Blind man’s folly

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Blind man’s folly

Saturday, 06 October 2018 | Asmita Sarkar

Blind man’s folly

Actor Ayushmann Khurrana talks about moving away from slice-of-life films with Asmita Sarkar

Dressed in white disruptors and a brown overalls by designer Pawan Sachdeva, Ayushmann Khurrana looked comfortable but worn out with the promotional side of filmmaking. Before I could ask a question, he questioned if I wrote with an ink pen. That era of having time to fill a cartridge with ink before using is long past, but maybe not from his consciousness. His latest film Andhadhun, reeks subtly of a past era noir.

“This film may appear dark but it is full of quirks and humour,” he said.

He’s made a name for himself as an artiste but also as the man next door. Unlike a chocolate boy, the characters he opts for are layered and portrays young India. But he made a conscious move to shift from slice of life films to a thriller, Andhadhun, a pun on andha dhund, which means indiscriminate.

 A musician in real life, who has sung and created music for many of his films,  he’s portraying one in this one, albeit a blind one. “Being an artist you put a lot of yourself in every character. I was not an artist in this one but a musician. In Meri pyaari Bindu, Bareilly ki barfi, I played a writer,” he said. He practiced playing the pieces picturised in the film for three to four months with his piano teacher since director Sriram Raghavan, whom he calls as the master of thriller,  did not use a body double for those scenes. As a musician, it was easier to learn the pieces since once you know one instrument another is easy to pick up, he said.

His suggestion for the music of the film “depends”, he said. “For this one, we had a master musician like Amit Trivedi. I had nothing to say as he was giving the perfect narrative-based songs. This is not the kind of film where you push for music from the outside or get an already existing track deliberately. This is a thriller and more than that it is by Raghavan. He doesn’t come from the commercial school of thought. Zabardasti ka gaana daalna, aise nahi hona chahiye. The music takes the narrative forward,” he said.

He acknowledges that not being a starkid, he made the choice back in 2012 to have a quirky springboard. “When I was a VJ on MTV, I had a lot of options and scripts. I said no to lot of films since I wanted my first to be different, not run-of-the-mill because I’m not a starkid. I needed to do something extremely different and quirky. Vicky Donor was perfect for me. While the subject was taboo it was  made in a palatable and consumable way. The humour was clean,” he said.

To prepare for the role, he attended extensive workshops at a blind school and observed students. “Sriram told me not to watch movies where actors play blind characters as it is the wrong reference since it’s an actor playing the character,” he said. 

The film also stars Tabu and Radhika Apte in lead roles. Both versatile actresses who have experimented with their character choices.

“Tabu ma’am is a versatile actor. She comes from the 90s and has changed gears as an actor. She’s malleable as an actor.  She’s done films like Cheeni Kam, Haider, and a commercial film like Golmaal and now Andhadhun. I’m a big fanboy. And Radhika is very radical with her choices. She’s courageous and out-of-the-box as an actor. In this film, she’s a conventional love interest so it’s different for her,” he said.

Not one to shy away from quirky roles himself, he said that cinema has to give the audience better options since the censorship-less digital content is forcing films to push boundaries too.

“On the digital platform, they have the liberty to transgress boundaries. They can do more radical and whacky but cinema has censorship.  It pushes the script writers to do something better in feature films,” he said. 

The actor will be soon seen in another slice of life comedy.

Photo: Pankaj Kumar

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