Decade in Review (2010-2019): Bollywood's 10 Best Female Performances

Sharp undercover agents, resolute housewives, and successful career women -- here are some of the most memorable performances from Bollywood’s leading ladies.

Sridevi came out of a nearly 15-year-long hiatus to deliver a winner. This was a departure from her syrupy roles in ‘80s and ‘90s masala films. The erstwhile superstar’s acting chops are revealed to young audiences for the first time, as she plays Shashi -- a soft spoken, unassertive housewife trying to discover herself in a foreign land. This heartwarming, underdog’s tale takes us through Shashi’s travails with the English language, and how she overcomes her challenges.

In the beginning of the decade, Vidya roared into her prime with strong roles in films like Ishqiya, No One Killed Jessica, The Dirty Picture and Kahaani. In Sujoy Ghosh’s Kahaani sees her play a pregnant woman taking on insurmountable odds as she navigates an alien city and an unhelpful bureaucracy in search of her missing husband. The actress gets the audience on her side with her vulnerability and grit, leading the story to a climax for the ages.

Right from the start of her career, Kangana had impressed in many roles, but what she missed was a career-defining performance. That came with Queen in which she authentically played a Delhi girl’s coming-of-age story. We move through the story feeling every bit of Rani Mehra’s tears, anger, fears, and finally her joys as she discovers herself on a solo honeymoon after being dumped at the altar. Queen won two National Film Awards, including Best Actress for Kangana, who established herself as one of the most sought-after actresses of her generation.

Where did she come from -- and where did she go? Nimrat as Ila was one of the standout performances of the decade, which is even more commendable given it was her big screen debut. Ritesh Batra’s maiden venture has Ila as the bored housewife who strays into an unusual relationship after coming to know of her husband’s infidelity. The role and the film, both had wide critical acclaim. Unfortunately, since then, we have seen Nimrat in only one other major film -- Airlift.

Only the cerebral Tabu could have done justice to the complexities of playing Shakespeare’s Gertrude, a woman whose mind isn’t easy to understand. Ghazala, too, drives the men in her life to despair -- her idealistic husband whom she doesn’t permit to do his duty, her son who is struggling to make sense of his feelings for her, and her opportunistic brother-in-law from whom she extracts the highest price.

Piku is a rare film. First, it runs with an unusual subject and comes out a winner, not just at the box office but also among critics. Second, it’s a rare instance of Amitabh Bachchan getting completely outshone by the female lead. Bachchan hams through the film as a senior citizen struggling with his bowel movements. Deepika plays a more relatable, young urban professional in search for love while trying to manage her father’s eccentricities.

In an industry driven by male movie stars where heroine-centric roles are few and far in between, Anushka Sharma is changing the narrative with her new role as the producer of female-oriented content. In 2015, the actress produced and starred in NH10 – a dark, gritty thriller built around themes like misogyny, patriarchy and the urban-rural dissonance. Sharma plays Meera, a young city woman whose road trip turns into a terrifying tragedy when her husband is murdered by a group of criminals. The actress' portrayal of an exhausted, wounded woman determined to seek retribution is both incredible and emotionally scarring.

In a short span of her career, Alia Bhatt has emerged as one of the most exciting young performers in Bollywood who keeps delivering one solid performance after the other. In Meghna Gulzar’s spy-drama Raazi, the actress plays Sehmat, a young Kashmiri intelligence agent who marries into a high-profile Pakistani military family in order to retrieve classified state information. Bhatt brings in the right amount of pluckiness and vulnerability into the role of an unassuming bride who straddles between her duty to the nation and her slowly developing bond with her new household.

The Tens were one of the best decades ever for women-centric human interest films. Rani Mukerji, one of the leading ladies of the years gone by, cemented her position as one of the greats with a difficult role in which she plays a school teacher with Tourette syndrome. While the film received lukewarm reviews, Rani’s portrayal of Naina Mathur -- the dedicated and encouraging science teacher -- received wide praise.

If Tapsee Pannu’s performance in Manmarziyaan is to be described in one word, it’s electrifying. As Rumi, the mercurial, red-haired Amritsar girl who loves as fiercely and she fumes, Tapsee is a treat to watch and turns the woman-conflicted-about-two-men trope into a relatable and emotionally rich portrayal.

Bhumi Pednekar - Sonchiriya (2019), Parineeti Chopra - Hasee Toh Phasee (2014) and Richa Chadha - Fukrey (2013).