Varun Dhawan turns a year older today, but perhaps the more interesting question is not where he stands at this moment. It is where he goes from here. Because Varun is now at a fascinating stage in his career. He is no longer the young, energetic star kid trying to prove that he belongs. He is also not yet at that distant, over-curated stage where a star begins to look more like an idea than a performer. He is somewhere in between: experienced, tested, loved, trolled, successful, wounded, hungry and still capable of surprising the audience.And that is why this birthday is a good time to say something that perhaps needs to be said more openly. Varun Dhawan should not run away from his David Dhawan DNA. He should weaponise it.For years, being David Dhawan’s son has been seen both as Varun’s privilege and his burden. The privilege is obvious. He comes from a film family. He grew up around cinema. He understands sets, songs, comedy, rhythm, timing and the madness of mainstream Hindi filmmaking in a way that cannot be taught in a workshop. But the burden is equally real. Every time Varun embraces comedy, colour, songs, dance or massy entertainment, there is a tendency to reduce it to genetics, as if he is simply doing what comes naturally because of his surname.But maybe that is exactly the point. Maybe what comes naturally to Varun is precisely what Bollywood is struggling to manufacture today.David Dhawan’s cinema was never built on silence, stillness or carefully preserve