It’s raining lean, mean men. Scan through the recent Bollywood releases, and you will come face-to-face with his various avatars.
You can spot him wandering the depths of a rainforest, camouflaged, angry and bitter, raring to bring his stepsister’s wrongdoers to justice. His dynamite punch can

bring the mightiest to the ground. Yet, this doesn’t prevent him from having a heart of gold. Meet Beera the “dus sar wala” of Raavan. Then, you have Mr Chulbul cop or “Robin Hood Pandey” as he calls himself — corrupt to the core, the worst nemesis his enemy can have, but also a benefactor to the poor. Gangster Shoaib Khan, the main protagonist of Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai, won’t stop at anything for a taste of sweet success. Metrosexual softie Samar Pratap Singh trades his PhD thesis on Victorian poetry for a political win, in Raajneeti — again, men with a mean streak.
Says Anurag Kashyap, director of No Smoking and DevD, both of which have protagonists with shades of dark grey, “To be a good boy isn’t valuable anymore. The middleman has become the most important guy today. Look around and you see people negotiating to see how they can make the most money. Even the leaders that we choose are people who are out to loot us of our hard-earned moolah. They are still written about, aren’t they? The world has changed. People have changed. Value systems have changed. People are more grey these days. The same has translated into our films. You have fewer heroes singing and dancing to woo the heroine. And thank god for that!” He adds, “I try to make my characters real, whether it’s Dev in Dev D or K in No Smoking. These men are impulsive, just like we are. They make mistakes, just like we do.”
Actors confess to finding these characters a real challenge to play. Arjun Rampal calls his role in Raajneeti one of the most demanding roles in his career so far. “I always pick a character that is challenging to play. That’s what I enjoy working on the most. My role in Raajneeti was a tough nut to crack. I had to be convincing as a politician. I had to start off as a scary and an edgy person and graduate towards becoming a lovable guy. It was strenuous, but very fulfilling.” He adds, “Every person has a good and a bad side to him or her. It is but fair that our cinema depicts it. Why should an actor have to play one-shaded characters all the time? I find one-dimensional characters very boring. Actors are starting to push the envelope, and play grey characters. They are more fun to watch as well as to essay. They also add to the repertoire of an actor.”
Sonu Sood plays Chedi Singh, an unscrupulous neta in Dabangg. “The best part about playing a grey character is that you don’t have to restrict yourself in terms of histrionics. You can go overboard and get away with it, case in point being Chulbul Pandey or Beera. And who says that these guys don’t have a positive side to them? Chedi, despite his mean man image, is entertaining. He may not hesitate to set a granary on fire, but he is also the guy who will dance whackily to Munni badnaam hui. I would say that a mean man is more interesting than a Mr Goody Two Shoes anyday. People connect with that sort of thing. It holds good for Chulbul Pandey as well as Chedi Singh. I thoroughly enjoyed playing Chedi. A shade of grey adds an element of spice to the character. Filmmakers have realised this, apart from the audiences.”
Emraan Hashmi’s latest film Crook even has a tagline that validates the emergence of mean men — ‘It’s good to be bad!’ Says Emraan, “What was considered evil earlier, is a necessity in today’s cut-throat world. This can be seen in every profession. This is the reality of life. Why run away from it?” He adds, “I tend to lean towards such roles to a great extent, as seen in Gangster, Jannat, Awarapan and Once Upon a time In Mumbaai. I pick diverse roles as they help me discover a new Emraan Hashmi every time. Each of the roles varies and throws up a new dimension of acting. The reason for choosing them is to satisfy my zeal as an artiste.”
Sammir Dattani, the Mr Perfect in I Hate Luv Storys, identifies with the mean man in real life. “The concept of good and bad is relative and entirely to do with perspectives. I myself was considered the black sheep of the family for the longest time, since I joined films instead of helping with my family’s industrial business. But everyone is so proud of me today. Whether it’s Beera or Chulbul we’re talking about, these are people who are not really mean, but men who follow their heart,” he says.
Audiences find these characters extremely fascinating. Even if the film fails to create a frenzy at the box office, the mean, man sure makes an impact. Says film critic Mayank Shekhar, “There is a change prevailing in the morality of the audience, and it is finding acceptance in society. There are shades of grey in individuals onscreen and that doesn’t prevent them from being looked upon as heroes. Even in everyday life, a businessman could have a bit of a shady past but still make it to Forbes magazine. Even some of our politicians, despite a corrupt past record, are still celebrated by society. A similar touch of grey in characters on celluloid makes them believable. For example, Chulbul Pandey is someone who is openly corrupt and breaks the law while being a cop. But his Robin Hood element makes him endearing to the audience. And redemption is not necessary in their eyes. Even in a movie like A Wednesday, a common man takes the law in his hands, but goes unpunished. Even here, redemption is not necessary. We’ve begun to accept our heroes as men with shades of grey, and it’s splendid.”
Industrywallas feel that the viewers’ positive response to these characters is heralding a change within Indian cinema. This is not only indicative of their growth as an audience, it also bestows on filmmakers a freedom to experiment with forms and characters. Priyamani, who plays the role of Beera’s stepsister in Raavan, is all for it. She says, “It’s remarkable that actors, as well as directors, are trying to break the mould and portray different shades of a character. It shows that Indian cinema is widening its horizons.”