Bad guys of the silver screen do a good turn

Villains’ Night’ was a novel way of rehabilitating the bad guys. Shakti Kapoor, Ranjit, Puneet Issar, Arjun and Jack Gaud completed the Rogues’ Gallery that was on display at the Indoor Stadium. On stage, they went beyond what came naturally to them: they danced, cracked jokes and sang songs, features generally reserved for the goodies on the screen. But even their supposedly good acts had a shady ring.

The stadium was not exactly choc-a-block — maybe the audience ran for cover at the sight of the toughies — but for all their unmentionable antecedents, it was all too apparent that they have a fan following of their own.

Why did they want to become villains? “Heroes have to sing, move around the trees and do a lot of things to woo the heroines. We get to touch them straightaway, no hassles. So what if we get beaten up?,” they said in unison.

So it was Aavu… Lolita’ Shakti Kapoor who sang a couple of songs sprinkled with dialogues from his roles like Inspector Bhende and the film Raja Babu’. In keeping with his screen image, he even took off his shirt.

A question-answer session with Asrani, who was MC for the night, was interesting. Sample this: “Give an antonym for Ugly? ” Kapoor turned around to point to his posterior “pichhli”, triggering peels of laughter. “Entry” invited “dysentery”.

Puneet Issar, whose punch into Amitabh Bachchan’s solar plexus turned the entire nation into a prayerhouse, chose dialogues from the Mahabharata episode when, as Duryodhana, he orders Dushasan to disrobe Draupadi. Taking his role a bit too seriously, he said in his thunderous voice, “You decide who was the villain. I think it was Yudhishtir; he wagered his wife and brothers”.

The mostly young audience probably could not relate with Ranjeet. His laboured attempt to tell a joke did not enthuse many. He recalled how he had saved a few blushes for Saira Banu during the shooting of Victoria No 203 by embracing her when a towel protecting her fell off.

Jack Gaud and Arjun, the two wicked relatives of Amrish Puri in the film Karan Arjun, danced with the troupe that accompanied them to Bhangda Pale… Arjun even tried to imitate Mohammed Rafi by singing a couple of old songs.

It was not all gore though. For several hit numbers were sang by new and upcoming singers as a powerful sound system had everybody on the edge of their seats.

“We will return with more bad elements”, Gaud, who helped organise the programme, told the crowd.