Best Actor [Female]
in a
Leading Role [Drama]
So onto the next award of the evening, this time it's the women that take the stage.
Dramatic roles of great importance are hard to find for great female actors, it's why the five women here were a hard find. To be honest, both Tabu and Gujral don't necessarily count as leading but they get through on the length's of their roles.
The fact that I cannot get five this year like last year isn't a good sign, but I assure you; the times they are a changing.
There is one silver lining, if it weren't for the fact that I couldn't catch the film, this woman would have made it six great performances;
Meenu Hooda for Kajarya.
So for this one, let's jump right into the HIndie Award for Best Actor [Female] in A Leading Role [Drama] nominees...
Kalki Koechlin as
Laila for Margarita With A Straw
With Laila, Kalki gets another chance to prove that she is a damn fine performer. Sometimes people don't take her seriously.
The great thing about Koechlin is that refined sense she gets within Laila by making her feel pained about her cerebral palsy plight but also normal in her sense and movement around the world.
One of the finest moments of the film comes when Laila realizes she will need help to get up the stairs in a building and she is carried in the arms of strangers, there's already a sense of uneasiness and embarrassment that Kalki captures but also a sense of her inner hormonal effects working in the wrong fashion.
The confusion, sexuality and emotional imbalance of a teenager is hard to really reflect on no matter how nostalgic we may go with our memories but Koechlin simply does it. The greatest effect to this is that Kalki never feels like she is "Acting".
This could have been a typical showy performance but Kalki makes it her own by simply being.
Anushka Sharma as
Meera for NH10
When things don't work out by others, then do it yourself. The oft compartmentalized Anushka Sharam probably grew complacent playing similar characters in her films, such that as her own producer she was able to capture the role she needed to remind us why she is one of the best.
As Meera, Sharma brought to her a new edge while retaining necessary pieces of her affable persona.
It's a wonder when Sharma convinces you the kind of ruthless, scrappy bad ass she can be. Shouldering the film through and through, she is powerful in the moments of great emotion. Her shouting 'fuck you!' in one of the key scenes of the film and even that delivery carries the complete emotional turmoil the character goes through.
Truly, there is no real breathing space in the film but in sprinkled moments of profundity, she is a delight to see and the revelation of Anushka Sharma the versatile actor is a genuine thing to applaud.
Richa Chadda as
Devi Pathak for Masaan
We were waiting for it, we finally got it.
Finally, the talented Richa Chadda got to headline her own movie and my oh my, how she has pulled it off.
From start to finish, Chadda is the definition of natural. One feels that she is the Devi Pathak who sought after love in a society that deemed her urges, her needs as taboo. Her fighting spirit and that tight rope walk between fighting the regression against her fathers and the worlds own shaming attitude, is Devi Pathak made by Richa Chadda.
Effortless is not a word used to female performers, because their performance require a great struggle to not only shine through from most male dominated films but also because it's reflected in their struggles to get noticed at all.
Chadda does both with brilliance, she is the next best thing and a great one at that. Masaan is just the beginning.
Tabu as IG Meera
Deshmukh for Drishyam
Last year's supporting winner and best performance, Tabu should have been in the leading category that year. My mistake.
This year she makes it with one hell of a kick ass turn.
As IG Meera Deshmukh, Tabu nails it as the antagonist. Constantly one upping Ajay Devgn and also energizing a film that is dulled down by the leading mans turn. In her final scene she proves why she is the best, her emotional breakdown so far ahead that she simply feels like a maddened specter. Behind her every hard evil surface action, she presents a mother's care and worry for her son. It's damn powerful.
To put it as best as I can, Drishyam is a remake of a Malyalam film which has been remade in many languages. What took Asha Sarath [who played the same role] three times to do in three different languages with the character, Tabu did it with one.
That is her prowess.
Pavleen Gujral as
Pamela 'Pammy' Jaswal for Angry Indian Goddesses
Promoted as a female buddy comedy but turning out to be a dud of a pretentious drama, it comes as no surprise then that the most hilarious of the characters is the best performance. The surprise is that it is relative unknown, Pavleen Gujral.
She's a riot as the naive and sweet but also very attached Pammy, everyone knows someone like her. Yet it's never all that, behind a happy married life facade; Pammy hides a disappointment and sadness in her plight and situation as a wife/daughter in law targeted for supposedly being barren. Questioned about her woman hood.
In one fine scene Gujral takes it and turns it into a strong turning point for her character; echoing both the vulnerability of herself as well as her desperate want to shout back at those who push her down. It's a fight she picks up alone and it's with care she brings to the fore.
Dexterity above all is the greatest weapon for Gujral, who builds the chemistries and performances through her own becoming the shining star in her feature debut.
And the Winner is...
Richa Chadda as
Devi Pathak for Masaan!
So there it is, another fantastic winner who is well deserved. This one gives Masaan another big one.
Up Next: The drama moves to the men of the moment...a man that fought passionately against a mountain for the woman he loved, a charming snake that strikes with killer instinct, a truth seeker mired in a bewildering search with lies abound, an officer slowly unraveling under the burden of a clear case that is murky due to corruption and a family man going to any lengths in his quest for vengeance...HIndie Award for Best Actor [Male] in A Leading Role [Drama]
'Nuff Said
Aneesh Raikundalia
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