There're bigger and perhaps better stars. But none quite like Sushmita Sen.

There's an indomitable exuberance about her that renders itself well to the roles that she does. Sushmita lives life on the edge. Though the presence of daughter Renee keeps her calm, there's turbulence visible only to a kindred spirit.

For the uninitiated, Sushmita can be potentially devastating. She warms up to new people as though her life had suddenly become a better place because of the new association. Then she moves on.

Sushmita hungers for new experiences and people. But that urge to reach out is ever-renewable. She moves towards new experiences with new people, leaving an indelible impact on those whom her exuberance touches so deeply.

An extremely complex character... a gamine and a seductress, Sushmita's persona renders itself to innumerable interpretations on screen. As an actress she has so much to give -- we haven't even started looking at the tip of her talent.

While other actresses tend to use their exterior personality to make a public statement on their 'self' from within, Sushmita moves in the opposite direction. She uses her inner strength to project her outer personality. That's why she comes across so powerfully on screen.

Sushmita cannot act demure and coy on the screen. These traits don't exist in her personality. They therefore don't have a place in her celluloid statements. If she ever tried to be an archetypal heroine with fluttering eyelashes she would end up doing a spoof of Hindi cinema... a sort of "Bride & Prejudice" without the comfort of distance.

Aishwarya Rai and Sushmita started out together. But while Ash is Hema Malini with a dash of Zeenat Aman , Sush isn't cut out for mush and schmaltz. That explains why, in spite of her incomparable blend of body, brains and looks, she hasn't made the impact that she would have otherwise.

Sushmita is not only eminently cosmopolitan in her outlook, she's many other things. She's also extremely accident-prone. She is also extremely work-oriented. When she takes on an assignment she gives all of herself.

Lurking beneath the bohemian image is a domesticated Bengali girl who believes in self-assertion more than self-improvement.

Though she is the perfect youth icon, Sushmita believes her English isn't good enough. She often gropes around for more difficult words in her speech. This is perhas more her way of looking vulnerable in front of friends than a genuine inadequacy. Sushmita would do anything to make a friend happy and comfortable, even pretend to be less perfect than she actually is.

She's also enormously honest, a wonderful raconteur and always very comfortable in her place.Others around her get worked up all the time. This could be because, beyond a point, she breaks loose and doesn't focus on any one relationship. She needs to constantly reinvent herself through various relationships that come in her life.

The only truly permanent relationship in Sushmita's life is the one she shares with her daughter. Even her relationship with the camera lacks durability. Sushmita will break away from acting and do something else (write a book of poems or prose, she is good at both). But first she'll prove herself. She can't leave until she does.

In the past her performances have been far above the material given to her. The star-turn as the teacher who 'student' Shah Rukh Khan has a crush on in "Main Hoon Na" has provided Sushmita with the platform she needed.

Characteristically, she isn't signing films left right and centre. But her fans will see her this week give a stunning performance in "Vastu Shastra" where she's cast as a wife caught in a web of terror.