From a passionate lover in Dil Maange More to a daring soldier in Rangoon, here's looking at some highly underrated Shahid Kapoor films and performances as the star turns 39.
Shahid Kapoor/Picture Courtesy: YouTube
Shahid Kapoor has been acting in films for the last 17 years, but tryst with its functioning happened even before. He was a part of Shiamak Davar's dance troupe and was also seen and spotted much later by fans in films like Dil To Pagal Hai and Taal. In 2003, he made his debut with the dance film, Ishq Vishk, and there couldn't have been a more appropriate beginning of his career.
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Coupled with what the industry and the trade call the chocolate-boy looks, and some impeccable dancing skills, he was here to stay and stay for long. In an interview last year, while talking about the historic success of the widely polarised Kabir Singh, he said he has given more flops than hits, and it was disappointing to hear it because his film choices may have faltered, but never deserved to be dismissed as scathingly they were.
In another interview back in 2013, he spoke how he has been a little unlucky and there were a lot of things that could've gone his way but didn't. Had luck been more on his side, a lot of his films would have been and could have been successes. Especially these five:
1. Dil Maange More (2004)
It came after a charming debut (Ishq Vishk) and a crooked thriller (Fida). The failure of Fida could have compelled the makers to cash in on his chocolate-boy looks and give him not one or two but three actresses to woo and romance. And what better title than Dil Maange More? Kapoor had the innocence of a hapless and passionate lover and was sincere in a harmless and heartfelt love quadrangle. It had that one thing that's not very often seen in movies today- Niceness!
2. Shikhar (2005)
When was the last Bollywood film you saw that didn't have a message tucked beneath its narrative? A farcical entertainer is termed as frivolous and gazed with frustration in today's critical times. But back in 2005, when the social media sensation was far from dominating our opinions, eyes and fingers, came a film that had everything you need in a film today. It tackled the issue of greed and lust for power and how a man's naïveté is used for his own destruction. Kapoor was that man, pitied against the shrewd and sly Ajay Devgn. It wasn't the kind of face-off we saw in War or Singham, this was a battle very personal. It was a clash of remorselessness and repentance. Shikhar is a film that cannot go wrong in 2020!
3. Mausam (2011)
Father Pankaj Kapur made a larger-than-life romance with his son that spanned over the years. It started from the heartlands of Punjab, moved to the lusciousness of Scotland, and ended in the horrific riots of Ahemdabad, although Harry, the character Kapoor essayed, didn't have a traumatic end. Kapoor played a feisty young boy who dreams of joining the Indian Air Force. His comic timing was spot-on, and so were his boyish looks that the filmmaker put to good use. But the actor also played a righteous Air Force Officer, channelling his intense and quaint side to give the film its timelessness. It didn't connect with the viewers. Maybe Kapoor's transformation seemed too abrupt and early, which may have led them to the disconnect with his love story, but Mausam had an earnestness in its storytelling, and Kapur mounted the film as breathtakingly as he could. And Shahid Kapoor also did all he could.
4. Phata Poster Nikhla Hero (2013)
There's something really entertaining about watching slapstick entertainers that don't take themselves seriously. All they wish is the audience has a good time. The kind of films where the director and the actor rely more on the actors and their performances over the story are actually the most difficult to make and mount. Rajkumar Santoshi's Phata Poster Nikhla Hero was one such film. It was a pleasing and relaxing film about an aspiring actor whose mother wants him to be a police officer. It had some fantastic gags, like that terrific Salman Khan cameo, or Shahid Kapoor's endless requests to a filmmaker to give him a chance in his film. Santoshi brought back the innocuous filmmaking, but maybe the audience didn't want another comedy on the lines of his classic Andaz Apna Apna. But this comedy was more childlike than childish, for sure!
5. Rangoon (2017)
It pains when you miss your hattrick. It must have been hard for both Shahid Kapoor and Vishal Bhardwaj too when they missed the bus after almost conquering the skies with Kaminey and Haider. In Rangoon, Kapoor played Jamadar Nawab Malik, who fell in love with the starlet, Julia. Bhardwaj, being the poet he is, gave depth to their romance and also laced their scenes with wit and humour. But his writing isn't embraced with as much warmth as it deserves. Rangoon may not have been as engaging as Kaminey and Haider, but it wasn't as dismissible as it was made out to be either.
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