My Favourites: Iconic Characters in Hindi Films

We go to see a masala film because of the actors, perhaps, or sometimes because of the directors. We come back with a medley of memories of beautiful people, gorgeous locales, melodious songs, and in some cases, non-stop zany entertainment. Think Nasir Hussain, Manmohan Desai, S Mukherjee et al. In certain cases, the actors disappear into the characters, and we actually identify with them and their narratives, their simple joys and sorrows leaving an indelible mark on our lives that we are touched by them long after we have moved on to the next blend of spices. Films by Bimal Roy, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, etc., would fall into this slot. 

Sometimes, however, there are 'characters' that take on a life all their own, one that their makers did not intend, one that the actors playing them did not expect. In most cases, the character came to be identified as one of the actor's best roles (Anthony, Basanti), roles that one cannot imagine any one else doing; in others, the character became bigger than the person playing the role (Shakaal), thus leading to the actor spending the rest of his career trying to live up to that one role that made him a byword in the annals of cinema.

These are characters that have the best lines and the best punch lines in stock, the dialogues you remember for years after you watched the film, characters that are more than just cardboard cutouts. They can be realistic (or as realistic as commercial Hindi films will allow them to be), or over-the-top in a so-bad-they-are-good category; they can appeal to your emotions, or to your funny bone, they can be funny or evil, chatty or independent, or suave and well, villainous. What matters is that the actors playing these roles have used their expressions, their body language, and their dialogue delivery to breathe life into paper characters, making them their own, and in some ways, subsuming themselves in them.

Let's start with the biggest, and probably the most iconic of Hindi film characters (the rest follow in no particular order).

1. Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan / Sholay): Kitne aadmi the?

When a scene is chilling simply because the first glimpse you get is that of his legs, with a belt swinging idly by his side, and the tension builds up with the background noises, and a quietly spoken Kitne aadmi the? you know you are in for some great villainy. That the next sentence is almost screamed out makes it even more startling. This was a character who was frightening because he was ruthless. There was no backstory that tells you why he became a dacoit, and Gabbar Singh stole the thunder right from under the noses of a stellar cast that comprised Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan. Amjad Khan's deadpan delivery only served to underline his ruthlessness. Ab tera kya hoga, Kaalia must rank as prelude to one of the most sadistic scenes ever filmed - all the more chilling for the suddenness of the conclusion.

Amjad Khan did have a long and reasonably successful career as villain, but he never quite scaled the heights that he reached in his fascinating debut. Sholay was an example of masala film-making at its best. Each and every character in the film, including the minor ones, were etched out with such loving detail that the 'stars' did not overwhelm the plot. 

2. Basanti (Hema Malini / Sholay): Mujhe befizool ki baat karne ki aadat toh hai nahin...

Talking of Sholay, how can one forget its single iconic female character who could not only stand up to all the testosterone, lending the film not only its oases of romance and humour, but who was also feisty enough to handle some action on her own? Amidst the all-male line-up in a masala film in the seventies, it says much for both the (male) writers that they conjured up a fitting example of what a heroine should (ideally) be, but usually, is not. 

This was Hema Malini's crowning moment - the pick of her long and very successful career. It says much for the strength of the character that no one has really been able to play the firebrand Basanti as well she did. (The less said about the travesty that was the remake, the better!) Talkative to a fault, and independent (she earns a living driving a tonga), she is definitely not the stereotypical village belle, there for only the romance and the mandatory songs and dances.

Chal, Dhanno, aaj teri Basanti ki izzat ka sawaal hai was a fitting end to the non-stop chatter with which she peppered the film. Director Farah Khan paid her a fitting tribute in Main Hoon Na,  her ode to the good old masala  entertainers of the seventies.

3. Prem Chopra (Prem Chopra / Bobby): Prem naam hai mera, Prem Chopra

Probably the best six-word introductory dialogue that any villain has ever had! When that villain has a face a hero might envy, it added just that edge that a teenage love story needed. An edge that lost none of its underlying sharpness for all that it was uttered in a very soft-spoken manner. Pitched against the innocence of two teenagers, his quiet (but slimy) villainy was all the more effective.

 

Prem Chopra had already made a name for himself as villain, but he remembers being totally unconvinced of the efficacy of this dialogue. He credits Raj Kapoor with making all of India hate him with unheard of intensity. 

