At a time when long conversations — on topics ranging from politics and films to modern relationships — have become skippable like ads on a YouTube video, veteran anchor Irfan has been attempting to retrieve the long-gone age of ‘Guftagoo’

Kartik Chauhan

NEW DELHI: From a distance, a mountain can seem like an unremarkable mound of earth. It is only from its foot that we can see its arduous trails that follow dense foliage, curve around narrow bends…; to climb the mountain is humbling. Such is also the effect of a long conversation with another person. In talking to someone at length, we commit ourselves to them, and become part of their life too. Their seemingly flat appearance is modified by the stories of their pasts, not only the ones they have lived in this life, but also the ones they have inherited. In the words of Syed Mohd Irfan, “Har zinda aadmi apne saath ek itihaas lekar chal raha hai [Every living person carries a rich history with(in) themselves].”

With over 35 years of experience as a media and communications professional, Irfan is one of the last bastions of the art and style of the long-form interview. Irfan’s ‘Guftagoo’ (2011), broadcast on Rajya Sabha TV (RSTV) — it closed down in 2021 — had a wide audience, and has been a benchmark in how to conduct conversations.

From actors Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Konkona Sen Sharma and Manoj Bajpayee to politician Mani Shankar Aiyar, athlete Milkha Singh and lyricist-director Gulzar, on this programme, he has interviewed some of the most iconic names in contemporary Indian history. “‘Guftagoo’ enabled me to decommodify celebrities. I tried to trace the real human beings and their struggles behind their celebrityhood,” says the veteran anchor.

Listening and its challenges

‘Guftagoo’ began as a 30-minute segment on RSTV. Some of its best episodes ran up to four to five hours; almost all the episodes are now available on YouTube. Gulzar said about his conversation on ‘Guftagoo’ that he had never talked about poetry as he did with its host. What is Irfan doing that other chat-show hosts are not? He listens. “When you’re open to listening to people, it makes you a different person. There’s a willingness to understand people’s circumstances, memories, histories and cultures,” he says. About what it takes to be a listener in a world of talkers, he says: “You need to have a certain humility and curiosity.”

External Links, University of Boras, Sweden

Listen with Irfan | Apple Podcasts

Irfan grew up in Gurma Markundi (Ref The Seen and the Unseen Podcast Epi-368), a mining town in Uttar Pradesh. Here he was exposed to the mix of many languages, cultures and ideas. This backdrop “empowered” him, he says, and convinced him that he was “not alone in this world and that there are certain cultural components which are responsible for other people’s [mental] makeup”.

Informed by this conditioning, his conversations tend to be meditative. Like a miniaturist, he works on the fine details of his interviewee’s lives, reclaiming from their commercialised representations the complicated ingredients of their human condition. “‘Guftagoo’ is appreciated because it chronicles human efforts and endeavours. That nothing has happened because of ittefaq or sanyog (coincidence); rather that each individual has paved their own way, by laying brick by brick on their path,” he says. After RSTV, Irfan tried to resurrect ‘Guftagoo’ on the Rekhta platform, where he worked for about a year during the pandemic. But he left because of creative differences and conflicting priorities.

Has unhurried conversation as an art form become archaic, given the shockingly low attention spans we have? Irfan disagrees. “More than a dozen people working on the form are in currency even today. It has proven rather that attention spans may have reduced, but if you offer [the listeners] a long-form, relaxed, exploratory format of conversation, it will fulfil certain needs of people who want to explore the lives of other eminent people.”

About truth-telling

Beyond Irfan’s assertion, however, there are realities that cannot be ignored. With over 65% of its population under the age of 35, India’s youth seem to be accepting ideas and ideologies without reasonable interrogation. The consequence of the decline of long-form conversations and dialogues perhaps. Irfan suggests that the politics of a nation is intrinsically tied to its interpersonal relations.

Listening to respond quickly rather than understanding has indeed become the norm. Long conversations—on politics to modern relationships—have become skippable, like ads on a YouTube video. It is easy to see Irfan as a bridge between the long gone ‘age of innocence’ and the current times. “Lots of problems can be solved by simply listening to people,” he says. “Many a time people are not being allowed to speak their truths. Or their truths are taken out of context to pander to certain agendas and ideologies… Unless we present long-form conversations as they are, the room for manipulation and misrepresentation will always be open.”

Keeper of memories

In 2021, Irfan started an archival project called Memorywala, a series of long conversations with unknown people about their everyday lives. He sums up his last few years as a presenter and host of one of the longest running chat-shows, ‘Guftagoo’, in these words: “The space and promotion for the art, culture and bonhomie central to ‘Guftagoo’ has shrunk. Platforms are no longer interested in investing in terms of money… which is why I started Memorywala. For instance, I have recorded the life of MK Bhargava, the founder and chairman of Kumar Printers in Manesar, who came from humble beginnings and has now built a printing empire, Ajay Kumar, a roadside sign board/hoardings writer, Veera Chaturvedi, a retired school principal from a small town in Madhya Pradesh, and Purushottam Bhatt, a singer and a former bank employee, among others.”

Listen with Irfan | Spotify

He also continues to engage with the art of the long-form by conducting masterclasses on voice coaching. Recently he has also been a master of ceremonies and compère, lending his remarkable, booming voice to events. Irfan continues to believe in our interconnections. He leaves us with encouraging words, to keep the dialogue or the Guftagoo flowing and the debates continuous. Divisiveness, he says, “should be a matter of confrontation. It should be problematized. Two different people can live and must live together with decency, and if possible, harmony”. In other words, to just talk it out.

Kartik Chauhan is a Delhi based reviewer of literary fiction. 
He also writes on popular culture.