Mainstream Hindi entertainment has a bad track record when it comes to giving heroines their due, but if 2023 is any indication, we may be on the brink of change. This year we got some of the coolest heroines, women who redefined the very essence of coolness. Here are our top five:
Nayanthara in Jawan
Lady Superstar Nayanthara graced our screens with an entrance that was rich with heroic swag and panache, courtesy of Atlee’s pitch-perfect use of slow-motion. Playing a single mother and a celebrated police officer, she was a heady cocktail of steely determination and tenderness. Also, it’s impossible not to be completely enamoured by the mole on her philtrum. Whether leading her team in negotiating with the metro hijacker or stepping out of a helicopter with elegant muscularity, Nayanthara was a worthy rival and comrade for Shah Rukh Khan.
Azmeri Haque Badhon in Khufiya
Stealing the spotlight from Tabu is no easy task, and yet Badhon’s performance as Heena Rehman is so intensely enigmatic and alluring that you can’t take your eyes off her. Take the scene in which Krishna (Tabu) visits Heena at home, in which the sexual tension is incandescent. Badhon folds sensuality, intelligence and the desperation of one cornered by circumstance into her performance of Heena. When she looks at someone, it’s almost as if she sees through them, and her every gesture, for all its casual grace, is calculated and deliberate. Despite being a severely underwritten character, Badhon made Heena feel complex, imbuing her with intention, magnetic appeal and the complexity of a double agent.