Mahesh Bhatt bids emotional goodbye to Irrfan Khan, remembers singing a song when they met after his diagnosis

Soon after the death of actor Irrfan Khan, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt shared a memory of meeting the actor post his diagnosis for neuroendocrine tumour.

Irrfan Khan, as much at home in the Hollywood extravaganza Jurassic World as in the introspective The Lunchbox, lost his battle with a rare form of cancer and died in a Mumbai hospital on Wednesday. The actor also worked with filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt on a couple of films. The Footpath director posted a heartfelt note about his last meeting with the actor post his diagnosis of endocrine tumour.

Irrfan Khan and Mahesh Bhatt on the sets of one of their films.

Sharing a throwback picture with Irrfan on Twitter, he recalled their last rendezvous and wrote, “Maine dil se kaha, dhoond laana khushi nasamajh laya gum, to yeh gum hi sahi...Remember singing this song holding his hand when I met him after he was diagnosed. He smiled .The warmth of your smile will forever linger my friend. Alvida dost.”

The slow number Maine Dil Se Kaha is from Irrfan’s 2005 film Rog, in which he played the lead protagonist -- law abiding Inspector Uday Singh Rathod who was in-charge of investigating a murder mystery. The film was written by Mahesh and had Ilene Hamann, a model from South Africa as the female lead.

Irrfan Khan broke the news of his diagnosis with a heartbreaking note in March, 2018. He wrote, “Sometimes you wake up with a jolt with life shaking you up. The last fifteen days, my life has been a suspense story. Little had I known that my search for rare stories would make me find a rare disease. I have never given up and have always fought for my choices and always will. My family and friends are with me and we are working it out the best way possible.” Requesting his fans to not speculate, he had ended the note saying, “Till then, wish the best for me.”

Apart from Rog, Irrfan featured in three more films including Kasoor, Gunaah and Footpath, all of which were written by Mahesh. He featured as a public prosecutor Nitin Mehta in Kasoor that marked the Bollywood debut of Lisa Ray. The actor played the role of a police Inspector Digvijay Pandey in the 2002 film Gunaah, which had Bipasha Basu and Dino Morea in lead roles. This was followed by Vikram Bhatt directed Footpath (2003) which had Irrfan in the role of Sheikh.

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