Journey of Actors : Nawazuddin Siddiqui

Last Updated on : 19th May, 2015

My most Loved Movies :
Gangs of Wasseypur > Kahaani > Badlapur > The Lunchbox > Talaash

Disliked Movies :
Aatma, Miss Lovely

Yet to Watch :
Seen all where he had big enough role. Liar’s Dice I guess hasn’t released in India yet?

Fav Songs :
Kaala rey (Gangs of Wasseypur II), Moora (Gangs of Wasseypur II), Emosanal Atyachar (Dev.D)

Best Scene :
Sabka Badla Lega (Gangs of Wasseypur II), Congratulating watchman (Bombay Talkies), Permisan (Gangs of Wasseypur I)

Fav Jodi :
Huma Qureshi in Gangs of Wasseypur and Badlapur.


Nawazuddin Siddiqui has become a famous name in Hindi Film Industry at present, but his journey to fame was full of struggle.

In 1999, his first movie ‘Sarfarosh’ came with Aamir in which he played an extra (a criminal). And then followed a series of movies, ‘Munnabhai MBBS’ (pick-pocketer), ‘Black Friday’ (interrogation scene with kay kay menon), 'Dev D' (remember the 2 singers performing emosanal atyachar song on stage, he was one of them), ‘New York’(excellent two min monologue) and ‘Peepli Live’ (a journalist). In all these movies, he hardly had 3-5 mins screen time.

The transition from blink and miss roles to supporting/lead roles happened for him after 13 years, i.e 2012. 'Paan Singh Tomar' had him in a negative shade (police informer) getting good appreciation and then came ‘Kahaani’ where he held his own as the short tempered IB officer, despite presence of Vidya Balan, and it was his 1st role where he was smartly dressed in suits.

But the movie that changed his career completely was 'Gangs of Wasseypur I & II'. How well he lived upto the standards set by Manoj Bajpayee in 1st part, telling us that he has the capability to carry the film on his own. I can never forget that dialogue ‘baap ka, dada ka, sabka badla lega tera faisal’ or that epic ‘permisan’ scene with Huma Qureshi with whom he shared excellent chemistry on screen.

He got good recognition for ‘Miss Lovely’, based on 1980’s sleazy C grade horror movies and it got screened at various festivals including Cannes and Toronto. Nawazuddin got a chance to work with Aamir again in ‘Talaash’ albeit in a much longer supporting role and he didn’t let us down here either.

Dibakar Banerjee’s short film in ‘Bombay Talkies’ had Nawazuddin reciting famous hindi film dialogues in one of film’s longest wide shot scene, and the story of short is relatable to Nawazuddin’s real life.











His film ‘Lunchbox' might had even won a oscar had our film federation been sensible by sending movie to oscars. Nevertheless, the film had Nawazuddin in a very good supporting role where he outshines Irrfan Khan in some scenes - can you imagine that?





He didn't limit himself to just character roles, by doing a horror flick ‘Aatma’ which didn’t work but was a good experience to see him in a different genre. He also tried commercial cinema with ‘Kick’ where for first time we saw him doing a larger than life role and hamming completely with that evil laugh quite effectively, though I would certainly like him not fall in this commercial trap, and do it only once a while.

His latest offering ‘Badlapur’ has met with unanimous applause for his performance.

Nawazuddin tends to play realistic characters with ease along with dark comic touch and mannerisms he provides. He may not have the good looks, but as he mentioned once in a  interview ‘good looks can make you hero, not actor’.

It would be fun to see him in a cop role chasing Shahrukh in Rahul Dholakia’s upcoming film ‘Raaes’. Also keenly awaiting to see him in ‘Haraamkhor’.






Special Mention : Watch a terrific short film named ‘Bypass’ that was shot in 2003, its a 15 min duration movie with no dialogues and Irrfan is also part of it. Here’s the link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCRBY9ss-58

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Movie Analysis : Bombay Velvet

Directed by : Anurag Kashyap
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2979920/


Anurag Kashyap can go wrong too, poor screenplay lets the film down. 

10 years in the making, a Anurag Kashyap movie with Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma in main leads, it would increase expectations of anyone who has followed Kashyap cinema closely. However, Bombay Velvet ends up as a major disappointment.

