Never distinguished between commercial and parallel films, says Meel Patthar's Ghalib, Suvinder Vicky

The word that perhaps best encapsulates Suvinder Vicky’s character in Ivan Ayr’s Meel Patthar (Milestone, 2020) is stillness. Playing Ghalib, a truck driver who is struggling with grief even as he anticipates his job slipping away, Vicky brings a certain gravitas to the role by layering his silences, keeping one riveted to his character.

The acclaimed film was premiered at Venice last year and released recently on Netflix. The role of Ghalib has deservedly won praise for Vicky and brought him the Best Actor award at the Singapore International Film Festival’s Silver Screen awards.

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Riding a wave of success, the actor spoke to Cinestaan.com about his journey thus far.

Suvinder Vicky was born in Sirsa, Haryana, and grew up in Ferozepur, Punjab, and in Chandigarh. Interested in acting from an early age, he would imitate his screen darlings Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan.

When he was a little older, films by Shyam Benegal and Goutam Ghose, featuring the likes of Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri and Shabana Azmi, which were telecast on the state-run television channel Doordarshan, offered a glimpse into worlds that lay beyond what was called commercial cinema.

Having been a part of college festivals, Vicky decided to pursue acting after completing his graduation. But while studying theatre at Punjabi university, Patiala, Vicky set his sights firmly on films. “By the time I was completing my graduation, I had decided I wanted to become a film actor," he said. "I started my journey with theatre and wanted to pursue acting in films thereafter.”

His education in the field proved beneficial. “When you embark on your struggle as an actor, people regard you a little seriously if you have studied acting, and they assume that there is a certain seriousness and maturity level in you,” he explained, adding that it helped him find work soon after completing his studies.

Looking back on his journey, the actor reminisced, “The journey has been very good. I did not get a chance to really struggle in Mumbai as an actor. Somehow, destiny was not in favour that I stay there and struggle, so that did not happen for me. But I started working with Lashkara channel in Chandigarh, which boosted my confidence as I found a job straight out of university.”

Vicky's first Punjabi film, Desh Hoyaa Pardes (2004), directed by Manoj Punj and starring Gurdas Mann and Juhi Chawla, had him appear in just about three scenes. But that did not bother the actor who has been firmly committed to his craft.

“I was always grateful that I found work in my home state and never felt that I will not work in a music video, or not do just a couple of scenes in a film. My focus has been that of an actor, where you will have stuff to do even in a music video, not just in scenes with dialogues, so I kept getting work. My focus never shifted from acting,” he explained.

By 2014, Vicky had featured in about 10 films and started gaining recognition. Then came his first brush with alternative or independent cinema in Gurvinder Singh’s Chauthi Koot (2016), a film set in the early 1980s, when Sikh militancy was on the rise.

Speaking about this veritable turning point in his career, Vicky said, “This kind of cinema is very close to reality and I am lucky that I got a film like Chauthi Koot, which was appreciated and won the National award and travelled to Cannes.” He expressed gratitude to the director for choosing to cast him as Joginder Singh.

But the difference between mainstream and alternative cinema does not really mean much to the down-to-earth actor, who is happiest when he gets to work on his craft. “My focus was clear, that I will work as an actor, and I never distinguished between commercial or parallel films,” said Vicky. So, he continued to work in mainstream films like Udta Punjab (2016), Super Singh (2017) and Kesari (2019) as well.

While Chauthi Koot took him to Cannes — the “Mecca and Medina for actors”, according to Vicky — it was also instrumental in bringing him the role that would catapult him to fame.

Speaking about the character of Ghalib in Meel Patthar, Vicky talked about the training he underwent to convincingly portray a truck driver with formidable experience in the field.

“I was narrated the role of a truck driver who has 25 or 30 years of experience in his profession," he said. "The truck is a part of his life and it was a challenge to portray that. [As students of the craft] we have learnt how to build your character and I was lucky that I got Balraj Panditji as my guru and mentor at the university. He had studied at the National School of Drama, although he hasn’t really got much fame. This, along with the study of acting techniques of [Konstantin] Stanislavski, [Bertolt] Brecht, etc stood me in good stead.”

Transforming himself into Ghalib mandated a certain focus and Vicky trained for two weeks, learning how to drive a truck from an ustad, Azhar, in NOIDA, Uttar Pradesh, studying and emulating his body language. “The initial days were spent just getting into the flow of things. Ustadji put me in my comfort zone and taught me with a lot of positivity.

"The truck [used in the film] was aged as it had to look old. Ivan was very particular about that, so the power steering, power brakes, etc were all removed and it would start only when you twisted the key with maximum effort and the same went for putting it in gear,” said Vicky, adding that the effort was well worth it in the end as praise for his performance has been pouring in from everywhere. Filmmaker Hansal Mehta too appreciated his performance and tweeted about the film, which has only sweetened the success.

Of the response to the film, Vicky said, “This [Meel Patthar] is not commercial cinema and is very different from the usual Punjabi films that are made but is being appreciated. Even people who are habituated to watching commercial cinema, even they have been appreciating and liking the film.”

Looking forward to working in all kinds of cinema in the future, the actor has a few Punjabi films lined up, including Kali Jotta starring Neeru Bajwa and Satinder Sartaaj, where he plays a character with negative shades. The shooting is currently on hold because of the pandemic.

“I started my career as a Punjabi actor and am representing my state, my language, which makes me really happy,” Suvinder Vicky said, expressing contentment with the way his career has progressed. For now, he is waiting to receive his Best Performer award, which, owing to the vagaries of procedure and the pandemic, is yet to reach him.