The very best of Naseeruddin Shah

Naseeruddin Shah (right) with Vidya Balan in “Ishqiya.”

There are some actors who can do absolutely anything.
Naseeruddin Shah is a thespian who has always been able to carry off anything with style, from bombastically delivering triple-barrelled echoes of commercial movie revenge to dancing spectrally in a photo frame, from being a conventional, even muscular action hero to playing a Bollywood-besotted autowallah; from a profane don to the father of the nation.
Naseeruddin Shah turned 60 on July 20.
Spoilt for choice given his magnificent, prolific filmography, here are some of his remarkable performances, in utterly random order:
Junoon
Shyam Benegal's startling drama set during the revolt of 1857 saw Naseer as the fanatic Sarfaraz, desperate to fight for India's freedom. Wearing bloodshot eyes and slashing priests in half, Naseer screeched out his loaded lines, his polemic punctuated by sheer passion.
Nishant
In his very first film -- another Benegal project with lines by Satyadev Dubey -- Naseer stood out immediately, despite a heavy-duty cast of veterans. He played the reticent Vishwam, a man too shy to acknowledge how deeply he has fallen in love.
Aakrosh
Govind Nihalani's hard-hitting directorial debut featured Naseer as lawyer Bhaskar Kulkarni. A scathing indictment of the legal system in India, Nihalani's film gave Om Puri and Smita Patil the key roles but it was Naseer's flawless lawyer routine that truly stole the moment.
Sparsh
Sai Paranjpe's 1980 romance featured Naseer in one of his most acclaimed roles, that of a sensitive, independent blind man who falls in love with a young, pretty widow. It is a sensational performance, stark and powerful, and the credibility the actor brings to the character is phenomenal.
Masoom
Shekhar Kapur's directorial debut might have been a retelling of Eric Segal's “Man, Woman And Child,” but his film had better performances than any other version. Shah played DK, an affable adman whose idyllic life is shattered by the news of a love-child. A highly nuanced performance, Naseer's incredible mastery of mood is what keeps the film grounded.
Mirch Masala
In this unforgettable Ketan Mehta film set in colonial India, Shah played an abusive and barbaric tax collector, treating the villagers like livestock. Naseer brings a revolting degree of sadism and lust to his part, creating a character who gets under the viewer's skin and provokes actual hatred.
Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron
This cult Kundan Shah classic from 1983 remains India's only unanimously acclaimed black comedy and Shah was stellar in the lead role of ambitious photographer Vinod Chopra. From hitting on his unscrupulous editor to slapping a municipal commissioner to playing Duryodhana on stage, Naseer was arguably the sanest character in a wild pack, burdened by the conventional 'hero' role in a farce breaking all boundaries. Obviously, he shone.
Ishqiya
Perhaps his finest performance in the last two decades, Abhishek Chaubey's “Ishqiya” has Naseer as the irrepressible Khalu Jaan, a character both romantic and world-weary, both a dreamer and a doer. His attempts at flirting are laudable, a desperate conjuring up of old-world charm, and when he nods off in a bus surrounded by women, women taken in enough by this man's inevitable charm to gape at him, the actor shows just how magical he still can be.