Beyond rhythm

GULSHAN Devaiah is quite unpredictable.

- KARTIK BHARDWAJ

He opens up with a song before our interaction begins. Fixing his hair and smiling over Zoom, he croons 'Chehra Kya Dekhte Ho', a Kumar Sanu and Asha Bhosle duet, from the 1993 film Salaami. It seems like an exercise in 'breaking the rhythm' of a scene, something the actor has spoken about in previous interviews while owing the method to the late thespian Irrfan Khan. "Unpredictability is not doing something suddenly, it's not playing to a rhythm," says Gulshan. "I saw Irrfan doing it in Rog (2005). In a scene where he talks about missing home and his mother. So, when you already know your lines, when you know what you have to do, how you have to react, how do you maintain the illusion of reality intact? By this, by not playing to the rhythm."