10 Years of Ayushmann Khurrana: 10 Films With Which He Broke Barriers

Ayushmann Khurrana has completed 10 years in Bollywood on Wednesday, 20 April. To celebrate the occasion, we look at some of his movies wherein he has broken stereotypes and addressed stigmas plaguing the society:

Vicky Donor

The 2012 Shoojit Sircar film follows Dr Baldev (Annu Kapoor), the owner of a fertility clinic and sperm bank, who is in search of a healthy sperm donor. Baldev's search ends when he chances upon Vicky (Ayushmann Khurrana), a young Punjabi boy.

It was brave of Ayushmann to begin his career with a film that addresses the stigma around sperm donation. The actor received a huge appreciation for his performance.

Dum Laga Ke Haisha

Prem Prakash Tiwari (Ayushmann Khurrana) is an insecure young man, who ricochet's between his overbearing father, his friends and the 'shakha pradhaan'. Prem follows instructions to the T, but is still badgered by everyone. He couldn't even utter a word when his wedding to Sandhya (Bhumi Pednekar) is being fixed by his family. Sandhya is fighting her own battle. She does not fit into the warped notions of beauty imposed by the society, and Prem adds to her woes.

While Bhumi does an outstanding job as the overweight girl who is burdened by the expectations of a narrow-minded society, Ayushmann also does a flawless job essaying the role of a short-sighted young man who learns to dust the cobwebs from his mind. It's not easy to play a character who isn't very likeable but Ayushmann nails the role.

Shubh Mangal Saavdhan

Shubh Mangal Saavdhan follows an engaged couple (played by Ayushmann and Bhumi) in Delhi, who discover months before their wedding that the boy suffers from erectile dysfunction. The first half delves into how Mudit and Sugandha try to deal with the problem, while the second half is all about finding a solution and the effect it has on their relationship.

This is yet another movie which scores on the acting. Ayushmann and Bhumi play their characters with utmost sensitivity. The film isn't condescending in its gaze, neither does it try to mock the characters.

Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan

This film tugs at the heartstrings. We meet Kartik Singh (Ayushmann) and Aman Tripathi (Jitendra Kumar) as a couple, one helping the other board a train. They are in superhero costumes, challenging the hyper-masculinity associated with superheroes. Kartik and Aman are very much in love, but hell breaks loose when they are discovered by Aman’s father kissing on a train.

What follows is a comedy about the family trying to come to terms with this ‘disaster’. Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan chooses a love story to reach out. The tone isn’t judgemental. It does not demonise the older generation for being homophobic. Instead, it chooses to educate them. The message is simple - there shouldn't be a need to 'normalise' same-sex relationship, it is no different than any other romantic relationship.

Ayushmann wins us over once again with his performance.

Article 15

Ayushmann's character is a complete shift from the roles he essayed before. Article 15 follows city-bred police office Ayan Ranjan (Ayushmann), who has been posted in a remote area in Uttar Pradesh as a "punishment". A gangrape and murder of three 15-year-old girls shakes the whole village, and while investigating, Ayan discovers that other policemen have been hushing up the crime as the girls belong to an oppressed caste.

Ayushmann is spot-on as the entitled, upper class Ranjan. He stays true to the part of the protagonist, who is acutely aware that he will be looked on as a saviour.

Bala

The film addresses the issue of premature balding, and succeeds to an extent. Bala, a young man, suffers from premature balding and struggles to live up to society's beauty standards. His insecurity threatens his marriage too, and then Bala takes help of a lawyer (Bhumi), who finds herself the butt of jokes because of her dusky complexion.

Badhaai Ho

This soul of this heartwarming movie are the actors. Ayushmann plays Neena Gupta & Gajraj Rao 20-something son, who discovers that his parents are expecting a child. He immediately flips, shaming his parents and feeling too embarrassed to speak about this to others. Badhaai Ho shows us the ordeals middle-aged pregnant women have to go through and lays bare the hypocrisy around sex.

Dream Girl

Ayushmann plays a man pretending to be a woman on a phone sex line. Since childhood, Khurrana's Karamveer Singh has a talent of impersonating women. Desperate to find a job when he grows up, Karamveer agrees to work at a call centre converse with men who dial in, offering them solace. Singh pretends to be Puja, and one day he makes an unexpected discovery. Despite the bumpy writing, Ayushmann makes sure that Puja is amusing and not a caricature.

Andhadhun

Sriram Raghavan's Andhadhun, inspired by the French short film Olivier Treiner's L'accordeur (The Piano Tuner, 2010), is about a young musician (Ayushmann) who decides to act blind after failing to win the Bernstein Prize. As luck would have it, a gruesome incident challenges him to keep putting on the act. Ayushmann has never been better, and we are yearning to see him work with Tabu again.

Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui

Manu Munjal (Ayushmann) is a bodybuilder and fitness instructor in Chandigarh. Bullied after his mom's demise to build the best body in town, Manu wants to get over his past. Enter Maanvi, a zumba coach, who rents a part of Manu's gym to give lessons. Manu and Maanvi hit it off, and thus starts their romance. However, when Maanvi confides in Manu that she identifies as a transperson, hell breaks loose. Ayushmann shines as the Jatt boy, who strives to break free from his social bias.