{"id":7565,"date":"2016-05-25T14:43:54","date_gmt":"2016-05-25T09:13:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7565"},"modified":"2016-05-25T14:43:54","modified_gmt":"2016-05-25T09:13:54","slug":"the-superlative-brilliance-of-shefali-shah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=7565","title":{"rendered":"The Superlative Brilliance of Shefali Shah"},"content":{"rendered":"\nI<\/span>t was while watching the second season of the International Emmy Award-winning series, Delhi Crime<\/em>, in which Shah plays DCP Vartika Chaturvedi<\/em> that I came to realise what made all of Shah\u2019s performances so spellbinding in nature. Eyes are the windows to one\u2019s soul, we often hear, and it\u2019s rather true. After all, some of the most interesting performers on-screen have a gaze that sets them apart. It\u2019s a gaze that pulls you into their make-believe world and compels you to not take your eyes off them. The late actor Irrfan Khan had it, the King of Romance, Shah Rukh Khan has it, and the blue-eyed boy of television, Nakuul Mehta has it as well.\n\nIt\u2019s this same gaze, only filled with a lot more rage and serpentine charm, that allows Shefali Shah to be a peerless actor. Those penetrative, piercing and pensive eyes that tell a story of their own are the magic trick. It\u2019s a privilege truly, to witness Shah\u2019s quiet wrath, turmoil, and internal dialogue, that doesn\u2019t require the aid of monologues. It\u2019s not something everyone can pull off. But Shah does so with \u00e9lan.\n\n

It\u2019s this same gaze, only filled with a lot more rage and serpentine charm, that allows Shefali Shah to be a peerless actor. Those penetrative, piercing and pensive eyes that tell a story of their own are the magic trick.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nTo emote with the eyes is to make an audience live your story, instead of just telling it to them, and to say that Shah has mastered that art, is an understatement. The actor has been on a phenomenal roll lately with projects like Jalsa<\/em>, Ajeeb Dastaans<\/em>, Humans, Dil Dhadakane Do<\/em>, Darlings<\/em>, and now Delhi Crime Season 2<\/em>, a show that has been pivotal for a career, that has been privy to some fascinating cinema, right from her television show Hasratein<\/em>, to her early work in films such as Satya, Monsoon Wedding<\/em>, and Rangeela<\/em>. However, it\u2019s rather recently that she has begun to receive both, her due as an actor, as well as roles that are worth the aptitude and finesse she brings with herself.\n\nShah who has been extremely vocal about the ageism and sexism in the industry, and has bided her time by only choosing roles that had some character to them, instead of jumping to do everything and anything that came her way. Even in Waqt<\/em>, in which she plays Amitabh Bachchan\u2019s wife and Akshay Kumar\u2019s mother, despite being five years younger than him in real life, Shah claims, that the only motivating factor behind the choice was the script, and how if a character is interesting, then she\u2019ll do it, irrespective of their age, sexuality, profession, whatsoever.\n\nUnsurprisingly, Shah\u2019s work radiates the same thought and energy, each time she performs like an ageless wonder, who can do it all. She can play a charming lover, an affectionate mother, a righteous cop and a conniving doctor, all with equal but beguiling nuanced conviction. In an industry hell-bent on typecasting actors into a role or genre, Shah remains an anomaly, embodying diverse characters and raising the bar with each one she plays.\n\n

She can play a charming lover, an affectionate mother, a righteous cop and a conniving doctor, all with equal but beguiling nuanced conviction.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nIn Juice<\/em>, a short film by Neeraj Ghaywan, Shah lets her body language and eyes do the talking, so much so that her dialogues may have escaped you. It speaks louder than any words would have at that moment \u2013 it speaks of all the injustice, pain, and anger that can\u2019t find a language to express themselves, because they\u2019ve been entrenched by a framework, where expression is a sign of rebellion, and Shah captivatingly captures that angst through her screeching silence.\n\nShe has done the silent act, time and again \u2013 in Dil Dhadakane Do<\/em>, while eating a chocolate cake, the actor communicates without speaking. However, Shah is not just her quiet, but expressive gaze and the song Sapne Mein Milti Hai<\/em> from Satya<\/em> is perhaps the perfect example of it. If sophistication was an act that she could sleepwalk in, then she makes dancing as the brassy Pyaari Mhatre<\/em>, look like child\u2019s play. \u00a0There\u2019s a method even to her spontaneity as an actor, and it\u2019s intangible because to have consistency, in versatility is to be able to switch between wavelengths. In Ajeeb Daastans\u2019 Ankahi<\/em>, Shah plays a mother to a specially-abled child, who uses sign language to communicate. In an industry struggling to do basic romance right, Shah passes off as the most torn of lovers.\n\n

\u00a0There\u2019s a method even to her spontaneity as an actor, and it\u2019s intangible because to have consistency, in versatility is to be able to switch between wavelengths.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nOf course, it helps, to be in the company of actors like Manav Kaul, Vidya Balan, Neeraj Kabi, and Kirti Kulhari, who not only stand their ground in the presence of her prolific talent but also engage in accentuating their contemporary’s performance through exchange. The second season of Delhi Crime is possibly the finest example of good actors \u2013 not stars- collectively elevating material that in feeble hands could so easily look lesser than it actually is. In one scene she sits next of a colleague who has been shot. Her eyes speak of body-breaking tiredness, but they also scream resilience. It\u2019s kind of our loss really that Shah simply wasn\u2019t around for a lot of the last two decades. It\u2019s probably our luck then that something changed, for her, and a result for history and the future of this industry.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Words probably won\u2019t do justice to just how harrowingly brilliant Shefali Shah is in the second season of Delhi Crime. It\u2019s humbling to be in presence of such precocious talent, that even our faculties to fully appreciate and preserve it are beginning to feel suspect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":451,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[2429,62,141,11803,7787,11804,11526,11805,11779],"class_list":["post-7565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pop-culture","tag-actor","tag-arre","tag-bollywood","tag-brilliant","tag-delhi-crime","tag-dil-dhadakne-do","tag-shefali-shah","tag-superlative","tag-versatile"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Superlative Brilliance of Shefali Shah<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Words probably won\u2019t do justice to just how harrowingly brilliant Shefali Shah is in the second season of Delhi Crime. 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