IRRFAN KHAN
(7 January 1967 - 29 April 2020)
The Indian actor Irrfan Khan, who has died aged 53 from a colon infection of a neuroendocrine tumour, was a popular performer in the Hindi all-singing and all-dancing Bollywood movie genre. However, he also made a name for himself in many Western films. He was born Sahabzade Irfan Ali Khan in Jaipur in north-west India, but later changed his name to Irrfan, with an extra R. At first he considered a career as a cricketer but could not afford to attend an important tournament. Instead he chose acting and gained a scholarship at the National School of Acting in New Delhi. His thirty-five year acting career began in television in a series called Katha Sagar in 1986, a dramatised collection of famous short stories. His first film was Mira Nair’s Hello Bombay! in 1988 and he continued to appear on Indian television and in films until 2001 when Warrior, Asif Kapadia’s international production, with Irrfan Khan in the title role of Lafcadia, brought him to the attention of world cinema makers. Following many more films in India he subsequently appeared in Mira Nair’s The Namesake with Khan as the Indian father of his New York-born son who rejects his family’s traditional lifestyle. He also appeared in Mira Nair’s segment of the portmanteau film New York, I Love You. A Mighty Heart (2007) saw Khan as the Captain in Michael Winterbottom’s film with Angelina Jolie as the widow of the murdered journalist Daniel Pearl. In the same year he was in The Darjeeling Limited, a Wes Anderson comedy-drama about three brothers on a bonding train journey through India. Danny Boyle’s immensely successful eight Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire had Khan playing the vicious police inspector who interrogates Dev Patel as Jamal.
Irrfan Khan was lucky enough to appear in a couple of blockbusters, namely The Amazing Spider-Man and Jurassic World as well as the four-Oscar winning Life of Pi directed by Ang Lee in which he played the adult Pi. In Ritesh Battra’s debut feature, The Lunchbox, Irrfan Khan gave one of his best performances as Saajan, a sad widower about to get forced retirement from his clerical job, who receives a lunchbox by mistake from Ila, a lonely Mumbai housewife, who prepares a special daily meal meant for her rather offhand husband. A remote but romantic correspondence ensues which proves that the way to a man’s heart is through his lunchbox. Puzzle (2018) sees another bored housewife, this time in suburban USA with Kelly Macdonald playing Agnes, a woman ignored by her family who, when given a jigsaw for a present, discovers a latent talent and shares it with her new puzzle partner, a rich inventor called Robert, played by Khan. Marc Turtletaub’s film is a real charmer with two great performances. Before that Khan was in Ron Howard’s Inferno, with Tom Hanks trying to stop some villainous plot to release a globally deadly virus. Khan carried on making films in India until he became ill. In his last film, Angrezi Medium, he plays a businessman intent on seeing that his daughter makes a success of her ambition to study in London.
Irrfan Khan married the film writer Sutapa Sikdar in 1995. They have two sons, Babil and Ayan. Khan was nominated for and was the winner of a number of international film awards. He was also given the Padma Shri, the Indian National Civilian Award for distinguished public service. Dying at such a young age of 53 has robbed both the Indian cinema and world cinema in general of a very special actor. Who knows what else he might have achieved had he still been alive. We will never know. R.I.P.
MICHAEL DARVELL