Vipin Sharma

In Monkey Man (2024), Vipin Sharma's Alpha brings a calm that the surrounding characters seldom allow. Dev Patel directs a supporting cast pitched broadly, with Sharlto Copley's fight promoter bellowing and Sikandar Kher's police chief hurting people with casual ease. We felt relieved when Sharma gave us a quieter presence to attend to. That change matters in a revenge film whose fights hit hard but whose story wanders and repeats itself. Sharma is one reason to stay with it, even when the plotting tries our patience.

His breakthrough came as Nandkishore Awasthi in Taare Zameen Par (2007). He then faced typecasting as strict or insensitive fathers, narrowing his opportunities. We would rather see him allowed to complicate that authority than simply repeat the parental disapproval, however useful a stern father might be to a script. Supporting roles across independent and mainstream Hindi films offered other settings, including Gangs of Wasseypur - Part 1 (2012).

As Ehsaan Qureshi in Anurag Kashyap's crime saga, he is part of a crowded cast rather than the reason to watch on his own. The performances and music make the feuding families worth following, even when the plotting leaves too many names to keep straight. We would not single out Sharma at the expense of that ensemble; the film keeps an unusually large number of characters compelling. It is a better film than Monkey Man, but Patel gives us the clearer example of what Sharma adds.

Hotel Mumbai (2018) provided the connection with Patel that led to Alpha, the leader of a hijra community. It was a useful departure from those stern fathers, while still drawing on Sharma's capacity to give a supporting character authority. Patel gets something valuable from him by allowing that authority to be calm amid the film's aggression. Start with Monkey Man for Sharma, provided a bloody, uneven revenge film is what the evening calls for.