The Inventive and Unorthodox - Fahadh Faasil

A chance encounter with an Irrfan Khan DVD inspired him to take a second stab at Malayalam films. A decade later, he is among India’s most successful and versatile actors

- Mohan Kumar

Malayalam star Fahadh Faasil must infuriate fellow leading men everywhere. He is only 5’5”, suffers from rapidly spreading male pattern baldness, but is already a phenomenon among thinking movie-watchers across the country, thanks to the extended reach of OTT platforms that has made regional cinema accessible.

He is famously media shy, and rarely talks to the media, even when promoting his own films. “I feel very incomplete about my films, and I don’t know when’s the right time to talk about it. I usually try to talk about it after a year,” he said in a recent interview. Of course, his films speak for themselves, particularly about his ability to disappear into a character in the wide range of roles he takes on. The characters he portrays in each of his films stand out for their nuance and complexity, and you are left wondering at the uncanny ease with which he inhabits them.

Take, for instance, Shammi — the antagonist in director Madhu C. Narayanan’s Kumbalangi Nights released last year. It was a seemingly hard-to-portray role of a psychotic and misogynist barber who would go to any length to prevent his sister-in-law from marrying her lover. Faasil, who is among the biggest stars in South Indian films, not only produced the film, but also had no qualms about playing the negative role in it, which he pulled off with consummate finesse. Though he modestly credits writer Syam Pushkaran for creating the character, anyone who has seen the film knows that it is Faasil who brought it alive. His creepy smile and unblinking eyes when he walks into a private conversation between his wife (played by Grace Antony) and sister (Anna Ben), captures the menace that is waiting to unfold in just a single shot.