Where have the bad guys gone?

Pragyan Mohanty the assistant features editor turns worshipper to the few good men who played the bad and the ugly

Where have the bad guys gone?

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Where have the bad guys gone?

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Pragyan Mohanty the assistant features editor turns worshipper to the few good men who played the bad and the ugly

Gabbar grandeur no more: Amjad Khan as Gabbar Singh in Sholay

While the Joker only bettered the evil forces in the Wild West, the Bollywood villains are slowly losing the sheen. For an industry that has forever thrived on the good vs evil formula, there haven't been many remarkable negative characters in the past decade.

The dynamism that Hindi cinema has gone through in the last 10 years is tremendous. The concept of movies and characters today are a far cry from that in the last three decades. The smashing 70s and super 80s boasted of larger than life figuresu00a0both heroes and villains and hence flamboyant figures like Lion, Shakal or Mogambo flourished. With crossover cinema and parallel films earning ground in this multiplex generation, these cut-out characters began to slowly vanish from our films. I can't imagine today's on the move breed identifying with the loudness that characters like Lotiya Pathan or Dr Dang had.

Though many cine buffs won't agree to this, I doubt even the best of the lot, the brazen and uncouth Gabbar Singh from Sholay, won't be accepted in today's thinking times. And Omkara's Langda Tyagi has just shown us why. One of the rarest villains post 2000 (I am not even considering Amitabh Bachchan's Babban act from Aag as that of a villain!), Langda had a similar demeanour to that of Gabbar but with a deeper and more significant character. From a hero to an anti hero, Langda's transition was simply fabulous, thus making one of the most sensational evildoers.

Talking of anti-heroes, the rise of grey characters, too, has played catalyst in cornering villains. What began with Shah Rukh Khan in Baazigar and Darr, has continued with Neil Mukesh in Johnny Gaddar and Bipasha Basu in Race. With grey being the new black, who needs villains? Or else how would one explain a movie like Ghajini, which even had the antagonist's name in the title, turned out to be an out-an-out protagonist film. Agreed, it was an Aamir Khan movie, so no one bothered beyond it. But even if it wasn't for Aamir, the protagonist's overwhelming character makes Ghajini appear as a paper tiger.

And then, the growing presence of the non-action genres in Hindi films, too, has done their bit in putting the antis out of focus. Of the top grossers of 2008, Ghajini is the only flick that has an action background. Romcoms like Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, Dostana, Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na and Golmaal Returns and drama flicks like Mumbai Meri Jaan and A Wednesday are the other top earners. The trend was similar in 2007, when Taare Zameer Par and Chak De! India held the fort. Things weren't too different in 2006, when Rang De Basanti was the most discussed one, or in 2000, when Mohabbatein and Kaho Na Pyaar Hai ruled the roost. Bollywood is witnessing significant changes and villains, it seems, aren't a very significant part of it anymore.

Agreed, with films like Dasvidaaniya, Mithya and Tahaan, Hindi cinema is coming of age. We have ventured into an intelligent era. But I would still like to believe there was something about the madness of the 70s and the recklessness of 80s.

There was something about Gabbar's anarchy, Kancha Cheena's ruthlessness and Bad Man's brazenness. There was something about Jeevan's cheesy "bhaanje" lines, Prem Chopra's "Prem naam hai mera" rhetoric or for that matter the immortal Amrish Puri's "Mogambo khush hua."

Thanks to these bad men, Bollywood has had the best of iconic figures and the best one liners. There aren't many such men anymore. There aren't many such one liners anymore.