Irrfan Khan helped us understand what we are as humans: ‘The Song of Scorpions’ director Anup Singh

New Delhi, Apr 29 (PTI) Irrfan Khan’s demise has left a “void as big as the desert”, says filmmaker Anup Singh, as he gives a tribute to the cine star with the theatrical release of his long-delayed film “The Song of Scorpions”.

“I don’t think there’s any way I’ll find some water in this desert. At the moment, it looks very dry and it burns,” said the filmmaker, revisiting the memories he made with the late actor over the course of two films — “Qissa” (2013) and “The Song of Scorpions” (2017).

The movie, which hit the theatres on the eve of Irrfan’s third death anniversary, revolves around an independent young tribal woman who tries to overcome a brutal betrayal so as to find her voice. The film had its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival.

Irrfan, who died at the age of 54 on April 29, 2020, following a battle with a rare form of cancer, played the role of a camel trader in “The Song of Scorpions”.

“The sense of loss is deep within us and the reason for that is while watching Irrfan perform, we have been introduced to our own feelings, very often.

“It is from his performances, sometimes, that we have been revealed to ourselves in many ways. He helped us to understand what we are as human beings, each and every one of us,” Anup told PTI in a virtual interview.

As a storyteller, he said, Irrfan helped him understand life and human nature better. The actor’s process involved a lot of observation which made his performances “dynamic and alive”.

“When he comes in front of the camera, you see that he is always performing more than the drama of the film. He’s also performing what is in the world of the film. If there is a street, or a desert, or a river behind, his body takes on some of the rhythms of what is behind. That’s what he did in his life and his performances,” the director added.

Anup met Irrfan through a mutual friend and they bonded over the music of legendary musician Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. He later narrated the story of his first feature “Qissa”, a post-Partition drama about a Sikh man who raises his daughter as a man.

Irrfan’s first reaction to the story was — “it is too dark for me”, but the filmmaker said he convinced him by giving the reference of their favourite singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

“I told him you must have seen that when Nusrat is singing, his face contorts, it becomes demonic, sometimes even monstrous… But the voice that comes out of him is one of the most divine voices that we have ever heard.

“I said, ‘Irrfan sahab, that is the kind of performance I’m looking for’. That it could be dark, but the performance that comes out of it has to be as luminous as Nusrat sahab’s voice. He understood that immediately.”

Their second project, “The Song of Scorpions”, was a result of what Anup felt emotionally following the 2012 Delhi gangrape case.

“I was very haunted by what had happened in 2012 in Delhi. In 2013, when we were in the post-production of ‘Qissa’, I kept having these dreams, though nothing directly connected to the incident. And these dreams were of a woman covered with sand in the desert and a man walking in the desert.

“It so disturbed me that finally I thought to get them out of me and I wrote them all. After that something just opened up and it became the story of ‘The Song of Scorpions’,” he said.

“The Song of Scorpions” is a story of twisted love, revenge and the redemptive power of a song. Nooran, carefree and defiantly independent, is a tribal woman learning the ancient art of healing from her grandmother, a revered scorpion-singer.

When Aadam, a camel trader in the Rajasthan desert, hears her sing, he falls desperately in love. But even before they can get to know each other better, Nooran is poisoned by a treachery that sets her on a perilous journey to avenge herself and find her song, the official plotline read.

The filmmaker said he narrated the film to Irrfan who immediately agreed to be a part of the project. The actor wanted it to be shot in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.

Following Irrfan’s cancer diagnosis in 2018, Anup said, they discussed making a third film together — a story of a folk dancer who because of his devotion to Krishna dresses up as a woman and dances.

“When I took this role to Irrfan, he was in hospital at that time. He laughed so much that he had tears in his eyes. He said, ‘You always bring me roles, which are impossible for me to do, but I have to do it.’

“Irrfan hated the idea of dancing. If there’s one thing that he hated, he hated that he should dance on screen. But here I was offering him a film where he has to be a professional dancer,” the filmmaker recalled.

But with Irrfan’s demise, Anup said, it is unlikely that he will ever revisit the story.

“I cannot see myself doing it with anybody else. In fact, I feel I have felt such an immense void inside myself that I decided not to do any film in India for the time being. I just can’t. So in fact, the next film that I’m doing is actually in Africa, where I was born and grew up.”

“The Song of Scorpions” is backed by Feather Light Films and KNM Productions. It is presented by Panorama Spotlight and 70 MM Talkies. The movie also features Golshifteh Farahani, Waheeda Rehman, Tillotama Shome and Shashank Arora in pivotal roles.