On Rajkummar Rao’s birthday, Filmfare Editor-in-Chief Jitesh Pillaai celebrates the actor who has managed to keep it simple in an essentially make-believe world. From Kai Po Che! to Ludo, Trapped, Omerta, Newton, Srikanth and Badhaai Do, Rao has proven time and again that he is a seamless actor who brings a rare rawness and sincerity to every performance.
In Jitesh Pillaai’s words:
Real guys don’t finish last. They woo with integrity and solid faith and stay on top. Rajkummar Rao is a good guy. You can see it coming from miles. Be it Kai Po Che! (2013) or Ludo (2020). He will save the heroine from the villains even if he doesn’t win her.
He will abet his more flamboyant friends to win the important games. He’s a charlatan too if he wants but yet you want him to win because he’s all goodness.
You root for him in Bareilly Ki Barfi (2017) because he’s that good guy, you know. Seamless is an oft-misused word, but I can’t think of a more seamless actor. You will see it in Trapped (2016). You will see it in Omerta (2017). You will see it in Newton (2017).
What does he channel to bring in that rawness? You can see it in Srikanth (2024). And in a trice, he’s all gentle? How does he do it?
There is a minimal swagger, there is a slight bounce, there’s some amount of colourful clothes. But beneath all the goods, there is real talent. Talent which comes not from hustling but from the heart. That’s what we saw in Badhaai Do (2022).
The moral of the fable is that good guys finish first. I’ve seen many, many actors come and get bastardised by showbiz. The entourages grow longer; their entitlement grows. There’s a marked change in their performances. But Rajkummar has managed to eschew the trappings.
He’s probably seen through and understood what’s irrelevant in an essentially make-believe world. He’s managed to keep it simple. Simple is what makes life easy. Simple is what good guys do and inveigle us. Simple is nice. Rao is all that. Thank you for keeping it real…
Also Read: Editor’s Take: The World of Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Where Cinema Found Its Human Heart
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