Way beyond okay, no, Kay Kay?

It takes a special sense of humour to make up a meaning for your name and keep changing it as and when The character Agastya Sen from the book English August used to do thatActor Kay Kay Menon I realise has been doing it for years Over a decade and half ago I think he told me his name Kay Kay was Hebrew for lsquovictoryrsquo On a recent chat show I heard him say itrsquos Chinese for lsquovictoryrsquo Decide bro I had to ask him againmdashno seriously what is Kay KayHe confessed itrsquos just a ldquomann gadhantrdquo selfimagined name for his initials KK as in Krishna Kumar Starting out as a movie actor hersquod even dropped Menon Hersquod hold long conversations with producers in chaste Hindi When they heard his Malayali surname theyrsquod ask ldquoOh but is your Hindi okayrdquoKay Kay gets his impeccable Hindi from childhood in Chandrapur thatrsquos in the Madhya Pradesh border his excellent command over English from his convent education in Pune His father was in a transferrable job essentially within MaharashtraAs Kay Kay hersquod initially be confused with singer Krishnnakumar Kunnath who also goes by KKmdashfielding concert queries landing up at an early morning radio show meant for the otherKK sang for Kay Kay on screen oncemdasha track called lsquoMein khudarsquo in Anurag Kashyaprsquos directorial debut Paanch What was the original title of Paanch Parasites They didnrsquot name it thus because In English so nobody would get it Maybe they shouldrsquove consulted a Korean numerologist for good luckPaanch a grungish noir set around a freakish rock band with Kay Kay as a hero with no redeeming features is as he describes it ldquothe most watched unreleased film everrdquoI tried to show Paanch at a film festival once There was a line outside the filmrsquos posters up at Delhirsquos Siri Fort Auditorium Despite constant assurance the producer didnrsquot deliver on his minor promise of passing on a copy lying with him in 2018 Canrsquot imagine what the crew may have been through in 2003Kay Kayrsquos debut as lead Bhopal Express 1999 held even greater promise If you consider that the feature brought together Indiarsquos top ad menmdashbrothers Prasoon and Piyush Pandey wrote it Mahesh Mathai directed it Hollywoodrsquos backstage Alisters of Indian origin Deepak Nayar and Tabrez Noorani produced it Who was the presenter David LynchBhopal Express perhaps didnrsquot globally travel as far as expected Kay Kay wouldrsquove been 33 then Itrsquos a lateish start after hersquod shut down his own ad firm in Dadar before joining Naseeruddin Shahrsquos Motley theatre group to pursue fulltime actingmdashhis original calling as it wereHis breakout moment on stage was as the father of the nationrsquos disgruntled son in Mahatma vs Gandhimdashnot particularly far from his role in the film Sarkar based on BalThackerayrsquos life ldquoYoursquore either an actor or yoursquore notrdquo selftaught Kay Kay tells me suggesting everyone is born with a skill or two Itrsquos our other desires that naturally take us away from it On his Twitter bio he calls himself ldquoA simulatorhellip commonly called an actorrdquoWhich expresses his point about acting being makebelieve ldquoabout making it believablerdquomdashrather than fantastical or realistic He also considers performance in theatre and cinema as distinct In theatre he says the actors reach out to the audience In film itrsquos the reverse given camera and other toolsKay Kay also doesnrsquot consider himself a ldquodialoguebaazrdquo actor His most watched YouTube clips still are monologues from Shaurya adapted without credit from A Few Good Men and Gulaal where he spontaneously came up with the iconic line ldquoJack amp Jillhellip Maa ka brdquo Therersquos a centeredness and stoicism to Kay Kayrsquos worldview which yoursquoll find consistent over two decades Thatrsquos rare When he chose acting as a career he laid down personal rulesmdashthat he wouldnrsquot walk with a background score or carry paps around Kay Kay has an MBA in marketingOf course showbiz works on its showiness and businessgame of theatrical releases OTTs have punctured both leveling the fieldmdashgiving the public a direct button to decide on picturespeople they like Kay Kayrsquos latest release Ray 2021 would instantly premiere in 190 countries through Netflix Few wouldrsquove watched his undervalued The Ghazi Attack 2017 for showbiz constraints alone A lifestyle choice to steer away from stardom frills may be a reason the tall dark sharply built as a blade Kay Kay is often deemed an ldquounderrated actorrdquoObviously thatrsquos untrue Look up his filmographymdashHazaaron Khwaishein Aisi Black Friday Haider Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd Life in a MetrohellipHe made his web debut with the highoctane thriller series Special Ops 2020 Lately he jokes ldquoThe young lot look at me on screen and say hmmm I think you have great potentialrdquoWhatrsquos that one underwatched movie they should thereafter discover For his performance alone Irsquod say The Stoneman Murders For a film he suggests ldquoThe crazy man late Pankaj Advanirsquos Sankat Citymdashthat was a tribute to rsquo80s tacky cinemardquoMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper