Many think he is just a pretty face. But since his debut in 2012 with Student Of The Year, Sidharth Malhotra has constantly striven to disprove the belief that goodlooking people can’t act. Here is his 6 bravest efforts.
1. Ek Villain (2014): Though ‘villain’ Ritesh Deshmukh walked away with the critical acclaim, Sidharth as the grieving hero packed in a certain mount of florid intensity combined with some terrific stunts. This was one Malhotra’s earliest successes. Interestingly in his other release Hasee Toh Phasee the same year Malhotra happily allowed Parineeti Chopra to take centrestage.
2. Kapoor & Sons (2016): This one featured a dreamlike ensemble cast including the great Rishi Kapoor , Ratna Pathak Shah, Rajat Kapoor and Karan Johar’s favourite Pakistani import Fawad Khan. But Sid Malhotra held his own, maybe because Alia Bhatt was also round. Back then they were supposed to be seeing one another. How time flies!
3. A Gentleman (2017): This zany spy thriller featured Sid Malhotra in two avatars , an ordinary nerdy working-class guy and a 007 styled secret agent. I’m not sure how well he succeeded in pulling off the dual personality. But Malhotra did display the potential of being a full-on filmi hero, lights, fights, camera, and plenty of action.
4. Aiyaary (2018): Having Manoj Bajpayee as his co-star in this muddled war-espionage drama helped Siddharth negotiate the rocky terrain. He played Bajpayee’s protégé, and that’s the relationship they shared in real life as well. I remember Manoj calling me up to “go easy” when during Aiyaary promotions, Sid got into trouble for some random comment on the Bhojpuri language.
5. Shershaah (2021): The career-changing blockbuster, and one of Amazon Prime Video’s most successful indigenous products, Shershaah is to Malhotra’s career what Deewana was to Shah Rukh Khan and Jaanwar to Akshay Kumar. That turning-point where the actor has finally accrued some amount of acceptance. He played the real-life martyr Vikram Batra with full-on earnestness. Vikram Batra’s brother Vishal said to me, “Sidharth met us many times to understand Vikram as a son, a brother and a soldier. He met Mom and Dad. He met our sisters and a lot of Vikram’s comrades. He tried to get into the skin of my brother’s character. I think Sidharth instinctively understood the gravity of his responsibility. He couldn’t afford to slip up. Not when he was portraying someone who means so much to the country. he has put in a lot of hard work to understand Vikram as a character and to play him as honestly as possible. And for him to go to Kargil and shoot there at a height of 2,000 feet… this is not an easy task for a civilian. Of course, it is not the same as what our soldiers faced 22 years ago when they fought the war. But for Sidharth to go down to Kargil and relive what our soldiers did , couldn’t have been easy. I have to give it to him. He’s done a good job. I keep reading how much my brother’s story inspired Sidharth. I hope it inspires other youngsters as well to join the army.”
6. Mission Majnu (2023): Sidharth Malhotra in one his best performances before or after Shershaah, plays Tariq, an Indian RAW agent moonlighting as a tailor in Pakistan. Malhotra brings a sense of mischief to his body language as the twinkled tailer ‘soldered’ spy. He is supposed to play a Hindu Indian soldier masquerading as a Muslim tailor in Pakistani, hence the body language suggests a certain amount of artificial posturing. I don’t know if Malhotra’s gawkiness is conscious. But it suits the plot and the character’s purposes.
