Anushka in NH10, Priyanka in Bajirao Mastani: 2015’s most impressive performances

While the focus during the year was on box office, attention-grabbing characters, and performances to match , several A-list actors managed to create a space for memorable characters. Here are 10 male and female performances that stood out this year:

1. Priyanka Chopra in Bajirao Mastani

She was not Mastani. But she was Bajirao’s legally wedded wife bringing to her austere part glory and strength that went beyond what was prescribed by the script. After a hammy performance earlier during the year in Dil Dhadakne Do, Priyanka redeemed herself with this one.

2. Vikram in I

Though this was a dubbed Tamil film, its a telling take on The Beauty & The Beast and the film also saw a startling physical transformation in its lead actor. Vikram went from a healthy love-struck Romeo to a dying and deformed victim right in front of our eyes. A performance so universal in its tragegy, the spoken language ceased to matter.

3. Deepika Padukone in Tamasha

Playing a women who gets attached to an unnamed fling during a holiday, Deepika brought a train of conflicting emotions to her character in Tamasha, realising that love can be quite a bitch. The sequence where she pretends to run into Ranbir Kapoor after several years of search was incredibly performed. Sheer mastery over the medium.

4. Akshay Kumar in Baby

Easily a show-topper, Akshay was the epitome of heroism as a counter-terrorist in a global search in Baby. The action scenes were done with subtle flair and the tenderness he brought to his scenes were proof of his magnificent maturity as an actor.

5. Vidya Balan in Hamari Adhuri Kahani

The film didn’t work, but as a woman struggling to keep alive a dead marriage by stifling her feelings for another man, Vidya’s performance was a miracle of emotive abundance. Sometimes we forget to honour a performance just because we don’t like the film. On the other hand we often praise everything blindly in a film that we like.

6. Varun Dhawan in Badlapur

For a boy-man who has lived a sheltered life unexposed to any tragedy, to playing a 40-year old, suffering the murder of his family, was no small achievement. Quite a triumph, Varun. Take a bow.

7. Kangna Ranaut in Tanu Weds Manu Returns

Taking on a double role, Kangna Ranaut created two distinct characters in Tanu Weds Manu Returns, not similar to one another in any detail. She was spot-on with her Haryanvi dialect as the athletic Datto. Even the teeth of the two characters was different. This is one of the best dual roles ever attempted in a Hindi film, almost like two different actresses playing the two characters.

8. Ayushman Khurrana in Dum Lagake Haisha

He fitted into his character of the pitiable Mr Nobody so effectively one couldn’t see Ayushmann on screen. One only saw Prem the surly Kumar Sanu fan in Dum Laga Ke Haisha.

9. Anushka Sharma in NH10

She was actually the hero of this brutal vendetta tale. She dragged her husband’s killers out of their lair and beat them at their own game. Anushka did a Salman Khan/Akshay Kumar with confidence.

10. Ranveer Singh in Bajirao Mastani

Singh is King.