Alternate Best Actor 1980: Naseeruddin Shah in Sparsh

Naseeruddin Shah did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Aniruhd Parmar in Sparsh.  

Sparsh is a moving understated film about the troubled romance between a blind principal and a social worker...except *insert standard Louis Bollywood musical number statement*.  

Naseeruddin Shah takes on the role of a blind principal for a school for children who are also blind. We discover Shah’s initial performance that is defined initially by a quiet kind of grace. Shah’s work has a kind of ease and understated warmth about the man. This as we initially meet him essentially trying to recruit a social worker Kavita (Shabana Azmi) to his school. Shah’s delivery of his kind of “pitch” for his work and his school, is a potent combination of a kind of ease within the sentiment, but also a distinct passion for his work. There’s a type of richness in his expression of a man with this sincere appreciation for his career and his method of helping others with his own condition. What Shah’s performance does so well in these early scenes, other than establishing a likable protagonist, is also the experience of the man in this position and as a blind man. There is a comfort in his manner just in this speaking towards his profession and his thoughts. There is no unnatural emphasis, just a sincere delivery of a man speaking from an honest truth that defines the man’s personal passion. 

We see the operations of the school, where Shah expresses the comfort of self in these interactions and experience. We see a man whose blindness does not define him, or at least it appears to not, even as he works specifically within the world of the blind. A crack within this, which I wouldn’t say as a facade more of a specific parameter of comfort, though is found in a moment where Kavita attempts to help Parmar pour his tea. Shah’s delivery of the quick snap at her sharply saying he can do the task himself before returning back to his more affable smile. Shah’s delivery of these moments is essential in revealing the character and crafting depth to the role. Shah’s portrayal of the moment is rather instinctual. It is quick and without hesitation. This isn't really out of character with the affable man we see otherwise. That affable man though has that comfort where Kavita treating him as a blind man changes that dynamic. Shah’s reactions suggest the years of wishing to be treated as any person and not specifically as a blind man in need of help. As harsh as the moment appears he shows a man who has strives for a kind of normalcy, and whenever that is questioned, it is returned to the man on an earlier path in that journey.

This rough patch though seems to be partially satiated as he and Kavita grow closer. Shah and Azmi have a wonderful rather unfussy kind of chemistry. This as there is just a sort of ease in their connection in these moments. There is a sense of care and just really love in these moments of speaking to one another. What strikes through these moments like a sharp whip though is whenever Parmar's abilities as a man are questioned, not by Kavita but anyone around them. These are again portrayed as severe snaps by Shah's delivery that slowly allude to a real desperation created from the man's main vulnerability that leaves him without the innate confidence and comfort he so seeks. This slowly becoming a kind of festering element within the relationship. Shah emphasizes effectively the sense of it as a kind of hanging cloud over the relationship. This as Shah naturally shows the real flaw within the man as he's not completely comfortable within himself, even as he presents so honestly the better qualities of the man when he does have that comfort. What we see though is a natural exploration of the way this relationship, where his blindness frequently comes up, sort of forces this vulnerability out of him that would likely have been more easily hidden under different circumstances. 

There is some comfort just by the mere interactions which both actors realize with a natural grace.  This as it is just a given of the feelings between the two even as the circumstances keep them away from it. This even though cannot last Parmar is constantly reminded of basically that vulnerability through every moment of their close relationship. Shah's portrayal than though is a man sort of balancing his priorities in a way in which the man is able to live with in order to be as his best self. This as even as he essentially forces himself away from Kavita romantically, we see this all the greater passion towards his task to teach the blind like himself. This passion that Shah expresses so beautifully with a clam yet precise manner. There is really an unexpected result in all of this, and so much in this is Shah's careful portrayal of this. This in presenting the man's festering vulnerability that is eased while also in a certain easing away from what it is that drew out that vulnerability. Shah's work creates the right sense of the conflicting emotions that suggest both growth and compromise in Parmar. It is a moving performance by Naseeruddin Shah as he never cheats his character's struggle. He rather potently shows it both in terms of the man at his most inspirational and in his greatest difficulties.