The one sin which 2020 will never be forgotten for is keeping us away from the cinema halls. However, also with the boundaries blurred between different mediums of content, be it films or web series or shows, it over compensated by ensuring a never scant supply in entertainment.
The biggest of the superstars when couldn’t reach theatres, made their ways directly into our TVs, laptops and mobiles, right from the yesteryear’s legends to the new gen heroes of digital space.
But even with the entrance of mega movie stars to smaller mediums , there were few show stealers who shone out of their paths. Many of them were not even the conventional leads but with their delightful performances, won the attention and appreciation from the viewers.

Call them show stealers, break out performances or delightful surprises of 2020.They impressed us with their amazing acts when we weren’t expecting much in the otherwise uneventful year in entertainment business.

Chandan Roy- Panchayat

In one of the best web shows of last year, Panchayat, Chandan Roy played an assistant to the hero of the show Jeetendra Kumar. With his earnest performance, sweet smile and impeccable accent and diction of the local dialect, Roy made Panchyat a wholesome watch. He became an instant favorite on the internet with his innocent, sincere and heart warming portrayal of Vikas, a go-to man for everyone in the village. This debutante deserves all our attention and accolades for making the brilliant look so easy amongst the stalwarts like Neena Gupta, Raghuveer Yadav and Jitendra Kumar. We would love to watch a spin off on this special character.

Ishwak Singh & Niharika Lyra Dutt- Patallok

In the dark world of Patal Lok, where Hathi Ram Choudhary and Hathoda Tyagi took away all the limelight with their pitch perfect acts, Ansari and Sara Mathews became the young and sane voices of the story.
Portrayed by Ishwak Singh and Nihrika Dutt, their characters shine like a beam of light and hope.
In what I will call a tailor made role, Singh played a subordinate to Hathi Ram Choudhary. The inherent goodness and diligence of his character makes the world of Patal Lok a better place and worth to fight for. Sara Mathews’s empathy and courage to stand against the wrong makes her an instant winner.
Ishwak brought class and grace to Ansari and Niharika rendered necessary effervescence and boldness to the role of a journalist.

Naveen Richard- Pushpavalli Season 2
In Pushpavalli, a dark comedy by very able and talented Sumukhi Suresh, Naveen as her friend Pankaj is a revelation. Naveen is unbelivably hilarious as a man who is always on the edge, constantly annoyed and angry, someone who hates kids but owns a children library. As an employer friend of Pushpavalli who is always the target of her antics, her lies and manipulations to the man who tries to woo a women to a guy who protects her friend from a stalker, Pankaj makes Naveen a kind man inside a tough exterior and he does it with excellence.
Everytime Pankaj talks smoothly to Pushpavalli is beautifully built up to hysterically creative insults at her and are the most delicious moments of the show.

Masaba Gupta – Masaba Masaba
Masaba Masaba , a Netflix original starring the daughter duo Masaba and Neena Gupta, a semi- autobiographical account of their lives did meta and mockumentary style before the recent release of the very same platform AK vs AK.
In this feel-good light watch, Masaba is effortless, real and fun. She surprised me with her natural, subtle and sincere act. Her camaraderie with her mom Neena is fire on screen and with all other seasoned actors in the show, she doesn’t look naive.The chic look she flaunts through out the series is another bonus to the show.

Maya Sarao- Thappad
Maya Sarao has made her mark as an actor to look out for with one film at a time. She was memorable in otherwise forgettable Patiala House and remarkable in poetic Aankhon Dekhi. She had her breakout moment with a powerful performance as the smart, successful and conflicted lawyer in Thappad and a women torn between her best friend and her husband in Aarya last year. With a distinctively attractive voice and a talent to steal thunder, she always stands out even amidst the most talented ensemble.

Bhuvan Arora & Dhirendra Tiwari- Chaman Bahar

In this charming small town comedy of a young pan shop owner falling for the new flame of
town, Arora and Tiwari play characters inspired by ‘the witches’ of Macbeth or we can say Pandit & Purohit from Maqbool. As the unemployed, shrewd town hustlers, they very much drive the plot.
Both Arora and Tiwari are hilarious and top notch as the agents of trouble and confusion and whenever they come on screen, there’s spark ensured.
It’s fun to watch them completely disappear into these typical village idiots with their flawless accents and body languages.