Its early 60’s of Bombay and Johnny Balraj (Ranbir Kapoor) wants to become a big shot. From earning a living through street fighter along with his friend Chiman (Satyadeep Mishra), they become henchmen for  Kaizad Khambhata (Karan Johar) who is editor of ‘Torrent’ and also a top wheel-dealer. Kaizad has a liking for Johnny and makes him in-charge of his club ‘Bombay Velvet’. Jimmy Mistry (Manish Chaudhury), editor of ‘Glitz’ and former friend of Kaizad, keeps coming in their way. And then there’s Jimmy’s mistress Rosie (Anushka Sharma) who he sends to Johnny and find an important negative that could ruin the entire city. Rosie becomes a Jazz singer at Bombay Velvet but eventually falls in love with Johnny too. Will Johnny succeed in becoming a Big Shot, and what will he do when he finds out the truth about Rosie?

Based on Gyan Prakash's book ‘Mumbai Fables’, there is so much to love in Bombay Velvet. For instance the brilliant production design by Sonal Sawant. The sets created in Sri Lanka gives you the feel of Bombay in 50’s and 60’s shown in the movie. Niharika Khan’s costumes reminds of good old mobster movies like Scorsese’s Goodfellas, he even gets a special mention before opening credits. Amit Trivedi’s soundtrack brings out the Jazz world post independence beautifully, and so does his background score. Also, Hollywood editor Thelma Schoonmaker (known most for her Scorsese edited movies) edits the movie pretty nicely.

But a movie can’t simply work on basis of technical brilliance. Its the screenwriting and Kashyap’s execution that fails the movie. Yes even Kashyap got it wrong. The screenplay is so shaky that it never engages you after the 1st act of establishing the characters is done.  The second act and the climax is disappointing, even the Tommy Guns homage to Scarface in few sequences makes no impact whatsoever. And it frustrates you a hell lot because the visuals are stunning, the atmosphere is well created and there are actors who give very good performances, yet it turns out to be not enough at all.

Johnny-Rosie love story is weakly handled thereby the chosen end to it doesn’t really affect you. Would had been better if they focussed on the crime drama and the political angle more instead. There’s a unwanted twin angle, a character trying to split two friends, climax involving strange funny villain-lead actor interaction, all these cliches in a Kashyap movie pretty much sums up Bombay Velvet.

Amit Trivedi’s music is fantastic, and is used in the narrative very well.  ‘Dhadaam Dhadaam’ stands out for the emotions and intensity Anushka brings out in it plus the drama Kashyap sets in that sequence. ‘Fifi’ different version used is good too. So, is ‘Sylvia’ again for Anushka’s lip syncing. Special mention to ‘Aam Hindustani’ track at opening credits which sets the mood for Jazz beautifully. My personal favorite ‘Bombay Velvet theme’ is used aptly at many places in narrative.

In the performances, Ranbir Kapoor is fantastic as power hungry protagonist,  watch the scene where he watches a movie on screen and later practices those two keywords in mirror ‘Big Shot’. Or when he decides to betray Kaizad without worrying about its aftereffects,  or when he loses someone very dear to him due to his decisions. Wish they worked on his greed angle in detail. Its sad that such a performance goes down wasted due to a bad movie.

Anushka Sharma gets the Jazz singing act perfectly, but its her character sketch that is inconsistent, for instance her first violent scene comes out of no where and you never come to know when and how exactly she fell in love with Johnny. Could had been great if her character was given more motives.

Karan Johar in his first major role as an actor (seen before in films like DDLJ), that too in a negative role does reasonably well, and is surprisingly so restrained. Watch out the scene where he is in conversation with Johnny and Chimman, and has to come out of room to have a loud laugh all alone. There are hints of homosexual behavior in just  a few scenes, one of its dialogue gives a good laugh too.

Raveena Tandon makes a special appearance, surprisingly was expecting a cameo, probably edited out. She looked extremely gorgeous in the jazz singer looks.

Kay Kay Menon is terribly wasted, and gets some of worst possible dialogues along with that unusual last scene.  Only Satyadeep Mishra shines among the rest cast, playing friend of Johnny effectively.


