“Babumushai… Zindagi Lambi Nahi, Badi Honi Chahiye”
Rajesh Khanna said this to Amitabh Bachchan in the movie Anand, and I cannot help but relate this to Irrfan Khan’s life. One of the rare gems of the Indian Cinema left this world very soon at a small age of 53. But if we look upon his life, he has done some great works which made him loved globally. He did so much in the little time he had, said so much with so little and showed us so much with just two of his pronounced eyes. This proves that his life wasn’t that long but he still managed to give us such great performances that will always linger on our hearts.
He was a true artist, and who is an artist to us? A simple nobody, we don’t know the artists personally yet we have immense love and respect for them in our hearts, how is it done? It’s done through the art of the artist, their art makes us connect to them in the way we do to our family and friends. For us, the whole of artists is whatever they share with us in the form of their work of art.
Irrfan Khan did the same with us, he made us so engrossed in the characters he played, he with his outstanding dialogue delivery and expressions made us connect with him to the core. He didn’t play any big roles but made the small ones large, that was the actor Irrfan Khan, a rare artist in all its sense.
A kind which the world doesn’t produce anymore. Be it the hard-hitting character of Maqbool or the avatar of a common man, Saajan in The Lunchbox, the heartbreaking Paan Singh Tomar or a perpetually sarcastic Rana in Piku, he created significant characters for us from such seemingly trivial roles. It was his true passionate artwork which made the west bow down in appreciation too. Yesterday he died as an International superstar and it was all due to his artwork which took us all back to him over and over again.
I can possibly write pages in the appreciation of the actor but I must cut it short for the time being. Hence, here with TSA, I bring you some of the most amazing roles Irrfan Khan played in his life.
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Table of Contents
Haasil
Irrfan Khan’s role of Ranvijay Singh in the movie Haasil is the major plus of the movie. Irrfan Khan as Ranvijay is shown ambitious, brash and fearless goon who is so outrightly scary that he makes you sit on the edge of your seat throughout the movie wondering what will he do next.
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Maqbool
Maqbool is one of the haunting characters of Irrfan Khan’s life who in the movie was an aspirational and effective right-hand man to Don, Abba Ji. From killing Abba Ji while being psychologically in control of Nimmi to surrendering himself to the whims of fate, Irrfan Khan showed us the best of the emotions. Maqbool being the adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth it can be very well said that Irrfan Khan did justice to the character in the way no one could have done. No doubt this very role brought him a step closer to the world of fame.
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Paan Singh Tomar
Irrfan Khan’s role as Paan Singh Tomar is one of the most compelling scenes you can see in the Indian Cinema. Be it the portrayal of Paan Singh’s athletic life or his life post-army, Irrfan Khan portrayed it so convincingly that it’s remarkable to watch. He got a National Film Award for the same which proves how spectacularly he acted in the movie.
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Namesake
Irrfan Khan’s role in the movie Namesake, Ashoke is a Bengali man living in the USA. He is practical, cool-headed and the perfect Bengali intellectual for whom books are the ultimate pleasure which also gives him the joy of travelling by moving with the characters of the books he likes to read. Irrfan Khan is seen playing the role with utmost ease and comfort.
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Karwaan
In the movie Karwaan, Irrfan Khan plays the role of Shaukat. Shaukat is a conservative Muslim who is compulsively aggressive by nature. He is also a sexist hence it features every characteristic to get disliked by people but Irrfan Khan’s rascally charm and the hostile humour is so on point that everybody loved his character and made the beautiful movie even better.
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The Lunchbox
Irrfan Khan plays the role of Saajan Fernandez in the movie The Lunchbox and I’m sure you all won’t disagree with me when I say that this role is one of the finest of his life. The calmness Mr Fernandez’s character showcases and the way Irrfan Khan delivers the dialogues with fantastic ease, soaking the silence of the plot is simply astonishing. His acting added volume to the movie.
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Madaari
Nirmal Kumar of the movie Madaari is a father who lost his son to a bridge collapsing tragedy and decided to take revenge. Irrfan Khan is the beating heart of this movie with ever gripping dialogue delivery and the stern facial expressions. He invests himself in the character so well that we are compelled to do the same.
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Piku
Irrfan Khan plays the role of Rana, a taxi driver in the family drama, Piku. His continuous sarcastic humour is shown revealing layers of wisdom in the movie. He peeled off the layers of the relationship between Piku and her father, Bhaskor and also created a balance which was missing between them. Irrfan Khan’s flawlessly authentic acting made him steal scenes several times in the movie.
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Life of Pi
Irrfan Khan played the role of adult ‘Pi Patel’ in the movie, Life of Pi. The movie is set in flashbacks and hence he is seen narrating the incidents. The intense emotion with which he narrated the whole story made us all get engrossed with an almost same altitude of emotions.
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Hindi Medium
Irrfan Khan played the role of Raj Batra in the movie Hindi Medium. Like every other character, he has been seen playing his role with ease, fully comfortable in his own skin. Raj charms us in both the avatars, rich and poor. Raj is electrifying with hilarious dialogues and Irrfan Khan kept no stone unturned to sell Raj to us.
Also checkout: Iconic Dialogues of Irrfan Khan