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| Irrfan Khan in D-Day |
Vi segnalo l'intervista concessa da Irrfan Khan a Nosheen Iqbal, pubblicata ieri da The Guardian. Irrfan Khan: 'I object to the term Bollywood':
'It's a shock (...) when he emerges from the hotel lift, the elevator ping cheesily announcing his megawatt smile. [Irrfan] Khan is (...) good-looking. True, (...) he is head-turningly handsome: tall, lean, raffish, chiselled. (...) The second surprise is that he's funny - in a dry, deadpan way that is all about the delivery. "You're an entertainment writer, then?" he says by way of introductory small talk. "It's culture, really," comes my prissy mumble. "Ah, yes, culture. Hmm. Which isn't entertaining at all, is it?" And we're off. (...) He is here for the season's flagship event: a masterclass at the BFI with Asif Kapadia, the director Khan gratefully credits for saving his career when, in the late 90s, he was considering quitting.
"I came into this industry to tell stories and do cinema and I was stuck in television." Which (...) meant soap operas "chasing middle-class housewives and the [poor and illiterate]. Once, they didn't even pay me because they thought my acting was so bad." Then Kapadia and The Warrior came along and Khan had suddenly bagged an acclaimed feature-film role. And a lead at that. "Asif and I have been longing to work together again since then. I've been watching his last film [Senna]. There was a pirated DVD version in India I could have watched but I thought, 'No, I want to watch it on a proper screen.'" He builds up the importance of really saving it, to appreciate Kapadia's Bafta-winner as intended. "I did eventually see it on a screen. A kind of tiny screen." Where? "Oh, on an airplane." And there's the humour, teasing throughout the edges of our chat.
Khan was born to Muslim parents in the Jaipur village of Tonk. His mother's side has royal lineage and his father's side was well-to-do, but Khan Sr was a self-made man. "He had a tyre shop but, really, he was a hunter." Khan, the eldest of two brothers and one sister, side-stepped the family business when his father died and escaped to drama school. "First, I pursued cricket, then I tried business, but I quickly got bored. Cut, cut, cut to drama school. No one could have imagined I would be an actor, I was so shy. So thin. But the desire was so intense, I thought I'd suffocate if I didn't get admission."
Three decades later and he is no less passionate. (...) Khan morphs on screen. He seems to disappear into the role, his face almost unrecognisable from one picture to the next: getting older and then younger-looking - blandly indistinctive at one turn, with sharp, penetrating features the next.
Given his reputation for integrity, for being all about the craft (and he talks, at length, in those terms), it almost seems churlish to ask him about vanity and whether he's had work done. Almost. "I've never looked to create an image where people fall in love with my face or style. It does cross my mind. But I've been trying to create a space for myself where I don't depend on that." He is similarly vague about the beauty ideal in Bollywood - where he is arguably boxed into particular roles because the predominant aesthetic of the past two decades has been body buffed, skin-bleached. Even once-darker megastars (...) have endorsed "skin-whitening" products. As a darker, slighter actor, is there pressure to conform to the industry ideal? "I did try to do it but it made me feel empty. I cannot do things which don't come naturally to me. Initially, I did try everything. But you have to stick to your convictions and stand by your plus points. [Going to the gym] is not exciting for me. I want to connect with a story and hit [audiences] in the heart with a different way." It's perhaps this attitude and a distinct lack of baggage - "I don't have an image to protect" - that explains why he (...) has cracked both domestic and international markets. (...)
"I always object to the word Bollywood," he explains. (...) "I don't think it's fair to have that name. Because that industry has its own technique, its own way of making films that has nothing to do with aping Hollywood. It originates in Parsi theatre." So what defines Indian cinema? "Celebration, [we] celebrate everything and Indian cinema is an extension of that, so why did they lose their identity by calling it Bollywood?"
What about the indie Indian cinema scene - the "Hindies"? (...) How do they play at home? "They are doing great! That's why the industry is changing, because those films are bringing in money and they can't ignore it. Everybody's watching them." (...) "I wouldn't call [the Hindie films] arthouse but they do have a more original voice. You still have to entertain [Indian audiences], you cannot make them think. Or, you cannot leave them thinking. If you leave them thinking, you have to give them catharsis." I warn him this could sound grotesquely patronising in print. "But that is the way it is in India, they want an emotional connection. If you see a dark film that disturbs you, India won't take it. If it is tragedy, they will love it. They love to cry. That's for me, also. The first thing I do when I read a script is to find what hits me emotionally. That's what I connect to."
His harshest critics, he says, are his two sons. Not quite teenagers yet, but savvy enough to be telling him "what works and doesn't work for them. There is no bias. And they're my sons." His mother is proud, though he suspects she'd be happier if he gave it all up and became a teacher in his home town, as he once promised. "My mum is a conventional Muslim. Things I have learned from Islam are fantastic and I will carry them all my life but I am more open. I feel healthier that way." All in all, he seems pretty happy with his lot. Content and relaxed in a way that doesn't often come across with actors, no matter how successful. "Yes! I don't know why I get such cynical headlines. They always make me sound like I'm suffering from life. (...) I have lost the temptation for things that come through stardom. One day I'd like to enjoy my life without fame. Now... I enjoy it, you know?".'
