The Man I Never Would Want to Bid Goodbye
I suppose, in the end, the whole of life becomes an act of letting go, but what always hurts the most is not taking a moment to say goodbye. (Life of Pi) Year 2003. When Vishal Bharadwaj made Maqbool, I never even had the slightest knowledge on who this bearded young man sharing screen space with Pankaj Kapur, Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri, was. Though I was watching the film then for Shah, Kapoor, and Puri, it was this man who sneaked into my heart and made it his home. He never ever left. This man, I knew as the credits rolled, was named Irrfan Khan. Maqbool was indeed a revelation. Three ace actors, a talented actress (Tabu), and then this young man who would rule supreme in the years that followed, made Maqbool the best among all Bharadwaj ventures - for me, that is. Maqbool wasn’t his first work onscreen, I realised later. The role made me crave for more from him, I began looking for more on him, and he soon started displaying himself as someone I had not