Journey of Pankaj Tripathi
“Pankaj Tripathi’s acting journey has been tough but eventually he has got the position he deserves”
Poet Sushma Shandilya, who lives in Bhopal, counts herself as a big fan of Pankaj Tripathi. He has seen almost all his movies and web series. For Outlook, he has selected some of his favorite films and web series starring Pankaj Tripathi and expressed his views on them.
Gangs of Wasseypur (2012)
After a long struggle, Pankaj Tripathi got his ‘real’ break in which he played the role of ‘Sultan Qureshi’, a dreaded butcher by profession. He did not come to capitalize on the success of this film, but the road to his success was definitely opened. Critics praised him a lot.
Newton (2017)
On the problem of voting in Naxal affected areas, in Newton, Pankaj played the best role of Atma Singh, the uniformed chief of the security force, for which he received the National Award. Despite being serious, Pankaj entertained a lot. The film was also nominated at the Oscars as India’s entry.
Gurgaon (2017)
In this, Pankaj plays the strong character of real estate tycoon, Kehri Singh. He did a unique experiment in this character by making his voice rough, which few people noticed. Gurgaon is mainly based on the metropolitan life of Haryana, with the taboos of the backward society and focused on female feticide. Gurgaon is a strong example of his brilliant talent. The sad aspect of this film was its limited release.
Bareilly Ki Barfi (2017)
Played the role of Kriti Sanon’s father, Narottam Mishra, who doesn’t mind asking for a cigarette from her daughter. Pankaj Tripathi and Seema Bhargava have given excellent performances in the role of Kriti Sanon’s parents. His mannerisms are the perfect advertisement for his sweet shop. The gentle absurdity is synonymous with his true understanding as Bitti’s father, who creates a puffy mouthful of pure humor in an attempt to stop the paan from dripping.
Woman (2018)
Pankaj came into the mainstream firmly with the big hit Stree. Demonstrated excellent comic timing in this horror-comedy as witchcraft expert Rudra Bhaiya. He created a lot of humor in the scene called “Pannapalto”. Her popular dialogue Woh Stree Hai, Kuch Bhi Kar Sakti hai” but became a lot of memes. Pankaj gave a dialogue “Stree aap ko zbardali nahi le Jayengi, she is a woman, not a man, does not forcefully”.
Sacred Games (2018/2019)
In both the parts of the crime-drama Sacred Games, Pankaj played the role of ‘Khanna Guruji’. Khanna Guruji claims a return to the Satyug, which will wipe out most of the population by starting a nuclear war. Pankaj impresses as a master mind ascetic indulging in sex and drugs to achieve ‘cosmic unity’.
Mirzapur (2018/2020)
This is Pankaj Tripathi’s most successful web series. In both its parts, Pankaj’s overbearing character, Akhandanand Tripathi aka Kaleen Bhaiya created a ruckus. His popularity reached the peak due to the dialogue spoken with pause, the strange way of expressing the expression by shaking his neck in silence. After Mirzapur, the number of fans of his acting style increased tremendously.
Criminal Justice (2019/2020)
In this, he plays the role of a witty street smart lawyer named Madhav Mishra, who asks everyone who comes to the court whether they need a lawyer. Madhav’s scintillating juxtaposition between constant sarcasm and nervousness received critical acclaim. Only Pankaj can do such acting of a good lawyer full of humanity.
Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl (2020)
Gunjan Saxena is the first woman Air Force pilot to set up a male-dominated field while serving wounded soldiers during the Kargil War. Pankaj Tripathi is an integral part of the story in the role of Anoop Saxena, father of Janhvi Kapoor. Beyond patriarchal ideology and supremacism, he supports a daughter’s every decision, as a progressive father who supports her every step of the way, to coach a promising athlete.
Mimi (2021)
The film has a serious story of surrogacy, told in a ticklish manner. In the film, Pankaj played the character of Bhanupratap Pandey, a cheerful, friendly driver with a wonderful sense of humor. The way he lived the character of Bhanupratap, explaining in a simple way, hardly anyone else could have lived.
Ludo (2020)
Played the role of a gangster named Sattu Tripathi in this dark comedy-drama written and directed by Anurag Basu. He delivers his dialogues in a calm, sarcastic manner with a tinge of anger and despair. Pankaj played this character of the goon well by giving a touch of comedy in the original style. In ‘Ludo’, Pankaj creates panic and takes people on a roller-coaster ride and makes everyone laugh and enjoy the journey of life.
Pankaj Tripathi: The debut of an experimental actor
“An actor skilled in the Indian and western modes of acting like Desaj Pankaj creates miracles when he plays a character, that is what a better actor calls his own crafted craft”
There is a concept in acting, entering into the character’s physique. The concept before physique entry is mental and physical preparation. There are many situations in this. It is only after imbibing all these conditions that an excellent actor reaches within the soul of the character and brings it to life on stage or screen. A big actor is not only prepared around this concept, but his acting ability is also tested on these criteria. But above all, he builds the uniqueness of his craft with new types of theory and skill. According to the character and the story, only an actor who is skilled can create his craft according to his own.
