Rate your best Ajay Devgan performance!

It may appear rather easy for an actor to play an actor in a film. But the fine line does blur at times, making the reel and real merge to create its own unique magic.

Halla Bol bunches several headline-hitting social issues together and sets it against the struggles of a reel-life hero to emulate his screen image in real life. Ajay rises to the occasion and in the safe hands of director Rajkumar Santoshi, matches up to his formidable on-screen guru, Pankaj Kapur.

Agreed, Saif Ali Khan garnered the most effusive praise for his Landga Tyagi but isn't that obvious given that his was a more colourful role? Omkara wouldn't have been possible without Omi, the title character, who gives an interesting twist to the Shakespearean Othello.

What's more, the female fans found the bare-chested (for a change) Ajay hotter than Saif, who too drops his shirt but never quite charms the way he usually does. This is Ajay's game, all the way!

Performance Rating: 8/10

This emotional statement on single parenthood and mental illness is to Ajay's career what Mera Naam Joker was to Raj Kapoor. Both are akin to a parent's handicapped son given special attention and all that you could and be proud of it no matter how the son grows up to be.

Like Mera Naam Joker, Main Aisa Hi Hoon was a box office disaster but Ajay has often considered it to be one of his best performances. We only have this to add: it's an honest attempt.

Performance Rating: 7/10

This was a role custom-written for Ajay a doomed lover arrives at the doors of his ex-lover in a state of poverty and their romance is rekindled. The actor brings in the device of reticence and uses it as a contrast to Aishwarya Rai's aristocratic, happy-sounding housewife.

The fact that he was working with Rituparno Ghosh for the first time gives his acting a different direction handled maturely by the Bengali filmmaker.

The real love story that was playing out between Salman Khan and Aishwarya Rai and the publicity it drew eclipsed Ajay's gentle performance.

He's a lawyer, madly in love with his wife and yet understands that if she's unhappy with him, it would make him equally unhappy. He commits to an act of ultimate sacrifice. Reminds one of Naseeruddin Shah in Woh 7 Din?

Alright, let's make it much simpler: if there's any film that would define Ajay Devgn, the actor, at the end of his career, it would be Zakhm.

Mahesh Bhatt's intensely autobiographical story set against the 1992 riots, it represents the hardships a mother undergoes to bring up her kid and a son's dilemmas and delights. Every scene is a gem and Ajay stands like a rock in all. No wonder, it won him a National Award.