Subhash K Jha Picks His Favourite Performances Of 2018

1.     Gajraj Rao in  Badhaai Ho:  A special award  for the one who thought of signing this  relatively unknown ‘invisible actor’ for the  role of a smalltime ticket collector in Delhi  who suddenly finds himself in the vortex of a  virility victory. Gajraj made  his character Jeetender  Kaushik invisible in  the way Sanjeev Kumar always  did.Gajraj disappeared into his character.All we saw was a  man of great dignity forced into an undignified  situation.

2.     Tabu in Andha Dhun:  If you are a Tabu fan—and who isn’t?—it’s easy to see  how complex her roles are getting. This is Tabu’s third negative role in recent times after Haidar and Fitoor. In Andha Dhun she has killed her husband and  doesn’t mind killing again. In short, Tabu kills it.

3.     Soham Shah in  Tumbadd: What’s it about this  actor that makes him slip into every character  with such consummate finality you fear he will never come out of it? In the timeless Tumbadd he  was  the avaricious Vinayak who befriends monstrous creatures to satiate  his appetite for gold.Shah was so  ripely debauched without overdoing it. Brilliance doesn’t come in flashy packages only.What say, Ranveer?

4.     Bhumi Pednekar  in  Lust Stories: Playing the house help she  was  to the script what  Yalitza Aparicio is in  Alfonso Curon’s highly regarded Roma.As  the house help  Bhumi was  required to say  nothing, simply serve. And boy, does she serve Neil Bhoopalan in an opening love-making sequence where she  shows she is fearless before the camera.Full blooded , robust, uninhibited.

5.     Jim Sarbh  in Padmaavat: Torn between loyalty and lust, sexual desire and aviperish viciousness Jim Sarbh’s   Malik  Kafur, slave and lover to Allauddin Khilji  was  simply the most layered character  in this sprawling saga of valour and bravado.Sarbha brought an extraordinary sadistic   meanness  to his transgender’s  role. More  unique than eunuch,you wouldn’t want  to  meet this despicably immoral man in a dark gully. He will  slit your throat and then do worse.