Mogambo Smiles Again

The Bollywood baddie,forced into a long period of silence,when the Rahuls and Rajs sang about love in candyfloss settings and mustard fields,has begun to flex his muscles. If men,machismo and the wham-bam formula have come back through the success of films like Ghajini,Wanted,Dabangg and Singham,the villain too has become less apologetic. “There can be no hero without a villain. The larger the hero,the bigger the villain,” says filmmaker Subhash Ghai who has given Bollywood some of its most memorable villains — Loin in Kalicharan,Dr Dang in Karma,Kesariya Vilayati in Ram Lakhan and Judah and Kamini in Karz.

The villain is the yang to the hero’s yin,the Mogambo to Mr India,the Chedi Singh to Chulbul Pandey. It’s a full-blooded relationship that is back in business. “With multiplexes becoming popular in the last decade,filmmakers began to tilt towards the upper middle class as their main viewers. Stories that were happier and lighter found takers as people wanted to watch films that made them smile. Villains getting centrestage again proves that the single-screen audiences are going back to theatres,” says filmmaker Tanuja Chandra.

Hindi cinema’s tryst with villains is as old as the industry itself. From village zamindars and moneylenders in the 1950s,to the rich fathers of heroines in the 1960s,from smugglers,dacoits and urban tycoons violating laws in the pre-liberalisation India of the ’70s to corrupt politicians and terrorists in more recent times,the antagonist has been the warped product of his time. “A successful villain is a manifestation of the dreaded fears and nightmares of the collective conscious,” says Jerry Pinto,who has authored Helen:The H Bomb. “If China attacks India,Madan Puri has to ruck up his eyebrows and turn into Dr. Chang. When the greed of the politicians becomes evident,the ministers turn into villains and Amitabh Bachchan has to spray them with bullets at the end of Inquilaab,” he says.

When India lived in villages,the villain was Sukhi Lala,the moneylender (Mother India). The city wooed the villager with the promises of employment in the 1950s,but it was a cruel,ruthless lover,and the antagonist in films like Shree 420 and Anari. While romances like Daag,Evening In Paris and Kati Patang made the role of the villains somewhat restrictive in the ’60s,the ’70s and the ’80s were the golden age of the twisted: the Loin,Gabbar Singh in Sholay,Shakaal in Shaan and Mogambo in Mr India. When Ghai debuted with Kalicharan in 1976,Amjad Khan’s Gabbar Singh act in Sholay (1975) had already set a benchmark. “After that,every filmmaker worked hard on styling the villain in a manner that would make him memorable,” he says. Denzongpa,who acted in several negative roles,says,“The ‘70s and early ‘80s called for a typical variety of villains,with quirky names,unique mannerisms and punchlines. But they clearly reflected the sociological changes in society. The dacoits in the UP-Bihar belt inspired Gabbar’s character,while hostility with neighbouring countries saw the genesis of anti-India antagonists like Mogambo and Dr. Dang.”

Often,the line between the good guys and the bad has blurred in Hindi movies,to produce new characters. The DNA of the anti-hero was in Amitabh Bachchan’s angry young man,who chafed against the constraints of law in his desperation to change the “system”. But his anti-establishment stance was ratified by a good motive. “The films with anti-heroes were accepted,but his every evil deed had to be justified. The society that believed the hero to be holier than thou couldn’t immediately take to a hero with a streak of grey,” says Bollywood historian Rauf Ahmed.

But it was in Shah Rukh Khan’s roles in Baazigar,Darr and Anjaam that the anti-hero was born. “His performances in these movies gave actors a new-found confidence to experiment with roles,” says Sanjay Gadhvi,who directed Dhoom and Dhoom 2,movies with slick bad guys who have all the fun. As leading actors like Khan took on the roles of the bad guy,the villain as a role for a distinct set of actors began to die out. With Aamir Khan set to play the suave villain in Dhoom 3 and Salman Khan likely to play Mogambo’s successor in Mr India 2,Bollywood does not seem to be missing the Amrish Puris and the Gulshan Grovers.

The last decade has seen the growth of experimental cinema,where the internal conflicts of the protagonist became the negative force to be overcome. Films like Raajneeti,Fashion and Johnny Gaddaar have tried to capture this amoral landscape. Chandra says the audience identifies with the sentiment showcased in these movies. “Today’s capitalist,fast-growing India is more self-centred,and won’t hesitate before compromising some of its integrity for more fame,money or power. So the audience can identify with these characters,” she says.

So what’s new about villain 2.0? Vivek Oberoi,who plays the antagonist in Krissh 2,says,“The antagonist is now more attractively packaged. It makes him more convincing.” Gadhvi says,“No character is uni-dimensional. Today,both a hero and a villain exist within us.” It’s time to bring the bad guy back.