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ack in 2014, Sahil Vaid ended up giving a whopping 16 auditions to play Poplu, one of the two sidekicks of Varun Dhawan’s Humpty in Shashank Khaitan’s charming Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, a modern-day update on Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. Three years, after a 100-crore box-office hit, and unanimous appreciation from audiences and critics, Vaid reprised his role of the affable hero ka dost this March in the sequel, Badrinath Ki Dulhania. Except, the second time around, he had the role handed to him without any audition. He didn’t have to share sidekick duty with any other actor; this time around, he was the star. As Somdev, the illiterate, lovelorn, and entitled Badri’s bestie, Vaid singularly infused warmth, impeccable comic-timing, and anguish into what could have easily been restricted to being a stock character, forcing the audience to sit up and take notice of his irrepressible talent yet again. And that too, in a film that boasted of a crackling chemistry between its two leads, Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt. Somdev is the guy who will not end up with the girl he loves, but yet we can’t help but root for him. In a year where Bollywood has been plagued by disastrous box-office results, mainstream film letdowns, and inconsistent performances by its superstars, men like Sahil Vaid — ones whose wonted obligation is to make the hero look larger than life — have been a constant. The hero ka dost, until this year, was an underwritten character, solely existing as a prop for punchlines. He was unremarkable and it was difficult to differentiate one from the other. But, 2017 changed that. 2017’s sidekicks have one thing in common: They’ve all risen above weak storylines, limited screen time, and the unbearable weight of the film’s “star presence” to deliver noteworthy performances.
Vikrant Massey’s earnest roommate act as Shailesh in Half Girlfriend was the only redeeming factor of the disastrous film adapted from an wholly unnecessary book. Besides giving Arjun Kapoor a masterclass in how to get the Bihari accent right, Massey’s distrustful Shailesh, unwilling to change his worldview, seemed believable in a cinematic universe headlined by an actress who is magnetically attracted to rains and a Bihari prince. Massey also stood out in a brief role among the talented women in Alankrita Srivastava’s Lipstick Under My Burkha but he knocked it out of the park in Konkona Sen Sharma’s A Death in the Gunj. As the fragile Shutu, he delivered one of the finest performances of 2017. Massey’s year then, has been the kind of evolution that sidekicks dream of. There was also Herry Tangri’s (best remembered for playing Yuvraj Singh in M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story) Haryanvi sidekick in Behen Hogi Teri that provided the perfect foil to Rajkummar Rao’s Gattu. As Bhura who unwittingly ends up getting caught in Gattu’s chaos, Tengri gives a face to every neighbourhood best friend, stealing scenes with his faultless comic timing.After Rajkumar Hirani’s Circuit, delivered flawlessly by Arshad Warsi, Bollywood has had a lull in spectacular sidekicks
As Somdev, the illiterate, lovelorn, and entitled Badri’s bestie, Sahil Vaid singularly infused warmth, impeccable comic-timing, and anguish into what could have easily been restricted to being a stock character.
Image credit: Dharma Prodctions
