Sutapa: Living with Irrfan Khan, still
SHE says he never left. That snatches of him keep coming back, reminding her that those we love leave a part of them with us. But writer Sutapa Sikdar, wife of late actor Irrfan Khan also says that these days when she takes two steps forward, something pushes her back. That life’s chronology seems to have altered, and time moves with an erratic rhythm.
“He was not just my husband. Our relationship began with friendship and he stayed my best buddy. A partner of 30 years… how do you deal with that loss? It has been more than three years but… I was never prepared but then we never are,” she told IANS.
A National School of Drama (NSD) graduate who began her career with Govind Nihlani, Sikdar who was at the recently concluded Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) to be part of the session Irrfan: A Life in Movies and has written the Hindi version of a Bengali film besides consulting on two shows, says: “I told the writer of Irrfan: A Life in Memories, Shubra Gupta that the book must be launched in Jaipur as Irrfan was from here, so it has been a homecoming of sorts.”
Sikdar says she has not given anyone permission to write his biography and all books on him explore the different facets of him as an actor, and what his co-actors thought about him.
Remembering him from the time he entered NSD, Sikdar recalls, “He was a very shy guy. But there was a certain depth to him, the conviction to understand his craft thoroughly. He always wanted to exceed his expectations and kept working on his craft.”
Filmmaker Anup Singh, who directed the late actor in Qissa and The Song of Scorpions has also written a beautiful book on him titled Dialogues with the Wind.
■ glamsham.com