Ali Fazal on Ray: Shedding Mirzapur's Guddu was so much fun

In Netflix's Ray, Ali Fazal's performance as the clever but unsympathetic entrepreneur Ipsit Nair, who leads the segment Forget Me Not, has garnered him a lot of appreciation. During a recent interaction with Mid Day, the talented actor spoke at length about the shorts, stating that for the project, he remembers meeting Srijit Mukherji, the director and Sayantan Mukherjee, the creator. Fazal loved it on paper and wanted to be that obnoxious child that asks a lot of questions.

The director gave Satyajit Ray's short story Bipin Chowdhuryr Smritibhrom a grim twist with Forget Me Not. Changing the creations of legends is frowned upon, and the anthology garnered mixed reviews upon its debut. Talking about the same, the actor shared that with everyone selling out these days, some things, like our favourite stories, should stay sacred. He believes that if the picture hadn't been titled Ray, the expectations would have been different. Fazal also said that it's difficult to live up to the moniker and added that even back then, Ray admired the new perspective with which the auteur's beloved stories were retold.

It was a unique perspective on Ray's story, and Fazal assumed it was misconstrued at some point. They were all under the impression that they were performing a direct adaptation. The actor revealed that they made some progress, but it could have been more.

The actor's performance, which saw him fall from a confident and cocky entrepreneur to an emotional wreck within 30 minutes, got rave reviews. Fazal's early exposure to filmmaking talent aided him in his preparation for the role.

The Fukrey actor shared that his mum was an avid moviegoer. Thanks to her, he had seen all of Ray's well-known films. Fazal learned more about the significance of his films as time went on. Two, an eight-minute short about two youngsters playing with toys, is his personal favourite and explains that Ray establishes the absorbent brains of children and their ability to absorb their environment in under 10 minutes with minimal conversation. During the production of this film, they all agreed that they all had that one event that completely changed everyone's life. 

Fazal said that Ipsit is greatly thrown off when he sees his brain being dismantled. However, the sequence at the mental asylum does not appeal to him. As an actor, he understands, but he believes the concept of darkness must go beyond brooding features and dimly lit spaces.

The actor, who is best known for his role as Guddu in Mirzapur, says it was a welcome shift to leave the crime drama's gruesome and gritty world and morph into the sophisticated Ipsit for the anthology series. 

Fazal concluded by saying that it was a lot of joy to get rid of Guddu. He is a sucker for brand new components. As a result, doing Ray was a wise decision. Even something as trivial as getting to wear smart suits was fun for the actor.