4. Bobby (Dimple Kapadia / Bobby): I am Bobby. Mujhse dosti karoge?

One cannot think of Bobby without bringing in its eponymous heroine. The first teenage love story in Hindi films, Bobby Braganza and Raj Nath became the faces of teenage angst. Dimple Kapadia brought in both innocence and sensuality to the role of a Goan Christian girl, and Raj Kapoor, fortunately did not buy into many of the stereotypical tropes while picturing that community.

In scripting a film that shows lovers' rebellion against class and religious differences, Raj Kapoor may not have been treading new ground, but his treatment made all the difference.

Dimple Kapadia's Bobby was young and spirited, self-respecting and naive - a perfect foil for the adult debut of young Rishi Kapoor. The freshness of the young leads, coupled with excellent performances from veterans Pran and Premnath as the warring fathers ensured that Bobby remains a benchmark for teen romances even today.

5. Lion (Ajit / Kalicharan): Saara shehar mujhe 'loin' ke naam se jaante hain

 

The film played on the villain's name and NO 17, one of the vital clues in solving the case. It was Shatrughan Sinha's debut, and it was a stunning one, but Subhash Ghai's directorial debut gave us one of the suavest, most sophisticated of villains. Ajit channelled his Dharam Dayal Teja from Zanjeer, where he had given a new face to villainy. In Kalicharan's Din Dayal, he was the epitome of cool - his villain was always attired in natty suits and crisp sherwanis, well-polished shoes, and dazzling sunglasses.

With a savvy female accomplice in tow ('Mona Darling' and 'Robert' being almost as iconic as their employer), Lion delivered his catch phrases with a nasal twang that made his villainy remarkable. The accent, the dialogue delivery, the supreme confidence - Ajit was perfect! 

6. Mogambo (Amrish Puri / Mr India): Mogambo khush hua

India's first sci-fi film? Who knows? But what a fun ride, and to think it was Shekhar Kapoor, earnest, indie Shekhar Kapoor who helmed this riotous roller coaster. On the face of it, Mogambo was a farcical villain - all he did was enunciate the corniest of dialogues in his deep voice. Of course, his aim was control of India, and then, world domination. So why on earth was he interested in ousting an ordinary violinist and a bunch of orphan children from their modest home on the Bandra seaside? Who knew? Who cared? Along with 'Calendar' (Satish Kaushik in a fantastic cameo), Mr India boasted of Miss Hawa Hawaii, and Daga and Teja ("Bheja?" queries the lovely Miss Hawa Hawaii) - all creations from the fertile mind of Javed Akhtar, the man who, along with his partner, Salim Khan created such iconic characters as Gabbar Singh, and penned such pithy one-liners in movies that had gone before.

 

But Amrish Puri embraced Mogambo in all his flamboyance; he was a comic-book villain, hamming it up attired in gold brocade (and epaulets!) and boots, with a villain's den the likes of which had never been seen before. Boney Kapoor, the producer, pulled out all stops to ensure that his over-the-top villain had a lair worthy of him. He had a throne to sit on, an acid pond to throw his enemies into (one into which his loyal soldiers jump, at one command), and a plethora of slimy, wicked baddies to do his bidding. Shekhar Kapoor's deft direction ensured that a hilarious time was had by all. Hail Mogambo, King of India!

7. Anthony Bhai (Amitabh Bachchan / Amar Akbar Anthony)

Bambaiyya Hindi had never been so popular before. With tight shirts worn unbuttoned to expose a huge silver cross, the bootlegger-local dada-ward-of-the-local-priest, Anthony bhai was the ultimate in masala cool. In Manmohan Desai's brothers-separated-at-birth masala entertainer, Amitabh Bachchan played the middle brother, born of Hindu parents and raised by a Christian priest. Desai lost no chance to hit us over the head with the secular angle (the other brothers are raised by a Hindu policeman and a Muslim tailor respectively), but managed to deftly weave the insanity into a swallowable pill.

Amitabh's Anthony (named after Pyarelal's violin teacher Anthony Gonsalvez) brews illicit liquor, is a police informer, unless the dark side pays him not to inform against them, springs out of giant Easter eggs dressed in spats and a top hat, fights (and loses) against his elder brother, and talks to his own reflection when drunk. Umm, he also gives blood to his 'real' mother (Nirupa Roy, in a burst of extra carelessness, misplaces not one or two, but three children in this mad epic), serenades his beautiful Jenny on the beach (in Hinglish) and calls on his partner-in-crime (Jesus) to save him when he is being beaten up. 

