Shahid Kapoor is an actor par excellence, but I don't think he has box-office pull. In fact, apart from Kabir Singh, most of his movies have flopped left, right and centre. I don't think he has great script sense, either. Despite being good-looking, charming and a great dancer as well as extremely competent actor, he lacks fan-following. I don't think people are staunch fans of his. They would prefer to watch a Ranbir or Ranveer than him.
Just came across this write-up on him on Quora and am quoting it here:
"Very, very underrated…and yes, I will give you my reasons.
Shahid Kapoor made his debut with the film ‘Ishq Vishq’ in 2003. It was not exactly a great film- I would call it extremely cliched and predictable- but he did win some awards for his debut performance and soon had a decent fan-following. Things improved further when he continued his glamorous avatar in the film ‘Fida’ which was released next year and he was soon a new heartthrob of Bollywood. He looked fairly handsome, had a good physique and he could shake his left leg better than any other newcomer at that time.
‘Fida’ might not be a great film either but it also showcased, in my opinion, that Kapoor could act as well apart from look good as a new age chocolate boy hero. Admittedly, while the second half is indeed all hokey, Kapoor’s turnaround- transforming from a naive, besotted lover to a stealthy avenger- was quite convincing and he easily outshone his fellow leads- the insipid Fardeen Khan and the hammy Kareena Kapoor.
What happened next? A slew of mostly bad films- don’t even get me started on names like ‘Vaah! Life Ho Toh Aisi’ (what was the talented Mahesh Manjrekar thinking when he made this?), ‘Dil Maange More’ (perhaps the most family-friendly of all Anant Mahadevan’s films), ’36 China Town’ (even Abbas-Mustan can go disastrously wrong at times), ‘Chup Chup Ke’ (a warning that Priyadarshan was now losing his mojo), ‘Vivah’ (Sooraj Barjatya’s love-letter to the primitive 90s-mindset made in 2006) and ‘Fool N Final’ (was it even an actual film in the first place?)
And then he starred in ‘Jab We Met’ and even as his female counterpart Kareena Kapoor hogged all the praise- and deservedly so- this was the first time we noticed the quiet, sensitive actor inside this young boy. Boy, if you notice the way how Shahid underplays his Aditya, you will be amazed. The film needed an effective foil against Geet’s boisterous nature and even as Aditya becomes an endearing hero, full of charisma and warmth in the second half, his transformation is delightful and never overdone.
That film proves that even those bad films had Kapoor playing it straight, doing his job. The problem with our film industry is that we always judge whether a film did well at the box office or not and some of us always judge films on the basis of critics’ reviews. Fine. But Kapoor was never hammy or bad as an actor even in those films. He was merely doing his job- being the good boy that he had to be in these sloppy films. It is just that we did not notice it before ‘Jab We Met’- an actually good film that showcased his hidden talents.
And even then, he was seriously underrated. Sure, he did many a patchy film after that- ‘Kismat Connection’ (yawn), ‘Dil Bole Hadippa’ (yawn), ‘Chance Pe Dance’ (yawn, yawn, yawn), ‘Badmaash Company’ (interesting but eventually yawn) and the list goes on- but in none of these films, you can fault his acting. He played these roles well enough and it is the films that let him down.
He did ‘Kaminey’ and proved that he was one hell of an actor waiting for the right film. Pulling off a double role- without resorting to the usual cliches- and blending both sincerity and evil, both vulnerability and toughness in both characters is not an easy task and Kapoor shone throughout. And yet, it always amazes me how little did his performance got noticed. Well, then everyone was so solid in ‘Kaminey’.
He made some bad decisions after that but he bounced back 5 years later with ‘Haider’ which was his finest hour (he was doing Shakespeare, man!). Since that he has been on a roll- with both ‘Shaandaar’ (yes, I know it sucked but he was darn good) and ‘Udta Punjab’ (wow, that was some performance in a great film) and he will be better and greater than ever from now on.
And people and critics should stop judging him on the basis of his failures. Saif Ali Khan spent the entire 90s in bad films and then proved himself with solid performances and movies in the 2000s. Do we judge him too on the basis of those bad films? I had heard some people comparing Varun Dhawan in ‘Badlapur’ to Kapoor, saying that Dhawan had reinvented himself right in his fourth film while Kapoor did it after such a long time. Well, they may be right since Dhawan too is talented but Kapoor has gone through a long run and done enough variety to handle quite versatile roles. Meanwhile, Dhawan is merely again trapped in romantic comedies when he can do so much more."
I completely agree with the above reasoning.
What are your thoughts on Shahid Kapoor?
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