Where Does Ranbir Kapoor Go From Here?

Bollywood’s Rockstar has not had a hit in four years. With contemporaries sailing past him in box office earnings and popularity, the magic seems to be waning. Ae Dil Hai Mushkil feels like Kapoor’s desperate attempt to hold on to relevance and stardom.

- Arnesh Ghose

You know there’s something wrong when, in just five years, an actor goes from Rocket Singh to Roy. Ranbir Kapoor has always been lauded for his film choices, often startling us with films that his peers would not necessarily take a chance on. Here was a mainstream actor from Bollywood’s first family, choosing small budget projects, ensemble films and noir indies — not to mention that he was striking a cool balance with glitzy romances too. What went wrong with the Ranbir Kapoor magic-a-thon, then?

Let me get something out of the way: he’s a fantastic actor. He has an expansive emotional reservoir from which he has the rare ability to draw nuanced performances, immaculately crafted to come across as genuine. He has proven himself to be responsible and charismatic enough to shoulder a film all by himself, turns out natural and believable performances in an industry given to OTT and melodrama, has been able to break through the clutter and etch out memorable characters, has only once fallen prey to the herd mentality while choosing films based on “trending” and even has quite a strong funny bone. Ranbir Kapoor is undeniably the perfect package.