Top 5 Actors of 2022 (So Far)

Gendered division of any aspect of life is wrong on various levels, but somehow with respect to cinema, it feels absolutely perfect. Cinema is diverse art, and gendered appreciation of the art is a part of the diversity. When we say 'actors' and 'actresses' rather than 'male and female actors', we acknowledge their personal spaces and thus is becomes interesting to note the patterns where they are different and similar in their skills. 

Here are my five favourite performances by actors this year, ranked in order of preference. 

5. Robert Pattinson (The Batman) 

We have seen the iconic caped crusader being performed multiple times with different flavours and yet different attractions. While some of them slipped under the radar due to the much more capable actors who existed in their films, others succumbed to the generic same-ness seen in previous renditions or the other comic books.

Pattinson is quite different though. He channels Matt Reeves's vision really well to construct an emotionally damaged and secluded young man who is a saviour for the matter of fact. I liked how the sexy young actor wrestled with the emotional fragility and campy combats with equal conviction. 

4. Rajkummar Rao (Badhaai Do) 

I never thought that I will ever put a male lead performance from a Hindi 'social small-town comedy' on a best-of list, and yet, here we are. Rao is a rather charming actor who is adept at bringing oodles of warmth and hilarity to his characters, examples of which we have seen in the Amit Masurkar satire Newton and the otherwise one-time affair Bareilly ki Barfi. 

As Shardul Thakur, a man who proposes a lesbian woman of his caste to lavender marriage, he is quite wholesome and pleasing to watch. Watch him confess his aspirations in a drunken state, or break down in front of his 'wife' about his heartbreaks. These moments are so deeply moving that they are bound to be at odds with his wit and cosy sense of humour. 

3. Nallandi (Kadaisi Vivasayi)

In his debut performance that unfortunately turned out to be his last (he passed away at the age of 76 early this year), real-life farmer Nallandi takes on the character of Maayandi, the only surviving 'cultivator' of his village, with sweet sincerity and an earnestness which also feels heartbreaking. 

Maayandi is a character who, as he steps beyond the realm that he knows, yearns and nurses his grief in a rather muted manner for his dear home and field. His legacy as the last of his kind makes him special, of course, but his humanity lies in the fact that he is modest about what he does. So, it is fitting that Nallandi is not always at ease with the camera- this is probably the accurate way to portray what he portrays here. 

2. Colin Farrell (After Yang) 

After Yang is an experience so spiritually fulfilling and personally immersive that it is very hard to point the one actor who stands out, out of the five who are here. It all depends on who strikes the chords with you as a character. And Colin, as an exhausted working-class Jake, was the one person who truly did it for me. 

As a tired father who just wants to get that one robotic family member who is important for his adopted daughter resurrected, Farrell gives a diligent and dignified performance that puts forth the challenges of being an actively animated patriarch without taking a pause. In the process, he smoothens the rough edges by being extremely sharp, smart and funny. The magic element of his performance is that he offers so little that he turns out mysterious in his perfection. 

1. Rayan Sarlak (Hit the Road)

None of the performances by the boys this year have felt so magical yet so believable at the same time as Rayan Sarlak's as he plays the youngest member of the family at focus in Panah Panahi's brilliant debut picture. He doesn't have a name, and so don't the other members of the family. However, it doesn't matter, because they are ultimately the face of various oddball and funny reflections which inform the film as a whole. 

Anyway, the magic in the kid's performance (and his character in general) is that it doesn't come to serve a complex purpose. He is a child brimming with hyperactivity. A cute little chipmunk, a funny little twerp and a notorious chap on the whole, he is the connective tissue that brings this compelling film about a tree, a road and a car come to life.