8. Circuit (Arshad Warsi / Munnabhai series)

   

The Munnabhai  series would not have been the entertainer it became, if it hadn't been for Munna's sidekick, Circuit. At the end of the first movie, he even has a child called 'Short Cirtcuit'. Circuit is a very Wodehousian character, and the films are peppered with some fantastic one-liners in typical Bombay slang. The unprecedented success of the Munnabhai franchise made Circuit a household name - the loyal, lovable, good-natured goonda has ensconced Arshad Warsi firmly in the annals of iconic characters.

Starting with a parallel role in Tere Mere Sapne, he got slotted into inane comic roles until he played Babban in Ishqiya. In between, he also took on some interesting characters in Sehar and Waisa Bhi. However, it will be as Circuit that he is remembered - whether that is a good thing or a bad one is left to be ascertained. 

9. Crime Master Gogo (Shakti Kapoor / Andaz Apna Apna) Aankhen nikalkar gotiyan kheloonga   

Dressed as a cross between a pirate and a super hero, Crime Master Gogo wears sun glasses both inside and outside, and roams around on a bicycle which he steals from Bhalla and Robert. After all, as he says, Aaya hoon to kuch toh lootkar jaaoonga; khandaani chor hoon. 

In a film that referenced and cross-referenced other Hindi films (the heroes were called Amar and Prem) the actors themselves (the heroines were Raveena and Karisma - interestingly, while Raveena was actually Karisma, and Karisma, Raveena, for the second half of the movie, it was otherwise in the first half), and parodied dialogues (Yeh Teja Teja kya hai croons Gogo as Teja and Ram Gopal Bajaj (Hamara Bajaj) fight over who the real Teja is, taking off on Yeh ILU ILU kya hai, the hit song from Saudagar), it was indeed fit that Crime Master Gogo was Mogambo's nephew.

This was one of Shakti Kapoor's finest performances, one that won him a well-deserved award for best performance in a comic role. Andaz Apna Apna was a film which did not take itself (or us) seriously, and it is to the credit of every single actor that they made the insanity believable. 
 

10. Sher Khan (Pran / Zanjeer) Is ilaaqe mein naye aaye ho, saaheb? Varna Sher Khan ko kaun nahin jaanta?

Zanjeer may have been the beginning of Amitabh Bachchan's journey to superstardom, but who, having seen the film, could have come away unimpressed by Sher Khan? The hennaed Pathan, who flicked an errant lock away from his forehead, and who, having lost a fight to Vijay still makes you feel that he could have won, if he only wanted to? 

Prakash Mehra is on record that Zanjeer would never have been made if it hadn't been for Pran. Pran gave up a role in Shor, even though Manoj Kumar had given him a change of image in Upkaar earlier, because he was already committed to Prakash Mehra. It was also Pran who gave Prakash Mehra his hero. The script of Zanjeer had already made the rounds to several heroes - Dev Anand, Dharmendra, Raaj Kumar - before Pran recommended a not-very-successful newcomer who was his son's friend.

Pran's Sher Khan was enacted with class. He is an honourable man, a man who can appreciate courage in another, and can bow down without subservience in appreciation of that courage. He is as loyal a friend as he is an implacable enemy. And he also got to dance! (Pran was aghast when he was told that there was a qawaali to be filmed on him. But Prakash Mehra did not relent, and we got the wonderful Manna Dey Yaari hai imaan mera,  a song that was more than integral to the plot.)

Three other characters who rate an honourable mention are Col. Julius Nagendranath Wilfred Singh (Ashok Kumar / Choti si Baat), Dhurandhar Bhatavadekar (Utpal Dutt / Rang Birangi) and Mrs D'sa (Lalita Pawar / Anari). They may not have been the central characters, but they are the pivots around which the films move. 

It is interesting that out of the above list, there are only two 'heroines' and one 'hero' - the others are either villains, or play a secondary part to the main leads. It just strengthens my feeling that a great film is one that pays as much attention to the story and its secondary characters, as it does to the story of the 'hero' and 'heroine'.