Matchpoint: Deepika

Now, why am I not surprised The very actors, directors and power-brokers, who had once dismissed her either as just another pretty face or as an actress who looks good but acts bad, are now eating their words for breakfast, lunch and dinner. She’s been declared the multi-crore heroine (meaning top membership in the `200-crore club). But if you ask me, more accurately she deserves the title of Heroine No. 1 — an honorific which was last justly deserved by Sridevi and then, Madhuri Dixit. Actually, the ascent of Deepika Padukone is the kind of Bollywood story that dreams are made of. Melikes. Since I’d heard so many of her peers bitch her out, I’d wonder if the girl who debuted at the age of 21 in Om Shanti Om (2007) possessed the skill to walk the tightrope. Or would she fall flat on her face Squelchers like, “Once she opens her mouth, you’ll head for the hills” or “She’s much too caught up with her boyfriends” have been rescinded this year, courtesy the hat-trick of hits Race 2 (never mind if it was a brain-basher), Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and Chennai Express. Plus there’s the upcoming Ram Leela and the Rajinikanth opus Kochadaiyyan. The year has been a whooper. But as Shabana Azmi once famously declared, “Attaining popularity is tough, to retain it is tougher.” Now something tells me, Deepika Padukone despite quite a few career lapses in the initial phases, will consolidate her status instead of frittering it away on ill-selected projects or turbulence in her private life. Rumours about a liaison with her Ram Leela hero, Ranveer Singh — who does have this tendency of being a braggart — are correctly being subverted. No lovey-dovey Ibiza beach vacations for this heroine, no controversial quotes on Koffee with Karan either. Woohoo, remember she’d even used the c-word — condom — on a prime time show And if the tabloids continue to yammer about rekindled vibes with Ranbir Kapoor, let them. Ummm, she never looked quite comfortable in the company of Sidhartha Mallya, did she Forgive oneself and forget. Now why am I not ranting this Sunday Er, like I usually do. It’s simply because praise must be accorded when it’s deserved. In fact, I truly think that Deepika’s delicately modulated performance in Love Aaj Kal as a soft spoken art restorer, and a gutsy one of the I-care-a-damn extroverts in Cocktail (her entry scene into a nightclub is a rocker), were majorly undervalued. Indeed on a TV show, directors and writers had waxed eloquent about their heroines, none of them being objective or sporting enough to mention half-a-kind word for the actress’ subtle performance in Love Aaj Kal, or the complex one of a young woman dealing with the male protagonist’s schizophrenia in Karthik versus Karthik. And there was talk that Kareena Kapoor hit the roof when Imtiaz Ali, after Jab We Met, didn’t re-cast her in Love Aaj Kal. It seems the director had detected the wistful and vulnerable traits about Deepika. Right. Come to think of it, no competent actor can make the grade, if he or she isn’t capable of springing surprises — or going beyond set mannerisms and cosmetic glamour. It was that goofball, Goldie Hawnish act in Chennai Express and the mousy Cinderella-turned-hottie of Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, which saw Deepika using every smart trick of spontaneity in the acting book. The 27-year-old daughter of the revered badminton champ, Prakash Padukone, is playing it right. My fingers and toes are tightly crossed.