He later came out with a riveting performance in Naseerdin Shah’s Yun Hota tho Kya Hota… This was followed by an equally impressive role, as a Pakistani investigating officer, in Michael Winterbottom’s Mighty Heart.

Irfan’s latest release is Wes Anderson’s Darjeeling Limited, a comedy on brotherly bonding shot entirely in India. In this film, he plays a small role but his performance has come in for rave reviews from the critics in Britain who have said that only Irfan’s performance rings true in this shambolic odyssey. He has beaten his co-stars Adrian Brody, Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman to this praise from the usually critical British press. When questioned about having accepted such a small role, Irfan had this to say: “Even an actor of Bill Murray’s stature has a walk-on part in ‘Darjeeling Limited’. So, I see no reason for the audiences or me to feel let down. I did it with my eyes open. I wanted to work with director Wes Anderson ever since I saw his earlier comedy ‘Rushmore’.” That says a lot about an actor’s commitment to good work.