All new baddies

In the first two decades post Independence, our screen baddies were largely understated in their amorous overtures to the fairer sex. However, as the 70’s with the hippies and counterculture burst into the scene, there came ‘liberation’ from the shackles of tradition, and holding back, in every sense of the term, was passe. Indian screens, always true to the cultural mores of the day, were adorned with bad guys who had no qualms about flaunting their arousal whenever they set theirs eyes on a fair damsel. Two such master craftsmen of lust were Ranjeet and Prem Chopra.

“Kutte kameene!”

Ranjeet, affectionately known as ‘Goli’ among the filmwallahs, was born Gopal Bedi in the undivided Punjab. He was training as an Air Force cadet when he was asked to leave, for having a fling with the instructor’s daughter (irony, huh?). An NRI filmmaker and producer spotted him and offered a role in his upcoming venture. Gopal flew with him to Bombay and was introduced to industry big shots of the time. The film never got made, but Gopal stayed back in the hope of a better shot. After debuting with Sawan Bhado and a bit role in Reshma Aur Shera,  he was recommended by actress Rakhee (his costar in Reshma..) for the role of a, ahem, “molester” in Sharmeelee. Rest, as they say, is history:

“I invited my entire family for the premiere in Delhi and when they saw me trying to rape the heroine, they walked out of the theatre before the interval. When I went home that night, I faced the wrath of the family. ‘What face do we have to show in Amritsar?’ they lamented,” he recalls, with a laugh. Sharmeelee was a blockbuster and Ranjeet’s career was on a roll, albeit as a rapist!

(Source: OneIndia.in)

Prem naam hai mera – Prem Chopra!

Another hot-blooded Punjabi, Prem Chopra hailed from Lahore. His aforementioned retort, originally delivered in Bobby, has attained somewhat of a cult status over the years. Surprisingly, Chopra started off as the firebrand revolutionary Sukhdev in Shaheed in 1965. He started essaying baddies since Upkaar, which attained him popular fame and recognition. He was the quintessential womaniser of Hindi films of the 70’s-80’s – with the trademark cheeky grin and lustful eyes fixated on the heroine. The past few years, he’s been busy doing comic roles. He’s one of the very few actors in Bollywood capable of making fun of his own screen persona in some recent films – like the one in Golmaal 3.

The age of  Mogambo!

And then came the 80’s. With it emerged a whole new generation of Bad Guys. I call it the Age of Mogambo. No sir, not the 1953 John Ford-directed Clark Gable-Ava Gardner starrer. Mogambo, a la Gabbar Singh, was a watershed in the history of bad guys in Bollywoodland. And as usual, it all began with a screen test.

“Mogambo khush hua!”

Madan Puri had made a name for himself as a screen baddie in the 50’s and 60’s – during the same period, his relatively lesser known brother Chaman Puri was also doing quite well in character roles. Sometime in the latter part of that decade, Amrish Puri, their younger brother, set sail for the city of dreams. He appeared for a screen test – but as one might expect, success did not come to him on a platter, despite being related to a major star of the time – Puri failed the test miserably. Determined to stick around, he joined Theatre, later to become one of the doyens of Indian People’s Theatre Movement. Satyadev Dubey, a veritable giant in the Theatre scene of the time, took the young Puri under his wings. Over time, he performed in such landmark plays as Sakharam Binder and Yayati. During the staging of one of these plays, he was spotted by Sunil Dutt, who offered him a role in Reshma Aur Shera, along side another youth who was trying to make it big in Hindi cinema, with little success – Amitabh Bachchan. It was the beginning of a long and rewarding association.

Over the years, through films like Meri Jung, Mashaal, Hum Paanch, along with some hard-hitting films by Shyam Benegal like Nishant, Mantha, Bhumika, Amrish Puri secured his position as a major actor in the industry. What clinched the deal for him as a bad guy were two films. One was by Steven Spielberg himself, no less, in Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom. His portrayal of Mola Ram drew a lot of flak and proved to be quite controversial. The other film was a by a new, talented but lesser known film maker named Shekhar Kapur, who by then had only one film to his credit – Masoom.

Kapur was making a science fiction film, with a villain that was a cross between Dr. No and Hitler. Thus Mogambo was born. That character, with the looks and  mannerisms and the cheesiest phrase ever: “Mogambo…khush hua!” uttered in his inimitable style, was an instant hit with the masses. Till then, only heroes and good guys in films were imitated…after this, even kids repeated the phrase to each other over and over and over again!

“Auuuuoo!”

Reproduce the sound mentioned above inside your head, imagine a man dripping lust, and you have Shakti Kapoor. Shakti debuted with Do Jasoos, the Raj Kapoor-Rajendra Kumar buffoonery vehicle. Feroz Khan’s Qurbani was his first major break as a bad guy.

He was a true 80’s successor to Ranjeet and Prem Chopra.  Whatever sophistication and iota of respect that his predecessors displayed, Shakti did away with it completely.  He took the ‘young, westernised, drug addict/ alcoholic/ playboy, greedy ruffian’ stock character of the 80’s to an art form! In later years, he started doing more comic roles, teaming with Govinda and Kader Khan.

“Maharani”

Sadashiv Amrapurkar, already a prolific actor of Marathi cinema and stage, was ‘discovered’ by Govind Nihalani to play Rama Shetty, a local don in Ardha Satya. Going forward, this was to dominate the look and feel, even attire of all the ‘Shetty’ villains in Bollywood. With a peculiar way of throwing dialogues, a style very much his own, Sadashiv soon started gaining popularity in the stock ‘mafia/gang boss’ character. One of his most (in)famous roles was as ‘Maharani,’ a eunuch who’s the ‘madam’ of a brothel in Sadak. Again, it was his mannerism and dialogue delivery all the way  that won the day. Along the way, he even tried a Mogambo clone in an abomination of a film called Farishtay – as the atyachari Raja who’s terrorising his own people. Lately he has also been appearing more in comic roles.

So that’s that. The Chronicle of the Hindi Film Villain is at an end. Since mid-90s, since DDLJ and KKHH and candy floss, we’ve lost all the ‘good’ bad guys. There’s one odd ‘action’ film that’s thrown our way with a brawny protagonist and an equally brawny antagonist, but the latter is more of an embarrassment, without any substantial presence in the film. Well, we all remember Chulbul Pandey from Dabangg, but we’d really have to tax our brains to come up with the name of the villain played by Sonu Sood. Villainy, after all, is not child’s play.

Amborish Roychoudhury is a film enthusiast and a film buff who lives within this outer shell of a finance  professional. He is  extremely passionate about films, comics, old Hindi film music, detective fiction, technology and the like – He worships many deities but works for the devil! Another Blog that  he write occasionally is http://amborish.posterous.com/ or just go to amborish.com.