Actor Vicky Kaushal has attempted a nuanced and subtle portrayal of a Pakistani major in Raazi, says Saimi Sattar
It is his ability to play any character effortlessly that makes every outing of Vicky Kaushal so believable and eagerly awaited. The actor, who burst into popular imagination as Deepak Kumar, a boy from the Dom community in Masaan, has now turned a Pakistani major in Meghna Gulzar’s latest movie Raazi. And it is the same subtlety and nuance that has been seen earlier, that Vicky tries to imbue this character with as well. As Major Iqbal Syed, who belongs to a family where the men join the Pakistani army, he has tried to break two moulds.
“The beauty for me is that it breaks the quintessential mould of two characters. First is that he is a Pakistani officer and second is , he is an army guy. When you combine the two and the way Bollywood has categorised them, you imagine a negative person who is well-built, crude, shrewd, India-hating and fanatical — all of which Iqbal is not. There is a novelty to him. Being an army guy, he has that erect spine but he has a tender heart. That is what makes him special,” he says.
So rather than looking at the superficial — the uniform that he wears or his nationality — Vicky was more interested in understanding the layers that make him. “It was not as if that I went for some army training. Raazi is more a human story even though we are showing the military and the politics between the two countries,” he says. Kaushal tried to understand the different complexities that make up the character. “How is he as a husband and as a son. How would he react to any situation. When he comes back from work what does he like to doIJ How does he relaxIJ What makes him angryIJ What makes him love the other personIJ How obedient is heIJ How patriotic or loyal is heIJ Those are the things that I had to understand,” he says. And there is a reason why he needed to do this for in this movie there are a lot of moments that are happening in the silences. “Since a lot is being said in the silences, it was very important that I had to understand the person that he is because what you are emoting is being done through how you are looking at the other person, how you are breathing, what your body language is. And to get it right, you need to be that person,” says the actor who played a drug addict in Raman Raghav 2.0.
The character was one of the reasons that he chose the movie. The second was the story. “It is too special. When I read it, I was blown away. There are individuals who live in anonymity for the safety and security of the country. The movie filled me with gratitude towards these individuals. I thought that if I was a part of a journey that makes the audience feel this, I would feel honoured,” says the actor who initially trained as an engineer.
Despite his father Shyam Kaushal being a Bollywood action director and stunt coordinator, the 29-year-old had his eyes firmly set on pursuing engineering. “When I was a student, I was focussed on my studies. I loved playing cricket, watching TV and performing on stage. Every annual day or at a society function, I had to be on the stage. So even though subconsciously there was a performer in me, I never thought of it as a career path.” Vicky loved maths and decided to pursue engineering. But then it was during his second year that the college faculty took the students on an industrial round, which is the norm. “I saw all these people working in an office in a big company. For the first time, it hit me that this is not for me as I couldn’t see myself doing it for the rest of my life. It hit me naturally that I didn’t belong. I decided that I would complete my graduation but I would never be an engineer,” he recalls. He thought about it and realised that what he loved to do and what gave him happiness was performance.
“When I told my father that I wanted to be an actor and not an engineer, he was shattered. He had been so happy that for the first time in the Kaushal family there would be someone with a secure youth where you are working and the pay cheques come in at a fixed time; where Saturday/Sunday is off and the work life is separate from family life. And especially since he felt that I was the first person from the family who was capable of doing this but didn’t want to take it up,” he says.
His father felt that him being a part of the industry might have influenced Vicky’s choice. “His first question was, do you think that your father is an action director and that would make life easy for you. I told him, no. I don’t want to feel at age 35 or 40 that when I was 22, I could have done something else and I didn’t even give it a chance. Regret is not what I want to live with. I am ready to struggle for five years or even 10 but I would be waking up as a very self-motivated person,” he says. On hearing his reply, Kaushal’s father told him that he would support him as a father but not as an action director. “He told me that it is your path, your journey and your struggle and then the victory will be yours,” says Kaushal as he takes a sip of his coffee.
Just like the answer that the senior Kaushal gave, the growing up years of Vicky were very grounded. He says that his family brought him up in a manner so that he was well aware of the difference between necessity and luxury. “We had a second car but I was not allowed to take it to college. I had to use bus and could not even take a rickshaw,” he says.
Having made the decision to switch, Vicky after having worked in luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana, Bombay Velvet and Geek Out a short film, finally made an impact with Masaan. And if one praises his performance, Kaushal feels overwhelmed.
The film does have a special place in his heart as it is not very often that a film with 80 per cent newcomers, goes to Cannes and wins two awards. “The reaction to Masaan was surreal for everyone connected with the film. When we had gone out to make this film, we were not even sure that it would be released. Besides Richa Chadha and Sudhir Mishra and some others, everyone — from the director to the technicians, writer, actors, and cinematographer — was new. We just had confidence in our script. And if you see the two Cannes awards in perspective, the last Indian director to win them was Satyajit Ray! Also, the kind of response that we get from the industry, critics, audience just filled us up with a lot of gratitude,” he says.
But didn’t the success of Masaan have the effect of putting a lot of pressure in terms of the expectations riding on himIJ “Expectations are good. Because if there are no expectations that means that I am not doing my job well. If there are expectations, that means I am doing my job. I want to take the level of expectations up.”
And a lot of expectations stem from the fact that Kaushal has the ability to get neck deep into the character. “The first important step as an actor is to empty my cup, clean my slate and tell myself that I don’t know anything about the character. That is how I present myself to my director — as an empty cup and they have to fill it up. I try to do as many sessions with the director, ask as many questions — stupid, silly — to understand that role. Then I work hard. Every character has a different prep style. Raman Raghav had a different approach as did Masaan. You have to surrender yourself and nosedive into the character by completely understanding the vision of the director,” he says. When asked if he is a spontaneous or a method actor, he is quick to respond that “Meghna (Gulzar) would be able to say that better.”
For her co-star, Alia Bhatt he is all praise. “I have admired her as an actor and she is really spontaneous. It is always a boon for an actor to work with a great co-actor as that naturally improves your performance as well. At the end of the day, it is the energy and exchange between the actors is important because that is what makes the film,” he says. But having come this far, what has been his journey likeIJ “When you are trying to get into the industry, it tests your patience, your confidence and also your conviction. It tries to break you at every step. You keep on questioning yourself if you could have taken up a job. Those are the calculations and questions that you keep telling yourself,” says the actor for whom the calculations seem to have paid off.