Cinequest 2025 Review: I'M NOT AN ACTOR, A Long Distance Drama Unfolds
A man and a woman audition for a film; he from Frankfurt, Germany, her from Mumbai, India. He is a banker, she is a serious actor, but the only way they get the job is by working together over a series of intimate phone coaching sessions in Aditya Kripalani’s I’m Not an Actor (Main Actor Nahin Hoon).
Mouni (Chitrangada Satarupa) approaches the craft of acting earnestly. We meet her as she’s holding court in her own apartment, talking to her industry friends about the lack of international quality work available in Mumbai. She has starred in short films that have traveled the world, been featured in film festivals; she and her work have been laureled and celebrated globally. But damn, jobs are hard to find if you don’t want to get sucked into the mainstream machine.
Adnan (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) is a bank manager in Frankfurt, he left India long ago to follow his career. He’s been successful, but he is desperately in need of a creative outlet. Acting seems like just the thing to lift his spirits, so he goes on an audition. He is to play a therapist to an alcoholic woman who is resistant to help. She (Mouni) is in the moment, he is flustered.
I’m Not an Actor is Kripalani’s fifth feature film, and easily his most unusual. Over the course of the last eight years, he has made films that sometimes teeter dangerously close to being “message” movies, but with a kind of care for engagement that keeps them firmly in the realm of the entertainer. This latest project bucks that trend a bit, without an overwhelming social impetus behind its creation, I’m Not an Actor is allowed to breathe and spread its wings a bit in its own drama.
The relationship between Mouni and Adnan begins confrontationally. Mouni can’t believe she’s being saddled with this rank amateur, and Adnan genuinely wants to be good, but doesn’t exactly know how. They strike a deal where she’ll tutor him, but he must obey her commands – all via facetime – or she’s out. In the process, they discover things about each other and more importantly themselves that neither would ever divulge without a fight.
Kripalani’s camera is observational, never interjecting the director into the work, simply allowing the actors to present their situations to the viewer. Siddiqui’s performance as the amateur, Adnan, is phenomenal. He is one of India’s greatest talents, having performed in some of the country’s biggest international arthouse hits like The Lunchbox, Gangs of Wasseypur, Psycho Raman, and many others; it takes a great actor to make us believe him to be a nobody, and he nails it.
Satarupa has less international exposure, but fares equally well in her role as seasoned pro. Mouni portrays a vulnerability that complements Adnan’s directness beautifully. As Mouni embarks on this tutoring campaign, she slowly opens up to this man on the other side of the world, allowing herself to be seen in ways that she never thought she would.
More than simply a film reliant on an experimental structure to sell itself, I’m Not an Actor is also a compelling story about strangers who find themselves in an unexpectedly intimate relationship. Kripalani’s view of this kind of long-distance friendship is a healthy, realistic look at the complicated truth of really knowing another person. It’s messy, it’s chaotic, it can be dangerous, but it can also be more fulfilling than one might ever expect.
