An Open Letter To Irrfan: Here’s Why Bollywood Isn’t The Same Without You! (Photo Credit – Maddock Films/ A Still From Angrezi Medium)
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Dear Irrfan,
It’s your birthday today. I know you hated to take yourself seriously, and hence this isn’t a serious attempt of conveying my complaints against Bollywood to you. This also isn’t a fan penning an imaginary letter to his beloved star complaining about how things aren’t the same without him. This might be the beginning of my yearly rant of how badly you’re missed in Bollywood.
I’ll start with tweaking a John Keats quote, “We’ve so much of you in our hearts.” Last year fell like dominoes, and your fall did cause a simultaneous stir in many of our lives.
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No, Irrfan, we haven’t found the cure to Coronavirus yet, and we’re already tackling another virus in rumouro-virus. This cyber-special disease did spread way faster with the increase in fake news. Want to know an interesting fact? According to Statista, the majority of people were of the opinion that news organisations or media houses were responsible for curbing fake news. Things went as far as a certain hot-shot media house misinterpreting ‘Imma Bounce’ as something related to a bounced cheque. Yeah, things are pretty messed up here!
There came a couple of excellent movies which forced me to think how those could’ve housed a tailor-made role for you. You hated the idea of having your photographs on your wall. What about us? What about the photo of yours looking outside from a taxi (Angrezi Medium), which is just tattooed on our souls? What should we do about that?
I won’t usually dare to play around Vishal Bhardwaj’s words from Haider, but today is a special occasion, and I’m sure he’ll forgive me for it. So, Irrfan, here it goes for you, “Darya bhi tu, darakht bhi tu, cinema-ae-shams ka hai furqat bhi tu!”
(Darakht: Tree, Shams: Sun, Furqat: Separation)
What I’m about to say might sound coc*y and unfair to some, but no amount of good films could fill the void you’ve left behind. This balance isn’t manageable Irrfan, cinema without you is like playing on a seesaw alone.
Wasn’t able to dig who wrote this, but I l love how these lines mirror feelings of us fans for you: “हमे पता है तुम कहीं और के मुसाफिर हो, ज़रा ठहर जाओ बस फिर चले जाना।” (We know you’re a wanderer not from here, maybe stay for a while before leaving?).
Now, I know, all of this won’t come as a shock to you, but it’s just an update until next year. “I suppose in the end, the whole of life becomes an act of letting go.” According to this, Yann Martel (Life Of Pi’s author) quote, not taking a moment to say goodbye would’ve hurt us. But, little does he know of “kabhi alvida na kehna” and “hum hai raahi pyaar ke, phir milenge chalte chalte.”
Dear Irrfan, we could never be the same without you!
Yours lovingly,
A fan who chose Irrfan Khan every time he was asked to choose his favourite Khan.
