Trained to be an engineer, Vicky Kaushal arrived in Bollywood at a crucial time. Hindi cinema of the noughties had given us hits like 'Lagaan', 'Khosla ka Ghosla' and 'Chak De! India'. The cinemascape seemed to be shaking off remnants of the grand spectacles of the 1990s (from 'Hum Apke Hain Koun' to 'Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam') to tell more intimate stories of smaller towns, inspiring individuals and middle-class struggles. Kaushal started out in this milieu, as an assistant to Anurag Kashyap on 'Gangs of Wasseypur' in 2012. Three years later, he found the perfect launchpad in 'Masaan'. To be sure, he had been seen on screen before director Neeraj Ghaywan's heart-wrenching love story blazed in theatres in 2015, but 'Masaan' established him as a talent you could not look away from. On his 36th birthday, here's a look at 7 must-watch Vicky Kaushal screen appearance so far:
1. Masaan
Shot on the ghats of Varanasi, 'Masaan' is the tragic love story of a boy from the Dom community (traditionally working at the cremation grounds) and an upper-caste girl. Though stories of honour-killings were not uncommon in the newspapers in the 2010s, their shadow had not yet fallen on mainstream Hindi cinema in any meaningful way before this. Watch the film again for Vicky Kaushal and Shweta Tripathi's instant chemistry, Richa Chadha and Pankaj Tripathi's parallel storyline about an oppressive state, and Varun Grover's National Award-winning lyrics in "Tu kissi rail si guzarti hai". Masaan is streaming on Netflix.
2. Sardar Udham
Bollywood biopics have been scaling new heights in the last decade or so. Vicky Kaushal has been part of two already: first depicting freedom fighter Sardar Udham and then military man Sam Bahadur.
In 'Sardar Udham' (2021), Vicky Kaushal took audiences on a rather unusual journey. His portrayal of revolutionary Udham Singh is layered, extracting emotion from extenuating circumstance after extenuating circumstance.
As with 'Masaan', the story here (by Shubhendu Bhattacharya and Ritesh Shah) presents Kaushal with many opportunities to flesh out the character. That Udham Singh can't resist laddus, even when things are falling apart; that he can withstand hardships that bring him with an inch of his life to shoot General O'Dwyer but still hesitate to kill a man; that on the brink of death, all he wants is to be remembered as a revolutionary and a freedom fighter - it's the role of a lifetime, and Vicky Kaushal gives it the performance of a lifetime.
The film is a tad slow, and long. Make sure you bring a bit of patience with your popcorn when you stream it on Amazon Prime Video.
3. Uri: The Surgical Strike
This film has passed into pop-culture, with dialogue like "How's the Josh" becoming a stand-in for both nationalist feeling as well as enthusiasm for the task at hand. Vicky Kaushal plays Major Vihan Singh Shergill in director Aditya Dhar's 2019 film. Watch the movie on Zee5.
4. Zara Hatke Zara Bachke
Sara Ali Khan and Vicky Kaushal play a married couple living in a middle-class joint family, sharing smallish living quarters in 'Zara Hatke Zara Bachke' (2023). The couple work around constraints to find some alone time and eek out humour from a very relatable Indian problem: too many watchful eyes in overcrowded homes, and very little time or space for intimacy. Made on a budget of around Rs 40 crore, the film made over Rs 115 crore globally. Our reviewer thought Kaushal's performance in this film was reminiscent of Amol Palekar in the 1970s. The film dropped on JioCinema on May 12.
5. Love Per Square Foot
This 2018 Netflix film is all about the desire to have a room of one's own... in Mumbai. Among the most expensive real estate markets in the world, Mumbai is the perfect backdrop for this quirky story about two people who agree to marry to avail a government scheme for new apartments in the city. Along the way, they fall in love. Vicky Kaushal plays Sanjay Kumar Chaturvedi, the son of a government employee who dreams of moving out of the family's tiny ramshackle flat into a modern apartment building. He is by turns wishful and pouty and dreamy and upstanding, silly and boy-next-door in the film.
6. Vicky Kaushal dance reels
An excellent dancer, Kaushal is perhaps seen dancing in clips on social media as often as in his films. On 'The Great Indian Kapil Show' with his brother Sunny Kaushal recently, Vicky Kaushal spoke about the two of them preparing dance performances to entertain house guests and for neighbourhood events from a young age.
7. Raazi
'Raazi' (2018) was based on a true story of espionage by an untrained Indian girl who married into a high-profile Pakistani family. Vicky Kaushal played the husband and Pakistani army man with sensitivity and a sincerity that made for a truly rare occurrence: A likeable Pakistani military man in Bollywood. The film is on Amazon Prime Video.
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