An article by Greeshma Antony, II BA English
Irrfan Khan, 7 January 1967-29 April 2020
To lose two of the most acclaimed stars of Indian cinema to cancer amidst the coronavirus pandemic seems all the more tragic. The inconsolable loss still looms and their contributions will be fondly remembered.
Irrfan Khan and Rishi Kapoor both passed away in April 2020
Irrfan Khan passed away at 53 on 29 April 2020, of complications from a rare neuroendocrine tumour. The obituaries and sentiments that have flooded the internet hails Khan as an inspiration. Despite his success in both Hollywood and Bollywood, Khan was never stained by the film industry’s pompousness. He remained humble and modest, a charismatic thespian. The extraordinary calmness he furnished derived a dignity which he fostered in most of his roles. His credited movies include The Warrior (2001), Maqbool (2003), Slumdog Millionaire (2008), Life of Pi (2012), The Lunchbox (2013), Haider (2014), Piku (2015) and Hindi Medium (2017).
Irrfan Khan, in the thirty years of his acting career, took us through the minds of various characters, and gifted us some mesmerising performances. But perhaps the most memorable character he staged was that of the seemingly intricate Saajan Fernandes in the movie The Lunchbox.
The Lunchbox (Ritesh Batra, 2013)
The astonishing directorial feature of Ritesh Batra, The Lunchbox is one of the movies that comes only once in a blue moon.The movie initially unfolds as a grounded love story and matures into an existential commentary. It’s a snapshot of age-old Mumbai with its busy streets and passive sustenance, wherein two people develop a relation using letters they exchange enclosed in a lunchbox.
The movie stars Irrfan khan as Saajan Fernandes, an ageing official who awaits his retirement. As a widower with restrained emotions, he leads a monotonous life. Nirmat Kaur plays the role of an ailing wife, a fond mother and a devoted daughter in her debut role of IIa, a homemaker. Her husband is heedless of her feelings and the marriage which seems to have a neutral pace is thirsty for romance. Thus the two central characters seem to operate on completely different wavelengths but both live a life of quiet desperation.
Nimrat Kaur and Irrfan Khan in The Lunchbox
Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who plays Saajan’s assistant, stands out as a fervent character as opposed to Saajan’s cold demeanour. This clash of characters is humorous as well as consequential.
In a faulty coincidence, the Dabbawala service, one of the finest in Mumbai, mixes up the lunchbox that IIa packs for her husband and delivers it to Saajan. This continues and the two strangers communicate with the letters they hide in the lunchbox. It’s an unexpected friendship.The letters aren’t just conversational, but transform into parchments of their wounded souls.
Of all the themes that inhabit the film, the crucial one is the transience of human life and surroundings. It includes the condensed story-line of Mrs. Deshpande, IIa’s neighbour, whom we never see on screen, wonderfully voiced by Bharati Achrekar. Her life revolves around her husband who has gone into a coma for 10 years now. In one of his letters, Saajan remarks that if Mr.Deshpande were to wake up from his coma he would be shocked and disappointed at how the world turned out to be and would be wanting to go back to the coma stage. It is through these narratives the movie excels. Through its vulnerable characters, The Lunchbox speaks of how people lose themselves in the rush, forgetting, winding up confused and alone. It details this excruciating truth, “I think we forget things if there is nobody to remind us of them”as Saajan mentions in one of his letters.
Irrfan Khan in The Lunchbox
The Lunchbox is packed with precious moments. As the camera lingers over a streaky Mumbai, each scene is reminiscent of a longing. The film deviates from the typical Bollywood ideals into something more mature. For those craving a fairytale ending to this epistolary tale, Batra thinks otherwise, leaving the audience with moments to relish.
After all, The Lunchbox is not just a movie about two people falling in love, it’s a precious anecdote. A reminder that all the delicate emotions we keep locked up in our box, once freed, bakes a hopeful delicacy, as The Lunchbox leaves us well nourished.
Tracing Khan’s journey through the silver screen takes us through a wide array of characters. But there is something about his roles that makes us feel they were all written for him, carefully ordained. Be it the witty sarcastic Rana Chaudhary from Piku, the mysterious Roohdaar in Haider, a restrained Mr. Fernandes in The Lunchbox or the wannabe socialite Raj Batra in Hindi Medium, Khan took up versatile roles, mostly unconventional, and showcased them with utmost genuineness.
Irrfan Khan the Everyman
With not many traditional heroic roles in his celluloid career, with his hooded eyes and sensuous features, Khan was able to do something his Bollywood superstar colleagues were either unable or unwilling to. He imbibed his everyman roles, transforming himself to someone the audience connected with. His untimely departure will indeed be a great loss for Indian cinema.