Bollywood Best Actor 2014: Non-Conventional Role

On the last day of 2014, we pick 5 of the best male performance of the year in non-conventional roles:

Shahid Kapoor (Haider): Shahid’s Haider was the most non-conventional lead hero of any commercial film of 2014. Part of the reason Haider is considered a cinematic masterpiece, is Shahid’s marvellous portrayal of the lead character. It is unbelievable how mature he has become with each passing role, and Haider seems to be at the top of the rung as far as performances go. Shahid goes from innocent to coy to a grieving son to a revengeful man to a mad revolutionist through the course of the movie. That journey itself is worth analysing.

Rajkumar Yadav (Citylights) – Rajkumar Yadav does things his way and does movies that make sense to him. He was great in Queen as Vijay but his best performance of the year came in the little film called Citylights (featuring the super hit song Muskurane Ki Wajah). He plays the role of a man who comes to Mumbai from a small village with high hopes of making it in the city of dreams. However, his world collapses in front of him because of his wrong choices. Rajkumar made the role and the string of events in the film believable through his method acting.

Randeep Hooda (Highway): Alia Bhatt may have stolen the limelight with her career-changing performance in this Imtiaz Ali directed film but that doesn’t change the fact that Highway wouldn’t have been half as good without Randeep’s Mahabir. The character first came across as an evil kidnapper, but when we got to know the back story and the stuff he had to go through as a child we start feeling sympathetic towards him and by the end of his time in the film we even shed a tear to two because of his demise. Hooda brought out that transformation deftly and showed his acting ability. His acting, his mannerisms, his posture were all in sync.

Sharib Hashmi (Filmistaan): Filmistaan was stuck in the pipeline for almost 2 years before seeing the light of day. We are thankful that it released, even if 2 years late, because we got to witness Sharib Hashmi’s fantastic acting. His performance in Filmistaan had shades of comedy, drama, and even a bit of action. He did win  hearts playing Sunny who is an Indian AD and gets kidnapped by terrorists near the Pakistan border in Rajasthan. Filmistaan, one of the best movies of 2014, deserves to be seen by one and all.

Sanjay Mishra (Ankhon Dekhi): Sanjay Mishra’s performance in Ankhon Dekhi and the film itself is easy to miss. It released without much fanfare and disappeared from theatres in a week. Mishra played the patriarch of a lower middle class family in Delhi looking over his joint family with his meagre income. However an incident occurs which changes the course of his life. Sanjay Mishra was coy, easy-to-like and mature in his portrayal of Bauji. This was one of the best performances of the year and credit must go to director Rajat Kapoor for casting someone like Sanjay Mishra in the lead role.