Super Seven: The Best villains of Bollywood 2016

Sholay’ would not have been Sholay minus Gabbar. Simply put a revenge story or a thriller or a whodunit all of them end up needing the villain or the anti-hero.

However hard we try, the importance of the dark character in a plot cannot be reduced. Thankfully even in this age of cinema, which does not believe much in the black and white cinema, the cinema of good vs. bad, we got some real good dark guys in 2016.

Whether these movies did well or not at the box office is a different issue. These dark guys of 2016 contributed to the movies becoming better. Here are they ranked in order of performance.

Mohit Dewan as Jugal Hansraj in ‘Kahaani 2’
In a one line summing up of a career coming full cycle that Masoom kid from 1980s ended playing a pedophile in this dark thriller from Sujay Ghosh. Mohit Dewan is a chilling and hate-inducing man; he has no remorse for what he has done and is willing to kill all concerned who could be evidence against him. ‘Kahaani 2’ was as much a thriller which was noticeable because of Jugal Hansraj’s effortless depiction of a man as evil as evil can be.

Narendra Jha as Raj Bansal in ‘Ghayal Once Again’
Narendra Jha took the role of the negative guy’s job in a sequel to what was the big daddy movie of all retribution movies of the 1990s ‘Ghayal’. Which means he took on the challenge of being compared to that phenomenal villain called Balwant Rai. Yet Narendra Jha leaves an impact in a movie which had, to politely put, a weak screenplay. Narendra Jha solely on his own effort comes at number 6 in my list.

Shahrukh as Gaurav Chandna in ‘Fan’
ShahRukh has not played villain for the first time in his career. Having said that, without any doubt, this is his most controlled and well delivered villain effort. An obsessed fan, who develops an illusion of being wrongly judged, embarks on the journey single handedly, destroying everything around his idol. The fierce obsession of Gaurav Chandna is all dark and without any rules. In a movie which had Dud with a capital D written all over it, Gaurav Chandna was an effort which deserves acknowledgement at number 5.

Shreedhar Babu as Raghav in ‘Baaghi’
Quick when was last we had a villain who could make quick karate moves with such conviction that you felt scared for a natural athlete like Tiger Shroff when pitted against him. The slick action thriller earned its money and solid audience appreciation as much for the presentation of this movie as much as the conflict which looked every inch underdog v/s a strong devil. Shreedhar Babu’s Raghav deserves the rank 4th in my list.

Anurag Kashyap as ACP in ‘Akira’
A senior cop who is everything a cop should not be. Involved in shady money and drug deals this man casually bumps all those off who come in the way. A man, who does not shy away from putting as many innocent under the grave for his naked ambition, Anurag Kashyap’s ACP effort in ‘Akira’ was delivered with cold casualness and also proved that had he not been a director Bollywood have got itself a great villain. No 3 in my list.

Angad Bedi as Rajveer Singh in ‘Pink’
Rajveer Singh was very real. His cockiness and attitude of using women as use and throw products is so convincing that you hate him for every moment that he comes on the screen. Pink was given a lot of media attention for the issues it raked up and for Amitabh and Tapsee but Angad Bedi’s Rajvir was the most underrated villain of the year. The rage in his eyes in that climax court room scene was super effort. No 2 for sure.

Taher Raj Bhasin as Shiv Sharma in ‘Force 2’
This one was the three Cs which make a great thriller villain casual, cocky and calculating. Shiv Sharma is a man who uses his captors as pawns in his brilliant game of strategy. A man who brings it upon himself to have the RAW on its knees was undoubtedly the most intellectual villain within the space of Bollywood cinema. A man who does not mind playing mind games with his captors’ weaknesses Shiv Sharma lifted ‘Force 2’ to a different level and deserves every bit the Numero Uno rank in all the villains we had this year.