Tanya Maniktala- A Suitable Boy

In a major cinematic misfire by Mira Nair of Vikram Seth’s iconic novel, Tanya Maniktala, the beauty with dreamy, expressive eyes impressed one and all through her charming portrayal of Lata Mehra, an author backed role of a young girl confused and conflicted amongst her three suitors. She embodied the grace and courage of young woman discovering herself at the backdrop of young nation figuring out its path and made it worth to sail through the hiccups of the average show.

Raghav Juyal & Abhishek Chouhan – Bahut Hua Samman.
This unusually good, wacky and stylish satirical comedy had an ensemble of pretty talented actors in the likes of Sanjay Mishra, Ram Kapoor and Namit Das. Raghav and Abhishek are hilarious as the perpetually failing unemployed engineers whose adventures lead them into the traps of politics and mafia. Juyal is known as to be natural at comedy but Chouhan here is a discovery. The witty and funny dialogues immediately become hysterical at their ends. Their camaraderie is nothing short of Amar-Prem and Raju-Shyam and supported by the brilliance of Sanjay Mishra, together they make one great team. In this gloomy period they gave us the riotous, rib tickling opening scene of a movie. I don’t remember laughing so hard in the very long time.

Shardul Bharadwaj- Eeb Alley Ooo.
Shardul Bharadwaj is brilliant in Prateek Vats’s Eeb Alley OOO, the brave, humorous and hard hitting satire about Delhi, the nation and her migrant labourers. He nails the nuances, the pathos, foolishness, arrogance, inefficiency, curiosity, desperation and despair of the migrant Anjani. The testimony of his brilliance is that when he is placed with real life monkey repeller in a scene, you can’t distinguish between the real repeller and the actor playing it for the screen.

Pratik Gandhi- Scam 1992
Shabana Azmi rightly said in her tweet , “A star is born” after watching Pratik in Hansal Mehta’s Scam 1992. In the most powerful breakout of 2020, Gandhi as Harshad Mehta is all flesh and blood, so understated yet a live wire. He dug deep into the layers of controversial figure of Indian stock market and humanised him making him a shrewd genius rather than someone who is of sinister motives.
Pratik made Mehta and himself became immortal with his signature smirk , swag and arrogance.

Shreya Dhanwantary- Scam 1992
It took a forgettable mainstream film and two web series for Shreya to have her breakout on 2020. Scam 1992 was equally a Sucheta Dalal story along with Harshad Mehta. Shreya masterfully brought alive on screen the agitation and frustration of Dalal who showed immense courage and integrity to go after many powerful men and uncover the biggest scam of Indian stock market.
The one scene between Shreya and Pratik is a total standout, it becomes the subdued version of ‘Clash of the titans’ where they open their intentions talking smoothly and they both are just perfect nemesis to each other.

Anud Singh Dhaka- Taj Mahal, 1989

Anud as Angad in Taj Mahal, 1989 is the cutest communist character I have ever watched on screen.
As a no- nonsense, ‘sakht’ guy , Angad surprises you at every event of the series and gets the most interesting arch from someone philophobic to a boy who cares and loves.
The confidence, charisma and ease of Anud as a performer is infectious and clearly he is the finest actor amongst the young cast of the series.

Namit Das- Arya, Bahut Hua Samman & A Suitable Boy
We got to see Namit in three varied roles this year and he amazed us in each and every performance.
As the mendacious, cocaine addict Jawahar, he evoked detest. As an infertile husband of a cop, he is affable and gullible in Bhaut Hua Samman. And as a shoemaker suitor of Lata in A Suitable Boy, he brings a poise, a maturity which makes him just the ideal choice. We can’t complain of too much of Namit Das on our screens as two things we will never be short of are versatility and entertainment.

Special mention-

Anshul Chouhan – Taj Mahal, 1989

Jagjteet Sandhu – Patallok

Jay Upadhyay- Scam 1992

Who surprised you with their performances in 2020?

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