Happy Birthday Varun Dhawan: Revisiting his most underrated performances 

Varun Dhawan has always had a massive reputation as a crowd-pleasing actor/dancer and a laid-back star with the ability to carry a full-on masala movie entirely on charm and personality alone. But between the huge successful songs and the high-energy entertainers, lies a bit of an under-the-radar filmography that gives an insight into the more creative side of him, one where he takes risks, sheds vanity, and occasionally surprises you with how much he’s holding back rather than showing off. 

Today, on his birthday, it feels like the right time to revisit five roles that didn’t always get their due and show just how much he has developed as an actor. 

October 

In October, Dhawan does something many mainstream actors almost never do: he makes himself disappear. He plays Dan, a trainee hotel management student who is dealing with an unexpected emotional attachment; he trades charisma for stillness. There is an awkwardness and unrefined quality to his character that feels awfully genuine; you can tell by looking at him that he is not attempting to be a nice person, and this makes the performance so memorable. Dhawan’s performance lies in his pauses and silence; how his grief transforms him. You don’t watch him perform; you watch him exist. 

Badlapur 

October felt like it was focused on restraint, while Badlapur felt like it was focused on destroying those boundaries. In this film, Dhawan’s portrayal of Raghu cracked open the door of possibilities for him to be more than just a typical commercial leading man. His Raghu is not designed for sympathy; he’s obsessive, morally compromised, and increasingly difficult to root for. He doesn’t soften or sugarcoat any of these characteristics in his portrayal of Raghu; rather, he portrays a character that changes incrementally, building to a climax, the time when grief ceases to be just pain or sadness and instead transforms into something ominously hurtful. 

Bawaal 

With Bawaal, the conversation often drifted toward the film’s controversial parallels, but Dhawan’s performance deserves to be looked at separately. As a character obsessed with appearance and having others validate him, he begins as almost an exaggerated caricature of his insecurity, only to eventually deconstruct himself. What works about his performance is the gradual transition from an over-the-top character of insecurity to someone who is able to confront their insecurities in a calm and relaxed manner. Even though some of the emotional scenes were done with hesitancy, it served to create a more realistic feel to the film. It feels like someone learning to confront themselves in real time. 

Sui Dhaaga 

Varun Dhawan’s performance as Mauji in the movie Sui Dhaaga gives the impression of an actor deliberately making the choice to not over-dramatize a performance, even though he’s playing a character with certain traits that could have easily crossed into becoming too cartoony. The way he plays Mauji is earnest, and he really creates this character’s fragile nature, his timid grin, need for approval from others, and his gradual journey to feeling good about himself, without making it seem forced, which is typically the case when creating characters who have these qualities. Mauji is delicate and quiet, and Dhawan plays him genuinely, leaving you with a fully formed person rather than a “role.” 

Kalank 

Then there’s Kalank, a film that didn’t quite come together, but offered Dhawan one of his most striking screen presences. His performance as Zafar includes anger, vulnerability, and emotional detachment while also showing that he has made an emotional connection to the other characters in the film, and does not abandon his character when the plot loses focus. 

In a nutshell, Varun Dhawan’s most interesting work isn’t always the loudest. It’s the kind you notice more the second time around.