Happy birthday Dulquer Salmaan: Before Karwaan, we walk you through his best films

Dulquer Salmaan has won the hearts of his female fans with his charm, the support of audiences with his talent and an entire generation’s approval with roles that reflect the young generation. He played the role of a man who finds hard to settle in one place in Charlie, a commitment-phobe in OK Kanmani, he fell in love with a woman who was already in a relationship in 100 Days of Love and he was the rebel who symbolised everything that we, as a generation, are fighting against in Bangalore Days.

The millennials are termed entitled and their problems often dismissed as first-world. Dulquer brought a depth to such characters. For instance, in Martin Prakkat’s Charlie, we get to know Dulquer’s character via people who know him and have interacted with him. Just like the leading lady Tessa, played by Parvathy, we are initially intrigued but then fall in love with this eternal traveller.

Speaking about defining relationships, one of the biggest hits of Dulquer’s career in Tamil is director Mani Ratnam’s OK Kanmani. Dulquer’s Adi and Nithya Menen’s Tara don’t want love or marriage. They want to live in the moment but fall in love and the struggle with defining their relationship. This struggle was great fun to watch.

In Ustad Hotel, Dulquer plays the role of a man who wants to be a chef but his sisters and father are settled in Dubai. He is set to take up a job in London. His father realises much later that his beloved son did not study hotel management, but studied to be a chef secretly. This leads to a rift between Faizi and his dad, after which he travels to Kozhikode to live with his grandfather, played by Thilakan. The film revolved around Faizi understanding how Ustad Hotel played a role in lives of many. Dulquer’s performance as the Indian kid, who has just returned from abroad was impressive.

One of his most memorable Malayalam movies of Dulquer, however, happens to be a travel movie called Neelakasham Pachakadal Chuvanna Bhoomi, meaning, Blue Sky, Green sea, red earth. The movie is about a young man travelling to the north-east part of the country in search of the girl he fell in love with when he was in college. The people he meets on the way, the road that he travels and his experience is everything that young solo travellers want to experience today.

He understands the importance of stepping back to give importance to films and his decision to be a part of movies like Mahanati and Parava reflect this. He is all set to make his debut in Hindi films. With Karwaan, the actor’s first Bollywood project, there is a lot of excitement among his fans because Dulquer will do what he is best at doing, playing roles that have complex thoughts with simplicity.

Author tweets @Priyanka_S_MCC
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