The year 2022 is when the three Khans will return to the big screen after a near-terminal absence. But it is a raft of new actors, straddling industries, who will shine. Vicky Kaushal, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Taapsee Pannu, and Dulquer Salmaan will give us many moments of joy as we watch them perform onscreen, but there are four who will stand out if their track record in 2021 is anything to go by.
Raja of Screen
“Love me little little little,” he urges in a song in Aanand L. Rai’s Atrangi Re. Well anyone who has kept track of 38-year-old Dhanush K. Raja’s performances will love him a lot. For this actor who has already won two National Awards for Best Actor (Aadakulam, 2011 and Asuran, 2020) language is no barrier. Few have the confidence to rattle off a monologue about love entirely in Tamil without subtitles in a Hindi film and know they will be understood by everyone. The purity and transparency of his onscreen love defies logic and medicine, but then sometimes we need the fantasy of romance to see us through the darkness of our hard times.
At complete ease in front of the camera, Dhanush is an actor who is as quicksilver as he is malleable. With the ability to make music, write lyrics, dance with abandon, read intensively, and watch voraciously, he has only just begun his journey as an artiste. Rai says he has only displayed 20 per cent of his range. “He is a great mind and a true actor, emotional and intelligent. The camera is like God for him. He lives for his profession,” he says. And clearly whether it is the Russo Bros’ ambitious, global blockbuster-in-the-making The Gray Man or his full slate in Tamil—K. Selvaraghavan’s Naane Varuven, Karthick Naren’s D43, and Venky Atluri’s Tamil-Telugu bilingual Sir—he is all set to soar. Pan-Indian audiences who knew him only as the Kolaveri Di singer and the crazy lover from Rai’s 2013 hit Raanjhanaa will soon see more of him.
At Ease with Her Art
If all goes well, January will see her in SS Rajamouli’s RRR as Sita, the calm balance who holds the fire and water of NT Rama Rao Junior and Ram Charan in the palm of her character’s hand. In February, she will be at Berlinale with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s dark but spectacular Gangubai Kathiawadi. Two directors she actively sought out, the latter especially after Inshallah, a much-touted film with Salman Khan fell through. From her debut film, Student of the Year (2012), Alia Bhatt has wowed as the abducted poor little rich girl in Highway (2014), a traumatised addict in Udta Punjab (2016), a brave spy in Raazi (2018), and the maverick girlfriend in Gully Boy (2019). With her balance of art and commerce—Karan Johar’s Rocky and Rani ki Prem Kahani to her own production Darlings—the 28-year-old has shown she has the heart for hard work. With filmmakers such as Zoya Akhtar rooting for her (she has cast her in the all-girls road trip movie, Jee Le Zaraa, with Priyanka Chopra and Katrina Kaif), her own sense of business which has seen her invest in start-ups and a fine intellect she is constantly challenged to refine by a demanding father, she will keep surprising audiences.
The Hungry One
He can be loud and crass in a Rohit Shetty movie. He can be quiet and understated as Kapil Dev in Kabir Khan’s 83. Ranveer Singh was born to be a star and there is not a moment when he doesn’t seem grateful for the opportunity, whether it is posing cutely with wife Deepika Padukone on the red carpet or crying appropriately when recalling India’s 1983 World Cup win. At 36, Ranveer Singh has emerged as the first among equals in his generation, leaving behind Ranbir Kapoor with whom he is often confused. With every major filmmaker clamouring to cast him, whether it is Shetty (Cirkus), Karan Johar (Rocky aur Rani ki Prem Kahani), or Shankar (as-yet-untitled film), Ranveer Singh has shown that the hunger for appreciation, when matched with an appetite for hard work, can be an irresistible combination. Whether it is learning an accent for Alauddin Khalji in Padmaavat (2018) or praticising cricket for five months, five hours a day, for 83, filmmakers know they will get their money’s worth when they cast him. Plus, he will dance for free while promoting the film.
Young and Ambitious
She was put on a pedestal, she says, immediately after Kedarnath (2018) and Simmba (2018) and just as quickly taken off after Coolie No. 1 and Love Aaj Kal 2. It hurt because though Sara Ali Khan has a strong sense of who she is external to films, she wants to be loved by the media and her audiences. After Atrangi Re, she can rest assured. As Rinku, the traumatised young woman who falls in love with Vishu (Dhanush), she throws herself completely into the role. The leap of faith takes her and her audience on a journey of pain, grief and madness, but it is one that has you rooting for her completely. Not just that, the Ivy League graduate is stands out in an industry with cookie-cutter beauties. “My emotional language is Hindi,” she says. Her clothes are desi and her old-fashioned ada (style) is all her own. She may be merely five films old, and she is the first to admit she was “annoying” in Love Aaj Kal 2, but the 26-year-old who will be seen next with Vicky Kaushal in Laxman Utekar’s untitled film is truly unique. Add her knock-knock jokes and instant shayari, and here’s a talent for the ages.
The author is a senior journalist and former editor of India Today magazine. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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