How villains enlivened Bollywood, from Gabbar to Teja to Mogambo

Cinema mirrors society, and the villains of Hindi films over the years underline that pointChina became the Hindi film villain in Haqeeqat, two years after the 1962 India-China warThe Bollywood gangster genre morphed from street-corner gangs in the 1950s to internationally networked smugglers in the 1970sHow do some villains, like Gabbar Singh and Mogambo, become part of our collective psyche?Which decade saw the most interesting Hindi-film villains and why? Who are five interesting villains that didn’t receive the acclaim they deserved?A discussion with Balajit Vittal, author of ‘Pure Evil: The Bad Men of Bollywood’ National award-winning Balaji Vittal’s latest work, Pure Evil: The Bad men of Bollywood, was among the most discussed books on Hindi cinema last year. In an interview with Times Special, Vittal elaborates on the evolution and nuances of the Bollywood villain.Avijit Ghosh: Villains are products of the times they operate in. They also mirror it. How does this reflect in Hindi cinema in the last 75 years?Balaji Vittal: Our cinema mirrors our society. And this premise is one of the key cornerstones of Pure Evil: The Bad Men of Bollywood as the book tracks the emergence, relevance and the nuances of each genre of villainy. A few examples will help explain. China became the on-screen villain in Haqeeqat (1964), two years after the 1962 Indo-China war; not earlier. Another example: Western culture and its alleged concomitant ills like women smoking and drinking and the propensity to have multiple sexual partners etc used to be considered harmful for us Indians. For instance, in Purab aur Pachhim (1970) a cigarette-smoking girl is billed as the bad girl. Likewise, the simple young Prem (Prem Chopra) in Doli (1969) attracts all the vices the minute he lands in vilayat (foreign country). Also, observe how the gangster genre morphed from 8-10 member street corner gangs in the 1950s in Kala Bazar (1960) and Footpath (1953) to internationally networked smugglers in the 1970s dealing in valuable artefacts and contraband drugs in films like Charas (1976), Yaadon ki Baaraat (1973). The key reasons for this were (a) India became a market for gold smuggling (b) the 'licence raj' with inordinately high import duties presented smuggling as an easy means to bring foreign goods into the country (c) Mere hoarding of food grains and small-time thuggery were no longer enough to sustain themselves. These small gangs needed to scale up. So, here lie the linkages between the socio-economic/socio-political realities and their celluloid cousins. Some villains become part of our collective psyche: Gabbar Singh and Mogambo, to name two. How does that happen? In my opinion, the film needs to be well made. If it is a badly made film, the whole crew goes down because of poor viewership. Sholay and Mr India checked many critical boxes like a strong script, overall acting performances, not just by the villain actors, slick editing, cinematography and music. Amjad Khan and Amrish Puri created imaginative, quirky personalities of a dacoit and a foreigner respectively through their personal hard work and by collaborating with the scriptwriter and the director. In my book, I have shared a grounds-up account of how these characters were constructed; and it starts right from the filmmaker's instinct of whether an actor would work for a particular role. In post-Independence India, which decade saw the most interesting villains and why? Very tough question! I am inclined to pick the 1970s as it had both the Ajit-brand of suave villains like Teja in Zanjeer, Shakaal in Yaadon Ki Baaraat, Kalicharan in Charas … Loin... and then Gabbar, the most famous villain ever. But I would put the 1990s on par with the 1970s as it saw the patenting of the mentally disturbed OYM (Obsessed Young Man) by Shah Rukh Khan. He played the relentless stalker Rahul in Darr and the Ajay in Baazigar so consumed with hatred for his enemy Madan Chopra that he killed Chopra's daughter with relish and two other innocent bystanders. Khan went even deeper into inky black depths in the role of the OYM Vijay Agnihotri in Anjaam, turning into a sadist at being spurned by the woman. Other actors like Kajol took inspiration from the fact that a mainstream hero was playing a psychotic without fear of his 'hero image' being dented. And Kajol won the Filmfare Award for the Best Villain for her role of the obsessed young murdering Isha in Gupt. Kajol was the first actress to win the award in this category.Who are five of the most interesting villains that didn’t receive the kind of public adulation or critical acclaim that they deserved? Do explain why they make your list.Raghavan in Aks (2001) played by Manoj Bajpai: A psychotic contract killer, Raghavan believes that he and the cop Manu Verma (Amitabh Bachchan) are chemically one and the same person and that just the faces happened to be different. Raghavan's metaphysics ends up as a self-fulfilling prophecy when Raghavan gets killed in a shootout and his spirit enters the body of Manu Verma. Raghavan is handsome, poised, cocks his head curiously and wears an ear-to-ear smile. He is attractive and a great lover. But he has a screeching laughter like that of an acutely asthmatic person. Raghavan was the first Joker of Bollywood sans the green hair and white face paint. Manoj Bajpai's role had no prior reference point in Bollywood that he could have drawn from to prepare for this role. It had to be entirely his and Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra's creation. Bajpai's performance was so strong that even after his character gets killed halfway into the film's duration, his presence left an imprint in the rest of it.Dr Asthana in Ankur Arora Murder Case (2013) played by Kay Kay Menon: Dr. Asthana is a superstar medical surgeon and the face of Shekhawat Hospital. But in a moment of carelessness, he misses carrying out a pre-operation procedure on a young boy Ankur Arora. The boy goes into a coma and dies. Now, instead of owning up to his mistake, Dr. Asthana starts an elaborate hush-up of the real cause of the death. From enticement to coercion, Dr Asthana stops at nothing. Kay Kay Menon demonstrated a total comfort with the medical terminologies and with the hospital ecosystem. The story revolves around him and Menon plays with consummate ease what was a complex character of a genuinely talented surgeon gone astray with conceit and one who has also allowed commercial considerations to cloud his primary role of a healer.Amol in Khamosh (1985) played by Amol Palekar: It is one thing to murder half-a-dozen people. It is something else altogether for a killer to describe to his final victim how he planned to kill her. Till the penultimate scene, we are clueless on who the serial killer was. And finally, on a stormy night, when the camera picks up Amol's face, we still don't believe it till he conversationally recounts the entire back story to a hysterically sobbing Shabana, his final victim. Having completed his narration, Amol explains to her gently that he has no option but to kill her. Death has never sounded so transactional. Amol Palekar's ice-cool portrayal could haunt us in nightmares.Navin Nischol in multiple roles in Woh Main Nahin (1974): A con artist who switches appearances, professions, names and identities at will and dupes several women into marrying him and then ditching them. When he is captured and brought to trial he vehemently denies having cheated anyone at all. Nischol plays with elan a Hyderabadi youth, a secret-service agent, an old, near-toothless man, a bearded navy captain and a bhajan-singing devotee in a temple. Nischol's multidimensional performance including the differentiated body language and dialect was not very far from Sanjeev Kumar's in Naya Din Nayi Raat. Alas, this role does not get spoken about to the extent that it should.Dilnawaz in 1947 Earth (1998) played by Aamir Khan: No lengthy dialogues, no booming laughter, no grotesque make-up, no threatening anyone with firearms... just a solitary line of dialogue 'Andar hai woh (She is inside)' by Dilnawaz to the rioting mob, revealing the hiding place of Shanta, was all that Aamir Khan's villainy was about. Dilnawaz loved Shanta but had caught her making love to another man. And he decided that the best way to douse the furnace of jealousy within him was to throw her at the mercy of the rioting mob of another community. The mob drags out Shanta half-naked and carries her away to an unknown place while Dilnawaz watches with satisfaction at his successful revenge.Audio production: Prateek KapoorNote: The podcast was recorded on Jan 8, 2023