Karwaan: An engaging ride brilliantly steered by Irrfan
It’s almost impossible to watch the film without thinking about the actor’s illness.
The last time Irrfan — the screen name comes without Khan lately — drove a long way, it was hard to take your eyes off him. Then, his passengers were Deepika Padukone and Amitabh Bachchan (Piku). This time around, Malayalam filmstar Dulquer Salmaan (in his Hindi debut) and webseries wonder girl Mithila Palkar (only her second Hindi film) join him on a road trip across south India, and yet again, it’s Irrfan whose performance carries this film to its final destination.
In Akarsh Khurana-directed Karwaan, the actor ensures the film never loses steam even if it loses direction occasionally. This isn’t to say that Salmaan and Palkar are unimpressive — in fact, Salmaan’s understated act as the lost young man is a harder one to pull off. Shaukat joins a long list of Irrfan’s comic characters who capture the audience with a wry sense of humour and uncanny observations on life. Apart from Piku, this is evident even in Gunday, Hindi Medium and Qarib Qarib Singlle.
In Karwaan, Shaukat is the oldest of the trio. His religious identity is key to his being. He comes to his Bangalore friend Avinash’s (Salmaan) aid after the latter finds himself with quite a problem: collect his father’s corpse, which has erroneously ended up in Kochi, and drop the one he has to its rightful family. It’s Shaukat’s blue van that is taken for this mission and his commentary that serves as the soundtrack.
But Khurana, along with his co-writer Adhir Bhat, is in no mood to simply glorify the film’s strongest character. Shaukat is a man of conservative views (he isn’t pleased that Palkar’s Tanya hasn’t covered her legs, and also disapproves of drinking). He is prejudiced against some people — white people, specifically — mocking them for doing drugs and their rule over India. He is opinionated, giving Avinash and Tanya a healthy dose of his thoughts on their actions.
The audience doesn’t get an understanding of what experience has shaped him; that detailed treatment is reserved for Avinash alone. Shaukat instead is the jocular shot that uplifts the proceedings. (Spoiler: The only personal insight is that like Avinash, Shaukat too is a victim of bad-dad syndrome and has scars to show for it.) But such is the effect of Irrfan that you overlook the contrivances and lapses to happily join the ride. To him goes the responsibility of finding moments of mirth as characters lug around a dead body. Shaukat is also the most accessible character, because while the other two converse in Hinglish, he is the Hindi Medium fellow.
Karwaan’s trailer is enough evidence of how Shaukat has a chunk of Hussain Dalal’s fine dialogues, and Irrfan owns the lines, making them memorable with his timing, laidback delivery and charm offensive. But Karwaan is also about loss and grief — topics the writers could have dealt with more poignancy — and it’s near impossible to watch the film without thinking about the actor’s illness and his ongoing journey with it.
Karwaan was the last Hindi film the actor finished before Irfran was diagnosed with neuroendocrine tumour. The only other film that the audience is yet to see of the actor is the Hollywood movie Puzzle, in which he plays a widowed man who befriends a married woman (Kelly MacDonald) over their joint passion for solving puzzles.
In Karwaan, Shaukat’s blue van comes inscribed with the lines of Majrooh Sultanpuri:
“Main Akela Hi Chala Tha Janib-E-Manzil
Log Aate Gaye Aur Karwaan Banta Gaya”
(I was walking alone towards my destination,
people joined me and it became a caravan)
Irrfan isn’t alone in his latest journey, for his fans and his colleagues pray for his recovery and return to work. To quote from Liverpool Football Club’s anthem, “You’ll never walk alone”.