Bombay Velvet works only for its performances and specially the technical aspects but you expect lot more from a Kashyap movie. In the end he is also human, as his most ambitious movie turns out to be very much forgettable.


Verdict : 2.5/5 

Movie Analysis : Piku

Directed by : Shoojit Sircar
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3767372/

Lovely and sweet take on Father-Daughter relationship by Shoojit with excellent performances by all 3 leads. 

After giving successful and quality films like Vicky Donor and Madras Cafe, Shoojit Sircar is back with yet another terrific movie Piku.

An architect by profession, Piku’s (Deepika Padukone) day begins and ends with her father’s, Bhaskor (Amitabh Bachchan) highly irritating ideologies. They are Bengalis living in CR Park of Delhi. Rana (Irrfan Khan), is owner of Taxi company, whose taxi Piku always books for office or any other places she needs to go. And all the drivers are scared of her, because of her arrogant nature. Bhaskor decides to go on a road trip basically to his ancestral home in Kolkata, and Rana finds himself tangled into the trip as his drivers don’t turn up on the morning. And so begins the journey from Delhi to Kolkata, with Rana, Piku, Bhaskor, their servant and a special chair.

In the first scene of the movie, Shoojit shows a conversation between Piku and her dad, where she asks him to go inside toilet instead of roaming around house, to which he replies that he knows his system much better, she tries again but to no avail and annoyingly leaves for her office, and its followed by 'directed by' credits. Quite a wonderful way of telling viewers what kind of relationship to expect between Piku and her dad. Piku’s dad has a fixed thinking over various matters and has habit of bringing his constipation topic into the talks. While Piku shows frustration at not having her own life, with a child-like dad who even sends her office receptionist conspitation related message. She has no social life, and her dad doesn’t want her to get married because according to him marriage is meant for girls who have no I.Q.

What is beautiful about this movie is the subtle way Shoojit handles moments that in any other movie would be either very dramatic or over the top. For e.g., the romantic pairing of Piku and Rana comes across as very real despite no scene where they both admit love for each other. Infact, there are times when you think ‘Now they will, its surely going to go that way’, but it doesn’t. Add to it, the climax is so surprisingly good and unique to describe it in best way.

If you got a father who is ageing, who likes to stick to his beliefs and irritates you, would you stay together with him, or leave him because you also demand your own social and personal space? The movie touches this subject, but it never preaches us as we see Piku give her everything for her father whom she loves even though we see her get angry on him many times.

The plot of movie is pretty simple but its the narrative that keeps you hooked with excellent screenplay and dialogue writing by Juhi Chaturvedi. She gives us characters about a typical Indian family who are very relatable and whose conversations leads to many joyous and interesting moments.  Dialogues are witty at times, but always realistic making the conversations delight to watch.

In one of the scenes, Bhaskor gives reference to her daughter as ‘She is financially, emotionally and sexually independent'. And there’s a scene where Bhaskor is singing a Bengali song during road trip, with Rana driving as Bhaskor tells Rana meaning of song since being a non-bengali he (and we viewers) wouldn’t know. He tells its meaning ‘this journey should never end’, and Rana quickly tells him to change song ‘koi aisa gaana gao jiska koi matlab ho’.

Anupam Roy’s music and background score is simple and gels well with Shoojit’s vision. Bezubaan, the best track of movie has the cinematographer Kamaljeet Negi showing us some very good shots of Kolkata. No song is used in totality, as Shoojit uses them in background mainly.

Only low points of the film would be, the bengali accent at places was missing and the 2nd half was slightly on slower side though the screenplay and performances negates that to larger extent.

Performances wise, the trio Deepika, Amitabh and Irrfan are fantastic. Its a dream star-cast, and as expected they didn’t falter even in a single scene. Deepika Padukone gets larger screen time, and its one of her best performance outdoing ‘Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani’.  Amitabh Bachchan is so lovable in a role where he plays his own age, and behaves like a child like character who gets sad to know that nothing bad came out in his medical reports. Irrfan Khan may have lesser dialogues, but his body language is enough to impress. His unusual pairing with Deepika works so well specially the silent moments he shares with her, he effortlessly brings a smile on your face.

