Saturday, October 10, 2009

People whom we loved to hate

Just as light without darkness, good without evil, a plot with hero and no villain would have no significance.

Not everyone can send shivers down the spine with the query, 'Kitne aadmi the? Samba', Jo dar Gaya samjo mar Gaya, quite like the actor could – Amjad Khan (Sholay).

Mona darling, issey 'Liquid Oxygen' mein daal do liquid issey jeene nahi dega aur oxygen isse marne nahi dega.? 'Saara shaher mujhe Loin ke naam se jaanta hai' all the more memorable with a special liking for the Lilys and Monas of the world – Ajit (Kalicharan)

Prem naam hai mera - Prem Chopra' (Bobby), adding a new dimension to devilish roles,

Mogambo Khush Hua – Amrish Puri (Mr. India),

Pran as Gajendra in Ram aur Shyam,

The cocky eyed Lalita Powar (the mother of all mother in laws),

Jeevan – the cute looking cunning old man,

Premnath - Rai Saab (Johny Mera Naam), Sanyasi, Kalicharan, Vishwanath

K N Singh - a gentleman type of villain

Madan Puri, Nadira, Shashikala, Bindu, Aruna Irani, Utpal Dutt

All played their part to such perfection that they could generate an amount of hate amongst audiences. Love them, hate them but you simply could not ignore them.

The hero of India’s historic World Cup triumph in 1983, Mohinder Amarnath, admits he was nervous before the final - but drew inspiration from the Bollywood blockbuster Sholay to get over the jitters of playing against two-time champions West Indies in the title clash.
“I remembered the famous dialogue of Sholay — jo dar gaya so mar gaya. I told myself that it was my day and I had nothing to lose,” said Amarnath, who was adjudged Man of the Match in both the semi-final and the final.
Such was the impact of yester year’s villain.

Apart from the above mentioned most loved people several other actors tried a hand in becoming the baddies of bollywood, like Ranjith, Danny Denzongpa, Kulbhushan Kharbanda in Shaan, Anupam Kher as Dr. Dang in Karma, Bad Man Gulshan Grover in Ram Lakhan, Raj Babbar, Kadar Khan, Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Mohan Agashe, Nana Patekar, Dalip Tahil, Sayaji Shinde, Naseerudin Shah, Paresh Raval all had their taste of success but none could match the success of the above mentioned baddies who became legends of bollywood

We long to hear those patented dialogues like Kutte Kaminey mein tera khoon pee jaonga, agar ma ka dudh piya hain to samne Aa, Police ne tumhe charon taraf se gher liya hain – apne aap ko kannon ke haawale kar do I believe somewhere we have lost them.

Today, truly there has been a huge transition of villains in the silver screen, a gradual shift is happening by the anti-hero category in Shahrukh Khan (Darr), Ashutosh Rana (Dushman), Suniel Shetty (Dhadkan), Akshay Kumar (Ajnabee), Sanjay Dutt (Khalnayak), Kajol (Gupt), Priyanka Chopra (Aitraaz), Nana Patekar (Apaharan), Saif Ali Khan (Okmara), Irfaan Khan (Maqbool), Manoj Bajpai (Satya), Ashish Vidyarthi, Naseerudin Shah, Mohan Agashe, all do not look like the monsters of yester-years cinema.

The difference between hero and villains have vanished now, today it would be wrong to term these actors as bollywood villains. They are rather anti-heroes or heroines which

Where are the villains?

1 comment:

Venkat Parthasarathy said...

Hey Venky.... Nice thoughts... we hardly give the baddie his due - more so the filmy one.... as for the question where have the Villians gone.... do we need one - the smart hero who prances around trees is now also doubling up as the murder-rapist and gets equal accolades for his dark shades.
No we may never have the Gabbar or the Mogambo again..

Keep penning man...!!!