‘Freedom at Midnight’ interview: Arif Zakaria on playing Nehru and Jinnah

Arif Zakaria's portrayal of Jinnah in 'Freedom At Midnight' showcases his versatility and dedication to challenging roles.

One of the performances of 2024 that will stay with us for some time is Arif Zakaria’s portrayal of Muhammad Ali Jinnah in Nikhil Advani’s Freedom At Midnight. An industrious actor, Zakaria comes from a political family in Mumbai that produced stalwarts like Rafiq Zakaria and, interestingly, had played Jawaharlal Nehru in the past.

Growing up in South Mumbai, Zakaria says he could sense the spirit of Jinnah in the air. “Apart from practising in the Bombay High Court, Jinnah was a socialite who frequented the Willingdon Club and Mumbai gymkhana. During our walks in the neighbourhood, my father would share stories of his now-dilapidated bungalow on Malabar Hill.”

Zakaria saw Jinnah as an introvert with a strange mix of superiority and inferiority complexes. “He would claim to be the sole representative of Muslims but was not a practising Muslim himself. Barring the name, you can’t consider Jinnah a Muslim from any angle. He would not even get Urdu poetry and switched from suit to sherwani quite late in his public life for political reasons. While Gandhiji smartly reached out to grassroots politics, he limited himself to armchair intellectual discussions for a long time. I felt, deep inside, that he must have been conscious of this dichotomy. The writing provided me an opportunity to bring up these delicate layers.”

An effective performance, says Zakaria, demands time. “As the shoot got postponed for a year because Nikhil wanted more time for research, it provided the opportunity for several workshops and table reads to work out the nuances.” Zakaria has the habit of writing the traits of the character on the side of the script.

“I saw Jinnah as a domineering figure whose dialogue delivery would be like a bark. It required the tone of an egoistic man whose gaze would be piercing and his gait had to be strong and elegant. But then we also had to incorporate into the portrayal his ailment, tuberculosis.” The toughest part for Zakaria was to portray Jinnah as a chain smoker. “I don’t smoke but for the role I had to. Somehow our DOPs love to capture the smoke. So, even in scenes where I didn’t have the talking part, I was expected to make smoke rings,” grins Zakaria.

The seasoned actor is grateful to the casting team for considering him for the role despite knowing that he had played Nehru not once but twice in the past. “As an artist, I see the ideological aspect of the character from a distance. I have also played an absolute right winger in Leila. It is the physicality part of historical characters that I am conscious of. My aim is not to recreate but to represent the character. Their walk was similar but unlike Jinnah, I saw Nehru as a gregarious person with lesser hair on the pate.”

After making a name on Doordarshan with engrossing campus stories, Zakaria made a foray into films with a complex gender-fluid role in Kalpana Lajmi’s Darmiyaan and is still remembered for his sensitive portrayal of a transgender called Immi. It is said that Lajmi approached several mainstream actors, including Shah Rukh Khan, before settling for Zakaria.