Moushumi Chatterjee is in top form playing Piku’s maternal aunt role with utmost ease. Good to see her in a hindi movie after a long gap. Jishu Sengupta is effective too in his small role, playing partner of Piku at her work place.


Piku is a lovely sweet movie that you will enjoy. Its entertaining and at times it also makes you emotional. With powerful performances by everyone, its a movie to be watched in theatre. In 10 years time, Piku would be talked along with classics like Golmaal, Angoor, Chupke Chupke etc.


Verdict : 4/5 

Sneak Peek : Piku - Father-Daughter Jodis in Hindi Movies

With Piku releasing tomorrow,  lets have a look at some of best Father-Daughter Jodi’s in our movies since 1990 (seen very less movies before that).



1. Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge 

Amrish Puri - Kajol
Amrish played a very strict father to Kajol, who would believe that his daughter would never disagree or hurt his feelings. That was the time when Amrish Puri was most likable actor in father roles (before Amitabh took over). And who can forget that dialogue ‘Jaa simran jaa, jee le apni zindagi’.


2. Maine Pyar Kiya 

Alok Nath - Bhagyashree
Bhagyashree was like that sweet and innocent daughter, with Alok Nath coming to her rescue in a scene where Salman’s family questions her status. Apart from that, another scene that I love is when Alok realizes Salman is perfect guy for his daughter. I know these days Alok Nath is just a person to make fun of for those sanskaar jokes, but for me he remains as one of very good actors our Industry has had, this movie just a small e.g. of it.


3.  Gupt 

Paresh Rawal - Kajol
So here was a father who tried every possible way to protect and hide his daughter’s wrong doings. He even  takes the blame of murders she commits on himself. Kajol’s performance in negative role was widely praised, and Paresh Rawal was quite effective too.


4. Kya Kehna

Anupam Kher - Preity Zinta
Priety played role of a pregnant girl whose lover refuses to marry her. There was the routine drama ‘what will society say’ scene from Anupam when she decides to give birth to the child. Anupam Kher’s love for her daughter was seen in one of best scenes of movie where he gets angry at Priety’s brothers for keeping her chair at dining table, and few minutes later he apologizes to them as they start finding her together. Easily one of those films where father-daughter plot had a bigger part to play.


5. Mohabbatein 

Amitabh Bachchan - Aishwarya Rai
Although they both shared very less screen-time in movie, it was so lovely to watch the duo together. She plays role of a girl who falls in love with a guy from Gurukul that is run by his father. The same ‘You can’t love/marry someone against my wish’ comes into play.  Love the final emotional scene in the flashback where Aishwarya kills herself telling she can never betray his father but she can’t live without him either. Special mention to how beautiful Aishwarya looked in the Indian attire in this movie.



Most of these movies have Father-Daughter relationship as sub-plots, but Piku looks like completely based on it from its excellent promos and could well be the movie to talk about in future if it turns out to be very good.

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Dialogue Promos : Bombay Velvet

With 10 days to go for the release of the film … Three new Dialogue Promos of Bombay Velvet are out ..

1st one has Vivaan Shah dialogue with shots of Ranbir-Anushka fights.



2nd covers the main theme, and Ranbir’s ‘Naaice to meet you’ line. New shot of Karan too.



3rd has a fun conversation between Ranbir and Anushka that is pretty non-interesting, could well do with chopping this one off the film.

Trailer : Hamari Adhuri Kahani

The story is based on real life love triangle between parents of Mahesh Bhatt and his stepmother.

I am slightly disappointed with the trailer, as I didn’t knew Rajkumar Rao would be playing a husband who treats his wife (played by Vidya Balan) badly, and tortures her. Plus, the starting dialogues of Emraan Hashmi are soooooo loud, why?

Leaving that asides, the trailer is still pretty likable. There’s that very good romantic feel in the scenes of Emraan-Vidya, good chemistry they share which was visible even in ‘The Dirty Picture’ as well as ‘Ghanchakkar’.

Also, the emotional side to Vidya’s story, although its slightly manipulative due to that husband character they have put on, but the dialogues are very good ‘yeh raatein mujhe ghere huye hai, kya tum mujhe mera ateeth bula sakte ho’.

