Guest Post: Good ole’ Villains in Hindi Movies

The best way to face the so called "writers-block" is to bug your friends for a guest post :P ... so here I'm with a post from a blogger friend. 

This Sunday, let me introduce an avid blogger who writes everything from fiction to poetry, a journalist by profession and also a friend, Vishal Bheeroo, who was kind enough to grace his presence here. 

Without much blabbering on to him.... 
  

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Good ole’ Villains in Hindi Movies.

Hindi movies are undergoing a transition where the good old villains have gone into oblivion. Gone are the days when the archetypal villain would pack a punch and scare the hero to death. Yeah! We miss the villains mouthing hard-hitting dialogues like Amrish Puri scaring kids with epic one liners, ‘Mogamba Khush Hua’, Prem Chopra with his classic, ‘Prem Naam Hai Mera, Prem Chopra or Pran Saab in Zanjeer, ‘Iss Ilaka mein Nayaa Aaya Saab..Varna Sher Khan ko kaun Nahin Janta’ or ‘Michael Daroo peeke Danga Karta Hain.’

Villains were alter ego of our mainstream heroes by re-defining character roles as they delivered power-packed performances. One is tempted to ask whether the likes of Amitabh Bachchan in Zanjeer or Anil Kapoor in Mr India would have the same impact on the audience had there not been actors of the caliber of Pran or Amrish Puri playing havoc amidst high octane action scenes. I mean, the villains gave the heroes such as tough fight throughout films that audience learned the art of loving to hate the villains. How can we forget Gabbar Singh who would scare every child, ‘Kitne Aadmi the…Jab Bacha Rota hai Raat Ko Maa Kehte hai so ja Munna Nahin to Gabbar Ayega.’? I wonder whether Jai and Veeru could exist in Sholay without Gabbar Singh.

Being an ardent and self-confessed fan of Masala movies, I feel it hard to digest that we hardly see villains in movies. The crass but larger than life villains that stood tall among charismatic heroes such as Dilip Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra and Anil Kapoor, among others, made movies an event to look forward every Friday. It was an experience watching the villain battling the hero and, at one point, you started to doubt whether the hero will be able to overpower the villain.

Villains defined heroes as the ‘audience’ looked up to the saviors who would protect an entire village or the victory good over eveil. I feel that a movie couldn’t have the same impact on the audience without the power packed performance of the bad guys. Just imagine a flick with a weak villain that makes life a sundry affair for the hero? Bland performances and boring movie! You bet!

However, actors such as Gulshan Grover made powerful villains with lines such as, ‘I am a bad guy’ that would make the audience break into splinter of laughter not without a chill running down the spine. Among the recent lot, Prakash Raj has managed to tower above the rest by infusing maniac laughter and menacing dialogues in the moniker that made the audience wanting more from the man. Prakash Raj weaved his magic and became an overnight sensation in movies like Singham, Wanted and Buddha Hoga Tera Baap. Truly an affair to remember!

I wonder whether 100 years of cinema can be celebrate without yesteryears villains such as Ajit, Amrish Puri, Anupam Kher, Pran and the not so recent actors like Gulshan Grover and Prakash Raj. Glorious years of cinema and a fading era, one is tempted to say.