Such an actor infuses breath into the question of ‘if it were like this’ along with ‘given circumstances’ for the character. It has become a habit of Pankaj Tripathi to reach the soul of a new character every time by understanding how spontaneous acting flow happens or how it will happen, which is called ‘Magic of If’ in the school of ‘method’ of acting. Huh. In addition to the concept of ‘scrolling under the skin of the character’ or ‘magic of if’ method acting among hundreds of different genres of acting and character playing, an actor like Desaj Pankaj, skilled in Indian and western methods of acting, plays when So he creates miracles. Reason: The actor’s own lesson is also taking shape in it, it can be called his personal craft. Look at all the big actors of the world. In this process, when the bookish theory changes into practical form, then Pankaj Tripathi is formed. They do not play the character, but get absorbed in it. Here Pankaj Tripathi’s acting has been at its peak for a few years now. The reason for this is clear, as an actor, he repeatedly breaks the created format, innovates in it and surprises his audience, critics, critics.
Over the years, Pankaj Tripathi has repeatedly broken his own form by doing various experiments. You will always find how this actor’s work is transformed from one to the other in a different way and that too in a simple and easy way. It happens in such a magical way that it makes the audience shudder. On seeing him, a mixed smile floats on his lips. Remember how Munna Michael’s Bali in front of Narottam Mishra and Nil Battey Sannata’s Principal Srivastava parted ways with the Sultan of Gangs of Wasseypur. Totally different characters Naved Ansari of Powder, Kehri Singh of Gurgaon and Akhandanand Tripathi of Mirzapur and Khanna Guruji of Sacred Games are completely different on screen, living in a world with a certain attitude.
Similarly, Vijay of Yours Truly, Salim of Mango Dreams, Rudra Bhaiya of Stree or as it is called in English Firoz, Mansingh of 83, Bharatlal of Kaagaz and Laali (short film) are loved by all. When I am saying different, it is precisely the East and the West that are different. It has different levels and different images of the excellence of actor Pankaj Tripathi’s acting style. Here, over the years, the webseries that has brought out a different and surprisingly good side of Pankaj Tripathi’s acting is Criminal Justice. Here the character of Madhav Mishra is not only trying to prove a character innocent, but in this whole process the character of Madhav Mishra is also in search of himself, where he also has some meaning in this world and justice in the process. That fight also becomes a fight for justice for himself. Pankaj Tripathi looks a completely different actor in this series. Balraj Sahni’s quote fits Pankaj Tripathi 100 per cent whenever a vigilant viewer sees Madhav Mishra, “Each actor has his own technique, which he has learned after intense study and long practice. “
Pankaj Tripathi is a frequent experimenter and we see that he always challenges this principle. Without being dramatic, the character of Kaleen Bhaiya creates a tinge in the soul. While Kehri Singh of Gurgaon gives many opportunities to hate, the character of Rudra Bhaiya or Narottam Mishra gives thousand chances to love. It is a fine actor’s own crafted craft. He has his own theory.
It is not easy to break a ‘special’ image in the industry. But a skilled actor is the one who repeatedly breaks his own images by his experiments and writes a new script. Pankaj Tripathi has become a master of this game. The Birwa of the village has become a dense shadow of Peepal in Mayanagari, which is filling oxygen in the cinematic characters. Anyway, this is the era of the return of actors in cinema. In this era of cinema and these actors, Pankaj Tripathi has become essential like salt in food. In our film test, these are the flowers of the rustic zone or forest, which are definitely giving more fragrance than the flowers of the drawing room and balcony. This is their specialty too, these forest flowers do not smell alone, their fragrance is community. The whole nature dances in them. It is said that when the Vanbella blooms, the whole forest smells, and when the whole forest is fragrant, the nature is in its most beautiful form. One end of this has now been linked to world cinema.
This season of Hindi cinema is of blooming of forest flowers like Pankaj Tripathi. More traps are yet to come. Right now it is like the first drop of rain descending on the earth and its fragrant aroma spreading all around. Somewhere it was read, this fragrance is called ‘petrichor’, which is derived from the Greek word petra, which means stone or icon. It is believed that this is the same liquid that flows in the form of blood in the veins of God. This artist and his different images are flowing like blood in divine veins with his sincere work. It is the same pungent smell of rain, which breaks your inertia and pulls it towards you as soon as it enters your nostrils. I am reminded of the song Kaamdev Ka Apna, Basant Ritu Ka Sapna’s famous play for Pankaj Tripathi, by my favorite theater artist Habib Tanveer, and I really like the song for him right now, “I know my forest”. Where has the queen of slept / Where the jasmine is smelling and the mustard is blooming.” It is a luscious time in cinema for vanbels like Pankaj Tripathi. He is like the lifeblood of Hindi cinema of this era.
