The year 2018 belonged to actors who helped bring quality content alive on the celluloid. Artistes like Ayushmann Khurrana, Vicky Kaushal and Pankaj Tripathi helped further spread the movie magic with their talent and honest portrayals of varied characters.
The year 2018 has been great for Bollywood, be it in terms of business or with regard to content. Right from January, thanks to Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone’s Padmaavat, to the Ayushmann Khurrana starrer Badhaai Ho in October; it has been a remarkable year for the Hindi film industry. And while a lot of things come together to make a film successful, one of the primary selling points of a movie are the actors. Here are some of the actors who stood out with their performances.
Vicky Kaushal
How can you even think of making a listicle of best actors of 2018 and not include Vicky Kaushal’s name in it? From doing Netflix’s Lust Stories and Love Per Square Foot, to making his presence felt with the Alia Bhatt film Raazi, Vicky has been hard to ignore. And then he rounded off the year with Rajkumar Hirani’s Sanju and Anurag Kashyap’s Manmarziyaan.
In Raazi, which was predominantly an Alia film, Vicky made the audience sit up and notice his charming, sweet and jazz-loving army man Iqbal Syed. In Sanju, the actor played the best friend of Sanjay Dutt, Kamli, who was ready to give up everything for his close friend. Vicky has been able to hold his own in a variety of roles; be it the impulsive and responsibility-shirking Vicky Sandhu of Manmarziyaan, or the unaware and naive Paras of Karan Johar’s Lust Stories.
Ayushmann Khurrana
Following Vicky close on the heels is, of course, the one and only ‘Dilli da munda’ Ayushmann Khurrana, who has dominated the box office with two back-to-back successful and content-driven films Badhaai Ho and Andhadhun. While in Sriram Raghavan’s Andhadhun, Ayushmann aced the act of a blind pianist who is caught in the midst of a murder; in the family dramedy Badhaai Ho, the actor was back doing what he does best– play the imperfect young man from Delhi who is in equal parts devoted and amused by his family.
Rajkummar Rao
Rajkummar Rao had a fabulous 2017 and his success streak continued well into 2018, owing to films like Stree and Love Sonia. Of course, he also gave the audience Fanney Khan and Omerta. While the last two films might not have raked in the moolah, one cannot take anything away from Rajkummar’s performance. Saying that Rajkummar immerses himself completely in everything he does reads like old news now.
Manoj Bajpayee
Manoj Bajpayee did a total of six films in 2018 alone – Aiyaary, Baaghi 2, Missing, Satyameva Jayate, Gali Guleiyan and Love Sonia. That alone in this day and age is a commendable feat in itself, but he raised the bar with his variety of roles. While Baaghi 2 and Satyameva Jayate were box office hits; Gali Guleiyan and Love Sonia showed us the true calibre of Manoj as an actor. In Gali Guleiyan especially, Manoj saved the day as Khuddoos, who is trapped not only physically, but psychologically as well in the recesses of his own mind.
Irrfan Khan
Irrfan had two releases this year – Blackmail and Karwaan; both films as different as chalk and cheese. While Blackmail was a thriller, Karwaan, which also featured Bollywood newbies Dulquer Salmaan and Mithila Palkar, was a dramedy. Despite a talented cast, Karwaan survived for as long as it did thanks to Irrfan, both in terms of box office and with respect to the narrative. The lighter moments of Karwaan were the ones that lifted the movie from the depths of boredom.
Ranbir Kapoor
Ranbir Kapoor only appeared in Rajkumar Hirani’s blockbuster Sanju in 2018 but that was enough. Though the film and the filmmaker may have had to face ridicule for attempting to whitewash Sanjay Dutt’s image in the biopic, the performances of the cast was appreciated by the audience as well as critics. From sheer physicality to ‘being’ Sanjay Dutt to embodying the nuances of the film star, Ranbir really pushed the envelope for himself and for the movie as a whole.
Ranveer Singh
After courting numerous controversies, Padmaavat finally made it to the big screen, delayed though it may have been. The Sanjay Leela Bhansali directorial broke box office records like no one’s business as it raked in Rs 302.15 crore. One thing viewers couldn’t stop raving about was Ranveer’s portrayal of Alauddin Khalji and that he stole the show.
– Courtesy: The Indian Express
