Great talented actors and actress in 2007

Ranbir Kapoor and Vinay Pathak The only Common thing in between them is talent. A huge amount of screen presence makes them the most accomplished performers of 2007.

While Ranbir just took over the screen in his debut vehicle "Saawariya" with his endearing transparency, Vinay Pathak, a rank-outsider from Bihar with no filmy connections, stood at the opposite end of the spectrum with his performance as the very filmy, very annoying and real joker at the dinner in "Bheja Fry".

Father and son Pankaj and Shahid Kapur also gave accomplished performances in two different films. Though a little too callow for the role, Shahid carried off the grieving executive's part in "Jab We Met" with arresting aplomb. Pankaj exploded the screen with his dynamo performances in "Dharm" and "The Blue Umbrella". What an actor!

Then the redoubtable Bachchans - Amitabh and Abhishek. The Big B proved himself to be Amitabh Wry Bachchan as the dry cynical chef in "Cheeni Kum". A few months later I saw Catherine Zeta-Jones play the same role in "No Reservations". Copycat! However, I felt Tabu stole the show from the awesome Amitabh in "Cheeni Kum".

"Nishabd" earlier during the year would rank as one of Amitabh's most underrated performances ever.

My female performers of the year were Kareena Kapoor in "Jab We Met" and Tabu in "Cheeni Kum". They were such studies in contrast! While one was exuberant, vivacious and all there, the other was quiet, introspective and dreamy.

At the other end of the spectrum little Sweeni Khara was also dying in "Cheeni Kum". As the wise-and-wonderful Sexy, Sweeni was sexy. And I say this at the risk of the moralists lynching me.

Clearly the year of child performers, what with little Sweeni matching the Big B and towering Tabu scene by scene and that bundle of talent Dwij Yadan giving Bobby Deol a run for his money in "Nanhe Jaisalmer". And at the end of the year, that bundle of bratty brilliancy, Darsheel Safary, bringing madness to Aamir Khan's method... the kids seemed to take over the screen in "Taare Zameen Par".

Vidya Balan surprised with her light-and-shade play of hope and dejection in "Guru" and "Bhool Bhulaiyaa". The rage she expressed in her climactic dance in the latter just blew everyone else out of sight.

Raima Sen as the spirited spunky gregarious Bengali housewife in Reema Kagti's "Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd" proved herself to be Suchitra Sen's bump-and-grind-granddaughter.

Esha Deol played the affable ghost in "Darling". Her expressions of anguish were so real I wondered where this star-daughter learnt to be so unhappy!

Tabu must immediately be stopped from languishing in self-imposed exile. She was extraordinary in "Cheeni Kum" and then again in Mira Nair's "The Namesake". Irrfan Khan, who played her husband, whooped it up with glorious unselfconsciousness with Konkona Sen Sharma in "Life...In A Metro".

While Irrfan came into his own in 2007, Konkona, I'm afraid, showed signs of over-confidence especially in "Aaja Nachle". However, she is a brilliant actress and a pleasure to behold always.

Two quirky male performers caught my eye in 2007 - Ranveer Shorey as the doped-out street wanderer in "Traffic Signal" was the summit of poignancy, hard to achieve for an actor who has an essentially comic image.

And in Sohail Khan we've our first cartoon-strip hero. As a horny Rajasthani trying to celebrate his delayed first wedding night in "Salaam-e-Ishq", Sohail was a laugh riot and arguably the funniest guy on screen in 2007.

And let's end with the inimitable Shah Rukh Khan. He was a scintillating bundle of wound-up angst in "Chak De India". For the first time in his career he didn't seem to be acting at all. For that we shall always remain grateful to director Shimit Amin who managed to even out the excesses of King Khan's other big blockbuster "Om Shanti Om" in 2007