Most Underrated · Women
Shefali Shah
शेफाली शाह
“Played a 30-year-old's mother at 30 and lost a decade of leading roles to it.”
The case
Shah's confrontation scene in Monsoon Wedding is one of the great two minutes of Indian screen acting. She was then cast as a matriarch for fifteen years. Delhi Crime and Jalsa finally gave her the leads she should have had in 2003, and she was visibly better than everything around her in both.
Where to start
Begin with Monsoon Wedding (2001). It's in this canon — read our entry on it. Then work through Delhi Crime, Jalsa, Dil Dhadakne Do.
See how we defined “underrated” and why some obvious names are missing in our methodology essay.
In the canon