Another year of daring storylines, powerful adversaries, and outstanding performances greeted us in 2021. While some performers, like Vidya Balan and Manoj Bajpayee, were expected to provide excellent performances given their track records, others, despite having limited screen time, delivered strong performances. We reduced down what we considered were the 10 most outstanding performances of 2021 after months of back and forth. These are actors who took chances, stretched their abilities, and created unforgettable roles. Let’s get started…
Table of Contents
1. Sushmita Sen, Arya 2
A mother is regarded to be one of the most powerful persons in the world because she has the fortitude to fight for her children against all odds. While we’ve seen many examples of a mother’s unconditional love and sacrifices in cinema, Sushmita Sen once again delivered this lovely and selfless sentiment to the big screen, but this time with a fascinating twist. The former beauty queen had surely left us wanting more after starring in the first season of Aarya last year. And now, with the second season of the crime thriller, she’s back.
Sushmita convincingly portrays Aarya’s several avatars, including a bereaved wife, a worried mother, and a fierce woman fighting with criminal lords. Sen’s powers are highly dependent in this crime drama, as they were in the precursor. Throughout the presentation, Sen maintained a serene, vulnerable, and tall presence, despite the fact that it was punctuated with action-packed antics.
2. Vicky Kaushal, Sardar Udham
The painstakingly planned period narrative has a vast grandeur, but Shoojit Sircar’s Sardar Udham avoids the clichés of a Bollywood biopic. But that isn’t the film’s only redeeming feature. Vicky Kaushal’s powerful and insightful performance in the wonderfully lensed biopic adds to the film’s force.
Sardar Udham portrays a revolutionary hero of India’s freedom struggle as a real, relatable, ladoo-loving young man who just happened to be someone who witnessed death up close and in such horrific circumstances that his resolve to avenge the martyrs of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre became a self-assigned mission.
3. Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Family Man 2
Manoj Bajpayee’s primary performance in The Family Man S2 is as compelling as ever, while Samantha Akkineni’s star turn as an unrelenting Sri Lankan Tamil independence fighter on a death mission is as sharp as a needle. The show, on the other hand, takes a long time – in fact, quite a long time – to lay out all of its major components on the table.
Raji is a standout character due to Samantha Akkineni’s commanding presence in the role. She’s a scarred lady with a score to clear with her tormentors and a debt to repay to her benefactors, the Tamil rebel commanders who rescued her and trained her to be as ruthless as any fighter.
4. Adarsh Gourav, The White Tiger
After receiving international praise for his role in The White Tiger, actor Adarsh Gaurav’s life has undoubtedly changed. Balram’s subtle and layered performance has put him on the map, attracting the attention of directors and producers all over the world.
Balram in The White Tiger would be a once-in-a-lifetime role for Adarsh Gourav. Gourav was well aware of the importance of the picture for his budding career, as it was backed by international streaming giant Netflix and based on a Man Booker Prize-winning novel.
The White Tiger tracks Balram’s development in a straightforward manner laced with biting wit and razor-sharp language. The man’s ascension from the slums reflects, at least in part, the arc of a nation in flux, a land riven by class, caste, and community divisions, and a civilization weakened by systemic brutality against the vulnerable.
5. Supriya Pathak, Cartel And Tabbar
Supriya Pathak Kapur has carved a name for herself in the worlds of television and film over the course of four decades. With back-to-back releases like Ramprasad Ki Tehrvi, The Big Bull, Toofaan, and Mimi in 2021, she unleashed a storm in the OTT industry. Cartel, which is currently streaming on ALTBalaji and MX Player, was also her first web series.
However, the actress has been preparing for the release of Tabbar and has delivered an exceptional performance, which was broadcast on SonyLIV.
The plot centers around a family who becomes embroiled in a string of killings following a catastrophic catastrophe. Even if they defend themselves and claim to be innocent at first, they become sinners after becoming entangled in some unpleasant situations. The show investigates how long they can keep going in that direction.
6. Suriya, Jai Bhim
Jai Bhim, directed by T.J Gnanavel, will go down as one of Suriya’s most important films. Because it’s one of the few times when the actor hasn’t exercised his heroism and let his co-stars steal the show, the word important is employed. In other words, Suriya is the driving force behind Jai Bhim, which he produced himself, and he deserves credit for supporting such a great film about the struggle for the underprivileged and against police brutality.
Jai Bhim is a film about the oppressed, and despite the fact that the action takes place in 1995, the film highlights how little has changed in the lives of the marginalized today.
7. Farhad Fasil, Malik
Malik, the latest film from director Mahesh Narayanan, is a hard-hitting social drama that demonstrates his ability and provides actor Fahadh Faasil with the right platform to showcase his range as a performer. It is about what occurs when the authorities plot to assassinate a charismatic leader of the people in prison. The plot revolves around delicate subjects like social peace and police violence, which serve as the story’s backbone.
‘FaFa’ has gone into a similar area with Malik. While his performance does not feel as natural as Hari Bhai’s, it is unquestionably the best of…his career. In the prison moments, he emotes with his eyes and does an excellent job portraying the role. He handles the flashback sequences featuring him as a young man with ease and his intensity leaves an impression.
8. Amruta Subash, Bombay Begums
In Netflix’s upcoming series Bombay Begums, actor Amruta Subhash portrays a bar dancer. Pooja Bhatt, Shahana Goswami, Plabita Borthakur, and Aadhya Anand also star in the Alankrita Shrivastava-directed film.
Lily, played by Amruta Subhash, is a formidable lady at work, but she is also a loving mother who is at odds with Rani, a woman from the upper crust after Rani’s son hits her son in a car accident. Lily asks Rani for more than just money; she also wants respect in society.
9. Vaibhav Raj Gupta, Gullak 2
In Netflix’s upcoming series Bombay Begums, actor Amruta Subhash portrays a bar dancer. Pooja Bhatt, Shahana Goswami, Plabita Borthakur, and Aadhya Anand also star in the Alankrita Shrivastava-directed film.
Lily, played by Amruta Subhash, is a formidable lady at work, but she is also a loving mother who is at odds with Rani, a woman from the upper crust after Rani’s son hits her son in a car accident. Lily asks Rani for more than just money; she also wants respect in society.
10. Siddharth Malhotra, Shershaah
Shershaah movie review: Vishnu Varadhan’s poor direction and Kiara Advani’s strange accent can’t compensate for smartly choreographed action, a reverent tone, and Sidharth Malhotra’s honest performance.
Captain Vikram Batra didn’t need an inciting occurrence to motivate him; he didn’t come from a family of war veterans, and all he wanted to accomplish since he was a child was become a ‘fauji.’ Director Vishnu Varadhan’s Kargil War drama Shershaah, which is already available on Amazon Prime Video and is based on his brief but vivid life, is a sincere picture undone by a shoehorned romance subplot and a storyline that is afraid of scratching under the surface.
These were the top 10 outstanding performances of 2021 by some legit actors. Is it fair to say that they did justice with their respective roles?