Anupam Kher: “I Am Voluntarily Unemployed After One Day: Justice Delivered”

 Director Ashok Nanda’s  One  Day: Justice Delivered  is  actor Anupam Kher’s  final assignment until he signs some more films.

“But  for now  I am unemployed , and happily so.After doing  over 500 films I need to sit back and look at what I’ve done. This is  the interval  of my career,” says  the indefatigable Anupam who started  his  career as a movie actor  with a bit role  in  Muzaffar Ali’s Aagaman, and has  never looked back.

 Glows  Anupam, “I am  proud  of  every single  film that I’ve done, and that includes those  films  for which I  was  severely pulled  up  . I won’t name them. But  we all  know which films I’ve been reprimanded  for. But they all  mean something important to me. Every  film of mine.”

Anupam  feels One Day: Justice Delivered makes an important statement on the  political situation of the country.   “It’s important  for  cinema to reflect  on  the  issues that occupy the nation’s mind. Cinema  can’t be all entertainment. It must also serve  the purpose  of  holding up a mirror to  the country’s socio-political reality.  One Day : Justice Delivered does that.”

Anupam sees  it as part of a movement  in  Indian cinema towards a more authentic political statement. The route  that was taken  decades ago by Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani and  Ketan Mehta is now  being taken by  filmmakers  like Neeraj Pandey, Anubhav Sinha  and now  Ashok Nanda.

The  film, I feel,  reminds us of  another  important  film in Anupam career.  Neeraj Pandey’s  A  Wednesday.

Anupam shoots down the parallel, “Would you say my Saaransh is  anything like Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Maara?Or is my Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge  like Haseena Maan Jayegi? One  Day: Justice Delivered has its own  narrative, its own destiny. I  am  curious to know how audiences  will react to it.  This film is  not like anything I’ve done in the past.”

The  motivational  actor has  recently been inducted as  an  honorary member  of  the Oscars committee. Speaking  of  the singular  honour he says, “Every time I am invited to be  a part  of  a group  that  includes the world’s  most  accomplished names, I feel reassured. I’ve  made the  right  choices in  life.”