Samantha Akkineni film Oh Baby is streaming on Netflix.
It is Samantha Akkineni’s 33rd birthday today. This year, she also completed ten years in the film industry. The actor made her screen debut in 2010 with Gautham Menon’s bi-lingual Ye Maaya Chesave. And she has only gone from strength to strength since.
Samantha has a carved a special place for herself in the industry. Even as she has played traditional damsel in distress roles, her charming screen presence makes all the difference. When Sam is on the screen, she commands your attention, irrespective of the star standing opposite her. There are only a finite number of actors, who can manage to sell us anything without breaking a sweat. And Samantha is definitely in that club.
1) Oh! Baby: Director B. V. Nandini Reddy’s movie has Samantha Akkineni behaving like a 70-year-old granny in the body of a 20-something girl. And we buy it because Samantha makes it work with her innate charm and conviction with which she approaches her character. (Oh! Baby streaming on Netflix)
2) Mahanati: Of course, this movie belonged to Keerthy Suresh, who played iconic actor Savitri. But, as usual, Samantha leaves a mark with her performance as a young reporter who discovers herself while tracking the rise and fall of Savitri. (Mahanati is on Amazon Prime Video)
3) Super Deluxe: The multi-starrer is one of the best things the film industry had to offer in 2019. Directed by Thiagarajan Kumararaja, the movie is a highly unorthodox view of a hypocritical society. Samantha plays the role of a young woman who cheats on her seemingly unromantic husband. The plot thickens when her lover dies in bed, right when her husband enters the house. And it gets crazier. It takes a lot of courage to play a woman who engages in infidelity, gets caught by the husband and is not overwhelmed by guilt. She instead owns her choices and is willing to face the consequences. It was a brave choice to make for Samantha. (Super Deluxe in on Netflix)
4) Eega: A housefly is on the quest for revenge – it must have sounded implausible when director SS Rajamouli pitched the idea to producers. But, Rajamouli’s imagination is so vast that he makes it work on the screen so beautifully. Samantha plays the role of a girl who is in love with the ‘hero’ housefly and aids in its mission to kill the all-powerful villain. (Eega is on Amazon Prime Video)
5) Thanga Magan: Samantha Akkineni’s role in Thanga Magan is the exact opposite of her role in Super Deluxe. She plays a dutiful wife to Dhanush’s middle-class husband. She is unambitious and taught to live happily in whatever little her husband can offer to her. (Thanga Magan is on Sun NXT)