Irrfan Khan dies aged 53

[Mr Noob 149]

There Was No One Like Irfan Khan

The actor, who died yesterday at age 53, built a brilliant career and achieved a kind of global popularity with no precedent in Indian film history.

He had been admitted to the intensive care unit of Mumbai’s Kokilaben hospital on Tuesday with a colon infection and on Wednesday morning a statement was released confirming his death.

“It’s saddening that this day, we have to bring forward the news of him passing away,” read the statement. “Irrfan was a strong soul, someone who fought till the very end and always inspired everyone who came close to him.”

Despite his status as one of Bollywood’s most celebrated actors, Khan had a reputation for modesty and integrity and news of his death sent India into mourning, prompting actors, fans and politicians from across the world to express their sadness at his death.

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi said that Khan’s demise was “a loss to the world of cinema and theatre. He will be remembered for his versatile performances across different mediums. My thoughts are with his family, friends and admirers. May his soul rest in peace.”

Fellow Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan said Khan’s death left a “huge vacuum”. “An incredible talent, a gracious colleague, a prolific contributor to the world of cinema … left us too soon,” tweeted Bachchan.

“The charisma you brought to everything you did was pure magic,” tweeted Priyanka Chopra. “Your talent forged the way for so many in so many avenues. You inspired so many of us. Irrfan Khan you will truly be missed. Condolences to the family.”

Indian politician Rahul Gandhi described Khan as a “versatile and talented actor” who would be “greatly missed” while Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said India had lost “one of the most exceptional actors of our time.”

In March 2018, Khan revealed he had been diagnosed with a neuroendocrine tumour, but after extensive treatment he recovered well enough to shoot Angrezi Medium, the film that would turn out to be his last, and whose release this March was cut short because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Best known to English-speaking audiences as the police inspector in Slumdog Millionaire and for his roles in Jurassic World and Life of Pi, Khan was a Bollywood mainstay, acting in hits such as Haider, Piku and Hindi Medium.

“I always object to the word Bollywood,” he told the Guardian in 2013. “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.”

Irrfan Khan: 'I object to the term Bollywood'
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Khan was born Saahabzaade Irfan Ali Khan in Jaipur in 1966, the son of a tyre seller, and went to drama school after failing as a cricketer. He struggled to make headway in the film industry, despite being cast in a small role as a letter writer in Mira Nair’s 1988 Salaam Bombay! – to his frustration he only managed to find regular work in low-grade TV soap operas.

“I came into this industry to tell stories and do cinema and I was stuck in television,” he told the Guardian.

 

His talents would ferry him to American and British cinema in the late aughts. These films mostly cast Khan in supporting roles, such as his wordless cameo as a villager in Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited (2007) or his part as a scientist in The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), that only suggested the depth of his talent. (Television, in contrast, gave him a rich showcase in Season 3 of HBO’s In Treatment, where he once again played a widower, this time an immigrant from Kolkata.) These movies didn’t deserve him, but Khan dignified them with his presence, refusing to sink with the flimsy material he was given.

Unlike those works, Nair’s The Namesake, a 2006 film adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel of the same name, gave his skills more breathing room. As the professor Ashoke Ganguli, Khan embodies an ideal of the Bengali immigrant father in the eyes of his son, Gogol (Kal Penn). He is at once a figment of memory and a person whose struggles and desires feel achingly real. Ashoke is a specific kind of person, a Bengali intellectual who adapts to life in America after a rough period of adjustment. The eventual tragedy at the heart of the narrative—Ashoke’s sudden death—is piercing because of how vividly Khan portrays this man.

 

Meanwhile, Khan found box-office success with the Indian-produced art film The Lunchbox, in which he played an accountant who strikes up a letter-writing romance with unhappy housewife Nimrat Kaur. Khan also continued his high Bollywood profile with significant roles in the Amitabh Bachchan comedy Piku and Hindi Medium, as a rich businessman trying to get his daughter into a good school.

Khan is survived by his wife, Sutapa Sikdar, and sons Babil and Ayan.

Khan, an icon of Indian cinema who had a string of Anglo-American successes under his belt, including Slumdog Millionaire, Life of Pi and Jurassic World, has died in Mumbai