Alternate Best Actor 2004: Irrfan Khan in Maqbool

Irrfan Khan did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Miyan Maqbool in Maqbool. 

Maqbool is an adaptation of Macbeth set in the modern day Mumbai underworld. 

This is an adaptation of Macbeth, however the more obvious Macbeth parallels take awhile to realize themselves, as the first half of the film is far more about this gangster film where we get to see the nature of the organization where Khan’s Maqbool is one of the high level enforcers for boss Jahangir Khan (Pankaj Kapur). And not entirely unlike director Vishal Bhardwaj’s later film of Hamlet Haider, the Shakespearean protagonist is fairly passive for the first half of the film. As largely we see Maqbool in his role as enforcer and a genuinely loyal one, offering a stoic calm at times but also a brutal force at others. The character finding life is aided greatly by the presence of Khan, who is striking on screen innately, so when in the early scenes Maqbool is just following orders he is quite compelling in his silence. I would however say the film maybe extends this silence a bit longer than it needs to given it takes half of the film to truly get into the Macbeth plot. Something that comes about in this version is even more evidently by the Lady Macbeth of this version Nimmi (Tabu) being a primary motivator for Maqbool even beyond her usual role as such. As in this version she is the mistress of the boss/king this time enticing Maqbool as a reason to seek power beyond simply the power of being boss. 

An element that works effectively thanks to Tabu being so captivating in the role, but also Khan brings this intense focus in these moments in portraying the man being brought into this intrigue. Khan plays Maqbool well by showing him not exactly going with the flow, but in a way giving himself to the ambition of Nimmi in this instance and in a way embracing the idea. Conveying within his work the quiet notions of lust towards her and the power that propels him to take action that leads to him eventually murdering his boss. A sequence that signals a change in Khan’s performance as he goes from his quiet stoic quality with just that nagging lust, to fully embracing himself essentially as the boss onscreen. An idea that Khan portrays with a proper ease as he delivers that innate strength of personality and even more so an ease with his own menace as he now is the man others should fear. Khan brings initially the confidence of the power of the man who now has Nimmi and the control of the underworld, delivering this ease within himself of someone who has everything he thinks he wants, and is as easily able to threaten those he thinks might try to take his power, including even his old friend. 

As much as it took time to get to the Macbeth portion in this adaptation, once we are there the film is in a hurried rush to get through every beat of the plot of Macbeth, including other threats and the madness brought upon both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth via the supernatural hauntings they receive. As quick as all this is, Khan remains captivating in his portrayal of the loss of that initial confidence as the crimes literally come back to haunt him, such as his old friend opening his eyes as a corpse. Khan plays the madness well as the quick piercing fear of seeing his crimes reflected in this haunting, and the man so easy in his threats to others becomes weighed down by his actions. Khan creates swiftly the gripping pathos of Maqbool’s mental state that first turns from a mania which he convincingly portrays then shifts towards more of a malaise in seeing the bad ends, particularly as they drive Nimmi mad as well to the point of suicide. The climax of Macbeth often leads to a more grandiose villain, embracing his evil in a last ditch attempt to hold his power just as all his enemies are mounting their attack. This version doesn’t build towards the grandiose, rather it is kind of a meek end for this Macbeth, where we get a brief scene of Maqbool’s reaction to kind of the potential better life he might’ve had if he hadn’t given into lust and ambition. Khan is moving in the scene of playing that moment of reaction as part of the overall meek way this version of the character essentially allows himself to fade away in his downfall rather than a grand explosion. Khan consistently gives a good performance in terms of accentuating the emotional position of his character in this version of the story. However, this version kind of delivers a bit less than seems possible given the nature of the role, where maybe there was a bit more build up in certain moments for Khan to play with. Regardless he is a compelling Macbeth as Maqbool, even if I think a greater performance was possible with a different adaptation.