Irrfan Khan’s strength was making thought visible through small gestures and giving dialogue the ease of conversation. We rate his restraint highly; the smaller international parts are an incomplete guide to what he could do.
Fi1m perspective
In Life of Pi (2012), Irrfan Khan tells a story to Rafe Spall’s Writer without making the telling seem an occasion for grand statements. As Adult Pi Patel, he speaks easily, even when the words sound prepared for quotation. We felt relieved when Khan spoke: his calm delivery made the framing scenes less insistent than their lessons about belief might have been. Ang Lee’s sea adventure is gripping, but the repeated explanations slow its introduction, and Khan cannot make them all necessary. He gives us someone worth listening to while the script keeps telling us what to think.
That conversational ease came with watchful eyes, small changes of expression and a willingness to leave a silence alone. After years of television, the lead in The Warrior (2001) brought his breakthrough. Leading roles in Hindi cinema followed, including the title part in Maqbool (2004), a Hindi adaptation of Macbeth.
Slumdog Millionaire (2008), in which he plays the Police Inspector, helped bring him wider recognition. We like Danny Boyle’s quick, warm romance, despite its conspicuous coincidences, but Dev Patel supplies its human centre. It would be misleading to recommend it chiefly as a Khan vehicle. His later supporting parts in The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) and Jurassic World (2015) continued that international pattern.
Khan’s ease can make us too forgiving of the writing. In Life of Pi, we still want fewer explanations, however comfortably he delivers them. The Lunchbox (2013), with Khan leading as Saajan Fernandes in a romance conducted through letters, offers a better place to look for the emotional detail of his restrained acting. Start there if the international supporting roles are all that is familiar.
Biography
Irrfan Khan (also credited as Irfan Khan) was an Indian actor who worked in Hindi cinema as well as British and American films. He was born Sahabzade Irfan Ali Khan on 7 January 1967 in Rajasthan, India, and died on 29 April 2020 in Mumbai.
Khan appeared in more than fifty films over a career spanning nearly thirty years. He is known for roles including the Police Inspector in Slumdog Millionaire (2008), the adult Pi Patel in Life of Pi (2012), Masrani in Jurassic World (2015), and Saajan Fernandes in The Lunchbox (2013). He also appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), The Darjeeling Limited (2007) and Inferno (2016). Khan received a National Film Award, multiple Filmfare Awards and the Padma Shri in 2011.
