


The lend from the Malayalam film industry, Prithviraj Sukumaran, as the villain, was a good casting call. Or Feroze Khan (Danny Denzongpa), the suave, desk-bound but good government bureaucrat, who juggles phones and adroitly gets the minister ji's approval (without really getting it) Bajpayee needs for his covert operation. Or tapori Shuklaji (Anupam Kher) who has beady eyes and a pretend bemused smile, which is not a smile, and some charming resigned dialogues ("100 percent maregee").

He sports a 1970s Indian style man-purse, that he carries around with his pinky and a deliberate-take-the-scent-of-suspicion-off-him low-key babu manner. Like Taapsee's teacher (Veerendra Saxena) whose eyes are always mildly blood-shot. More timepass is the troupe of side characters. He gets to deliver, aptly, all the film's ringing patriotic lines. So is Manoj Bajpayee (who has no character name) in his tense ultra serious boss persona. So is his line about Shabana: " Is ladki ka gussa bara kharab hai." But that's not to say that the rest of the cast isn't tremendous.Ījay Singh Rajput (Akshay Kumar) - rakish cool manner and pencil-thin moustache, as the classic brawny action hero - is delightful. To say that Taapsee is the main reason to see Naam Shabana, while totally true, is also rather unfair. I am clear that there can be only one star in the relationship and that's me.' That I can write and give you on a stamp paper. She once said: 'I have never dated a star and will never date one.
