Pankaj Tripathi takes his childhood dream of playing a musical instrument to the next level
On screen, he slips into the role of a doting father (Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl; 2020) as easily as he picks up a gun and mouths abuses (Mirzapur). Off screen though, actor Pankaj Tripathi likes to remain grounded, and keep his hobbies alive.
It was his childhood dream to learn how to play a musical instrument and he finally fulfilled his dream through an exquisite instrument called the handpan. Showcasing his talent and giving a sneak peak to his fans, the actor recently posted a video on social media playing the instrument, having learnt in a matter of just five days, all by himself.
On how this idea came about, Tripathi recounts, “In 2017, our film Newton went to the Berlin International Film Festival and after we won an award there, I travelled across Europe and visited a museum in Poland one time. Right outside the museum, an artist playing the handpan on the streets caught my eye, and I spent about half an hour just listening to him play and recording it.”
The Stree (2018) actor says it was in that moment that the beauty of the instrument got stuck in his mind. “And I began a quest in search of it. Finally, after three long years of searching, I found a wonderful handpan here in India and that’s what you see me playing in the video,” he tells us.
While the video fetched him a lot of appreciation from his fans, the actor says he fell in love with the soothing sound of the instrument and would love to learn it properly. And he’s already going that extra mile for it. “I have found an experienced tutor in Pune, who is willing to teach it to me via online classes. Handpans were actually first made quite recently — in fact just 25 years ago. For me, my aim in life is to continuously keep learning and experiencing new things that it has to offer, very much like this new instrument I happened to have found today,” concludes the Kaagaz actor.