Like his character of Maan Kapoor in Mira Nair’s miniseries A Suitable Boy has many shades, the four film-old actor, Ishaan Khatter has many shades to his acting skills. The actor debuted as a lead with international award-winning director Majid Majidi’s Hindi drama film Beyond The Clouds.
The film garnered critical acclaim from all over and his performance was lauded too. Khatter plays a drug dealer and a street hustler, Aamir, in the city of dreams, Mumbai. The film follows his bond with his sister Tara (played by Malavika Mohanan) and a take on human relationships in general. As the story unfolds, the siblings' bond is put to test when Tara is arrested for a crime Aamir commits.
Khatter had appeared in several films in the past but as a child actor, including the 2005 Shahid Kapoor starrer Vaah! Life Ho Toh Aisi.
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While his counterparts in Bollywood and other star kids began their careers with mainstream commercial Bollywood films by filmmakers like Karan Johar, Khatter wasn’t the one to do this conventional way since his debut itself. Though his second film, Dhadak, was mostly intended to launch another star kid, Janhvi Kapoor, Sridevi and Boney Kapoor’s daughter, Khatter managed to garner his share of praise in the film and solidify his place in the audience’s heart. It was with Dhadak, Khatter exuded boy charm all over with the character of Madhu.
Both his characters had a signature rawness. With just two films old, Khatter was set to appear in Mira Nair’s BBC mini-series A Suitable Boy alongside Tabu. One of the most talked about period drama that streamed on Netflix in 2020 was adapted by Andrew Davies from Vikram Seth's 1993 novel of the same name. The series, set in India which recently achieved independence in the 1950, revolves around four families where Mrs. Rupa Mehra (played by Mahira Kakkar) is searching for a “suitable” boy for her daughter Lata Mehra (played by Tanya Maniktala) which makes for its title.
Khatter plays the role of Maan Kapoor, a 19-year-old boy and son of a powerful Islamophobic politician, who is in a “forbidden” romantic relationship with Saeeda Bai (played by Tabu), who is a Muslim courtesan twice his age. While the relationship is looked down upon in Kapoor’s society, the layered and nuanced depiction of the relationship makes it beautiful.
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When you have an actor who is almost three decades old in the industry like Tabu, who has portrayed one after another marvellous characters in her career, in a frame, it is hard to look past her. But, Khatter managed to grab eyeballs as Maan from the very first scene as he enters the frame with Tabu and their chemistry sparks fire on screen. The nuances of Maan’s character that Khatter managed to portray on screen is commendable.
His range, even with the limited number of roles, shows Khatter is here to stay.