Pure Evil: The Bad Men of Bollywood

The first 'villains' in my movie journey were the strict cinema-hall Th managers in Poona, who kept a hawk's eye on kids trying to sneak into 'Adults Only' films. Imagine spending two hours in the advance booking line, another three hours anticipating the movie and then not being allowed to enter Rahul Cinema to watch Enter the Dragon (1973). A friend even nicknamed his strict father Han after the villain in the film!

One Saturday afternoon, another classmate called me up, saying he had got an extra ticket for the 3 p.m. matinee show of a film playing at Sonmarg. Since my Dad was in the room and within earshot, I told my friend, 'Yes, I will come and collect the Maths tutorial notes right away.' As it was already 2.30 p.m., I cycled furiously towards the cinema hall. I glanced back instinctively and, to my horror, glimpsed my Dad following me on his scooter at a discreet distance. He had obviously smelt. a rat. I cycled right past the cinema hall and led Dad on a wild goose chase until I finally lost him. I returned home brandishing a notebook which I'd hidden under my shirt before leaving home. I survived the day, though my friend didn't forgive me for making him waste a ticket, and worse, miss the beginning. Quite aptly, the film in question that incident filled afternoon was titled Paap aur Punya (1974).

It was in 2019 that Balaji Virtal met me as part of his research for this book. After three excellent works dealing with music in Hindi film a book about Hindi film villains was a wicked and delicious departure, I thought. And soon we were flashbacking into our childhoods, discussing our favourite baddies and revisiting many forgotten gems and guilty pleasures. Yakub in Paying Guest (1957), Jeevan in Kobinsor (1960), Prem Chopra in Do Anjaane (1976), Bindu in Dastaan (1972) (my favourite), Lalita Pawar as a Chinese spy in Ankhen (1968) and Om Prakash as Seth Dharamdas, who, along with his coterie in Apna Desh (1972), murder an upright schoolmaster... What fascinated us most about the last film was the murder weapon: walking sticks. I also remember a newspaper ad for Dharma (1973) starring Pran which said 'where there's Pran there's life. Suddenly we realized that two whole hours had passed in discussing these bad men. Boy, these villains were memory magnets, we both agreed.

The bad men taught me a lot. I didn't know what 'catharsis meant but remember experiencing it when Shakaal's (Ajit) foot in Yandım bi Baaraat (1973) gets trapped in the changing lines of the railway track and Shankar (Dharmendra) watches as Shakaal gets mowed down by a speeding train. In Decuur (1975), when Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan) barges into Samant's (Madan Puri) bedroom, tears him away from the arms of a woman and throws him down five floors... for that moment, I was Vijay.