Sonam Kapoor drapes her acting in the finest of fabrics and SHINES!

What comes to mind when someone says ‘fashionista or fashion diva?’

Sonam Kapoor, of course!

Until quite recently, I also belonged to the tribe of people who hold the ‘opinion’, that if there’s anyone who can give women a run-for-their-money on the runway, it’s the Diva herself, Sonam Kapoor. But when it comes to acting, don’t expect too much from her in that department.

I want to eat my words now, and I’m finding it hard to swallow them, hence I write.

I remember quite vividly when I made a discerning choice of taking a right turn towards the audi/theater that was playing Om Shanti Om, sometime back in 2007 and conveniently ignoring the blue-black saga Saawariya (still can’t muster the courage to watch this). I don’t regret that choice at all.

But what I do regret is not looking closely enough, past all her ballooney dresses and puffy sleeves which, even as they gave her the tag of fashionista, misled people into believing that that’s all there is to her persona. I remember watching Aisha in the theater and coming out thinking “Okay, that’s one actress who loves frivolity and how!” I was not moved by her performance or even highly impressed to go back and spend a thought on it. But, when I recently saw the film again, it was as if I was watching a new actress in the same film! How is that possible? Then I realized that my own lens through which I looked at cinema and the art of ‘acting’ had changed, and not her.

Her performance in the obscure film Delhi 6 is the only good part about the film, I feel (in hindsight). In fact, the only scene I remember vividly from Delhi 6 is her photo shoot one where she’s just waltzing and spinning in a dingy hole-in-the-wall room and her friend Cyrus Sahukar is shooting her. It’s this scene that reveals so much of Sonam Kapoor - the performer, that you must see that scene again. What is it that makes me want to do a double-take when she’s on the screen? Is it her infectious all-teeth-baring smile which reaches upto her eyebrows? Or is it her confident ease with which she dissolves in a big film, like salt in water, enhancing the taste of the entire film (read Bhaag Milkha Bhaag)?

My mind about her acting didn’t change even when she did films like Raanjhanaa where she went de-glam to portray a small town girl who goes on to study in Delhi and becomes a woman of her own choice. It was yet another film where the focus was on the hero’s heartbreak, his loss and his coming to terms with it. And that’s what we also saw. At least I did. She was just a vehicle who took his story forward, or was it anything more? It was. It takes guts to say ‘yes’ to a film where you know you’re going to be overshadowed by the actor, where the supporting actors (Swara Bhaskar, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub) are equally credible to steal the scenes and your own character might get misunderstood by the audience. Yet, she delivered a good enough performance to change her own career graph.

But then, trust Koffee With Karan to whip up some controversy for actors when they’re flying high. Remember the episode where she blurted out “If you’re not good looking, they think you’re a good actor. Just because you look ordinary and you talk loud, doesn’t mean you’re a good actress?” I was also among those who trolled this thought of hers and all the goodwill she’d gained till then was lost overnight. People started thinking she’s too full of herself, delusional and in fact a daddy’s princess who couldn’t have made it without him. Now that I have adjusted my lens through which I look at her, I thought hard about what she REALLY meant by her statement. I believe it came from a place of security in her own self, her gorgeous, towering, red-carpet worthy persona as well as her faith in herself as a performer that she said this on national television. Regardless of this, to be able to say what you’re thinking, however stupid or frivolous it may seem to others, is the greatest quality any human being can possess. And to stand tall when you’re told to bow down, to be able to laugh at yourself and treat controversies so elegantly as she did is bloody awesome in itself.

Then came a breezy film which was again in the Aisha zone, Khoobsurat. It’s a role that was tailor-made for her and she really managed to hold the audience’s attention, despite the supremely talented and gorgeous Fawad Khan being alongside her. She was goofy, funny, sensible and vulnerable, all in those two hours, yet managed to not overdo any of it. This is a very subtle art which reveals itself to real performers only, who don’t hide behind the facade of ‘intellectualism’.

But the role that eventually turned me into a Sonam Kapoor fan for real was of Maithili Devi in Prem Ratan Dhan Payo. Even though it’s an out-n-out Salman Khan blockbuster, she, apart from her terrific clothes shone like never before. Forget the critically acclaimed Neerja, which is still touted as her best performance by many. It was already established that she’s got what it takes to be at the top with PRDP. How did I not understand this before? Her character of a princess who is confident in her own world, but gets completely thrown off balance in her fiance’s world is a class-apart one. She showcases her vulnerability, her forthcoming nature, her confused state of mind regarding their engagement with such smoothness, that I never felt she was not for real. The ease with which she romances Salman Khan, playfully indulging in her real-self who wants to love and be loved is just beyond endearing. It’s a role which is more complex than that of Salman’s double-role and she couldn’t have done a better job. To be a Sooraj Barjatya heroine is no small feat. To live up to the Sumans and Nishas is no cake walk, yet she seems to have created her own space in his family oriented sagas. It’s a role of a lifetime which she had the sensibility and humility to not refuse.

I have no knowledge of who is a ‘good’ actor or who’s a ‘bad’ one for that matter, given my unusual choices with which not many people agree, maybe rightly. But I do know that I can spot a ‘real’ performer when I see one. Sometimes, it takes a little longer to see it and appreciate it. But eventually, the fog does lift and we see the light that shines relentlessly, attracting us towards it. It’s no small feat for an artist in today’s age to be able to do this. Only a handful of them manage to do so. And I’m glad there is one true performer amongst us, who is comfortable in her skin, talented, real and has many a side to her for us to discover.

I don’t know for whom I am writing this longish post. It’s definitely not to change people’s opinion of her as I believe in ‘to each their own’ philosophy. It’s definitely not for her as she must know all this herself, given her brilliance which gets draped in the best of clothes, sometimes making it hard for the public to spot even. But if she does read it someday, I hope it makes her happy. Because she truly does make me happy as her audience and I look forward to her releases with extra enthusiasm to make up for the time when I conveniently ignored the girl, draped in black curtain-like drab in her debut film, dismissing her for no legit reason, but out of my own ignorance.