In Gajendra Ahire’s The Signature, Anupam Kher plays an elderly man, whose life is turned upside down when his wife goes into a coma and is put on a ventilator. The film follows his struggles to secure money for her treatment from friends and relatives. The actor is not new to playing such roles. At the age of 29, he made his debut as an old man who comes to terms with the loss of his only son in Mahesh Bhatt’s Saaransh (1984). He says that at that time, he approached the role with a different sensibility. “I had done a good job because I was a theatre actor and my life depended on that one role. I knew that if I didn’t do well, I won’t get more work in films. It was that desperation that helped me do it,” he says.Now, 40 years later, he credits his life experiences as having taught him to better embody the emotions of an elderly person. “Life is more relatable now. I can understand how one must feel to have their wife on the ventilator as my wife Kiran is a cancer survivor,” says Anupam Kher, recounting how he also saw some of his friends overcome similar situations. “Because of that, I am able to understand the emotion better now.”In the film, Anupam’s character makes some poignant observations about age and how society treats the elderly. However, the actor is not as conscious of his age. “I stopped thinking about how old I am ever since I turned 38,” he says. Mahima Chaudhry, who plays the role of Anupam’s friend in the film, feels that her younger days in school are the ones that she remembers the most.
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