Bad boys of Mollywood

One cannot forget the ruthless Keerikadan Jose of Kireedam or the cunning Mundakkal Shekaran of Devaasuram or Swami Amoorthananda from Ekalavyan.
That they were hated by all shows how successful their characters were. However, somewhere down the line, the popular villains migrated to character roles and even comedy, and Mollywood filmmakers were forced to import villains from other industries.
If you look at some of the recent movies, you will find an exodus of grey characters from other industries. While Lijo Jose Pellissery’sAmen had Makarand Deshpande playing a negative role, Tamil actor Bobby Simha played Vatti Raja in Alphonse Putharen’s Neram. Joshiy’s upcoming movie Salaam Kashmirwill have Junaid Shaikh, a Kashmiri, playing the villain, and Rajesh Nair’sEscape from Uganda will see three international artistes playing negative roles. “Malayalam cinema is treading a different path now. So filmmakers are always thinking about what kind of change we can bring about in a movie. We are ready to take risks to grab the attention of the audience,” says director Rajesh Nair. His next outing, Escape from Uganda, will see Micheal Oboyo, Sam Baganda and Wilber Force playing villains. “Today, Malayalis are more aware and they will look even at background scores and camera angles in a movie. So, we need to be careful about the kind of content we provide. You cannot fool the audience. It is indeed a huge risk to do a Malayalam movie now,” he says.
Director M Padmakumar, whose Thiruvambadi Thamban andIthu Pathiramanal saw Kishore and Pradeep Singh Rawat doing negative roles, shares that he roped in artistes from outside the Malayalam film industry because the script demanded it. “In Thiruvambadi Thamban, the villain was a Tamilian, and Kishore fitted the role to a T. Whereas in Ithu Pathiramanal we couldn’t find anyone strong and powerful like Pradeep. A negative role is very important because a strong villain can guarantee a stronger hero,” he says.
Rajesh agrees and says that a villain needs to be stronger than a hero. “We still remember not just the heroes but also the villains of many of the hit movies. Though this trend of bringing anti-heroes from outside was there earlier, now it has become the norm,” says Rajesh.
Most of the so-called anti-heroes of Mollywood have also taken a detour. “We saw Baburaj as a hard-core villain. But he surprised us with his comic act in Salt N’ Pepper. Similarly, there are also others who are trying out a variety of roles,” says Padmakumar.
Interestingly, the look and feel of a grey character is also changing. Be it Nivin Pauly in Da Thadiya or Asif Ali in Ordinary or Fahadh Faasil in 22 Female Kottayam, M-Town is witnessing a freshness in negative characters too.
“The reason why most of us opt for a villain or a heroine from outside the industry is to have that freshness. People are looking for a change and they would like to be surprised with our casting. A villain’s role has also undergone a change. It’s no more about the looks or dialogues, their attitude matters today,” says director Mamas.