Crossing the divide

While Irrfan Khan has never lived anywhere else but India, he was still able to empathise with what his character was going through in The Namesake.

Mira Nair's film, screened at Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF), is a moving depiction of an Indian couple's cultural journey after settling in New York and having children born into the American way of life.

Khan, 38, gives a sensitive performance of a man embracing a new life with "limitless" opportunities while trying to help his wife overcome loneliness in a foreign land and attempting to work through generational differences with his children.

His character Ashoke is profoundly touched by the Russian writer Nikolai Gogol, whose book The Overcoat changed the direction of his life.

Speaking of his own influences, Khan said: "When I was a kid I used to listen to radio plays and there are certain moments of those plays that have stayed with me.

"Recently I read the book A Mighty Heart which baptised me. The kind of approach she (Mariane Pearl, the author) makes after that tragedy is unimaginable. It was an eye-opener."

The writing within The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri, equally moved Khan, who coincidentally read the book 15 days before receiving a call from director Mira Nair inviting him to be in the film.

Touching book

"It touched me a lot because the language is special. She doesn't manipulate emotions, she just writes simply but it keeps simmering emotionally all the time."

Set in New York and Kolkata, the book has become popular in the US city where many of its inhabitants are not native to America.

Khan said: "It is about two cultures that are so diverse and they have their own pluses and minuses. To be in this era where the world is becoming smaller and smaller, you need to interact and understand other cultures if you are to grow."

What's next

Among Khan's recent projects is A Mighty Heart, starring Angelina Jolie and produced by Brad Pitt, in which he plays the chief of the Anti-Terrorist Squad.

He said: "It was a completely engrossing experience, not just because of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie but because of the team and the director (Michael Winterbottom) — the kind of work he does is a style where you are evolving all the time and that was a great experience."

He is also working on Metro in Bombay and is due to star in Wes Anderson's Darjeeling Express.

Being Ashoke

At a DIFF press conference on The Namesake, Irrfan Khan said he developed his character Ashoke by drawing on his own experience of leaving his home city of Jaipur for a long period when he was accepted into the National School of Drama.

"That was really a beginning of mine. I could feel being uprooted from one city to another city and you just have to magnify that," he said.

"The script was so powerful and so well developed that it just enters into your system. I didn't have to think too much — the role just entered into me."

Most demanding were the physical adjustments needed to become the man. Khan had to take on a Bengali accent which he had just 15 days to perfect. To help him, Indian-born director Mira Nair introduced him to her father who still had a thick accent after many years in America.

As for the physical persona, Khan said: "This role required a man who is unobtrusive and who, if he is there, you do not notice him. That was the biggest challenge for me."