Nawazuddin Siddiqui in Kahaani: The coarse, terse police officer remains one of his best roles till date

In his first scene of Kahaani itself, Nawazuddin Siddiqui caught people’s attention. After smoking in the washroom while assessing the situation, he marches into a sleepy police station and barks at whoever tries to give him orders. He doesn’t mince his words; he is probably that coarse and brash officer in front of whom you would rather play dead.
He knows he is superior to the rest of relaxed policemen there, and doesn’t hesitate to show them his badge with grim satisfaction after cursing them liberally. Later, he meets a pregnant Vidya Balan, who is hunting for her missing husband. Her predicament doesn’t mean he will rein himself in when dealing with her — they’re all the same when it comes to work. Juxtaposed against Parambrata Chatterjee’s easy-going, empathetic and understanding policeman avatar, filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh struck the perfect balance in the film.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Khan in Kahaani
Kahaani was a Vidya Balan driven film and yet, Nawazuddin Siddiqui stood out, with his clearly defined personality. It was a fast-paced thriller where a seemingly helpless pregnant woman is searching for her missing husband and finds out that she is being used the Intelligence Bureau to track down a criminal— except, in the plot tw, she was the one using them all along. And, she was using Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s help, who was going to use her as bait. Nawaz’s Khan had only one goal in mind: To nab a dangerous criminal. He wasn’t too worried about risking one person’s life for the greater good, as he coolly told Parambrata Chatterjee, “Collateral damage.” He was ruthless; he didn’t really bother with excessive emotions and didn’t show much sensitivity when dealing with a grieving woman. He had a job at the end of the day; and he was here to do it. He wasn’t going to accommodate other people’s whims or fancies—-if he wanted to smoke in front of a pregnant woman, hell, he would do it.
As Nawaz told Hindustan Times this year, the film’s initial buzz wasn’t strong enough to convince him that this would later become one of his most prominent roles. “Shuru mein koi itna khaas idea nahi tha ke film iss tarah hit hogi. In fact, jab film release hui, teen din tak kuch nahi hua, aur na pata chala ke hit hogi. After Sunday, I started getting calls from producers and Ghosh that the feedback is good, and it is growing. Uske baad jaise film uthi woh toh kamal hi thi,”  he had said.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsjamVgPoI8%5D
2011 was also the time when Nawaz was juggling between several films and almost didn’t take up the Kahaani offer, till Sujoy Ghosh convinced him. He was in the midst of shooting for other films that would later prove to define his career—Gangs of Wasseypur and Talaash, though in the latter, he might not have been as prominent. With these three films in 2011, Nawaz cemented his position on the Bollywood scene. His understated acting, comic timing and dry wit were duly noted. Yet, there was something a lot more real about him in Kahaani, perhaps more so than even the first instalment of Gangs Of Wasseypur.
Stripping away the idealism of Bollywood heroes, he created the space between the hero and the anti-hero.