books Pure Evil: The Bad Men of Bollywood by Balaji Vittal profiles Bollywood’s villains

Virtually over a decade and extra in the past, Balaji Vittal met me along with his proposal for a guide on RD Burman (co-authored with Anirudha Bhattacharjee). The very first thing that struck me about him was an unbridled enthusiasm for the subject material. One thing that translated into the written proposal and first draft that they submitted. I used to be greatly surprised by the analysis and the fabric they’d put collectively. A humiliation of riches. All the pieces however the kitchen sink, so to say (and I imply it in a wholly complimentary sense). Navigating the edits of that guide, the hardest name was what to go away out for the sake of crispness with out sacrificing the delectable trivia and data the textual content had.

Writer Balaji Vittal by the Howrah Bridge, on New 12 months’s Eve, 2021

@vittalbalaji/Twitter

I point out this as a result of his newest guide, Pure Evil: The Dangerous Males of Bollywood, comes with the same exacting give attention to data that accentuates the studying pleasure. In reality, so spectacular was their effort on RD Burman (it will definitely fetched them the Nationwide Award for Finest Guide on Cinema), that even earlier than the guide was achieved, I had provided them two extra contracts. Their second guide, Gaata Rahe Mera Dil: 50 Traditional Hindi Movie Songs, marked by the identical rigorous analysis and accent on data, went on to win the inaugural MAMI Award for Finest Writing on Cinema. 

Pure Evil is the third guide in that collection of three we signed within the wake of the RD proposal. In between, the duo collaborated on a well-received biography of SD Burman. Although Balaji has gone on his personal with Pure Evil (whereas Aniruddha has achieved the identical along with his forthcoming guide on Kishore Kumar), for me as a reader it’s relatively inconceivable to think about both creator with out the hyphen in between – and that extends to the richness of the fabric in Pure Evil too.

Like RD Burman: The Man The Music, which can stay the definitive guide on the legendary composer, and Gaata Rahe Mera Dil, which regardless of the herculean process of choosing 50 out of lakhs of Hindi movie songs might be a decisive tackle the topic, Pure Evil is unarguably probably the most authoritative have a look at villains in Hindi cinema. Given the breadth of his analysis and the knowledge and evaluation that inform Balaji’s tackle the unhealthy males (and ladies) of Bollywood (that’s a little bit of a misnomer, as a result of a big a part of the enjoyable villains in Hindi cinema got here earlier than it turned Bollywood).

It’s the villain who makes a movie come alive, from the title to the sartorial style to the hideout

‘Pure Evil’ is pure enjoyable for its content material and the creator’s analysis into the topic

It goes with out saying that our heroes are heroes due to the villains they overcome. Think about Sholay (1975) with out Gabbar Singh or Mr India (1987) with out Mogambo. It’s the villain who makes a movie come alive and that is mirrored proper from the names they’re endowed with to their sartorial tastes and their hideouts (significantly within the Bombay cinema of the Seventies and ’80s) which beat the staid life-style of the heroes hole. I for one wouldn’t thoughts exchanging the modest houses of a lot of our heroes with the dens that Sher ‘Shera’ Singh (Amrish Puri, in Loha, 1987) or Shakaal (Kulbhushan Kharbanda, in Shaan, 1980) inhabited. After which there are the traces they get to spout; which hero has ever obtained a line like Ranjeet’s in Subhash Ghai’s Vishwanath: ‘As soon as in a blue moon, kabhi kabhi…’? I dare say, among the many heroes of Hindi cinema solely Amitabh Bachchan has had traces as memorable as those these taking part in the villains obtained to ship (and even Bachchan’s finest traces got here because the antihero). 

Amrish Puri as Sher ‘Shera’ Singh, in ‘Loha’ (1987) and Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Shakaal, in ‘Shaan’ (1980)

That is one thing that Balaji recognises on the outset within the introduction and proceeds to create a memorable and vastly pleasing portrait of the villain in Hindi cinema. Simply have a look at the Contents and also you get an thought of the unfold he has in retailer: from the colonisers and the international hand in ‘Mera Bharat Mahaan’ to the megalomaniacs, zealots and bigots in ‘Pagla Kahin Ka’ to at least one on the varied shades of the outlaw (the hoary dacoit of the ’60s and ’70s and their offspring), the gangsters and mafia which got here into its personal with Ram Gopal Varma’s Satya (1998).

Manoj Bajpayee and J. D. Chakravarthy in Ram Gopal Varma’s ‘Satya’ (1998)

Within the course of he additionally offers a snapshot of the socio-economic and political churn of the nation over 75 years of our Independence. The altering face of the villain in our cinema in some ways displays how we now have modified as a nation. It was unthinkable within the Fifties to think about a politician as a villain. By the Nineteen Eighties, they had been on the high of the rung as on-screen rogues. Or the comparatively ‘docile’ dacoits of Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai (1960) and Mujhe Jeene Do (1963) metamorphosing into the terrorists, land mafia sharks and white-collar criminals of newer classic. Balaji’s guide covers all of it. 

Pran as dacoit Raka in ‘Jis Desh Major Ganga Behti Hai’ (1960)

Elements of ‘Don’ had been shot in Waheeda Rehman’s residence!

What units the guide aside is the eye to trivia, making it a film-buff’s delight. So, whereas we get the lowdown on the best and most memorable of the baddies, data on which is available, Balaji by no means forgets the smaller image. 

Contemplate, for instance, Chandra Barot’s 1978 blockbuster Don. Whereas offering us with the evolution of the ‘Don determine’ in Hindi cinema, as an apart we additionally get to know that the movie took shut to 5 years to finish as a result of the filmmakers had been all broke! Elements of the movie had been shot in Waheeda Rehman’s residence and the makers additionally ‘piggybacked’ on standing units of different movies. After which there’s Manoj Kumar’s priceless touch upon the movie’s title as narrated by the director. Simply the sort of digression that enlivens the studying expertise. 

Amitabh Bachchan in Chandra Barot’s 1978 blockbuster ‘Don’

Or Ranjeet’s hilarious account of taking pictures for Mastan Dada in a taxi whereas on a six-hour visit Bombay on the best way to London from Mauritius, ending up additionally taking pictures for Haath Ki Safai within the course of (the filmmakers managed to get him out of immigration for these few hours to allow him to shoot!). Or the hyperlinks that the creator makes between black magic and the occult in movies coping with serial killers (from the excessive priest in 1934’s Amrit Manthan to Ashutosh Rana’s horrifying rendition of Lajja Shankar Pandey in 1999’s Sangharsh). 

Ashutosh Rana as Lajja Shankar Pandey in 1999’s ‘Sangharsh’

The guide overflows with related trivia and interviews with a large forged of characters that present a glimpse not solely into the historical past of the villain in Hindi cinema but additionally the insanity of moviemaking. 

Regardless of its editorial and proofing flaws (I gave up making notes after six typos within the first 43 pages), Pure Evil is pure enjoyable for its content material and the creator’s analysis into the topic. As one of many biggest villains of Hindi cinema would have stated, ‘Mogambo… khush hua.’ 

Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri is a writer, editor and critic. An avid movie buff, he loves poetry and music.