Pankaj Tripathi's birthday special: Dialogues that left a memorable impact
An acting institution in himself, two-time National Award winner Pankaj Tripathi is the prime example of an unparalleled blend of versatility, command over the craft, and a genuine reverence for the art that is rare to come by. It's only fitting that his characters have received some memorable dialogues over the years. On his 47th birthday, take a look at some of them.
'Masaan': When he talked about loneliness, struggles of old age
In Masaan, there is a heartbreaking, tender scene between Devi (Richa Chadha) and Sadhya ji (Tripathi), when the duo sits together at a railway station. When he offers her kheer, Devi asks, "Do you live alone?" to which, he responds, "No, I stay with my father. It's my father who lives alone." It's a moving account of unintentional friction between supposed lifelong relations.
'Gangs of Wasseypur's dialogue that captures the film's essence
One of the movies that catapulted Tripathi to nationwide acclaim and announced that he's here to stay was Anurag Kashyap's Gangs of Wasseypur (Parts I and II). Tripathi played Sultan Qureshi, a role he fit to the T. In Part I, he tells a police officer, "This is Wasseypur. Here, even a pigeon flies with one wing and uses the other to protect itself."
When he stood by Bitti's side in 'Bareilly Ki Barfi'
"The society is like this. Yes, we don't follow its rules but we have to live in this society." When Tripathi—who plays a fiercely feminist man—says these lines, it underlines how he's the only one who stands beside his daughter Bitti and has instilled feminist values in her. He's painfully aware of society, but never asks her to succumb. A father we all need!
When he asserted his dominance in 'Mirzapur'
His antagonist character Kaleen Bhaiya in Amazon Prime Video's Mirzapur is one for the acting books. With it, Tripathi proved again that versatile is his middle name, and genre limitations don't apply to him. In S01, he encapsulated his personality when he told Officer Ram Sharan Maurya, "Maurya ji, the city where you've come to serve is owned by me."
