Charas, Maqbool and others are coming in part 2 .. so wait with bated breath :-)
@Anurag – I’m waiting to see Dubai return .. supposed to be Aditya bhattarchaya’s comeback after the much ignored Raakh (Does anyone have a VCD,DVD or a video casette of that film ??).. DR is also a black comedy ….
Good one Karthik..
Tumne bilkul wahi points pakde hain jinhe hum har doosre din dohraate rehte hain…kabhi ghar aao, humare yahan haasil pe poori workshop ho jaati hai.
One of the movies you missed out however is Govind Nihalani’s “Drishti” made in 1990, which had Shekhar Kapur and Dimple Kapadia in lead and Irrfan played the extra-marital interest of Dimple. Irrfan was quite young during that time, but nonetheless convincing as an aspiring classical vocalist and an impressive young man charming away a woman in a confused marriage. This is a completely different performance than the ones you’ve pointed but again one of the good performances in a small role.
Kartik hear Irrfan has also made his debut in Telugu as a bad guy. I hear the film is a big hit.
The Film – Sainikudu
The first time I saw Irfan was in “The Fog” (I don’t remember the Hindi name). I was sick, it was on TV, and after that I had no interest in watching anything else he was involved with, thinking he was a hack.
Until I saw the Warrior. I may have mentioned this in another comment elsewhere, and some of you have heard this before, but in one scene of that movie, with one look, he was able to convey so many emotions, to tell the story of two lifetimes, to bring me to tears, and to show that he is a rare acting talent.
Thanks for this, Kartik!!! Now I know what movies of his I should be watching, instead of the junk that is shown on American TV!
Lagging a lot behind on PFC….Laptop crashes and Dell Customer care sucks…
Had been waiting on this for a longtime Kartik…Irffan Khan and then maybe Vishal Bharadwaj…Haasil…man..whant more can i say about the movie and the “King Khan” other than what has been mentioned here…the gradual shift of power from Ashutosh to the emergence of Irffan…WOW!!!! something that was so freaking lacking in Sarkar…
The chase scene at the end in the mela…the outburst of Irrfan to see his friend killed…another actor who nailed it( dont rememeber his name) was the guy who is Ashutosh’s brother in Haasil…
Awesome post Kartik…
good one dude.. first movie i saw of his was probably “kasoor” and didn’t think much of him back then until i started seeing more of him here ‘n there.. really liked him in “rog” too.. which was an otherwise forgettable film (nice songs) but now i just love the guy and his performances. watch out for him in “the namesake”.. as i mentioned in my review earlier…
http://passionforcinema.com/the-namesake-mind-blowing-or-blowing-mind
…he’s the only other saving grace besides tabu. now looking forward to his movie with brangelina :D
KILLER ,
Guys Hassil is unforgettable, but what about KILLER in which Imran hashmi cant even stand before Irfan’s Acting
i mean GHOTH KAR PEE GAYA IRFAN usme sabko
here is one of the classic scene from movie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQlri4Nv5ZY
zara saamne toh aao chaliye ………wow
ME n my friends always talk on orkut in Haasil’S Lingo and thats great fun really m telling u guys
i m thankful tu Irfan nd Tighmanshu for such a movie
Irfaan is baap….
i was shocked to see him in “EK DOCTOR KI MAUT” & “DRISHTI”
he was soo young.
[finally got these movies in my hand]