Class Act - Episode 1
Episode 1 of ‘Class Act’ sees Rajeev Masand tracing the many ripe acts of Shefali Shah
As they sat down about her newfound stardom in the industry, Masand maintained the fact how Shah has always been one of the best performers till date.
Rajeev Masand’s ‘Class Act’ brings together an ensemble of actors who do not conform to the idea of stardom, but let their characters speak for themselves. In the promo trailer, which was released earlier this week, Masand had given us a glimpse of the first three guests whom he would host on the first three episodes of the talk show. In the clippings we see actors, who are renowned for their work but keep a low profile when it comes to stardom, like Shefali Shah, Vikrant Massey, and Rasika Dugal, talk about their work and the immense pressure to maintain a face on social media.
Today, ‘Class Act’ hosted its very first guest Shefali Shah, whose latest Netflix series ‘Delhi Crime’ was not only a subject of controversy merely but actually highlighted Shah’s skills to make her characters grow into the audience. Shah played the role of an unbending Vartika Chaturvedi, who investigates the Delhi gang rape case. As Vartika, Shah dives deep into the complexity of emotions that her character goes through in her attempt to keep her calm in the case that had been the most controversial instance in the nation. In ‘Class Act’, Shah spoke about how playing Vartika has actually opened up several doors of opportunity where filmmakers now want to cast her in leading roles.
Shah spoke about the many roles which establish her as one of the rare gems of Bollywood. (IMDb)
‘Class Act’ kicked off with Masand introducing Shah’s 25-year-old career in the film industry, and yet just how little people actually speak about this actress who has reintroduced realism to characters through her acting skills. Masand brought in various aspects of Shah’s career trajectory, marking out the roles which acted like milestones in her career, such as, ‘Lakshmi’, ‘Dil Dhadakne Do’, ‘Once Again’ and now ‘Delhi Crime’. What was pretty interesting Masand’s inclusion of Shah’s short film, ‘Juice’ which revolves around a wife’s struggle to reclaim her place in the family as the mistress of the house.
‘Juice’ brought out the story of a housewife who breaks the shackles of domesticity. (IMDb)
Masand’s choosing of Shah’s works seemed a like well-planned chart of the kind of characters who are somewhat related to each other, when it comes to the crisis they go through. Every character that Masand spoke about shared the common crisis of identity, and in the way that he managed to make Shah come up with her experience with these characters formed a perfect timeline of her growth in the industry. In the 16-minutes-long interview, the two began with her latest work as Vartika in ‘Delhi Crime’ and stretched up to her first mature role as Kasturba Gandhi in the 2007 movie, ‘Gandhi, My Father’.
By the end of the interview, Shah’s place as one of the most sought after actresses (not stars) was established, but Shah continued to maintain that all the praise she has received will in a way translate to the work that she wants to carry out further. She has always been an actress who likes to let her character come on screen instead of she being portrayed as a character. Unlike most stars today, Shah is the raging nebula whose presence might not be felt from a distance but who also cannot be ignored due to her burning passion.
Watch the first episode of ‘Class Act’ here.