And then, there is reliable music of Mithoon and Jeet Ganguly, the title track used in trailer sounds good, will have to wait for its promo though to make a proper opinion.

Important movie for Emraan and Vidya, whose films in last 2 years haven’t been memorable at all.

Hoping director Mohit Suri delivers a great romantic movie this time, something on the lines of ‘Awarapan’, his last three movies did give a hint that he is coming closer to it.


Isse jyada takleef kya hogi mujhe ki maut nahi, zindagi daraati hai tumhe… 
Akelapan nahi, pyar daraata hai tumhe!
Nahi kar sakti pyaar, kuch mehsoos nahi kar sakti.

Movie Analysis : Gabbar is Back

Directed by : Krish
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2424988/

Not a good follow-up to Baby, yet another forgettable Akshay movie. 

We saw Akshay Kumar in ‘Baby’ just 3 months back, and how much did we loved him doing that movie. One look at his filmography and you would notice that his best films are followed with 2-3 bad movies. The pattern continues here, as ‘Gabbar is Back’ fails to make any mark.

Aditya (Akshay Kumar) is a professor at National college where he teaches his students how to fight against corruption. Its a college where police is not allowed inside, yes! Aditya’s mission is much bigger, he is a vigilante in the name of ‘Gabbar’ (the iconic Amjad Khan character from Sholay) who wants to kill the most corrupted government officials just to create his terror amongst them and eliminate corruption from the system. Is Gabbar doing all this just to help the youth, or there are more reasons behind his actions?

Why would you reveal entire action scenes through graphics right at the opening credits? Then you see Shruti Hassan being a lawyer knowing how to deliver a pregnant woman’s kid in a car. There are higher ranked police officers who sit in Police Station and do nothing to find Gabbar, except for constantly making fun of constable Sadhu (Sunil Grover), and there are Samosa/chutney jokes.  Gabbar hangs dead bodies high up in air in public places, but no one ever notices, how come? Digvijay Patil (Suman Talwar) who plays a industrialist, keeps shouting one dialogue ‘I am the brand’.  And he invites people at his birthday party with his face masks on them knowing Gabbar is looking to find a way to reach to him, wow so smart! Also, his performance was way too loud. I can go on and on with the loopholes.

The only scene worth praise was the hospital one where Gabbar deals with corrupted doctors in best possible manner.

Many cliches like cameo of Kareena Kapoor Khan involving  a flashback sequence which only reduces the impact of ‘Gabbar’ angle or Shruti-Akshay romantic angle that doesn’t work too, infact I am still wondering why was she even in the film. Also, the social message is carried out with a long preaching dialogue sequence. And there’s a very comical building collapse scene too.

Since 'Gabbar is Back’ is a remake of Tamil movie, Ramanaa, we see plenty of south style action which isn’t new to us. The background score is loud, but the reworked 'Sholay Gabbar’ signature tune used at various places is a respite to ears. Rajat Arora once used to give powerful punchlines, his dialogues are again a huge disappointment in this movie, the only one that stays with you is ’naam se villain, kaam se hero’.

Music by Yo Yo Honey Singh, Chirantan Bhatt and Manj Musik is ordinary with only ‘Teri Meri Kahaani’ track that sounds okay, while there is a regressive item song ‘kundi na tharkaayo’ which features Chitrangada Singh, a fine actress busy doing these songs these days, what a pity!

Sunil Grover impresses the most among plenty of T.V actors in the movie, might just help him get good supporting roles in future which would be really nice.

Govind Namdev, Nikitin Dheer and Jaideep Ahlawat are wasted in the movie.

Akshay Kumar is always lovely to watch in action oriented plots with perfect dose of humor, his beard look is pretty good too but I wasn’t pleased with his dialogue delivery that looked more filmy than real, and it didn’t help either that some of those  dialogues were Amjad Khan’s famous lines. Yet he lets you survive the film till the end, a statement very common with his movies more often than not.


'Gabbar is Back’ is a movie that has no logic, no romantic plots to emotionally invest in and it entertains in small parts only. Watch if you are a die hard Akshay Kumar fan, else skip it.


Verdict : 1.5/5