As I sat watching Golmaal 3 with a roomful of guffawing and rollicking humans, trying my best to roar with laughter, and hating my inability to do so, the scene that really had me in splits was Mithunda (wearing a delightful toupee) facing off with his girlfriend’s ameer baap, ‘Prem Chopra’ (played by who else: Prem Chopra) who tries to ridicule and buy him off, 70’s style.
Prem Chopra. Can’t remember when I saw him last, doing that hateful crooked father act. Memories came rushing back of the good ol’ days with the good ol’ Bad Guys. We don’t see them anymore. There are a lot of ‘negative roles’ and ‘gray shades’ going around, but the ‘Villain’ is not a part of Bollywood lexicon anymore. Come to think of it, isn’t it funny how back in the days when life was simpler, more laid back, and, if I may say so – nobler, we had zillions of bad guys setting the screen ablaze with their evil charm, but today, when there are ‘villains’ all around us in real life, our cinema doesn’t have any? Here are a few memorable bad men who can still make us cringe.
The pitiless Sukhi Lala
In the 40’s – early 60’s, when the newly independent India was still coming to terms with phasing out the feudal system and gross exploitation of rural masses by the upper strata, Kanhaiyalal made a career out of playing blood sucking moneylenders and evil priests. The quintessential Lala or Mahajan or Munim, his most memorable role remains as that of Sukhi Lala in Mother India
High ‘brow’ villainy
The man just had to raise an eyebrow, and one got a hint of his sinister intentions. Known to be a gentleman in real life, KN Singh played the dapper villain – wearing a complete suit, cigar/ wineglass in hand, saying his signature ‘bakwaas bandh karo...’, pointing one brow to the sky. He delivered landmark performances in Awara, Howrah Bridge, Teesri Manzil, etc. If there was anyone in Bollywood that was ever suited to play The Joker, it’s him!
When bad was cool
Yeah, back in the day, this guy made it all look so cool. Uber Cool. Pran made the gangster of the 40’s Hollywood Film Noir come alive on Hindi cinema. With that trademark swagger and pencil moustache, donning those James Bond tuxes when Bond was still in his diapers, Pran serenaded the heroine and shot the good guys and swindled people of all their money. Of course, in the end he lost the girl to the village simpleton and was beaten to a pulp. But in all that tomfoolery, Pran had his style intact. In 2010, he was named among CNN’s Top 25 Asian Actors, along side the likes of Guru Dutt and Meena Kumari. In his later years, he turned to more ‘positive’ characters, and played some memorable tough guy roles, helping out Bachchan Sr. in his many adventures (Don, Majboor, Zanjeer), and even some mentor, father-figure type characters (Upkaar, Parichay).
With the advent of the 70’s, the country was beset with a new set of challenges and along with it, there emerged in Bollywood a new category of Supervillain: The Smuggler. Brash, ruthless but as dapper and sophisticated as his 50’s counterpart, this avatar always had a ‘right hand’ sidekick (Raabert) and a moll/vamp (Mona Darling).
“Lion!”
The hero is tied to two miles-apart pillars by a looong white rope (which he tugs at violently but fails to snap, despite having bashed at least 20 pretty heavyset hulks a few minutes prior), and the Criminal Mastermind, the smuggler, smiles and quips, “Sari duniya mujhe Loin (read Lion) ke naam se jaanti hain…”. This was a typical climax sequence in zillions of ‘action’ flicks of the 70’s. The dialogue is part of Bollywood folklore, pretty much along side “Kitne aadmi the?” and “Ye haath mujhe de de Thakur.” The man who popularised the dialogue was Ajit. Ajit Khan, born Hamid Ali Khan, started as a hero in the 1940s, flopped miserably, and discovered his villainous talents 30 years later. The net is full of jokes involving him, Raabert (Robert) and “Mona Darling.” But his most enduring legacy will always be Lion/ Loin, and his many dialogues…sample this:
Lilly, don’t be silly! Smart boy! Mona, loot lo sona!
Gabbar!
“Pachas pachas kos door gaon mein, jab bachcha raat ko rota hain, Maa kehti hain ke bete so ja; So ja nahi to Gabbar Singh aa jayega!”
Enough said.
To be continued..
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.