Dear Manoj Bajpayee, Many Many Happy Returns of the Day for your 49th birthday! And on this special day, I have a confession to make - I have to admit that when I have to review your movies, I end up automatically giving a star extra to you. It is kind of an involuntary response, based on seeing nearly three decades worth of gloriously fantastic performances from you. Sure, there have been bad ones, namely the recent Missing, but there are quite aberrant, a rare glip in that illustrious career. Something we can easily forgive when a career boasts of movies like Satya, Gangs of Wasseypur, Pinjar, etc.

They say Slow and Steady Wins the Race, and for you that adage quite applies. Many think that Satya is your first movie; can't blame them for that role of Bhiku Mhatre announced your arrival with a roar. 'Mumbai Ka Raja Kaun? Bhiku Mhatre' made for a better caption than Titanic's naive 'I am the King of the World!' Your work in movies that came before, be it Drohkaal, Daud, Bandit Queen and even that lacklustre Dastak, had glimmer of that powerful prowess, even in that subdued capacity. But then in Bollywood, you have to go all Tommy DeVito for the audience to notice you, unless you are a starkid launched by Karan Johar. Thankfully, your act in Satya was beyond fantastic and you totally deserve that National Award (For the Best Supporting Actor).

If you have excelled in gangster dramas like Satya, Gangs of Wasseypur, you also go the other way around to equally committed performances in other genres as well. It is not an easy task to go quite bombastic and scenery-chewing in one movie (Satya, Road, Aks, LOC Kargil), and then go on to deliver more nuanced performances in movies like Pinjar, 1971, Aligarh etc.

But then, I am not here to talk about your best performances, which cannot be contained in a list of 10's or 20's. I am here to talk about how certain roles of yours have gone quite under the radar thanks to either disappointing box office returns or lack of promotions or being really bad movies where you shined the best. Here are five such movies -

LOC Kargil

JP Dutta's bloated but interesting war drama based on the Kargil war has Manoj Bajpayee play a real-life soldier Gren. Yogendra Singh Yadav. In a movie that starred nearly half of Bollywood, Bajpayee managed to stand with a fantastic performance, and his camaraderie with Ashutosh Rana was one of the highlights of the movie.

Chittagong

Chittagong, based on freedom fighter Surya Sen and his team's revolt (albeit unsuccessful) against the British, had a huge disadvantage of coming after Ashutosh Gowariker's starry but inferior movie on the same premise, Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Se. Chittagong was also badly promoted which is a tragedy, for not only is the movie better than KHJJS, it also boasts of quite layered acts from both Bajpayee and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, a rare time that these two actors were seen together in important roles.

Chakravyuh

Prakash Jha is known for making socially-relevant movies in the heart of UP and Bihar. Many of his recent ventures grab attention because of the stars, but turn out to be rather bland products during viewing (Aarakshan, Satyagrah, Jai Gangaajal). However, Chakravyuh flew under the radar despite being one of his better works of this decade. In this tale of cops vs Naxals, inspired by Dances With Wolves, Abhay Deol and Arjun Rampal might be the leads, but Manoj Bajpayee managed to shine through as the wily leader of the Naxal outfit, who manages to have a commanding presence despite the lacks of theatricality.

1971

I have mentioned this movie in a couple of my underrated movie lists, because 1971 is a movie that deserved to be watched by anyone who craves for ambitions and different cinema. Manoj Bajpayee plays the leader of POWs trapped in a Pakistani jail during the 1971 war, who plans a daring escape plan with some of his fellow army-men. Again like Chittagong, it got lost in the starry aura of the weak Amitabh Bachchan-Sanjay Dutt starrer Deewar - Let's Bring Our Heroes Homes. Here's a fact - 1971 is much much superior and its failure is proof that we really don't deserve good movies.

Traffic

Traffic's one big flaw is that it was stuck in the cans for too long before it finally got a release (in the wake of the sad demise of the director, Rajesh Pillai). In this remake of the hit Malayalam movie by the same name, Manoj Bajpayee gave a controlled performance as a traffic constable who gets a shot at redemption through a selfless and dangerous mission.

Is there any other underrated performances of Manoj Bajpayee that you think we should have mentioned here? Share your thoughts below.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 23, 2018 10:50 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).