With 3 idiots breaking box office records left right and centre bollywood must be having a sigh of relief. A year in which barely 5 films managed successful business it has come as a god’s gift for new year .Though 2009 does not have many hits to boast about it still had some fine films with exemplary performances.Some of the performances which deserve a mention but donot feature in my list are Farhan Akhtar (Luck by Chance), Amol Gupte (Kaminey), Aamir Khan (3 Idiots) and K K Menon (Sankat city).
While evaluating the performance the 3 important criterias were
a) Improvisation role required
b) Pushing the envelope
c) Catch/Hold viewers attention.
Below is my list of top 5 performances (male).
5) Ranbir Kapoor (WUS,APKGK,RS-SOTY)- Ranbir kapoor was the surprise package of the year. He took huge strides with his every new release and excelled every time. Whether it was a carefree college kid in WUS or upright Sikh lad of RS he just gave breezing performances. His performances reflected his understanding of acting as a medium and what depth he can offer. Add to it his great looks and dancing skills what you get is a true blue superstar. No wonder every producer is eager to sign him and I am more than convinced that he is here to stay.
4)Boman Irani(3 Idiots)-what an actor. You give him any role and he is bound to excel. 3 idiots is no exception. His portrayal of a nerdy director of ICE in 3 idiots is just fantastic. His mannerism ,his gait, his stance ,his speech everything had a no nonsense approach of a strict head of a premier institute. His outburst when he confronts Aamir about why astronauts donot use pencil in space and why Aamir can not be right always will make everybody empathise with him. You feel how much his ego has hurt in accepting defeat. His performance should win him many awards in supporting role category next year.
3)Abhay Deol(Dev D)- Youngest of the Deol khandan and the brightest of them all. He has been excellent in choosing his films and have done some outstanding work previously. Most of his films have been with newcomers and more often than not he has delivered on his fans expectation. Inspite of doing films like OLLO,Manorama and Such Na Tha success always eluded him. He finally tasted success in form of Dev D.The icing on the cake was his career best performance of a dejected and self destructive lover. His eyes wreathed the passion and anger he has for his love. His performance was so captivating that it actually made one feel his disgust and pain. As self destroying lover who has surrendered himself to alcohol and drugs he raised so much sympathy that your heart went out for him everytime he appeared on the screen. A fantastic performance from a gifted artist.
2)Shahid Kapoor (Kaminey)- Shahid Kapoor beautifully enacted the role of twins in this Vishal Bhardwaj ode to Tarantino and Scorsese. One brother who stammers and other who lisps was just a brilliant idea and Shahid performance gave it a new dimension. Shahid who before this was known for the portrayal of lover boy/guy next door reinvented himself and gave what I believe is career defining performance. This role required lot of preparation and hard work and it showsed on the screen. He performed both roles of Sidhu and Charlie with élan and came out trumps. This movie will surely give him lot of confidence as an actor and should make him scale new heights in coming days.
1)Amitabh Bachchan(Paa)- How far do you go to satisfy your hunger for good role How much bar can be raised to set new benchmarks. There is no limit if you happen to be one Mr.Amitabh Bachchan .There is no need for him to charter such difficult path of enacting a role of 13 year old boy suffering from progeria when he already has such phenomenal body of work as a testimony to his excellence. But then geniuses are not called geniuses for nothing. He just did not gave a truly out of the world performance in Paa. But actually made lesser mortals like us feel blessed. It’s no less than a blessing to be able to see Amitabh Bachchan delivering performance of Lifetime. The beauty of the performance was that it made you forget Amitabh we are used to watching on silver screen. There was no AB but only Auro. If his wittiness floored you , his death scene left lump in your throat. You take out Auro form Paa and you are left with a very ordinary movie. That’s the power of his performance. Take a bow Mr.Bachchan you are the “baap of bollywood”.
topazbol
