When playing a baddie did them good

It is often said that Bollywood works to a formula. The hero meets heroine, cupid strikes, vamp and villain try to break them up, but at the end of 18 reels, all issues are resolved, the baddies are vanquished, and the winsome-twosome live happily ever after. This time-tested plot usually plays out with the same set of actors, cast in a mould, and rarely does the designated nayak turn into a khalnayak or vice versa. In this scenario, when a poster boy in the industry gambles with his career to take a walk on the wild side, it’s commendable even when the feature is not commercially viable.

Listed below are 13 such actors who dared to be different — they robbed and dodged, abducted and abused, married and then made merry with another’s missus, or worse, killed without remorse. There are many more on this ever-growing list, but the one thing that stands out, is that these matinee men, despite a few transgressions, managed to redeem themselves in the eyes of the audience and remain among our much-loved heroes.
Ashok Kumar

Many remember him as the ailing babuji or the doting dadaji, some even as a home-grown Romeo wooing Devika Rani’s achyut kanya with “Main ban ka panchi ban ke sang sang doloon re.” What few remember is that Ashok Kumar was Hindi cinema’s first anti-hero, accused by critics for glamourising crime as Kismet’s (1943) unrepentant crook. While Shekhar redeemed himself with his selfless love for a crippled girl, there was no excuses for Sangram’s (1950) Kunwar, the wayward son of a cop who gambles, steals, abducts and even kills, before being gunned down by his father. The film was pulled out of the theatres in its 16th ‘House Full’ week, and according to his daughter Bharti, the actor was warned by the then police commissioner to choose his films with more care in future. But occasionally, he still transgressed, accepting the role of a philandering husband who leaves his wife and son for another woman in Bhai-Bhai (1956) or a judge accused of murder in Kanoon (1960). But despite the transgressions, he remains our much-loved Dadamoni.

Dilip Kumar

Ganga Jumna’s (1961) dacoit or the melancholic alcoholic of Devdas (1955) may have spared him the blushes, but there was no absolution for the lawyer of Amar (1954) who ravages a young girl who comes to him for protection from a rogue, impregnates her, then, marries another till he is made to acknowledge his past. The film failed, but Dilip Kumar continued to gamble with the underworld don of Vidhaata (1982) and the crime lord of Mashaal (1984). His biggest revolt, however, was as Prince Salim of Mughal-e-Azam (1960), going against his father, Emperor Akbar, for a courtesan whose “Pyaar kiya to darna kya” has become the clarion call for rebellious lovers down the decades.

Dev Anand
The gambler of Baazi (1951), the smuggler of Jaal (1952), the pickpocket of Pocket Maar (1956) and the black-marketeer of Kala Bazar (1960) made Dev Anand a ‘hero’ with a difference. In Prem Pujari (1970) he played a soldier who refuses to pick up a gun, is mistaken for a spy, and only proves himself a patriot during another war. The film that immortalised him was Guide (1965), Raju taking him through hell and purgatory, before he finds salvations with one last heroic act that ends a drought. “People called me crazy,” he recalled initial reactions to Guide, pointing out that one has to have an element of madness to do something out of the ordinary. He continued to think out-of-the-box, making Swami Dada (1982) around a thief masquerading as a godman and putting a gun in a priest’s hand in Gangster (1994).

Shammi Kapoor

Junglee (1961), Janwar (1965), Budtameez (1966) … These are not gaalis but the titles of the films which made Shammi Kapoor the rebel star of the 1960s. With his cocky swagger, leather jackets and unabashed sensuality, he changed the face of the Hindi film hero as he went ‘Yahooing” down the snow. But while these were still conventional heroes, Mujrim’s (1958) thief, Shankar, who kills and takes on the identity of his lookalike, Anand, to evade the law was an out-and-out baddie as was Mike, an opium addict and the ruthless boss of China Town (1962) even in a blink-and-die appearance.

Dharmendra
The He-Man’s dhai kilo ka haath sent a baddie sinking halfway down the ground in Loha (1987). And while Dharmendra Ayee Milan Ki Bela (1964), Yakeen (1969), Karishma Kudrat Kaa (1985) International Crook (1974) were all gunfire and fury, it was a Guddi (1971), which unmasked a matinee idol to present a true-life picture of the film industry to a starry-eyed teenager, that was the real acid test. Dharmendra admitted he’d been worried, wondering if he’d cease to be a ‘hero’ after its release. To his surprise, Guddi made him an even bigger hero.

Amitabh Bachchan
The murderer of Parwana (1971) and Faraar’s (1975) killer on the run, the loose cannons of Deewar (1975), Trishul (1978) and Shakti (1982), the crime lords of Don (1978) and Agneepath (1990), the Godfather of the Sarkar (2005, 2008, 2017) trilogy are just some of the many trysts with the bad that the Big B pulled off with aplomb. Agneepath won him the National Award, but floundered at the box-office as Amitabh Bachchan’s efforts to copy the husky voice of gangster Manu Surve on whom his Vijay Dinanath Chauhan was modelled, alienated his fans. Panicked theatre owners believed there was something wrong with the soundtrack while viewers thought a double had dubbed for him. The film was re-released in his familiar baritone. Too late.

