“You don't usually ask a man how he feels playing a badass gangster. The problem is the male gaze and it needs to be revisited,” shares Ali Fazal. He’s contemplative about the hyper machismo ‘Guddu bhaiya’ that has made this actor a household name, even though it was his role as a struggling musician in the sleeper hit Fukrey (2013) opposite female gangster Bholi Punjaban (played by Richa Chadda) that shot him into the limelight. Fazal has in his recent work become one of those chameleonic actors who embodies his characters even as he hooks his viewers and not just revisits but exposes the male gaze—a rarity in the usual gangster flick like Mirzapur or male actor interview, for that matter. The thing about Fazal’s gangster is that alongside the sheer physicality of playing Guddu, that sees him with short-cropped hair (doing away with his usual ‘softboi’ floppy do), a gym-soaked body with guns blazing (in every sense of the phrase) and quads in place—he plays a fundamentally flawed yet vulnerable man trapped both by circumstance and the regressive mould of Indian masculinity.
Out of character
Fazal is currently getting ready for the release of Mirzapur season 2 (out now on Amazon Prime Video) and he zooms through my screen from his Mumbai apartment, taking time out to talk about not just Guddu, but also his craft and life in this unprecedented year. But back to how this actor feels about playing the badass gangster, he says, “Guddu has been far from a pleasant character to play, but he has been one of the most challenging in my acting graph. He is unique though with his own flavour and unpredictable to fathom and comprehend. But playing a role that encompasses so many different and complex parts has been amazing.”
Fazal is his own self-confessed harshest critic, and doesn’t flinch in admitting that he has learnt his craft on the job and his acting trajectory has been a clear mix of ups and downs, the cringe-worthy downs mainly at the beginning of his career. “Mere purane bahut paap hai (there are many sins in my past),” he quips. Fazal remembers being a young 18-year-old calling his father from the PCO booth (yes, the days before smart-everything) near his college St Xavier's in Mumbai, and telling him that he would make his own way, one acting job to the next. On hanging up, a rush of anxiety filled him and post that a series of acting jobs, grabbing whatever came his way, where the young actor made ends meet even as he paid his final year university tuition. “It sounded very cool at the time, but then reality hit,” he confesses. But ghosts of past mistakes have led to this actor fine-tuning his craft over the years. He still feels he has a long way to go and doesn’t shy away from admitting that he got away “with a bit of hamming here and there in season 1 of Mirzapur”.
So Fazal got ready for season 2 ready for a correction. While this actor has played a part in the American TV miniseries Bollywood Hero (2009), Mirzapur remains his debut of sorts within the long format perfected by OTT platforms. And he is beginning to appreciate the beauty of this form of storytelling, where you get the chance to work on and further evolve your character and performance, one season to the next. “It (the long format) does make you almost mathematically try to map out your entire character graph, because you live and breathe it. I think in season 2, I try to explore the human condition. At the end of season 1, we’ve left everybody at a cliffhanger,” Fazal references the ‘Red Wedding’ style season finale that has had fans begging for a resolution for close to a year now.
“It could take a turn in any direction now,” he warns, a far cry from spoiler machine Tom Holland, Fazal carefully avoids plot points and engages more with his characters development. “Guddu is a lazy man in season 1. I never thought of him as a dumb boot but he’s someone who has gone astray and relies on his brother’s brains. So you can expect to see a slightly more mature Guddu—he now has that desperation to cling onto some level of focus.” But does he? And Fazal carries on enigmatically enough, “Sometimes he slips, sometimes he manages. And it’s real, Guddu isn’t the revenge-seeking badass hero who saves the world and redeems himself. That is just not how life is… But beneath all of that toxicity there could be hope for something better. So we’re not trying to justify them as good people, but instead we’re looking at them as grey characters throughout the show.”
The show must go on
Talking about toxicity, 2020 has also been the year where Bollywood unfairly became the new big bad in mainstream media. And Fazal and his partner, actor Richa Chadda (who recently filed and won a defamation suit) have met their share of trolls. “Yes, it has been a toxic year,” he says. “But I’m lucky to call myself an artiste. As an artiste I can use my platform and raise my voice, be it through my characters or on my own. My hope is we come out strong and with something new, in this new world.” But for Fazal it’s also been a year of great personal loss, his mother who he often calls “the source of his creativity” passed away earlier this year. “I did not know how to face my craft anymore. I just did not know. How do you channelise expression when the very reason for it is lost in many ways? But then Richa has been a great help, she’s been a great partner,” he adds.
As he heals, Fazal has channelised his pain into the sort of work he can be “mighty proud of”. And one of his in-lockdown projects is a poignant short called Tasveer by Ashutosh Pathak, a film that poetically exposes the class divide and the migrant crisis, even as it reminds viewers of our own shortcomings and inaction. Apart from which Fazal is also excited about his upcoming release (scheduled to release in the US in December) directed by Kenneth Branagh and co-starring Gal Gadot and Armie Hammer, “Maybe it’s because Kenneth is an actor himself, but he takes care of his actors and makes you so comfortable, it was seamless. Physically it was a task because I had to lose all of Guddu’s muscle and switch from my hinterland Hindi to speaking in a British accent!”
But how does Fazal make the switch from one role to the next? “I make my switch with clothes and music. My character's wardrobe is always a big discussion. And I know it’s a very random thing but I make playlists for each of my characters. It helps me get into their mind space. When I talk and you nod, you’ve unconsciously caught my rhythm… In some ways rhythm is what we are made up of, and music helps me tap into that.” From a cameo in Fast & Furious 7 to a titular role with Judy Dench in Victoria & Abdul and now the Hercule Poirot whodunnit, Fazal transitions seamlessly between film industries. And with blind casting coming into international cinema, we can expect to see a lot more of him.
When not bagging international films or working on indie shorts or his next big Bollywood blockbuster, Fazal sheepishly admits he has spent the past few locked down months “finishing both Amazon Prime and Netflix” (his recommendations: the Malayalam drama Trance and Sarah Paulson’s top-rated show Ratched) adding to his celebrities-they’re-just-like-us grounded charm. But his binge-watching days might be over now. He has a hectic 2021 planned, rumour has it his lockdown-postponed wedding has moved to next year along with a slew of exciting projects including returning to the Fukrey franchise with its third instalment, and playing the lead in the biopic Code Name: Johnny Walker by Alan Wenkus, of Straight Outta Compton fame.
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Mirzapur Season 2: The first look of the Amazon Prime Video show's next instalment is now out
