Movie fans may not know who Irrfan Khan was but they've probably seen him more times than they realize.
The Indian actor racked up more than 150 credits before he died last year at age 53. Many of his Bollywood movies didn't make it to the U.S. but he starred in such Hollywood blockbusters as "The Amazing Spider-Man" and "Jurassic World," playing not so much bad guys as bad-adjacent guys. His credits include a bunch of smaller dramas but he may be best known for playing a tormented patient who's dissatisfied with his arranged marriage on the third season of HBO's "In Treatment," the fourth season of which premieres Sunday.
His standout work on "In Treatment" showcases many things that made Khan such a special performer, including a gentle reserve that works in counterpoint to his expressive, soulful brown eyes. Khan, who struggled with several health issues, often played people who were in distress. That's what "Jurassic" director Colin Trevorrow remembered after Khan's death, saluting a man who "found beauty in the world around him, even in pain. In our last correspondence, he asked me to remember 'the wonderful aspects of our existence' in the darkest of days."
Another of Khan's directors, Danny Boyle, said the actor was crucial in getting "Slumdog Millionaire" made. Khan's role as a detective is small but Boyle said the film was picked up for distribution because of his magnetism, adding that he brought "dignity, grace, charm, intelligence and calmness" to a movie that would win the best picture Oscar in 2009.
That calmness is a key to Khan's appeal. Not a showy actor, he was inclined to withhold emotion rather than express it, urging audiences to meet him halfway in the creation of his characters. On "In Treatment," we long for him to reveal himself to his therapist, since it's the only way he can get help. In the towering "The Warrior" (which is on DVD but does not seem to be streaming), we watch his eyes to see if his merciless killer will realize the wrongness of what he does.
Even in the boisterous comedy "Qarib Qarib Single," in which he plays a hippie poet, the contrast between his goofy grin and haunted eyes makes us suspect that his character is not what he seems. Which he isn't. (Although it's silly, it's worth finding on Netflix for the chance to see Khan's lighter side.)
Lost love, or the possibility of losing love, was a Khan specialty, as this list of his best work indicates.
If you see just one Khan movie, this heartfelt romance should be it. The drama plays out in letters between a crabby widower and a lonely housewife, which they send via his lunchbox. Part of the fun is the depiction of Mumbai's elaborate lunch delivery system, which employs bicycles, trains and buses. A glitch leads to a woman's lunch reaching not her husband but Khan, who displays little emotion in his humdrum job but pours all of his longing into notes that eventually lead to love.
