Arjun Rampal has given a performance of a lifetime in Daddy, and we think he’s done a better job than any other actor this year. As Arun Gawli, Rampal is confident, sinister and gets the Mumbaiyya tapori (something that doesn’t come naturally to him) accent just right. Not for a moment do you think that this man started out as a supermodel with extremely limited acting skills or range of expressions. 

Be it his speech as Daddy, the reformed gangster who is now a politician or be it his feud with Maqsood (played by Farhan Akhtar), Rampal gets his A-game on a consistent basis. His body language is very loose and fearless, something that gangsters must be used to. 

And clearly, the hardwork and the amount of preparation he has done shows. Speaking about his accent and language in an interview with NDTV, Rampal said, “It is very difficult. Because we don’t speak like that. They have a lot of codes in the sentences that they make. Which they’ve made their own language.” Words like safaai which means frisking in tapori language (it means cleaning in Hindi), sixer which means six bullets (not Dhoni’s sixer) and others. If you see the interview, you’ll realize that Rampal has become so fluent in the language that he can do it effortlessly. Like a boy born and brought up in the streets of Mumbai. 

Not just that, Arjun even put his life on the line for the film.  “I am in the middle of Kamathipura and a brothel, and it’s Eid. There are 10,000 people outside because they know there’s a shoot. There’s a real gangster downstairs who is shouting and calling Arjun down, and saying, ‘Main kaat daalega tere ko,’ (I will cut you down!)” director Ashim Ahluwalia said in an interview. 

Also, comparing his performance to others like Shah Rukh Khan in Raees, or Akshay Kumar in Jolly LLB 2, you’ll figure that nothing they’ve done comes close. Yes, there are more films to come this year. But, Arjun’s performance was something even a Daniel Day Lewis would have been proud of. He didn’t put a foot wrong. The film has flaws, but Arjun doesn’t. He hasn’t gone overboard, and he hasn’t underplayed it. 

The only thing bad about this performance for Arjun is that perhaps he cannot top it.