The studied subtleties of Irrfan Khan's cinema leave permanent impressions

He allowed two things to guide his film choices - serendipity and variety. He felt signs when good roles were about to come calling, he said, and he liked to pick the ones that did not bore him.

There is no finer way to evoke Irrfan Khan’s eyes than with a word his father used. Pyaalein, or chalices. Eyes so full and substantial, as if everything they took in just never left. Vishal Bhardwaj amply employed this asset of the actor in his 2004 adaptation of Macbeth, while introducing the uneasy love triangle between an underworld don, his mistress and his aide in the course of a single song, “Tu mere rubaru hai”. Irrfan’s “Maqbool”, who cannot publicly hold hands with Tabu’s “Nimmi”, communicates his warmth and fear and envy with only the language of glances. As he