Mithun Chakraborty
In his debut film Mrigayaa (1976), Mithun Chakraborty was hanged for a murder. He kills again, at the age of 13, in Mujrim, to become a criminal for life. The Don (1995), Elaan-E-Jung (1989), Jallaad (1995), Hatyara (1998), Chandal (1998) took him deeper into the darkness. The father in Jallad who drugs, rapes and plunders won him the Filmfare Award for Best Actor in a Negative Role, but, for me, the baddie who really stands out is Bhuvan Panda of Chingaari (2006), a priest by day who visits a prostitute every night. The streak of sadism as he played God, was spine-chilling. One also recalls Seesha (1986) in which he is accused of molestation by an employee and acquitted thanks primarily to the efforts of his wife, only for the mirror to crack at the end.

Shah Rukh Khan
The first negative role he signed was Anjaam (1994). A fatal attraction that doomed him, but it bagged him the Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role, his second award after Darr (1993). He also took home the Black Lady, this time for Best Actor, for Baazigar (1993). In all three films, SRK killed without remorse, making a name for himself as an anti-hero before being accepted as a romantic hero. Even after, he strayed from the straight and narrow a few times, with Ram Jaane (1995), Josh (2000), Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam (2002), Don: The Chase Begins (2006), Don 2 (2011), Fan (2016), Raees (2017) and even Zero (2018). But it’s the trilogy one re-visits to see him as the khalnayak.

Aamir Khan

He was born on March 14, 1965, on the day of Holi. Perhaps that’s why Aamir Khan chose to flag off his acting career as an adult with Ketan Mehta’s experimental Holi (1984), which showcased the colours of a rebellion on a college campus. In Aditya Bhattacharya’s Raakh (1989), which got him a Special Mention from the National Awards jury, obsession turned to madness, putting a gun in his hand, and sending him to the death row. Aatank Hi Aatank (1995) made him a contemporary Godfather, while Earth (1998) took him back to 1947 when the Partition created a communal divide between friends and lovers. In Rang De Basanti (2006), as a modern-day Chandrashekhar Azad, he spearheaded a revolution against corruption, while as a Kashmiri insurgent in Fanaa (2006), he brought terror into the country. As the thieving twins of Dhoom (2013), Aamir busted the box-office again to prove that he could be just as good when bad.

Salman Khan

He’s one actor who has never been lured by negative roles as he is unwilling to set a bad example to his young fans. When he turned a rebel in Baaghi (1990), it was for love, when he committed patricide in Love (1991), it was because his father had driven his mother to suicide, when his Dabangg (2010, 2012, 2019) cop accepted bribes, it was because he was a desi Robinhood, and even when his spy turned rogue, after falling in love with an agent across the border, you knew his Tiger would roar back with yet another rescue mission. Salman is a most-wanted bhai who has a justification for every wrong action and reaction.

Farooque Shaikh
After Chashme Buddoor (1981), director Sai Paranjape shared the script of Katha (1983) with him before approaching any other actor, giving him the pick of roles. To her delight, having played Mr Goody Two Shoes in the earlier film, Farooque Shaikh chose to play Bashudev who simultaneously woos the boss’s wife and daughter, then gets the chawl’s sweetie pregnant before disappearing into the blue. The same katha was repeated in Kalpana Lajmi’s debut directorial, Ek Pal (1986), leaving Naseeruddin Shah to father his baby both times. Even as the aristocratic Nawab Sultan, he tamely submitted to a match arranged by his mother, leaving his Umrao Jaan to bemoan, “Justuju jiski thi usko to na paaya humnein, iss bahane magar dekh li duniya humnein…”

John Abraham
Only someone who had nothing to lose would dare to kick off his Bollywood career with Jism (2013), playing an alcoholic lawyer who, blinded by his lust for the mercenary wife of a millionaire, commits one crime after another. The film was a surprise hit and John continued to flirt with darkness, as a psychotic stalker in Aetbaar (2003), a vroom-vroom biker thief in Dhoom (2004), an abductor fuelled by revenge in Zinda (2005) and a narcissist chain-smoker whose soul-searching leaves him with two less fingers in No Smoking (2007). New York’s (2009) covert terrorist, the millionaire gangster of Race 2 (2012), the dreaded gangster Manya Surve shot dead in a Shootout in Wadala (2013), and yet another true-life crime lord in the upcoming Mumbai Saga (2021) are other examples of cinematic anarchy.

Irrfan Khan
Haasil’s (2003) student leader Ranvijay Singh brought him the Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role while Maqbool’s (2004) Macbeth turned him into a leading man with blood on his hands. In 2010, he returned to his Haasil director, Tigmanshu Dhulia, as a celebrated athlete Paan Singh Tomar, who despite turning into a baaghi dacoit, ran away with the National Award for Best Actor. Three years later, he played a lovelorn gangster in Tigmanshu’s Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster series. The world was won over with villainous turns in The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) and Inferno (2016).

The author's new book, Matinee Men: A Journey Through Bollywood, published by Rupa, features these 13 stars.

Produced by Mansi Bhasin