Pallavi Debnath is an actress that throws one into the rustic and innocent of her Shangri-la with a fully fleshed in-between. Seriously, she has that uncanny ability to throw herself in your head even while the Netflix screen begs to know if you are still watching (yes, I am, and mind you more so because of you right now).
In Madam, she exudes volumes with that quiet confidence, eyes that speak out for novels, not the loud in-your-face attention-seeking theatre of drama. It’s not her fault if you’ve never figured it out yourself. Move to Rangeen Kahaniyan and it’s really an emotional saturnalia. One new persona every episode: sad, cool, fixing, or just getting by-with all of that somehow working.
BahuRani this one-you would expect yet another family saga; she trends off from that. One could almost hear the big silence of her not arguing for a point; all one sees is that she totally owns that scene, at least for the few minutes she is present there. M for Massage? If one goes to this point, of course, it is going to be something cushy, but not really. She cleverly works into the depths of unique loneliness and the unvoiced petrifying cold pain one is not certain if it was entertaining or otherwise.
Punishment, another slow one, with all that stillness in Dunn’s voiceless looks-so much tension, and you are sure something is about to get fired. And Chitralekha: honestly, even at the end of the credit, you’re still there thinking, “wait a second, what did I just watch now?”
In XTape Liv, she goes dark. Really dark. Not many can pull such off without crossing the line into self-parody, but she somehow does. Gubare Wali carries all kind of rural vibes, but some way or the other she grounds it and seems like not ‘acting.’ Shilajit is not about a plot but all about vibe, and you’re just riding it. And Choodiwala-sure, it is bold, but somehow it carries this strange tenderness beneath all that spice.
Long and short of it: Pallavi needn’t even shout. She just stealthily invaded your bloodstream before your damn permission was granted, and let me tell you, she will be lingering on your mind longer than you would want.
