Most memorable performances

Bhiku Matre: Mumbai ka king kaun? Many would lay claim to the crown, but when Manoj Bajpai's Bhiku Matre announced his arrival to the world via the Arabian Sea, you gave it to him. Chakravarthy played the title role in Ram Gopal Varma's Satya, but it was Bhiku who ruled the underworld and scorched the screen. Bajpai became the new screen rebel overnight and was repeatedly asked to play a more positive version of Bhiku in subsequent films. Even RGV can't have enough of Bhiku... he tried to create the riotous, flamboyant crime-world star in every film, from Company to Contract. He may be still trying.

Bhavani Shankar: Eissshhh! Utpal Dutt's Sir in Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Gol Maal has got to be the funniest character in Bollywood movie history. The man, the moochh, the madness! That hard straight stare can still send people rolling to the floor laughing. Sheer LOL! Dutt and Mukherjee tried to reprise Bhavani Shankar two years later in Naram Garam. While it was again funny, there's only one Black Pearl! In fact, Dhurandar Bhatavdekar of Rang Birangi was also hilarious. But nothing can match the magic of "dantkelaney bancharam" and "police ki maar".

Vijay : The original 6'2" anger academy, the Salim-Javed penned and Amitabh Bachchan-enacted Vijay persona not only set the cash registers ringing in Indian theatres but also introduced Bollywood to many countries and symbolised it. The anti-establishment hero gave the common man a voice of protest and a reason to celebrate. From Zanjeer to Deewaar (above) to Trishul to Kaala Patthar, the cause and backdrop might have been different, but it was the same Vijay standing up for the right, very tall, very angry. The Vijays that followed ' Shaan, Shakti, Shahenshah, Akayla, Agneepath ' were not much different, only older.

Mogambo: When Steven Spielberg saw Amrish Puri mouth "Mogambo khush hua", he might not have understood the language, but he knew he just had to cast the man. No wonder Mola Ram in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was very close to the Mogambo persona. But even Spielberg couldn't create what Shekhar Kapur did in Mr India. The comic-book tone of the character, the outlandish styling and that killer smile delivered a lethal celluloid concoction. Puri could never receive an award or accolade after 1987 without saying: "Mogambo khush hua!"

Circuit: The soul of the Munnabhai films, Arshad Warsi's Circuit is so much more than just a funny sidekick to Sanjay Dutt's Munna. A yes-man to his underworld bhai, Circuit can do just about anything to keep Munna happy, from smuggling item girls into hospitals to kidnapping Gandhian professors from colleges. But it is his inherent innocence that shines through every act and makes him one of the most loveable movie characters in the last decade. With his Bappi Lahirish fashion statement ' black kurta and dangling golds ' Circuiteshwar can bring on the laughs, any time, every time.

Bharat Bhushan : Vinay Pathak's "idiot" in Bheja Fry was not just a silly man being made fun of, but the face of aspiring India who is proud of his talent. Pompous, confident, totally unselfconscious. It was Vinay's incredible detailing in his character that took Bharat Bhushan to even greater heights. That irritating singing, the phone ' "it's ringing" ' and the indomitable eagerness to help made BB one of the most quoted characters in recent years. Of all things, perhaps it was his scrapbook with the red string that fried maximum bhejas. After all it was his "story expressed through the words of music and songs".

Gabbar Singh : Amitabh Bachchan mixed everything from Mel Gibson's Mad Max to Anthony Hopkins's Hannibal Lecter to Jack Nicholson's Joker, but his Babban was not a patch on Gabbar. Because to Gabbar, Amjad Khan, helped by the superb script of Salim-Javed, had brought a raw vitality and a lethal body language not seen on screen before. The Sholay character became the epitome of evil, pure evil, a legend, a benchmark never achieved later in Bollywood. Dostana may claim that Gabbar was gay, but who cares? He was simply great.

Maa: "Mere paas maa hai" Indian cinema is incomplete without Maa. From Sulochana to Nirupa Roy, Rakhee to Reema Lagoo, the mother was the fulcrum of a Hindi film. Regardless of the storyline, she was always the same. She would be paranoid about the hero's late nights, be sceptical about his chosen heroine, be wary about the company he keeps and would definitely show up in a kidnapped state in the climax to tilt the balance in the villain's favour, temporarily. And every time you thought how a mother could get so silly and irritating, she would reiterate: "Main teri maa hoon beta." Oui maa! Though she has gone somewhat missing from the current crop of films, perhaps because mothers wear jeans now and even show cleavage?

Langda Tyagi: Ian McKellen to Kenneth Branagh, some of the best actors in the world have played Othello's Iago but Saif Ali Khan is right up there when it comes to this character reinterpreted. And that's why he is on this list, because empowered by Vishal Bhardwaj's adaptation, Saif was able to take Iago out of the Bard's book and give birth to an all-new character in Langda Tyagi. In a reptilian performance laced with black humour, Saif in Omkara is almost a modern-day Gabbar, uncouth, unnerving and unrelenting. You wouldn't want to be around him because the water below is cold.

Geet: The reason why Kareena Kapoor's Jab We Met makes it here and Hema Malini's Basanti from Sholay doesn't is because you wouldn't like to put the cotton balls in your ears a la Jai when Geet starts talking. Just like Basanti, she can talk a bit too much but you wouldn't mind listening to her. More than the fun and games, Kareena's Geet in the Imtiaz Ali film was a personification of life itself, a rare sight in the plastic, pretentious writing that is Bollywood. "Main apni favourite hoon," she had announced gleefully. She was not the only one.