Saif Ali Khan’s 5 best performances

By far the most underrated Khan in the Indian film industry, Saif has evolved into a very fine actor. He garnishes his characters with unexpected quirks and imbues his performance with a layering that even his directors don’t foresee. Here’s looking at this underrated actor’s 5 most underrated performances.

1. Tumbaad (2019): The mysterious frighteningly forlorn figure of the Naga bandit played with virulent intensity by Saif Ali Khan. Khan, is a performance that will define his career. If not now, then later. He moves like a bloodthirsty spirit in the quest for revenge. I dare any actor to achieve the level of grueling physical and emotional intensity that Saif has successfully negotiated in this film. Saif’s character is haunted by demons that the naked eye cannot see. As one of his pithy lines, “What’s the work of a wound of it is visible to the eye? We hear you, Saif. We see you.

2. Baazaar (2018): Do you remember Harshad Mehta? How could you forget the podgy stockbroker who made thousands of Indians rich overnight and then it all ended in a financial mess in no time at all. Saif Ali Khan’s Shakun Kothari’s destiny run on the same lines. Except that Saif as the wily ruthless Machiavellian stockbroker is everything that Harshad Mehta would have wanted to be. This is Saif’s most gloriously written and airily performed part, meaty witty and wicked. He chews into it exposing a sacred hunger that I didn’t notice in his last over-hyped outing.

3. Cocktail (2012): While the entire focus of attention was Deepika Padukone’s makeover performance it was Saif Ali Khan who stood out, giving a wickedly roguish performance as an incorrigible skirt chaser who doesn’t mind getting into it(the skirt) while chasing it. Saif played a far from likable character of an untrustworthy partner, son and friend with much relish. He specializes in playing fatally flawed characters who don’t mind falling on their face if that’s what life has in store for them. Don’t laugh. But this role was first offered to Imran Khan. Not THAT Imran Khan.

4. Aarakshan (2012): In this Prakash Jha’s flop Saif scored very highly in sincerity, subtlety and sheer screen presence. Playing Deepak a Dalit boy who still irons his own clothes (a bit overdone, the drama of the damned) Saif moves through the motions of social protest and individual outrage with stealth and conviction. His diction and body language are remarkably transformed. I couldn’t see. I only saw Deepak Kumar. In his scenes with the mighty Amitabh Bachchan who plays his mentor Saif stands his ground remarkably well imbuing the conflict with an understated yet powerful sense of social discrimination and protest.

5. Ek Hasina Thi (2004): As a vile, deceptive man who betrays a woman in love and gets chewed up by a cave full of rats as punishment, Saif made villainy look suave and sinister. Not surprisingly he wasn’t sure how the audience would react to his change of image. But the response to the actor’s relocation to negativity was overwhelmingly positive. Wonder why he never teamed up with director Sriram Raghavan again. Saif would have been the perfect in Andha Dhun.