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CINEMA:
VILLAINS
A
New Realism
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| Ashutosh
Rana in Dil Ke Peeche Peeche as an honest, married naval officer
who kills his wife when he falls for her sister. |
Marathi
theatre actor Sayaji Shinde brought a new realism to villainy as Bachoo
Yadav in Shool. His cruel psychotic character was the backbone
of the film. Shinde plays a sexual sadist in Kalpana Lajmi's forthcoming
Daman starring Raveena Tandon. He also essays a modern version
of Yadav in Sudhir Mishra's latest film. This villain engages in romantic
small talk with his fiancée over the phone even as he's organising
his henchmen to have his opponents bumped off. "All roles I'm doing
are realistic," says Shinde, "no one offers me anything else."
Perhaps
the most terrifying villains in the recent past have been those portrayed
by theatre actor Ashutosh Rana. In Dushman, Rana played the role
of an innocuous-looking postman who brutally rapes and murders women.
And in Sangharsh, he played a Silence of the Lambs-inspired tantric
who kills children in his quest for immortality. Rana, who won awards
for both performances, is following up with varying faces of evil. In
Vikram Bhatt's Tumko Meri Kasam, he is a Muslim fundamentalist
and in Dil Ke Peeche Peeche, he is a seemingly honest, happily
married naval officer who murders his wife when he falls in love with
her sister. "Villains have to be super-intelligent," says Rana.
"After all you only appreciate Vishwanathan Anand's skill when his
opponent is equally good."
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| Sayaji
Shinde in Daman as a seemingly innocuous looking man but a
sexual sadist |
The archaic
stereotypes of Hindi cinema are also blurring so evil and good no longer
come in neatly defined packages. In the past decade, several heroes-Shah
Rukh Khan (Darr), Jackie Shroff (Aar ya Paar), Aamir Khan
(Earth)-and at least, a few heroines-Kajol (Gupt), Madhuri
Dixit (Pukar) and Urmila Matondar (Kaun) have played grey
characters with success. In forthcoming Shikari, even son-of-the-soil
Govinda tries his hand at a character with shades of grey.
Writer Neeraj
Vohra predicts that in the coming six months more heroes will opt for
the chance of being bad. Shroff goes from grey to black playing a sinister
terrorist in Mission Kashmir and a computer-toting drug don in
Farz. Sanjay Kapoor, who couldn't swing the box office as a hero,
goes negative in producer/brother Boney Kapoor's Koi Mere Dil Se Pooche.
The film, meant to be a launch pad for Hema Malini's daughter Esha Deol,
has Sanjay playing a spoilt young man who becomes obsessed with a girl.
"He is an ordinary guy," says Boney, "but he is neurotic."
In fact,
in several films, it's becoming increasingly hard to tell the heroes from
the villains. In Josh, both Sharad Kapoor and Shah Rukh are gang
leaders, small-town bullies with king-size chips on their shoulders. Both
are brutal and violent. The only difference is that Sharad is willing
to cross the line to double-cross and murder. Debutant director Rakesh
Mehra, who is making Aks with Amitabh Bachchan and Manoj Bajpai,
insists that in his film "everybody is a hero and everybody is a
villain". Says Mehra: "When I started writing it, I thought
of it as good versus evil but now there is no concept of a pure villain.
Finally, there is a struggle within everyone."
It's art
mirroring life but not in the art-house mode. "Ekdum realistic is
boring," says Vohra, "so today's baddies are a mixture of reality
and fantasy." But the over-the-top fantasy of a Shakaal in Shaan
or Dr Dang in Karma is passé. Notice the names-villains
are more likely to be called Narayan Chaudhary than Ajgar or Kedka. As
is the comical villainy of Shakti Kapoor and the scary get-ups of Gulshan
Grover. Grover, who only a few years ago, brought the house down with
his clever one-liners is hardly seen in his trademark "bad man"
roles any longer. The older baddies, Amrish Puri, Anupam Kher, Paresh
Rawal, Sadashiv Aamrapurkar, have handed over the baton to a slew of new
talent.
Interestingly,
many of the younger villains have a theatre background like their predecessors
Puri, Kher and Rawal. Says Singh: "The justification which theatre
actors endow their characters with also makes them three-dimensional thinking
villains." It's a new generation both behind the camera and in front
of it. Says Akashdeep: "A Mogambo would flop badly today. That sort
of flippancy is out of mainstream cinema." Mehra believes that there
is "no one kind of thinking. It's a period of transition."
Indeed.
While parallel cinema has gone into a slumber, Bollywood has co-opted
many of its themes and created a post-parallel cinema. Films like Fiza
and Satya defy categories. They marry realism to fast-pace
songs and rich production value. It's a new style middle-of-the-road cinema,
in which characters are far more believable than before. Bajpai playing
the murderous gangster Bhiku Mhatre in Satya is both villain and
hero. Mehra's own film is a confluence of various schools of cinema, from
Bachchan's mainstream background to Nandita Das' more arty acting.
The audience
has also changed drastically in recent years. Says Varma: "There
is more awareness of real-life villains because of greater media presence.
The audience knows about villains like Veerappan and would rather see
that. There is more connection." If not Veerappan, than at least
baddies that are easily identifiable in everyday life-like corrupt cops,
scheming politicians and brutal terrorists. Says Matthan: "You have
to reflect the times. Life has become far more complex. Cinema is reflecting
the same." Even black has several interesting shades.
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