After tasting success with Ghulam and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai in 1998, it was only in 2004 when Rani hit a hat trick with three back to back hit performances. Be it her portrayal of a typical Bengali wife who is young, pretty and naughty in Yuva or a modern and confident Indian girl in Hum Tum or then the simple, sagacious and compassionate lawyer in Veer-Zaara, Rani essayed all the roles with great perfection and won accolades for her performance.

Though Rani was always in the limelight with two or more releases every year, this was the phase when the audience re-discovered an all-new Rani, who was here to rule. The new Rani Mukherji was full of surprises and experimented with different roles each time wowing her fans and admirers. Rani is a beautiful example of an actress who dared and delivered glorious results. At a day and age when Indian audience has become highly choosy about cinema and in a Bollywood where songs, dance and romance are a mantra to a successful box office hit, Rani had the nerve to play a female lead in a movie so unlike a typical masala movie.

With Black, Rani Mukherjee proved that she doesn’t have to wear makeup and look glamorous to make her films work. She shared the screen with none other than matinee idol Amitabh Bachchan but the megastar’s presence couldn’t overshadow Rani’s strong performance. After Black, Rani flipped a perfect 180 degrees, as far as her role in movies in concerned. While she played a simple girl sans glossy makeup and sans glamorous attires in Black, she played a talkative small-town-big-dreams Indian girl in Bunty Aur Babli. It was not just her attire that was different but also the attitude. Die-hard, happy go lucky, confident, and full of masti, this defined her bubbly Babli character in the film.

Torn between an unhappy marriage and her confused feelings for a married man defines Rani’s character in Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna. She very convincingly played the role of a woman who is in bliss on finding her new true love and at the same time is guilty of being the cause of adultery in her marriage. Shahrukh Khan and Rani together have always set the screen ablaze and in the song Tumhi Dekho Na Yeh Kya Ho Gaya… the two play magic again and Rani looks stunningly elegant and gorgeous in the different sarees that she dons for the song. Rani had already come ahead of a stage where she could play a college sweetheart to somebody. The supportive, modern, pretty wife roles suited her more.

The movies Laaga Chunari Mein Daag and Saawariya saw her don the sleazy role and came as a great disappointment to her fans and admirers who were adapted and happy to see Rani playing the mature house-woman role. What followed was Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic... unfortunately the film failed to impress cinegoers though it had the backing of the great Yash Raj Banner.

Once considered as the trendsetter and Bollywood’s hot property, Rani enjoyed her moments of fame and popularity and went on to become a true rani of hearts with her bong dusky looks and amazing performance. But as they say, success and failure are part of the same coin, Rani had her low times too and then came a phase when even great directors, renowned banners and a hit star cast couldn’t help Rani revive the magic that once had the audience in awe. Reason’s galore: it may be the script or the competition or audience’s changed tastes or it may just be Rani’s fading charm that’s proving fatal for her career.