It's been three years since Qarib Qarib Singlle came out, and we watched an annoying Yogi romance an irritable Jaya. It was actor Parvathy's first Hindi film and all the more special because it had Irrfan Khan in the cast. On April 29, Irrfan passed away from a colon infection after battling neuroendocrine tumour for two years. The news devastated fans from across the globe. The tributes are still pouring in for the man who redefined the mainstream, and gave us unforgettable cinema.
Parvathy, his co-star, has fond memories of working with Irrfan.
Speaking to TNM, she says, "I met him for the first time on his birthday, the 7th of January. I was there for my first script reading and met the team. We had a conference room booked and he was there, his wife Sutapa was there, the producers, the cameraman, everyone was there. We went through a whole reading. I'd heard about his excitement for narrations and discussions and I felt right at home. He was like a really good classmate with whom you can get along. I felt like a nerd who had found a fellow nerd."
There was a cake cutting to mark the occasion -- the birthday and the team meeting -- and Irrfan warmly welcomed her into the project.
"Eventually, most of our meetings happened in his beautiful house where we would all catch up over tea. Everyone's inputs were taken in, and that was very new for me. I wasn't used to hearing the cameraman or producer's point of view while reading with actors. Here, everyone's point of view was discussed. He was invested in all of it. Whenever we got to speak about the scene, we would go through it, and he'd say, 'dialogues ko makkhan bana do' (turn the dialogues into butter). That very soon became a line for me to go back to when I stumbled over words, and it was something I already did with even a Malayalam or Tamil film. Although, Hindi was a language that was new to me. I speak it well, but to say dialogues, you need to be at another level," Parvathy recalls.
Irrfan's lingo, as Parvathy puts it, was something she could completely relate to, and his unique metaphors have stayed with her since.
"The sheer greed with which he invested himself, it was like he was sponging up every last drop he could get out of it. I remember commenting on his recent films, how he's foraying into commercial films...and he kept saying, 'Abhi toh sirf shuruat hai' (this is just the beginning). He was so excited. He had unadulterated happiness at where he was with his career. That joy was infectious. Every script reading involved us going through the details a million times. And when I say million, I'm not really exaggerating," she says with a chuckle.
Parvathy herself is known to obsess over the details but she found Irrfan's meticulousness to be on a different plane.
"We would go through five or seven versions of a scene and he would still not be satisfied. He would say there's something we still haven't explored. He'd suggest a change in the intonation of a line, and I, being obviously impatient by then, would say ‘but we really did crack it didn’t we?!’ He'd say, ‘Karke dekhte hain! What's there to lose? If it works, mazaa aa jaayega!’ These are things that are reverberating in my head now," she says.
From Qarib Qarib Singlle, Parvathy describes two scenes that are her favourites; they also underline the kind of artist that Irrfan was.
"We shot this particular scene five months after the shoot was done. My character was supposed to be completely drunk and wakes up in a room where he (Irrfan’s character) is sleeping on the sofa. And there is an exchange. We went through several different versions of performing it. Walking around it, pacing it. We finally settled for an organic moment when our eyes were locked and we were speaking our truth. I personally love such scenes where the characters' eyes lock and they cannot lie any more, all their masks fall away. That's a very revelatory scene for both the characters, who realise that there are feelings and they cannot escape no matter what. It was pure contentment going through the process of it… Getting it right!" she recounts.
For another scene, Parvathy took about 20 takes, she says. This is the part of the film where Yogi has just travelled all the way to meet up with Jaya after missing his train. He comes to her, all worn out, while she has had a fun night out.
"There was another scene where I was really not getting it right. The 'sur' was off, as they say (a note was missing). That's the pressure, when the shoot is going to finish, we don't have the location for long and we have to shift in a few hours. It was 2 am when we were performing this. Irrfan was very, very patient. He was waiting for the moment to come to me. Not barging in to tutor me. He let me figure it out on my own, going through it as many times as I messed up until I got it right," she says.
Calling Irrfan the most generous colleague she's had, Parvathy says, "I can't stress enough the importance of having generous colleagues who share their craft with you. I've worked with a lot of selfish actors – ones who don’t know how to collaborate and some who choose not to. Then there are the generous ones who look at it as a collective experience. By far, he was the most generous ever. That's not something I will run out of, the experience was not limited to just that film. What I've realised after his passing is that every time I go to work, I will tap into that generosity no matter if I'm working with him or not. That's the confidence that's provided by a fellow collaborator who builds you."