In the year gone by, quite a few of the younger actors flexed their acting muscle. Whether the films were blockbusters or not is immaterial, what matters is the effort put in.
Deepa Gahlot picks the Top 10 male performances among theatre releases.
Vicky Kaushal, Chhaava
Vicky Kaushal is turning out to be a versatile actor, who is now a bona fide star.
In Laxman Utekar’s historical epic Chhaava, he played Maharashtra’s warrior-king Sambhaji Maharaj with great confidence, balancing the emotions and the physicality to bring the character alive.
Akshaye Khanna, Chhaava and Durandhar
Laden with prosthetics, Akshaye played Aurangzeb with a malevolence that made his character truly hateful.
The actor, who turned 50 this year, came up with yet another strong performance as ruthless gangster Rehman Dakait in Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar.
Ishaan Khattar. Homebound
Ishaan Khattar shed the shirt-dropping glamour of The Royals to play a simple Muslim village boy in Neeraj Ghaywan’s Homebound, who hoped to pull his family out of poverty, but faces humiliating discrimination.
Vishal Jethwa, Homebound
A breakthrough role for young Vishal Jethwa in Neeraj Ghaywan’s Homebound as a Dalit who wants to leave his caste identity behind and get the respect denied to the underprivileged.
Adarsh Gourav, Superboys Of Malegaon
In Reema Kagti’s Superboys of Malegaon, Adarsh Gourav played the real-life character of mofussil filmmaker Nasir Khan with remarkable empathy — from his dreamy-eyed ambition to make films to the anguish of losing his best friend.
Ahaan Panday, Saiyaara
In Mohit Suri’s old-fashioned romantic weepie, debutant Ahaan Panday made the role of the swaggering singer with a soft heart entirely believable and endearing.
Siddhant Chaturvedi, Dhadak 2
When Siddhant Chaturvedi got a role that demanded hard work, he excelled in Shazia Iqbal’s Dhadak 2, bringing out the initial hesitancy, and then the fury of being undermined for his caste, when he falls in love with an upper caste woman.
Rajkummar Rao, Bhool Chuk Maaf
Playing the hapless groom who lives the same pre-wedding day over and over again in Karan Sharma’s comedy, Rajkummar Rao brought out the character’s mounting desperation at being trapped in a nightmare.
Emraan Hashmi, Haq
Emraan Hashmi played a heartless husband, who fights his wife (Yami Gautam Dhar) in court to prevent her for getting a meagre child support, with a stunning ferocity, in Suparn S Verma’s Haq.
He also played a level-headed and courageous commando with equal intensity in Ground Zero.
Ranveer Singh, Dhurandhar
In a role that requires him to be mostly deadpan to preserve his undercover identity in Pakistan, Ranveer Singh still brought a powerful physicality to his role of a spy in Aditya Dhar’s film.
Photographs curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff
