On this last day of 2018, I am writing about Indian sporting achievers, whose performances in their respective fields were note worthy during this year:
- Mary Kom (Boxer)- She won her 6th Gold Medal at the Women’s World boxing Championship and became the most successful boxers in the history of the championship, when she defeated Ukraine’s Hanna Okhota in 48 Kg category in the World Championship this year at Delhi, to bag her 7th overall medal & 6th Gold in World Championship.
- Virat Kohli (Cricketer)- India’s captain broke the record of fastest to reach 10,000 ODI runs, as he reached this milestone in his 205th innings, much quicker than Sachin Tendulkar’s who previously held the record in 259 innings. will Virat be able to beat the record of Sachin’s 18426 runs in 463 ODIs( 49 Centuries)?My feeling is he may break the record of 49 Centuries, as he till date has scored 38 centuries in 210 ODIs.
- PV Sandhu (Badminton)- For last 2-3 years she was winning monor tournaments at world level, bur whenever it came to major tournaments like World championship, Olympics, Commonwealth Games or Asiads, she was finishing as bridesmaid (ie runner up). Ultimately this year she beat Naomi Okhara in the finals of season ending BWF finals.
- Hima Das (Athlete-Runner)- She was virtually unknown name till she entered the finals of women 400 meters finals in Under 20 World Athletics Championship. In the process, she became the first Indian woman to claim gold in a world championship at any level, and also first man or woman to strike gold at event at the world level.
- Neeraj Chopra(Athlete-Javelin Throw)- he became the first Indian to win CWG javelin gold with an effort of 86.47 meters. He continued with best performance and also won Asian Gamed Javelin gold with the throw of 87.43 meters.
- Manu Bhaker(Shooting)-This 16 year old girl first won gold in 10 meter Air Pistol Shooting at the World Cup and ended with another gold at Youth Olympics Games.
- Saurabh Choudhary(Shooting)- Another 16 year old, this time boy, struck gold in 10 meter Air Pistol in the Jr World Cup. He also won gold at Asian Games.
Above were the top most sporting performances of the year 2018. Now let us some acting performances this year in Bollywood movies:
- Tabu in Andhadhun- She is one actress, whenever she acts in a movie she lives the role. Andhadun’s Simi is a role where Tabu seems to have had the most amount of fun. The charming deceptive character commands every frame she is in. Delivering lines laced with both dark humour and actual threats. She dominates the screen, her performance is one of the highlight of the film.
- Alia Bhatt in Raazi- In her portrayal of Sehmat’s role, she tread a tight rope as she spies on her Pakistani in laws. she is shown constantly nervous and fearful and not unrealistically confident as in other spy movies. she seems to have completely given herself to the part of going through conflicts, one internal where she is unable to fully love or deceive her husband and another external where she is not quite ideologically inclined to mission in the first place.
- Neena Gupta in Badhai Ho- After watching the movie you feel that this role of middle aged pregnant woman belonging to middle class family was meant only for her , and no one else could have done this role better than her. The way she portrayed the shame and pathos of character when she discovers, she has become pregnant and how she will be facing society and her 2 grown up sons, is worth watching.
- Gajraj Rao in Badhai Ho- She as Neena Gupta’s husband in the movies is also brilliant. Both he and Neena Gupta looked a perfect middle class Delhi based couple. The way he faces his colleagues and neighbours is worth seeing.
- Ayushman Khurana in Andhadhun- he was really the surprise packet of the film. He acted as blind person who is not actually blind , but feels by acting as blind his performance as Piano Player is better. But when the circumstances made him actually blind, when as a supposedly blind person he sees a murder, and when the murderer came to know he is not blind, and he is made blind and afterward how he lives, is worth watching..
- Ranveer Singh in Padmavat- his portrayal of Allahddin Khilji is highlight of the film. His is one of the best ever performance in negative role may be after Amjad Khan in Sholay. He almost lived in the character for the entire period of film’s shooting, as he had grown his hair long, with moustache and beard. As per his own statement his persona of evil man was making him feel that he has become an evil man himself, such was his involvement in the role, which was seen on the screen.
- Ranbir Kapoor in Sanju- This was a biopic film based on the life and times of actor Sanjay Dutt. First thing to act in biopic film of living actor and who became celebrity with a drug addict and terrorist tag attached to him was a big thing, and second thing to portray the role with fullest conviction and understanding the turmoil of the person was also a great job. Ranbir Kapoor proved himself true on both the counts, and audience loved him so much that this film became biggest box office hot of 2018.
Waiting for your views/comments/feed backs.
WISHING YOU ALL, A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR.
Anil Malik
31 Dec 2018