Irrfan Khan death: The forgotten 1999 football film which launched late film icon's career

Bollywood actor Irrfan Khan tragically passed away on Wednesday at the Kokilaben Ambani Hospital in Mumbai. The actor, aged 53, was battling a colon infection. Throughout his Bollywood career, Irrfan Khan starred in many critically-acclaimed films including the 2012 biographical sports drama Paan Singh Tomar. He shared a close bond with sports during his acting career as he also acted in a movie based on Indian football titled ‘The Goal’, which was released in 1999.

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Irrfan Khan movies: Revisiting Bollywood’s forgotten gem

Released in 1999, The Goal has been a recipient of several national and international film awards. It bagged the honour of the Best Children’s Film at the 47th National Film awards in 2000. A year later, it also won a Special International Jury Prize at the 11th Cairo International Film Festival in Egypt.

Among many Bollywood film critics and experts, The Goal is also widely recognised for popularising Irrfan Khan in the film industry. Even though the actor debuted in 1988 with Salaam Bombay, The Goal is pretty much what launched Irrfan Khan in Bollywood, according to experts.

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Irrfan Khan movies: Premise of The Goal (Spoiler Free)

The movie tackles the problem of caste discrimination. Irrfan Khan, who plays Anupam Singh, is a football coach who breaks all caste-based barriers in the movie to help a talented and young footballer Manu to play the game. The plot revolves around the characters of Anupam Singh and the kid Manu and how the former underlines the importance of football by phasing through all hurdles and boundaries in life.

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Irrfan Khan movies: The Goal, watch here

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Irrfan Khan movies: Angrezi Medium, The Lunchbox and more

Since his acting debut, Irrfan Khan has appeared in several critically and commercially successful films like Paan Singh Tomar (2012), The Lunchbox (2013), Haider (2014), Piku (2015) and Hindi Medium (2017). Some other Irrfan Khan movies also included his appearance in several Hollywood blockbusters like Jurassic World (2015), The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) and Life of Pi (2012). His most recent appearance was the 2020 comedy-drama film Angrezi Medium, which was released on March 13.

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