50 Shades Of Grey

Madness Is His Method. Analaita Seth Tries To Decode The Maverick Jim Sarbh

With every act, he takes evil several notches higher. He’s so good at playing bad that he walks away with equal amounts of both - abhorrence and appreciation. Jim Sarbh is B-town’s latest baddie, whom men find invincible, women irresistible and co-actors indomitable. The young actor describes his journey with a medley of adjectives – ‘overwhelming, enjoyable, difficult, strange, joyous’, something he’s relished all the way.

In fact, while he was shooting for his debut Neerja (2016), other cast members couldn’t help commenting that he’d be hailed as the next ‘Gabbar’ of Bollywood. Ram Madhvani’s biographical thriller was based on the hijacking of the Pan Am Flight 73 in Karachi, Pakistan on September 5, 1986. It starred Sonam Kapoor in the titular role of the braveheart flight attendant Neerja Bhanot. Jim played a terrifying terrorist, the unpredictability of his character Khalil, keeping the audiences on edge. Uncontainable and wild, his was an overwhelming performance. Jim rightly describes his role as ‘an adrenalinfilled experience’.

While Dinesh Vijan’s reincarnation love tale Raabta (2017) didn’t befriend the boxoffice, Jim Sarbh as Zakir Merchant, a business magnate, made a mark. His was a measured and menacing performance. In the same year, he was seen in Konkona Sen Sharma’s directorial debut, A Death In The Gunj. His eccentric flavour enhanced the film’s eerie vibe.