Anushka Sharma’s Finest Performances

Anushka Sharma  comes from an army background; she spent her childhood moving from city to city with her army-man father. Cricket and Anushka Sharma go back a long way. Her brother was a state-level cricket player.Anushka Sharma was a top-notch model in Bangalore before she moved to Mumbai and Bollywood to try her luck. Within one year she got Yashraj Films’ Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi.

 Not too many know this but Anushka’s Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi was inspired by Satyajit Ray’s Apur Sansar.Anushka was a big Shah Rukh Khan fan much before she did her first film. At age 3 she had danced at a family function to the song ‘Kitaaben Bahot Si Padhi Hogi Tumne’ from Baazigar.

Anushka Sharma is the only actress to be directed by both father Yash and son Aditya Chopra in Jab Tak Hai Jaan and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. Only Shah Rukh Khan had that privilege before her.

During the shooting of her second film Band Baaja Baaraat Anushka constantly had heated arguments with her co-star Ranveer Singh about the approach to their scenes. She’s a one-take actor. He is a method actor. They couldn’t see eye to eye.Anushka Sharma played  a jazz crooner in  Bombay Velvet. She got  to do a  jazz version of Geeta Dutt’s ‘Jata Kahan Hai Deewane’ .

But it was  Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi(2008)  which connected her  to the mighty Satyajit Ray In her  very first film this  natural-born scenestealer  proved herself a formidable co-star to Shah Rukh Khan. In a homage  to Satyajit Ray’s  Apur Sansar , Anushka plays Taani  a newly-married wife whose husband-to-be  dies in a road accident, leaving  her in the hands  of the poor  boring  Surinder. Taani    finds her  accidental husband too dull and unexciting and gets attracted to his contrasting lookalike. Even though Shah Rukh in two roles was here there and everywhere  Anushka as  his headstrong ‘bitter’half   held her own. Shah Rukh was right when he said we couldn’t tell this  was  her first film. Anushka’s super self-confidence was  her greatest asset from the the outset.

  With just three films Anushka Sharma had grown into one of the most watchable and eloquent contemporary actresses. To the role of the spirited Shruti  in  Band  Baaja Baaraat(2010), Anushka adds the kind of spice that one associates with Kajol and Rani Mukherjee. In two key sequences with Ranveer Singh where she conceals her true feelings and much later lets them all out in a tumble of smirking hurt,  Anushka blows the screen apart.Her  ability to  own  every frame was the name of her fame.

  In    NH10(2015)  Anushka Sharma has a ‘wail’ of a time sinking her teeth into a part that gives her a chance to play the hero without losing her femininity. She is in walloping good shape here specially in her outburst scenes when she climbs a rocky mountain to escape her tormentors , or her scream of bloodcurdling protest after her husband’s death. During the film’s stunning playing-time when Anushka’s Meera desperately seeks help from cops and civilians  Anushka is a  bloodcurdling fireball of  nervous energy.At the  climax when she  fights and  conquers  her  enemies , she is every bit the credible  hero.

  Anushka is the first Salman Khan  co-star since Madhuri Dixit  who didn’t seem overwhelmed by his presence in Sultan(2016). Yup, she gives him tit for tat, wit for wack, with such nifty nonchalance that we are soon rooting for them as a couple.Apparently  Kangana Ranaut had  said no  to Sultan  because  she felt the heroine had nothing much  to do. How wrong she was! What  an actor  makes  of  a role is  entirely  up to her.Anushka proved  it.

Karan Johar’s Ae Dil hai Mushkil(ADHM) is  funny, warm, cute,and tender, though plot-wise extremely slender. Not unlike the beauteous Ms Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s figure.  But then, enticing offers come in svelte packages. And this one is one helluva goodlooking film with locations to match and songs that seem to play whenever the directors heart bursts with the joy of unfathomable love. And that happens with irresistible frequency in this frothy ode to that thing called love.Perhaps lacking in substantial character motivation and plot , but making up for these losses with its visual vitality and seductive way of expressing love which is part poetry and part bumper-sticker wisdom, ADHM is a chic love saga, far more confidently directed by Johar than his other film Kabhi Alvidaa Na Kehna.Anushka  gives the role of the  quirky Alizeh a dizzying spin from swoon to  doom.

  For Anushka Sharma Pari(2017)  is the career-defying role that she can brag  about to her  daughter. She sinks her soul into her traumatized role with a sighing innocence. Her Rukhsana bleeds and  bleeds not just from the nose lips and eyes. The wounds  run deep.This is a severely traumatized woman battling the sinner within that  challenges the angel that she could have been if fate hadn’t willed  a satanic karma  for her. In many sequences, Anushka undergoes severe physical humiliation and trauma.She rises to the occasion, sometimes  literally as her  Rukshana  climbs building sides like  a ghetto Catwoman. Anushka’s imploring eyes beseeching us to understand that those who are pulled into diabolism are  often victims of  circumstances beyond their control, will stay with us forever.