From Pavail Gulati in Faadu: A Love Story to Preet Kamani in Middle Class Love, performances you may have missed in 2022

There is a tendency in our country to run in the same direction that the majority are seen running in. In the rush hour stampede we sometimes miss some real landmarks. Like these performances.

Pavail Gulati in Faadu A Love Story: Pavail Gulati plays Abhay Dubey a dreamer and schemer who writes the script for his own downfall, with a casual intensity refraining from over-punctuating any of the character’s blind spots. Gulati is brilliant in this underrated webseries. He was also the best thing in Vikas Behl’s Goodbye as Mr Bachchan’s son who didn’t know how to show the emotions required of him after his mother’s death. Gulati knows exactly how to show which emotions, and when.

Shreya Dhanwanthary in Chup: The Revenge Of The Artist: How does Balki think of such unconventional casting? Shreya Dhanwanthary as Nila Menon an entertainment journalist who is crazy about cinema , Guru Dutt and her bylines (not necessarily in that order) has so much to give to the camera. It takes a Balki to recognize true talent. The central romance between the florist Danny(Dulquer Salman) and an entertainment journalist Nila had me enthralled. The way the romance grows through Sachin Dev Burman’s timeless songs from Guru Dutt’s cinema ,especially Jaane kya tuney kahi in Pyasa and Waqt ne kiya kya haseen situm in Kagaz Ke Phool , the way Danny cycles through miles of Mumbai’s bustling roads to meet Nila, the way she responds every time he looks at her….this is the most romantic lilting liaison I’ve seen in a long time. Shreya needs to be seen a lot more.

Preet Kamani in Middle Class Love: Yudi Sharma in Middle Class Love (damn that title!) will remind you of Sanju Lal in Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar . The shallowness of the life that he craves to live—partying, boozing, networking, dating— is carved into the screenplay with confident strokes. Standing tall in the rubble of half-formed aspirations is Preet Kamani as the enfant terrible of the Sharma Family, the bane of his father’s existence. From the self-centred superficialities of his existence initially to his rather sudden change of heart and reform in the second-half, Kamani displays the potential to be the Next Big Thing. What is the talent-starved film industry waiting for?

Vihaan Samaat in Eternally Confused & Eager For Love: Our socially awkward 20-something protagonist is played with a liberating transparency by Vihaan Samat who has done some negligible parts in the past.Eternally Confused…. Samat’s actual beginning as an actor. He is a natural born choice to play the muddled boy-child.

Richa Meena in Chhello The Last Show: Playing the 9-year old protagonist Samay’s elegant mother Richa Meena proved a woman needn’t live in a metropolitan city to be sophisticated. Nor is a formal education a must to be enlightened. Her chic rural appearance and her culinary aesthetics were beyond dazzling. The sequences featuring Samay’s mother(Richa Meena) poring over the cooking are the highlight of the film. As she kneads, cuts, fries, boils, steams and cooks with an array of spices and vegetables, the ritual of cooking becomes a metaphor for the diversity in the making of cinema.This a mother like no other.

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based journalist. He has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out.

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