Capturing the rarity of a villain’s victory in Hindi cinema

[dropcap]A[/dropcap] hero is someone who does good deeds by fighting against evil. Evil is referred to as a villainous act by a villain in our films, which often ends with heroism. But there are films in Hindi cinema that have dared to show evil winning over good. It’s indeed a rarity, especially in Bollywood wherein a hero is always expected to defeat a villain in the end of a film. The reason why the lead character is called a ‘Hero’.

No one can negate the importance of having a negative role, without which of course there cannot be any positive. A villain is someone who plays a negative character, and is often the mind behind all the evils that are shown in the film. But he at the end he is always shown to have been defeated in the face of heroism. Not fair! To undo this unfairness, we have taken a look at those films, where the victory of villain’s motive was laid out. We have also observed that most of these films were made by debutant directors. Indeed, only they could have braved to play with a daring plot, even when they were unsure whether the audience would love it or not, but surprisingly, all such films have been box-office hits in their times. Take a look.

Poster of ‘Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron’

Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron – Justice and truth lose on the face of power and corruption!

Directed by Kundan Shah, this 1983 film is a dark satire on the flourishing corruption in Indian politics, bureaucracy, news media and business. Starring Naseeruddin Shah in Vinod Chopra’s role and Ravi Baswani in Sudhir Mishra’s role, the story was about these two professional photographers who embarked on the journey of revealing the face of the corrupt or killers involved in a number of incidents shown in the film. But in the age of power and corruption, the justice and truth fall weak. When the film came to its end, the table was turned by the politicians and these two photographers were blamed of being the culprits behind the bridge’s fall and were put behind the bars. For this comical satire, Kundan Shah also won the Indira Gandhi Award for Best First Film of a Director in 1984.  Initially, the film did not run well at the box-office but in the long term the movie was tagged as cult cinema for having a good recall value even now. In Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, the heroic act was the courage that Vinod and Sudhir exhibited, but they lost in the villainous intentions of corruption. Back in 1983, only the debutant director Kundan Shah could have had the courage to show the true face of corruption in a comical and light manner.

Poster of ‘Bombay Boys’

Bombay Boys – The face of cowardliness at the edge of heroism.

It was one film (released in 1998) that took the Bombay audience by storm as some liked it while some simple hated it for the brutal honest depiction of the city’s struggling life, though satirical. Directed by Kaizad Gustad, Bombay Boys was a satire on Bombay’s life from three NRI’s point of view, who came to the city from different parts of the world to live their dreams. Actor Naveen Andrews played a struggling actor, who got a role in Don Mastana’s (played by Naseeruddin Shah) third grade film, Rahul Bose was playing a struggling musician and Alexander Gifford gave justice to his role of a gay, which could seem to be a very daring act in Indian cinema back in the 90’s. All three characters had their parallel sub plots, which later connected to one, when they were kidnapped by Don Mastana who was desperate to finish his film. They were made to act in the last scene of Don’s film and once it was over, they got freed with a choice either to run to save their lives or show some heroism and rescue Dolly (Don Mastana’s forced girlfriend). To the audience’s surprise, they shamelessly ran away, leaving Dolly behind to live in misery under Don’s command. Not a typical Bollywood ending! However satirical, the cowardliness won when given the chance to do some heroic act.

Poster of ‘Samay – When time strikes’

Samay – When Time Strikes – The killer’s motive was the ultimate success.  

When time strikes, the killer kills. Who decides? Him. Who wins? Him. Director Robby Grewal’s debut film was well received at the box-office in 2003. The film’s lead actress Sushmita Sen’s portrayal as ACP Malavika Chauhan was praised by the audience. The icing on the cake was its screenplay, which kept its audiences guessing until the last minute. Veteran Jackie Shroff played the killer’s role (named Amod Parekh) whose identity was revealed at the end of the story and his motive too, which got fulfilled i.e. to be killed by ACP Chauhan. He provoked ACP Chauhan by killing one victim after another having four common signs including poor eyesight with -2 power, best people in their chosen field, all ordered spectacles from the same shop and the position of their hands indicated their time of death. The chosen signs were indicative of the childhood grudges that the villain’s character had towards ACP Chauhan. The film was indeed one to vouch  for, and a brave one to show the villain’s plot winning in Hindi cinema. Though, he was killed at the end, but his motive was successful. Samay also won a National Award in 2004 for Best Editing.

Poster of ‘Aksar’

Aksar – Positive happens to those who plan negative.

A suspense thriller by nature, this film by Anant Mahadevan is about a murder plot that Raj (played by Dino Morea) set again his wife, whom he wanted to divorce. He fixed a deal with Ricky (Emraan Hashmi) to get involved in an affair with his wife Sheena (Udita Goswami), so that he could catch them together and claim divorce on the same fact. Later, he found that he was double crossed but in the further series of events, Ricky was murdered, whose claim Raj took over his head. However, a camera footage was then found, in which Raj’s wife Sheena was caught murdering Ricky. Each incident was a trap created by Raj himself. Sheena went to jail and Raj and his girlfriend were shown living happily ever after. The film was a box-office success for its unique storyline. This was the first time in Bollywood, when a plot like this was won by the negative character rather than the main lead.

Poster of ‘Gulaal’

Gulaal – Only violence wins in the pursuit of power.

Anurag Kashyap’s film Gulaal was full of violence, aggression and blood and revolved around the theme of pursuit of power, quest for legitimacy, perceived injustices and hypocrisy of the powerful. Set in Rajasthan, the plot is about student politics of the university and fictitious secessionist movement consisting of former Rajput leaders, who have become present day elites. Dukey Bana (Kay Kay Menon), the leader of the Rajputana Movement, was the one character who outperformed all other characters in the film despite their excellent individual performances. At the end, Dukey Bana was killed by Dilip (Raj Singh Chaudhary), who was also killed by the son of the local Rajput leader to later become the leader of Dukey Bana’s Rajputana Movement. The aim was ultimately achieved following the series of events. Ultimately, it was the victory of hypocrisy, power, injustice in disguise of betrayal!