Bad boys make good heroes     

While Rajkumar Hirani is being bashed for glorifying Sanjay Dutt in Sanju, the ‘flawed’ hero is slowly becoming the order of the day. The way the film has been accepted by the audience indicates that it’s okay for our heroes to not to be perfect.

Sanjay Dutt’s former business manager Punkaj Kharbanda said every character in the world is flawed. “Why do we make stories out of these flawed people, especially those who overcome their weaknesses? Because they inspire. Regular good characters don’t impress. We have a story only when these characters go down. There is nothing to talk about perfect characters, so they don’t make a good story.”

Seniors in the industry say that flawed heroes have always been an integral part of classic story telling and there is nothing new in it. Writer Kamlesh Pandey says even Krishna, in mythology, from which most of our films derive their archetypes, is called a Poornavatar (total incarnation) as he is beautifully flawed, while Ram is considered an Anshaavatar because he is too perfect. “As early as Kismet, starring Ashok Kumar, and later in 50’s and 60’s, many films starring Dilip Kumar like Zia Sarahadi’s Footpath and Mehboob Khan’s Amar had flawed heroes. Even Bimal Roy’s Devdas can be considered as a flawed hero. Raj Kapoor’s Awaara and Dev Anand’s Baazi had flawed heroes too,” he says.

Writers like Krishan Chander, Khwaza Ahmed Abbas and Ismat Chughtai wrote about flawed heroes. From Shah Rukh Khan’s Baazigar and Darr to Amitabh Bachchan’s Deewar and Sholay, flawed heroes have been loved by the audience because they find in them a reflection of their own flawed self though, for the sake of morality, flawed heroes were always given a hard luck story of injustice and exploitation and even revenge. Pandey says, “I remember when I first heard the story of Khalnayak from Subhash Ghai, I loved it. Here was a flawed hero who celebrates his villainy with an unapologetic attitude. However, Subhashji had to give him a hard luck story to satisfy the audience. Shekhar Kapoor’s Bandit Queen, Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Pan Singh Tomar and Ram Gopal Verma’s Satya also had flawed heroes.’’

But the audience has not always accepted flawed heroes. Film writer Dilip Thakur says, “Rajesh Khanna played an anti-hero in Red Rose where he keeps killing women, and though his character reforms in the end, he was rejected by the people. Amitabh Bachchan worked for the audience in Deewar because his actions were justified by the director. The same Bachchan was not accepted in Aks.”

Thakur says, “It was with Baazigar that audiences really started opening up to anti-heroes and that is why Shah Rukh Khan was accepted by the audience. In 2018, things have changed and that is why Sanju has been received in a big way.” A lot depends on the actor who is playing the anti-hero, he says, while adding, “A Salman Khan will never be accepted as an anti-hero. In fact, the actor has never played a negative role. In most of his films, he has played a hero or a messiah.”

Ranveer Singh and Varun Dhawan have played anti-heroes and have been accepted in a big way by the audience. Filmmaker Rahul Dholakia who made Raees with Shah Rukh Khan says, “No one is perfect or wants to be that. In fact, if the character is not flawed, he or she may end up looking fake. In Raees, the protagonist was a bootlegging gangster who beat up people and eventually his ambition and his confidence in himself got the better of him resulting in a major calamity. Even if he was not directly responsible, he was answerable for his actions. We felt that he should be accountable. He does feel guilty, he breaks down and tells his wife ‘Mohollaa bachate bachate sheher jala diya Aasia.’ As a filmmaker, I felt the character should pay for his crime, hence the ending.”

Dholakia continues, “I feel that a flawed character is always a tad bit more interesting. A character with shades of grey is more likeable than the one which is clean..”

The real life controversies of actors have also added to their stardom, be it Sanjay Dutt, Salman Khan, Fardeen Khan and, now, Sooraj Pancholi. Sanjay Dutt made at least four comebacks in a career spanning over three decades and was a big star when Munnabhai MBBS was offered to him.