Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
The 2015 Bollywood moviePikuis one of my familys favorites.
We watch it every Thanksgiving, and laugh at every joke.
Khan, though, is a different sort of striking.
Khan plays Rana Chaudhary.
In a classic, movie sense, he might be said to be a loser pop in.
Khans regal height, his sensuous, animalistic features, give him the air of a god among mortals.
Yet, his extraordinary physicality is cut with hallmarks of normalcy.
Her comparison to Sharif et al.
InPiku, Khan is, as usual, positioned outside the bounds of archetypes.
She plays a 30-year-old, single Delhibased architect who hasnt broken off from her childhood yet.
In this mix, Khan is both a natural and unnatural fit.
His career was hardly a smooth sail to the top.
But Khan wasnt satisfied.
I was bored of acting, he said.
I wanted to quit this profession.
I was losing passion.
I rediscovered my passion and was longing to work in film, television.
Kapadia says he knew the moment they met that we had our guy.
That dual sense of intensity and calm comes through in every part Khan played thereafter.
In that role, the seams of life bleed through.
His smallest movement demands attention.
Even when he does nothing, for that matter, he is enchanting.
Not of Bengali descent, he is deemed somewhat unworthy by Bachchans hyper-Bengali character, Bhashkor Banerjee.
He is a failed professional, whom Bhashkor treats as a servant.
Dont interfere in a family matter, Bhashkor barks, at one point.
He was always meant to be precisely where he was.
Sitting around the table for a meal, he cements his claim to respect.
He launches into an indictment of American eating habits, and praises the slow chew rate of the cow.
He does so with the sweet, sly, deep intelligence that imbues his every movement on screen.
At this point, my family has watched the scene nearly half a dozen times.
Every year, it is as if we are watching it anew.
I can see it as my family watches the screen.
We are all falling in love with him.
