Best Leading Actor [Male] in A Regional Film
With a ton of varied
roles and some surprisingly effective performances, the male's on this years
list are dominated with expected veterans and a surprising number of two young
boys who have just mesmerized.
Of course however
there are a few performers who just missed the cut;
Soumitra Chatterjee
for Belaseshe: It's unfair to say it, but when seeing Chatterjee on screen; one
expects a Satyajit Ray level of film acting...simply being. Chatterjee channels
a profound emotional reservoir with his latest film but is at times unable to
elevate the good but not really that great material.
Arvind Swamy for
Thani Oruvan: Out and out the actual lead of this ropey thriller, Swamy is
engaging and charming as the villain of the piece giving off a kick ass cool
vibe.
Dulquer Salmaan for
OK Kanmani: Salmaan is saddled with the much more restrained and simplistic
character, far easier for him to remind you of Mani Ratnam's former hero
Madhavan from Alaipayuthey and that's not a good thing as no one shines like
Maddy. Still Salmaan is a genuine actor and it shows.
Vivek Gomber for
Court: Like much of his cast, Gomber blends genuinely into the scenic details
of the film but nothing much else to say.
J Vignesh and V
Ramesh for Kaaka Muttai: Individually not much, but together the duo of
brothers with hearty aspirations are a genuine find; it was difficult to
nominate one over the other.
I haven't caught a
couple of films specifically Tamil films, which catch the most traction. So I
missed these greats; Dulquer Salman in Charlie and Mammoty in Pathermari.
So let's move onto
the award for Best Leading Actor [Male] in A Regional Film. And the nominees
are…
Irrfan Khan as Umber
Singh for Qissa: The Tale of A Lonely Ghost
Something is to be
said about Khan's eyes, they are by far his best feature when it comes to
expressing the haunting sorrow, madness and turmoil that goes through Umber
Singh's mind.
One always says it's
the eyes that do the talking and in Irrfan's case this couldn't be further from the
truth. In a haunting moment as his "son" [daughter] Kanwar comes up
to him, bleeding from her private parts; in a stark chilling dialogue he says
"Thank god! My son is all grown up!"
It nails the point
of the character, his complete consumption of the lives in his household under
the name of patriarchy all evoked through the chilling expression of Irffan
through his eyes. It's these eyes that allow you to root for as well as despise
Umber but above all else ultimately pity his wandering soul for eternity.
Archit Deodar as
Chinmay for Killa
There's a poetic
melancholy to Avinash Arun's ode to the struggling adventures of childhood and
growing up. It's reflected beautifully in the solemn, quite and far off
Chinmay, coming off a life altering experience with the death of his father and
a shift to a new home with an unable to be attentive mother [struggling in her
own right].
All of this is
placed into the nimble shoulders of Archit Deodar who paints the character onto
an empty canvas of his own, with master stroke after master stroke.
When's the last time
one could ever say it took time to process a child's performance?
It has to sink in,
as the nuances Deodar portrays are of a maturity and integrity that make one
question whether we were as philosophical in our youth. It is true, Deodar has
the moments of lightness that made much of our glory days but sprinkled with a dose
of profound inner exploration that were never registered but formed who we are
as a person now. These invisible moments, these invisible thoughts and
processes are exemplified in each touch, expression and move by this young
child prodigy that one's heart goes out to the film then and there.
Ritwick Chakraborty
as The Man for Asha Jaoar Majhe [Labor of Love]
A lyrical sense of
being is established in the silent simplicity depicting a complex situation
in a young marriage in Aditya Vikram Sengupta's film. It's this such sense that
makes Chakraborty such an ironic stand out along with his lead female actor.
Ironic because the
films essence is to build an atmosphere, to look into the working details and
functioning of this relationship in relation to the crisis set on them by the
larger world. Ritwick is there to propel this narrative and at each moment he does
so with a beauty and ease, there are few expressions seen, rare words
spoken...heck, no words spoken; yet the yearning, the love and passion is
conveyed in grand elegance thanks to a man who is in complete tune with what he
needs to do and when he needs to show, till then he can only be in that
perfect emotional state that he has so eloquently captured.
Kamal Hasan as
Suyamblingam for Papanasam
Unlike Mohanlal; who
internalizes the emotional core of his lead character to give him both that
sinisterly psychological dark edge and a subtle affecting performance:
Kamal Hasan's
Suyambulingam wears his heart on his leave. It allows the final confrontation
scene to triumph that of the original, simply because the waves of emotions
released by Hassan are overwhelming and strike a chord.
In a master stroke
of a genius that considering his reputation, is expected, Hassan is able to
fully commit himself to an already perfected role and change the narratives
dynamics by shifting a few emotional calibrations around. That's a red signal
pointing to a thespian right there.
If Georgekutty in
Drishyam was another Mohanlal role that no one else could do, then the same can
be said for Suyamblingam and the great Kamal Hasan.
Ashanth K Sha as
Kuttappayi for Ottaal: The Trap
Another youngster
who simply manages to mesmerize, Sha in the initial scene sets the tone for his
performance. His heart wrenching voice in the beginning plays up the sense of
tragedy to come as we flash back to his small story.
Sha plays his
character with the verve and energy one would expect of the youngster, yet when
in the moments of emotional turmoil and growth; it is there that the young boy
revels.
Whether he is
cautiously listening to adults bicker on his status as a poverty struck orphan
or the small kinks he adds to a part with no focus on him presents a dedicated
actor both willing to act and react. To find that in a child, is a directors
dream and Ashanth Sha exemplifies it.
And the Winner is…
Ritwick Chakraborty
as The Man for Asha Jaoar Majhe!
Another tough category to decide and in all honesty all five are terrific individual performances and winners, onto the next as quickly as we can.
Up Next: A young
woman/man facing a forced upon gender identity crisis tied to the identity
crisis of a people, A sprightly young modern women slowly falling in love, A
headstrong determined middle class lawyer and housewife, A striving woman in an
economical crisis yearning for her love and a young widowed mother of one
handling both a moral quandary and her growing restless son...The HIndie Award
for Best Leading Actor [Female] in A Regional Film
'Nuff Said
Aneesh Raikundalia
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