5 times Rajkummar Rao made a common man look larger than life on screen

With back-to-back five releases in nine months and no complaints about the actor being over-exposed proves Rajkummar Rao has arrived and how! He is the poster boy for role of a common man in extraordinary situations. On the big screen he makes an aam aadmi look no less than a superhero. 2017 has been an exciting year for the actor whose every film got critical appreciation and not just box-office success...Trapped, Raabta, Behan Hogi Teri, Bareilly Ki Barfi and now Newton too. 

But one look at Rajkummar Rao's filmography and you know that the actor has given audience numerous reasons to cheer. His Friday release, Newton is also getting rave reviews and won film critic's vote of approaval over  Shraddha Kapoor's 'Haseena Parker' and Sanjay Dutt's comeback film 'Bhoomi'. So lets take a look at 5 best roles in Rajkummar Rao's seven year long career.

Shahid: This film was the starting point of his remarkable association with filmmaker Hansal Mehta which even earned his first National Award for best actor in 2013. Rajkummar Rao played the role of lawyer Shahid Azmi  and portrayed his journey from being arrested under TADA to becoming a lawyer who fought for Muslims arrested under charges of terrorism and ended up being shot by two gunman in his own office. Rajkummar portrayed the character's strength, his anguish and battle against the system with brilliance. 

Citylights:  Not just Guru Dutt's song, 'Ae Dil Hai Jeena Mushkil yahan, zara bachke yeh hai Bombay meri jaan', Rajkummar Rao and filmmaker Hansal Mehta's film CityLights also narrated the struggle of survival in the big bad world out there. Rao played the role of a villager from Rajasthan who moves to Mumbai if quest for a better life for his wife and daughter but fails miserably in the concrete jungle. A heart breaking film, in this one Rajkummar and his real life ladylove Patralekha will make you cry like and value life and whatever it gives e. Producer Mahesh Bhatt was so moved by the film that he gave away his National award for Arth to the team of Citylights.

Aligarh: With a film on a homosexual professor from Aligarh who lost his job and quest to live after being suspended for having consensual sex with rickshaw puller, once again filmmaker Hansal Mehta captured the talented Rajkummar Rao and his fantastic acting abilities in his film. This time Manoj Bajpayee played the lead role and Rao stepped into the role of the journalist who brought Professor Siras' true story to the world. But Rao made his mark inspite and stood tall in every scene with his senior Manoj Bajpayee.

Bareilly Ki Barfi: He didn't get the girl in the end but Rajkumar Rao won many hearts with in the role of  Pritam Vidrohi. His character starts off as a loser struggling with his low self esteem but then when 'bhaiya' Ayushmann Khuranna's character makes his character go 'rangbaaz', Vidrohiji is unstoppable! Rajkumar Rao had a swag as he added spunk to the love story from a small town of India.  Ayushmann-Rao's love-hate relationship makes for the most fun portions of the film and even earned him compliments from David Dhawan and Amitabh Bachchan.

 

Newton: The film has released in India this Friday but Newton we can safely be counted as Rajkummar Rao's career best. After being received well at international film festivals, the film has also been named India's official entry to the Oscars. A satire on Indian democracy, the film is about a government clerk Nutan Kumar who wants to ensure that elections go smoothly in Naxalite area. As the actor says that 2017 has been an exciting year with good scripts coming his way, Newton will also go down as a gem in his career.

Let's hope good scripts like these keep coming you way and Rajkummar Rao's magic in 'Bose' and 'Omerta' continues to do wonders.