Saif Ali Khan: Learning to act
	
	
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From Main Khiladi Tu Anari to Omkara, it has been an educational ride  through the crowded bylanes of Bollywood for the Nawab of Pataudi. And  as the Cocktail star celebrates his 46th birthday we look at defining  roles of the versatile actor’s 20-year-long career in Bollywood The first memories of Saif Ali Khan – born in Bhopal and brought up  in the UK – as an actor was that of a long-haired, cherubic-looking,  male version of Sharmila Tagore with a goofy smile, a silly sense of  humour and an uber cool fashion sense. Remember films like Main Khiladi  Tu Anari, Yeh Dillagi, Tu Chor Main Sipahi, Hum Saath Saath Hain, et al?
 And the UK-returned son of the 60s A-list leading lady bumbled around  in the initial years of his filmi career – his first film was Parampara  – doing humdrum stories packed with melodramatic characters. While the  disconcerting disconnect between the real Nawab and his reel roles was  apparent, Saif always had a project on hand to keep him busy and the  home fires burning.
 So neither his fans nor the critics expected anything meaty (read:  powerful roles) of the dapper dude called Saif. But came the new  millennium, and he shocked, stunned and surprised everyone with his  striking performance in the cult-film Dil Chahta Hai.
 While Farhan Akhtar’s creation called Sameer (name of Saif’s  character in DCH) was still as silly and playful as the star’s earlier  roles, the part seemed extremely close to the UK-returned actor’s real  life persona. The upper middle-class mindset, the wicked sense of humour  and the light-hearted attitude of Sameer worked wonders for Saif’s  career as an actor.
 Slowly everyone’s perception of and expectations from Sharmila  Tagore’s son started altering. Fortunately, he followed it up with Karan  Johar and Nikhil Advani’s Kal Ho Naa Ho, again a role with foreign  roots, close to the real Saif, adding a new feather to his fancy hat. We  don’t know if it was the appreciation for the decent performances that  awakened Saif’s acting bug, or the scripts targeting the NRI market that  finally connected the actor to his audience. Whatever it may have been,  it was starting to work imn his favour.
 The big real turning point in Saif’s career came with dark  unconventional roles in Sriram Raghavan’s Ek Hasina Thi, Homi Adajania’s  Being Cyrus and Vishal Bhardwaj’s Omkara. The killer hidden behind the  façade of a suave lover, an eccentric Parsi artist and a treacherous  Langda Tyagi proved that the Nawab of Pataudi had the acting chops to  match steps with contemporaries like Ajay Devgn, Akshay Kumar, etc.
 But just when we had started enjoying watch the real Saif make magic  with his zany sense of humour and out-of-the-box approach, the star  actor seems to have gone back to doing far-fetched roles (the ludicrous  spy in Agent Vinod and a romantic lover in films like Love Aaj Kal and  Cocktail) and giving us nightmares very like those he induced in his  earlier days in B-town. Turkeys like Tashan and Kurbaan – though his  role in that one was dark and committed – have not helped redeem his  reputation.
 On this birthday (August 16) we’d like to remind the Khan superstar  that it’s time to throw caution to the wind and thrust the envelope out  of the window. And get back to some real acting!
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Keywords: Main Khiladi Tu Anari , Omkara,Bollywood , Nawab of Pataudi,Cocktail, star celebrates, Saif Ali Khan,Sharmila Tagore ,Yeh Dillagi, Tu Chor Main Sipahi, Hum Saath Saath Hain, et al?,Parampara , melodramatic characters,Nawab, Farhan Akhtar,Karan  Johar ,Nikhil Advani’,Kal Ho Naa Ho,Sriram Raghavan, Ek Hasina Thi, Homi Adajania,Cyrus, Vishal Bhardwaj,Love Aaj Kal,hindi film news, Bollywood film news