Subhash K Jha lists his 10 favourite performances from 2020

Pankaj Tripathi: He is a big name in cinema but he ruled the digital kingdom in 2020 like he owned it. With Mirzapur 2 and Criminal Justice 2, not to mention his stellar performances in Ludo and Gunjan Saxena make Pankaj one of OTT’s superstars. The actor admits he was never paid by cinema the kind of money he now gets on OTT.

Pratik Gandhi: A recognizable name in Gujarati cinema and theatre, his debut as Harshad Mehta in Hansal Mehta’s Scam 1992 wasn’t expected to make the impact that it did. What made him such a household name? The Everyman quality! Pratik wasn’t trying to be a star. He played a character. He stayed there. The fact that he was an unknown face in Hindi gave him an immediate edge as Harshad. Pratik has gone from ‘mob to mobbed’ in one swift stroke. Destiny.

Divyenndu Sharma: From Munna Bhaiyya in Mirzapur 2 to Akhil Shrivastav in Bichhoo Ka Khel, Divyenndu seems to have found stardom in this year of the Covid crisis. Till last year he was celluloid’s every Bollywood superstar’s favourite best friend. Thankfully Divyenndu didn’t end up being another Rajpal Yadav, thanks to the freedom afforded by the digital platform.

Jaideep Ahlawat: Playing the cop Hathiram Choudhary in Pataal Lok was the best thing to have happened to this talented actor. Jaideep is suddenly an OTT favourite. He says, " It is a new audio-visual medium enabling you to tell a story on a huge platform, which is not restricted to the country but has a worldwide reach. You can showcase your work through it to a global audience and also watch the work of others from across the world. It helps you widen your horizons when you get to see such work. You get a better vision and perspective as an actor. You feel challenged to try out new things. Of course, contents on the web are classified in different categories such as 13+, 16+ or 18+ depending on their suitability for diverse audiences but it is discretionary."

Sushmita Sen: Her almost-extinct movie career was rekindled with the unexpected success of her streaming debut in Aarya, the only big hit on OTT with a female hero in the lead. The home-viewing medium is now wooing her with tons of money for everything including the second season of Aarya. Sen-sation second innings.

Kirti Kulhari: Bollywood and Hindi cinema didn’t know what to do with her, where to position. After Four More Shots, Please and Criminal Justice 2, this beautiful actress has blossomed into a prime product of the OTT platform. Interestingly Kirti never felt constricted by lack of opportunities on the big screen. Seeing into the future, she knew one day the big screen will be inside every household in the country.

Mita Vashist: In Your Honor, a gripping web series about a seemingly incorruptible judge who puts his reputation at stake when his son commits a crime, Mita Vashisht’s sly cop act furnishes a vinegary flavour to her strong, stubborn character. Vashisht plays the cop Kiron Sekhon (any resemblance to Bedi was certainly not coincidental) as a mixture of the attentive and the disdainful. I just couldn’t take my eyes off her stolen, steely and scornful glances at the guilty-as-sin Judge. Every time Jimmy Sheirgill and Mita Vashisht are on screen together, you want to see just where their conversation is going. The words they speak seductively encircle their cat-and-mouse game in this energetic, engrossing and altogether gripping tale of empowerment, privilege and their misuse. A tremendous performance.

Swastika Mukherjee: Playing the neglected wife of a media baron in Pataal Lok, this very accomplished actress infused a startling stillness signifying a supreme sadness into her part. The cheated, betrayed, disillusioned wife is clinically depressed. But she never wallows in self-pity and rises above her own grief to seek and seize the happiness that she deserves. What a lovely character played with such delicacy, and such a glaring contrast to the other disgruntled wife Swastika played in the crude Black Widows.

Geetika Vidya Ohlyan: Playing a Rajasthani migrant in the story Vishaanu in the Unpaused anthology Geetika, whom we all remember for her sterling performance in Netflix’s Soni, endows such a high level of credibility to her character that I wanted to see more of her. Maybe a whole film instead of a half-hour segment? In a sequence where she makes all the right noises about Mumbai in exchange of food and masks, is a class act, as also when her face crumbles on realizing that the temporary luxury abode where she, her husband and son are hidden, must come to an end. This is an actress who needs just one shot to nail her character.

Kriti Kharbanda: Films about gangsters, guns and internecine vendetta seldom have space for well-written female characters. In Taish, in this dark meditation on machismo, Kriti held her own as the self-willed Pakistani live-in girlfriend of Jim Sarbh. When she is challenged, taunted and insulted by her boyfriend’s father at a wedding dinner, Kriti gives it back to him politely. Devoted to her man to the extent of self-ruination, she brought dignity to her character’s self-effacing love. You can be a slave for love, without being a walkover. Kriti’s performance proved it.