Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt-starrer Badrinath Ki Dulhania hit the theatres on March 10 and has received a thumbs up from audience and critics alike. While Varun has played the small-town guy perfectly well, it his co-star Alia who has stolen the limelight. Her UP accent has drawn a lot of applause for the Filmfare Award-winning actor.
In 1999, Mahesh Bhatt produced a psychological thriller titled Sangharsh. Directed by Tanuja Chandra, the film had Akshay Kumar, Preity Zinta and Ashutosh Rana in lead roles. The main antagonist played by Rana used to sacrifice little children in a belief that he would gain immortality.
Preity played a trainee CBI officer designated to solve the case. In the film, she played Reet Oberoi who had a traumatic childhood and saw his brother, a terrorist, being gunned down before her. Remember, who played the young Reet in the film? It was none other than Bhatt’s doting six-year-old daughter Alia.
Seventeen years later, the same girl donning a pretty blush pink gown looked ecstatic while holding the coveted Filmfare Award trophy for her role in Udta Punjab. As a child, she might have accompanied his father to award functions. But there is nothing like winning a Filmfare Award.
Since making her grand debut in Karan Johar’s Student of the Year four years ago, Alia has come a long way. Be it the role of rich brat Veera from Highway, who speaks up against sexual abuse or Bihari migrant Bawri in Udta Punjab, she has played an array of roles in her illustrious career so far. As Kavya from Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya, she made you fall in love with her. She is practical as Ananya from 2 States. Even in a star-studded film like Shaandaar, Alia does not seem to be out of place and justifies her presence. In everybody’s life, there comes a moment which one should grab as an opportunity and make it big. The previous year was the same for the Bhatt scion. In Kapoor & Sons, as a bubbly girl Tia having difficulties in overcoming the early death of her parents in childhood, she won hearts with her performance. Mind you, the film had stalwarts like Rishi Kapoor (he won Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor), Ratna Pathak Shah and Rajat Kapoor.
If Tia was bubbly, Alia played Bihari migrant labourer Bawri in Abhishek Chaubey’s Udta Punjab. Contrary to the earlier roles she played in the past, Alia nailed it with her performance as a gullible labourer who unintentionally gets dragged into the drug trade. She played it with such conviction that the critics could not stop themselves from praising her.
If you are ready to push yourself beyond the comfort zone right early in your career, you have a long way to go. Her role of an ambitious cinematographer Kaira in Dear Zindagi remains my favourite character Alia has played till date. Instead of being bogged down by the presence of superstar Shah Rukh Khan in the Gauri Shinde film, she justified her presence and even outshone the King Khan in most of the scenes.
The manner in which she underwent transformation from a depressed Kaira into a person who begins to view life in a positive way, is worth an applause.
You have a long way to go, girl. Keep enthralling all of us with such stellar performances.
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