wknd: Too hot to handle?

A new brood of young actors are making the mistake of replacing cockiness with consistency

They're in their 20s, carefully groomed, extensively publicised to ensure a growing fan base, and are frequently guided by mentors. The trouble is that none of them can act for nuts.

Believe me that's not a careless generalisation. I've been monitoring their films and performances (or the lack thereof) and do wonder if that precious art of acting has been replaced by, well, doing their number somehow before the camera. I speak of Arjun Kapoor, Siddharth Malhotra, Ranveer Singh, all of who are 29 years old, and Varun Dhawan who's 27. Now do I hear their admirers protesting? I'll take that in my stride, but not before stating the reasons for my utter dismay.

And I won't use the easy cachet of zipping back to the distant or near past, weighing these Bollywood heroes in the scale of the actors of yore. Just no comparison there.

This quartet may have toted mega-hits (and downers, of course) and are badgered with more offers than each one of them can handle in a lifetime. Rope in any one of them, and the trade buyers are willing to loosen their purse strings " not to the extent that they do for the Khans, Akshay Kumar, Ranbir Kapoor or Ajay Devgn. Nevertheless, the four are scalding hot property in a business where accomplished actors " and not just glamorous stars " have always been in short supply.

The common factor between Arjun Kapoor and Siddharth Malhotra is that they cannot deliver lines of dialogue with any semblance of ease. This can be sourced to their lack of voice modulation, throw and pitch of dialogue, expressiveness. Or even the inability to memorise lines of dialogue in Hindi, conveying the impression that they are being prompted with cue cards. Sure, Hindi cinema has moved over largely to Hinglish, it is claimed, to reflect the argot of the times. Like it or not, Hindustani (a blend of Hindi and Urdu) is deader than a dodo.

Most young actors think in English, it would seem, and translate the Hindi assigned to them, often with jarring pronunciation. Even this would be acceptable, but Arjun Kapoor could not utter a single sentence without punctuating it with a pause, in Gunday as well asTwo States. Waiting for him to complete a line of dialogue " with a constantly singular deadpan facial expression " can be jangling on the nerves, besides wasting screen time. As for Siddharth Malhotra, he has got by so far, presumably because writers and directors of his films (Hansee Toh Phansee, Ek Villain) are aware that he cannot handle dialogue and have projected him as a man of few words.

Admittedly, Arjun Kapoor did make an auspicious start withIshaqzaade, in the role of a small-town tough guy, without displaying the now-permanent goofball grin and self-consciousness in his body language. After that, it's been downhill, the slide beginning with his double role in Aurangzeb, which gave me a severe case of the heebie-jeebies. Instant success does affect wannabe actors. They assume that "I'm hot and happening" cockiness, forgetting that it's consistency and growth in their craft which will keep them there. In the event, I do hope that Arjun Kapoor gets his elementary principles right before he regresses further. This can be achieved if actors trust their scripts and directors. Or their careers end up hinge-ing on the number of accidental hits than accomplished pieces of acting.

Siddharth Malhotra, especially liked for his classic good looks by female audiences, underplays his parts to a fault. Not surprisingly, then, Parineeti Chopra turned out to be the hero' of Hansee Toh Phansee, and he the decorative object. Breaking into those mandatory dances, has been an issue right from his debut in Student of the Year, in which he laboriously tried to keep pace in an elaborately choreographed set-piece with Alia Bhatt and Varun Dhawan. He needs to relax, conceal the impression that he's acting'. Or else, his background as a fashion model will linger.

Over to Ranveer Singh: he hasn't quite escaped the groove of the boisterous wedding planner of Band Baaja Baarat, not for a lack of opportunities though. The proverbial enthu cutlet', his tendency is to overact, if not ham. One hallmark of a competent actor is to be an integral part of a scene, without making his presence obtrusive. When he needs to remain silent, do nothing while other characters are enacting their bit, Ranveer Singh is totally out of his comfort zone.

Like an unruly kid in a playground, he craves to be noticed. Subtle or reflective moments are not for him. Not surprisingly, he looked like a punished little Jack Horner sitting in a corner in Lootera. Pitch a leading lady who knows her acting chops against him, and he's overshadowed. Despite his high-energy dances in Goliyon ki Raasleela: Ram-Leela, it's no secret that he wasn't an adequate match for Deepika Padukone.

To come to Varun Dhawan, he's actually the most promising of the quartet, given his pleasant screen presence and a rudimentary grasp of the quotients of action, dance, comedy and drama. But here's the catch: why is he apeing Govinda as he did in Main Tera Hero? Alright, his father David Dhawan may believe that there's a vacuum to be filled. After all, Govinda was his Hero No 1. In Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya, as a frisky Delhi dude, the upcoming actor was okay. If you ask me, Dhawan Jr deserves a better career planner. Or else, he'll end up as a Govinda clone.