Will Emraan Hashmi finally get his due with Netflix's Bard Of Blood?

Emraan Hashmi Bard of Blood Picture Courtesy: Mid-day

The world of web series has engulfed not just the Hindi film fraternity but the entire globe with its craftsmanship and charm. It has given all the established and aspiring filmmakers a major platform and opportunity to express their thoughts and opinions with ease and effortlessness. And all the actors, with an indefatigable thirst for meaty roles, have relished on such fantastically written parts and almost resuscitated their ailing careers.

The newest show to join the bandwagon is Bard Of Blood, another Netflix presentation that features Emraan Hashmi, Viineet Kumar Singh, Jaideep Ahlawat and Sobhita Dhulipala. Based on the novel of the same name, it's the story of a RAW Agent who embarks on a mission to rescue four RAW agents that lay captured in Balochistan. The central character is played by Hashmi, who's one of the most underrated and unfairly overlooked actors we have. It has been a while since he saw a scintillating success at the box-office, and there couldn't be a better platform than Netflix to make him reach out to a wider audience. He has hung his boots as the serial kisser and is now drawn to parts that challenge him emotionally and physically, and Bard Of Blood is an attempt to veer into a space he hasn't explored before.

It's all set to premiere today and we only wonder will this turn out to be for the actor what Sacred Games was for Saif Ali Khan and Inside Edge for Vivek Oberoi? And not just these actors, there have been a lot of names in the past two years where some of the most incredibly tenacious actors finally were bestowed with relishing parts and they didn't leave any opportunity to pounce on them.

Here are some names:

1. Saif Ali Khan - Sacred Games

We'll commence the list with Khan, who bounced back and how with Sacred Games. Is there anyone who understands the world of crime and gore better than Anurag Kashyap? And how many filmmakers can pull off engaging storytelling as convincingly as Vikramaditya Motwane? Khan played Inspector Sartaj Singh, who's out to hunt Mumbai's crime lord Ganesh Gaitonde, played contagiously by Nawazuddin Siddiqui. When the ticket windows weren't smiling at him, the web extended an olive branch and almost revived his career and reshaped his otherwise stuttering repertoire.

2. Vivek Oberoi - Inside Edge

Oberoi was always a good actor, trapped in banal outings and press conferences. He chose films that were both forgettable and farcical. With Amazon Prime's Inside Edge, he got a part he knew he could do justice to, and the part could do equal justice to his skills. He played Vikrant Dhawan, the owner of one of the world's largest sports management companies, the theme was set against the backdrop of the Indian Premier League. Cricket and Cinema are two of the biggest religions in the world, and if you marry both in a piece of work, things can seldom go wrong. The best thing about Dhawan was how his character never revealed his intentions, smartly shielding them and letting the viewers skip a beat. How we wish Oberoi got more such intriguing parts!

3. Divyendu Sharma - Mirzapur

Two things unite Sacred Games and Mirzapur, Pankaj Tripathi and the world of guns and gangsters. What separated them was the treatment of the characters and the theme. One of the show's most memorable and colourful characters was Munna Tripathi, played by Sharma. He was often seen as the hero's best friend in his Bollywood outings but the makers gave him a part that went beyond cliches and established norms. And the actor blended horror and humour in his performance, giving us laughter and the people around him terror. What a combination!

4. R. Madhavan - Breathe

We don't often see him in Hindi films, and he once joked how he's the king of underrated films. Amazon's Breathe gave him the success he deserved. It was the story of despair and desperation, and Madhavan played one such helpless and hapless parent who has an ailing son. Desperate times lead to desperate measures and this is why he's forced to take law into his own hands. The theme was dark and the treatment solemn, and the actor gave it his all, yet again proving he's more than his romantic celluloid persona.

5. Arjun Mathur - Made In Heaven

The moniker isn't what you think it is! The show isn't about marriages made in heaven or how somewhere someone is made for you. Zoya Akhtar, Reema Kagti and Alankrita Shrivastava weave both modernity and mayhem into a luscious household of Delhi, juxtaposing the narrative with the business of wedding planning. It touches upon the lives of a palette of relatable characters that are dealing with their respective complexities and chaos. One of them was Karan Mehra, played by Arjun Mathur. He was a homosexual, but there was a lot more to him than his sexuality. It was a tender and restrained performance that only proved the actor would soon be flooded with tons of offers in the future.

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