Being bad today in Hindi films is good business 
By Mid-Day, October 22, 2007 - 09:09 IST
When the sound of Gabbar Singh's boots echoed across the valley, children all over the country sat up in fear. To me, though, it was a different set of boots that were menacing. Black, high boots, they paced with a quiet animal energy. Up and down, trailed by an even more threatening whip. The boots stopped and stood apart, with a shivering Dilip Kumar cowered in between.
We paused in that electrifying silent moment, grimacing as Kumar faced the first stinging lashes. This was a terrifying Pran as Gajendra in Ram Aur Shyam, cracking the whip over his meek brother-in-law Ram. So when Shyam traded places, grabbed the whip and gave Gajendra the walloping of his life, you had to cheer. What Ranjeet said during his interview was correct: "Villains were obstacles in those days. They were the way for the hero to win over the confidence of the audience."
Sample how villains have turned through the ages. The sneering moneylender, the shrill mother-in-law (who can forget Lalitha Pawar's eyes narrowing in fury before she erupted), the patronizing zamindar, the good-for-nothing bhanja or the vile uncle. Then, as stylish smugglers, they lit their cigarettes with gold lighters or rode horses as dacaits, their guns slung across their backs. They popped up as the Angrez (Bob Cristo), bullying in anglicized Hindi, but were soon given a pasting. With time, villains grew larger appetites for power, like Dr Dang or Mogambo: they wanted to rule the world. Or turned lascivious eyes on the hero's sister, bolting her into a room, pouncing at her and tearing at her blouse. 'Mujhe bachao!' she screamed and you waited, waited until the hero finally slammed his fist into the brute's stomach. Until, of course, films like Insaaf Ka Tarazu came up, where the woman paid back, plugging bullets into the rapist.
The changes filtered in — if the terrible Mogambo rolled his eyes and hid detonated bombs in teddy bears, his lieutenants Daaga and Teja lent a touch of comedy to Mr. India. Slowly, writers thought of interesting edges and stars started taking a closer look. The hero was finally ready to wear shades of grey, but there had to be a reason, a character breakdown that explained his murderous, criminal leanings.
Today, there isn't the prototype villain. There are interesting threads in a story. So there is the politician-don nexus in a slew of underworld films, there's a baby-faced killer in Being Cyrus, a chikna in Johnny Gaddaar, a slick operator in Zinda, even a glamourous cat burglar in Dhoom 2. Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Sanjay Dutt, Hrithik Roshan, Akshay Kumar, Akshaye Khanna, Ajay Devgan, John Abraham, Shabana Azmi, Aishwarya Rai, Kajol, Priyanka Chopra, Bipasha Basu, Kareena Kapoor, Esha Deol — all of them painted cinema grey. On the other hand, the recognizable villain that you threw curses at as he walked in, has all but disappeared from the screen.
For audiences, the role reversals have been deliciously different. With designers and stylists grooming our films, there isn't any room for the scary-wigged, scarred villain, mincing out threats or grabbing the hero's mother by the hair. What's more, the bad guy even manages to get away in the end — look how 2006's Don shaped up.
Being bad today in Hindi films is good business. It's evident. But old villain roles do pop up in their 2007 avatars. Look at the Shylock-type moneylender. Don't be surprised if he comes up in a Madhur Bhandarkar film, this time in the role of the loan recovery agent driving the middle-class man to suicide.
Mid-Day
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Dharmendra on Dilip Kumar and Dev Anand
