Written by Khalid Mohamed in The Asian Age.
No winking. Eyes are a lethal weapon in the armoury of actors. Those who don’t know how to — or refuse to — act with their eyes end up delivering mediocre to lousy performances. They may be the most-wanted desserts after caramel custard but sorry they won’t be remembered as actors of calibre.
Take Salman Khan who always plays Salman Khan in every film he does. Fortuitously his acting streak has been visible once in an indigo moon — when he has been directed by Sooraj Barjatya or Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Forget the ghastly guest appearance in Saawariya though. Otherwise after a career of over two decades, the 46-year-old Khan hasn’t yet toted a performance of serious merit. A pity, because he is the most good-looking of the three Khans.
Indifference towards the potential of eyes — putting on glares randomly — are clear signs of an actor’s arrested development. Like it or not, the Bodyguard Khan exploits his body far more than er... his hidden soul.
So why am I getting into the eye thing this Sunday morning? It’s because I’ve been noticing eyes of the newbies go dead even in the liveliest of scenes. Ranveer Singh, who was such a delight in Band Baaja Baarat, is thoroughly vacuous in Ladies Versus Ricky Bahl. When he casts an adoring gaze at Anushka Sharma, he conveys about as much love as a divorce court. As for Anushka, her permanently pasted-on smiley excludes any emoting from the eyes. Neither, obviously, is convinced internally about the roles they are portraying. Ergo, the mechanical performances. Not surprisingly, debutante Parineeti Chopra, her eyes flashing anger and infatuation alternately, stole the romcom away from its lead pair.
Other actors whose eyes switch off as soon as the camera is on, are Abhishek Bachchan, John Abraham, Imran Khan and Akshay Kumar. You can never grasp what they’re thinking of because they haven’t taken acting to the level of the functional, or just about passable.
Of the heroines, Katrina Kaif used to be a blink-blink machine (she’s improved of late). Priyanka Chopra admittedly uses her eyes alluringly, but her mouth twists and wriggles far too much. In a scene in What’s Your Raashi?, Ms Chopra twitches her lips so furiously that it’s scary. Kareena Kapoor’s eyes are either very sad or very happy, with no-in-betweens. She fancies herself as a tremendous actress, but is she? She’s as bad or good as the role assigned to her. Proof: bad in Tashan (etc.), good in Chameli and Jab We Met. And for totally zonked out eyes, there’s Kangna Ranaut, who always looks as if she should have had an extra-strong cup of coffee before facing the camera.
On the more sparkling side, Dilip Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Rishi Kapoor, Naseeruddin Shah, Irrfan Khan, Ajay Devgn, Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Hrithik Roshan and (surprise, surprise) Sunny Deol and Emraan Hashmi can look at the camera impactfully. In fact, Dilip Kumar could talk more forcefully with his silences even in his latter-day films like Shakti: a flicker of his eyes said more than thousands of words.
In the era of colour movies, the eye factor has been used wonderfully over the years by Sadhana, Rekha, Raakhee, Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi, Sridevi, Kajol, Rani Mukherjee, Aishwarya Rai, Tabu and Vidya Balan (best without contact lenses). Hema Malini’s eyes are hypnotic but speak fluently mainly during the dance sequences.
One of the virtues of acting from the eyes is the ability to cry without using glycerine. No one compares to Dilip Kumar and Aamir Khan in this emotionally demanding art. So the next time you’re at the movies, do look at what the eyes are saying. Or are they blank?
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I could nt stop laughing at Aishwarya one BUT he s right ,she was so good in hum dil de chuke sanam climax and Taal too
Oh no Khalid sir u missed Karisma , i am not a karisma promoter but love her expressions in Zubeida and Fiza , Once in a lifetime u see actors who an make u cry along with them....and she s one..
Lol At Kareena thing ...spot on.I feel Deepika also uses her eyes to a large extent .That OSO fire scene was amzing
I don't know about actors of old times, but since I have known Bollywood there has been only one person whose eyes speak like no other...Shah Rukh Khan! His eyes are so deep, so expressive, so sad, so passionate, so dreamy, so happy, so painful that you just want to look and look and look into them forever! They say eyes are windows to the soul, SRK's eyes are really windows to his soul!
I have to agree - Really, the only thing that makes or breaks an actor is the ability to commit to the character.
At the end of the day, when it comes to film acting, it’s all in the eyes.
One great actor is Michael Caine and he said, you cannot lie to the camera. If an actor feels the emotion internally, it will show in the eyes. If not, your eyes will betray you.
I love British actors - they are all so well trained and bright & talented that Bollywood actors should rent their movies and take note!
Katrina doesn't have any indian expressive eyes ! .. sorry she's still like in Boom or else..
Sridevi's eyes speak volumes. Watch Kaate Nahin Katte in Mr. India....the man is invisible but Sri's eyes emote as if he is standing right before her.....now that's what u call a great actress......Whether its Sadma, Nagina, Chaalbaaz, Chandni, Lamhe or Khuda Gawah, the expressions in her big saucer eyes are to die for
My favourites are Rekha and Sridevi. Aishwarya is also amazing, she acts beautifully.
aishwarya cant even ACT forget about expression.....
i cant believe you left out Madhuri,Madhubala and Meena Kumari.......they define expression
female actors with the most expressive eyes are :
1.Madhuri
2.Aishwarya
3.Rani
4.Amrita Rao
male actors :
1.Shahrukh ... 2.Shahrukh ... and 3.Shahrukh !
