Anushka Sawhney stole the show and our hearts in Call My Agent Bollywood

A tribute to the fabulous talents of Anuschka Sawhney

    Credit: @anuschkasawhney

I must admit I found Call My Agent Bollywood rather underwhelming in almost every way.

I haven’t seen the French original, so I have nothing to compare it to. However, it seemed terribly over the top and contrived, almost unintended parody, where it needed subtlety. It was awfully underwritten where there was a need for compelling drama and plot. Overall it seemed perfunctory and devoid of much ingenuity or sincerity.

However, as the adage goes, it takes mud to grow a lotus.

The beauteous lotus of this muddled piece is Jasleen brilliantly played by the enormously talented and lovely Anuschka Sawhney.

The great Sir Michael Caine recounted an incident during the early phases of his film career.

Caine was to perform a dramatic scene that demanded he suffers a breakdown that causes him to almost explode with emotion. 

Caine prepared himself over a few days by attempting to charge himself emotionally with angst but bottling it all up so he could be let out during the scene.

The director shouted action.

Caine did exactly what he thought was expected, he delivered his dialogues with an undercurrent of angst, pain, and turmoil. He ended by breaking down.

The director yelled cut.

Caine was proud of himself, he had erupted like a volcano and hence had metaphorically lit the screen on fire. He was sure it would be the highlight of the film.

To his surprise, the director asked him for a retake but also motioned him to do less.

A slightly perturbed Caine performed the scene again but played it slightly down.

To his utter disbelief, the director asked for another retake and motioned him to do even lesser.

Caine did another retake, underplaying it even further.

To his irritation, the director asked for a retake and motioned him to do much lesser.

“If you keep asking me to do less, I will end up doing nothing,” said Caine out of exasperation.

“Now you get it,” said the director.

This was an unforgettable lesson in film acting for Caine and it is evident in each of his performances in his vast career.

For the actor, the body and the face are the canvas while the voice, the expressions, and the movement are the colours and sketches.

However, film acting can be tricky, the key is to perform without a demonstrative performance. If the film actor does nothing at all it appears to be wooden, like Steven Segal. But at the same time, if the film actor does too much it ends up looking theatrical, hammy, and in worse cases unintentionally comical, perhaps like William Shatner.

The audience for a film acting performance is not the people on the film set but the camera that captures even the slightest of facial movements. If the people on the set applaud, the actor has most likely gone very over the top.

It takes a great deal of skill and balance to be an able film or TV actor.

The stunning Anuschka Sawhney most certainly possesses that skill in great abundance.

Anuschka is blessed not only with an exquisite face and beautiful features but also a countenance that is so expressive that a lot is conveyed without her uttering a syllable.

There are scenes in Call My Agent Bollywood set the agent’s office where one of the agents, Amal, is making a move towards Anuschka’s character Jasleen after they had a flirty exchange on a dating app.

Much of Anuschka’s performance was in reacting to this situation.

One cannot help but marvel as Anuschka conveys a range of emotions such as embarrassment, coyness, flirtatiousness, irritation, slight disgust, and subtle feeling attraction towards her suitor. Most importantly it seems real, effortless, and as if it is really occurring.

Also top marks for Anuschka display photo acting.

As she walks away after the flirty encounter one cannot help but notice the graceful manner in which she moves. Jasleen is a very chic, elegant, and sexy lady who knows the impact she has on others and Anuschka coveys it all.

Also, top marks to Anuschka, her dress designer, her make-up, and tattoo artist for making the saree look so sensual and alluring.

It is important to say that in outlandish and contrived situations such as these, the characters often do not look like they belong to the profession that the premise claims they are.

A perfect example is when Denise Richards played the nuclear physicist in a Bond movie.

Quite often the urge to make the character attractive overrides all credibility of the character's profession.

Despite all the artifice in her surroundings, Anuschka did look and behave she was a no-nonsense and uncompromising auditor especially when there is a file before her. I have run into a few auditors and hence I can vouch for the credibility.

There is a considerable change in her manner beyond office hours and it is a talent of the actor to manage to depict these subtle differences. It is essential to mention this because this distinction is absent in other characters.

Anuschka is also blessed with a euphonious voice that is also very expressive and enables her to convey the undercurrent of her emotions with a few words.

There is a scene where she is reading out her audit report to Amal, who again is making an aggressive pass at her. She once again manages to convey a myriad of emotions such as attraction, concern, hesitation, and predicament with her voice in addition to her expressive face.

Such grace, poise, and elegance are usually innate but the level of polish gives the impression that she may have a background in Indian classical dancing.

The culture in the voice causes me to think she may have had singing lessons or perhaps has a background in theatre.

Quite often, actors in this part of the world tend to get uncomfortable depicting scenes of intimacy and that causes tender moments to look awkward and even vulgar.

The love scenes between Anuschka and her ladylove Amal are warm, tender, romantic, mischievous, and fun. You actually believe there is attraction and an emotional bond shared between them. As effective as the love scene is a scene where Amal comforts Jasleen after the latter has had a fall, it is playful, mischievous, and sexy.

The screen duration of Jasleen is probably not more than thirty minutes which is not much considering the overall duration of the series is around 270 minutes.

But it is the talents of Anuschka are so impactful that her character is the one that leaves the most indelible impression on the mind. It has been a week since I watched the series and Jasleen is all I remember.

Since this is a supporting character, it is impossible to know how much of the character was her interpretation, how much was actually written, and how much were inputs from the director.

It would be interesting to know what sort of backstory was developed for Jasleen, she appeared more fleshed out and real than any other character on the show. I sense she had been badly betrayed in her past and was focusing on her work to heal the pain.

It would also be great to learn what Anuschka did to prepare for her character. 

Perhaps she can release videos of it all on her Instagram page.

Also, was the look conceived by the team, or was it Anuschka’s own creativity.

Perhaps the beauty lies in the mystery, but it would be fascinating to know.

Irrespective of it all, Anuschka has managed to deliver something absolutely superior with her exceptionally nuanced and skilled performance.

It would be fascinating to know of Anuschka’s journey as an artist, how did she begin and how did she develop her skills to such a level despite being so young and just a few parts on screen.

I do hope to see her in more films and TV shows playing bigger and meatier parts. Perhaps there can be a spin-off for Jasleen?