My father gave his life trying to elevate art of acting in adverse conditions: Irrfan's son Babil
Mumbai: Actor Irrfan Khan's son Babil on Wednesday said he doesn't like the political debates around Sushant Singh Rajput's death, but there is now a wind of change in cinema, something his father kept fighting for throughout his life.
Babil said his father constantly tried to challenge the existing ecosystem in the Hindi film industry, but he would be defeated at the box office by hunks with six-pack abs delivering formulaic dialogues.
Irrfan passed away in April at the age of 54 following his battle with a rare form of cancer.
"My father gave his life trying to elevate the art of acting in the adverse conditions of noughties Bollywood and alas, for almost all of his journey, was defeated in the box office by hunks with six-pack abs delivering theatrical one-liners and defying the laws of physics and reality," Babil wrote in a long Instagram post recalling his father's struggle.
"Photoshopped item songs, just blatant sexism and same-old conventional representations of patriarchy (and you must understand, to be defeated at the box office means that majority of the investment in Bollywood would be going to the winners, engulfing us in a vicious circle)," he added.
The cinema student said the mainstream films work because the audience want and enjoy movies that only offer entertainment.
"All we sought was entertainment and safety of thought, so afraid to have our delicate illusion of reality shattered, so unaccepting of any shift in perception.
"All effort to explore the potential of cinema and its implications on humanity and existentialism was at best kept by the sidelines," he added.
Recalling the days before he went to a film school in London, Babil said his father "warned" him that he would have to prove himself there as Bollywood is "seldom respected in world cinema".
He said Irrfan had asked him to inform others about Indian cinema that's beyond the control of Bollywood.
At his film school, the aspiring artiste said, he found that Bollywood was not respected and people had no awareness of Indian cinema of the 1960s and 1990s.
"There was literally one single lecture in the world cinema segment about Indian cinema called 'Bollywood and Beyond', that too gone through in a class full of chuckles.
"It was tough to even get a sensible conversation about the real Indian cinema of Satyajit Ray and K Asif going. You know why that is? Because we, as the Indian audience, refused to evolve."
Babil said today he feels there is a change, a "new fragrance in the wind" with a new generation searching for meaning.
Referring to how the conversations after Rajput's death have been about starting anew, he hoped it leads to something positive.
"We must stand our ground, not let this thirst for a deeper meaning be repressed again... Although I resent that Sushant's demise has now become a fluster of political debates, but if a positive change is manifesting, in the way of the Taoist, we embrace it (sic)."
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