4.Shahid
5.Hrithik
That's true, Aishwarya uses her eyes to express her feelings on movies - That's why she's a very good ACTRESS.
OMG Aishwarya looks stunning! Perfect eyes.
dont forget madhuri in devdas...if eyes could tell a story, hers would be the main narrator :)
Mon, 2012-01-30 13:20 — Anonymous
That's because Madhuri never did great roles. She just did a lot of masala movies.
Hrithik - Shahrukh - Arjun - Madhuri - Ash ... no one has more expressive eyes then those names'
SHAHID really has expressive eyes and voice and of course Shahrukh is the king of expression
Madhuri, Aishwarya, Sonali, and Amrita are also best expressive actresses
@Sun, 2012-01-29 23:01 — filmychica
could you please post a couple of pics or video's of madhuri showing various range of expressions through her eyes. I am not saying that she does not have expressive eyes, but I dont remember many of her scenes with expressive eyes. So, could you post some pics/videos, we can then judge
Great topic! You just separated all the good actors from the bad. Bad being all the newbies,Salman, Abhishek,John, Imran, Akshay,Kat,PC,Kareena,Kangana,Anuskha from the good which are Dilip Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan,Rishi Kapoor,Nessurudin Shah,Irfan Khan,Ajay Devgan,Srk,Amir Khan,Hrithik Roshan, Sunny Deol,Imran Hashmi,Sadhana, Rekha, Raakhee, Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi, Sridevi, Kajol, Rani Mukherjee, Aishwarya Rai, Tabu and Vidya Balan.
Sridevi's eyes speak to you. Every mood in her movies are so beautifully reflected in those luminous eyes. Apart from the other actresses mentioned above,I'd also mention Vyjanthimala ,Nargis & Meena Kumari. Anyone notice that all the Indian classically trained dancers emote beautifully with their eyes?
Katrina's acting skills leave much to be desired ,why on earth would anyone expect her to suddenly act with her eyes?
Obviously Sri has the most expressive eyes. NO DOUBTS ABT IT.
Aishwarya is an good actress and her eyes are the most beautiful but she is not the most expressive for me. Not saying she is bad, she is good but not great either. But yeh much better than current actresses.
For me they are in these orders:
1- Sridevi: She does not need a dialogue. She has proved again and again that there is no One single actor who can emote the eyes the way she does, whether to show rage, innocence, comedy or romance.
2- Meena Kumari: Ufff such beautiful eyes to depict the pain.
3- Hema Malini: Angelic beautiful eyes that are more expressed in dancing.
4- Aishwarya Rai: Beautiful crystal colors specially when full of tears.
SALMAN KHAN? are u serious? have u ever seen his movies? baaghban,baabul, tere naam, jaanemann, kyon ki, and a lot more...the pain,the intense that shown in his eyes..if u can see that, its ur soul problem.. the problem is u just watch his success movies that most of them are in comedy.. so u have no right to rate him as actor.
n emran hashmi? what can u see in his eyes..only lust! shame on him that bring down hindi movies that known as full of tradition,love and relationship to cheap porn movies!
tabu and ajay are the most expressive to me. very underrated.
if you don't believe me watch the legend of bhaghat singh (ajay) and maqbool (tabu)
least expressive are john abraham and katrina kaif. coincidentally they are also the best looking, unfortunately.
ash can't act let alone emote with her eyes.. hee hee
The late Jagmohan Mundhra (director of Provoked, who has also directed great actors like Naseeruddin Shah and Nandita Das) had this to say about her eyes and I complete agree. "Aishwarya has extremely expressive eyes that speak from her soul. She is able to show her emotions without using words to spell out her feelings. The way she uses her eyes to convey a gamut of emotions - trust, loyalty, fear, confusion, triumph, love, betrayal and every human emotion needed. Every time she shot a moving, emotional scene, my cameraman and I wanted to rush to her and hug her. I found her brilliant in her technical knowledge of the camera; her intuition and experience whilst giving shots is excellent. I remember when she first heard the story and the concept of the film she was immediately very keen to do the project and made special allowances by shortening her personal holiday to give me dates. Her complete trust in me added a burden on my shoulders which I appreciated and I am glad that I was able to live up to her expectations. I hope the world is able to see beyond her beauty." - Jag Mundhra.
RANI!
SRK's is the best <3 u can tell when hes romantic, sad or angry by seeing deeply into his eyes....<3
btw, u forgot Divya Bharti, her eyes were magical......and of course Karishma :)
Hema first...mischievous, sad, hypnotic, desirable....the whole gamut in her beautiful eyes
For someone to act well, these are there are only two main pre-requisites -
1) Expressions - And when you're expressing something, they look at your eyes. So your eyes need to speak VOLUMES without needing to open your mouth to convey your emotions.
2) Dialogue delivery - People think dialogue delivery is just mugging up dialogues and mouthing them. WRONG. Of course you have to learn the dialogues by heart, but when saying them you have to be consistent. You should not sound like two different people. Most actors fail here. They sound like different people in the same scene. Now imagine being consistent throughout the film.
Acting is not so easy, but then it is not for everybody. But some people just want fame and they want to be a star rather than an actor. And movies are the easiest medium to achieve it. So with non-actresses like Kaif and Kapoor, it is us who have to suffer.
My favorites are Rani Mukherji, Aishwarya Rai, Vidya Balan and Tabu.
Perfectly describes the flaws of katrina n kareena. Those who cannot use eyes well can never become great actors.