Year-Ender 2022 Recap: From Dulquer Salmaan in Chup to Vijay Varma in Darlings, 10 Villains We Loved to Watch in Bollywood This Year!

Gone is the era of larger-than-life villains like Gabbar Singh, Shakaal and Mogambo. It's not that we have stop showing all the characters in white - films like RRR and KGF 2 (well, not technically Hindi films) have larger-than-life antagonists - but most of the Bollywood movie these days have antagonists who roll more in the grey shades rather than dip themselves in complete darkness. The year 2022 had some very memorable, quite complicated antagonists, who make for quite scary proposition, because how real they would feel compared to the cartoonish villains. They could be us, if we are tipped to the dark side. Year Ender 2022: From Ayushmann Khurrana in An Action Hero to Ranbir Kapoor in Shamshera, 5 Movie Roles Which Showcased Bollywood Actors in New Light!

In this special feature, we look at 10 antagonists from Hindi movies (no dubbed or bilinguals here) who managed to leave a good impression in a bad, bad way!

Siddhant Chaturvedi in Gehraiyaan

Zain Oberoi is smart and suave and good-looking, but he is also a cheater and emotionally manipulative. What's even more, he is quite opportunistic and even murderous when put in a desperate corner. In Woody Allen's Match Point, a movie that has sneakily inspired this drama, Jonathan Rhys Meyers's character is the Oberoi there, but he manages to get away in the end despite the murder and deceit. Can't say the same about Zain boy here, who gets his just desserts right before he was about to do the unthinkable.

Bobby Deol in Love Hostel

Anton Chigurh, the character played with enough malevolence by Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men, gets a desi cousin in Bobby Deol's Viraj Singh Dagar. Like Anton, Viraj is a deadly killer with an accurate precision to kill his targets silently and ruthlessly, even if the said target is of his own blood. He is vicious and he is racist, and what's better that unlike Anton, he doesn't survive the movie, even though by then many innocents, including the protagonists, are killed by then.

Tabu in Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2

Can Tabu ever be bad, even if the movie around her is? In 2022, Tabu appeared in not one, but two negative roles, and both were huge blockbusters. But let's take one here, and we pick Manjulika, the evil vamp in BB2, who learns black magic to win a man, kills her father, then gets her twin sister killed, takes over her identity and incapacitates her husband when he learns the truth. That's some evil, even if it is somewhat inspired! Year-Ender 2022 Recap: Ranveer Singh's Cirkus, Kartik Aaryan’s Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, Vijay Deverakonda’s Liger – 10 Bollywood Biggies That Left Us Utterly Disappointed!

Sanjay Dutt in Shamshera

Shamshera may not have lived upto expectations, but Sanjay Dutt definitely seems to be having fun chewing the scenery as the baddie Daroga Shuddh Singh. While it is definitely a cartoonish villain, Daroga Shuddh Singh is so evil and manipulative that even the British - the supposed big villains - seems meek before his Machiavellian schemes. Dutt also impressed with his Viking looks as the baddie in KGF 2, so all in all, the veteran star had a good year in 2022 as a villain.

Vijay Varma in Darlings

Easily one of the best performances of the year, and also one of the most terrifying, Vijay Varma was absolutely vile as Hamza Shaikh and that's a compliment. Hamza is abusive and sick and is a misogynistic prick, and every scene he appears in acts like something out of a horror film, as we are worried what he would do next to his loving wife. Thankfully, he gets his comeuppance in the end, and the world is a better place by then.

Mouni Roy in Brahmastra

I wish that she was given a better written role, and not being saddled by the end as a blindly devoted acolyte to a huge stone statue. But when everyone calls you the best actor in a film that has the likes of Amitabh Bachchan, Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Nagarjuna and Shah Rukh Khan, you know that you did something right. Year-Ender 2022 Recap: From Brahmastra's Astraverse to Lokesh Cinematic Universe, 10 Indian Cinematic Universes We Were Introduced to This Year!

Kumud Mishra in Jogi

You don't need to own nuclear weapons or vats of acid to become a super-villain; wielding enough power to allow mobs run wild and kill innocents is enough. Such a vicious creature is MLA Tejpal Arora, who in the film, is shown using the police force to target innocent Sikhs during the 1984 Sikh genocide in Delhi, and uses the opportunity to increase his clout in his political circle. With a chilling performance from Kumud Mishra, we have one of the most reviled characters in recent times.

Dulquer Salmaan in Chup: Revenge of the Artist

In this R Balki thriller, Dulquer Salmaan's Danny (real name - Sebastian Gomes) thinks he is doing a good deed and saving cinema, also doing vengeance for the late Guru Dutt, by killing critics who he thinks are fake. In reality, he is a mentally disturbed serial killer who is killing innocent people just for having views that don't align with his, and that also nearly included his girlfriend. Although the thriller merely passed muster, Dulquer was fabulous in the role making the film quite decent than it is.

Swastika Mukherjee in Qala

The antics of Swastika Mukherjee's Urmila Manjushree in this psychological drama not only resulted in the mental deterioration of her daughter, but also resulted in two suicides. In her claim to protect her daughter from a man's world, what she did what destroy Qala's self-respect and confidence, and made her murderously angry towards an innocent boy who only wanted to sing. Urmila could have been mentally disturbed, but that doesn't make it easy to see how she is ruining her daughter's life mentally, emotionally and psychologically.

Jaideep Ahlawat in An Action Hero

Put him in any role, and there is a big chance that this terrific actor might steal the show. In the incredibly thrilling An Action Hero, he plays a powerful politician named Bhoora Solanki, and you know from that name, he is definitely not someone to be messed with. Bhoora is someone who takes vengeance to his heart, even if that means he has to cross borders and go globe-trotting just to kill an actor who accidentally killed his brother, and he doesn't mind killing people who come his way.

Honourable Mention -

Akshaye Khanna in Drishyam 2

As someone who loved the original Drishyam 2, I still prefer what Murali Gopy did with his role of the shrewd senior cop hell-bent on trapping the hero for his past crimes. What was admirable about him is that he didn't want to break the rules while doing so - though right to privacy doesn't seem to fall under that - and his anguish at the end after being defeated felt relatable. The Hindi remake has Akshaye Khanna delve more into the grey area and looked the other way when the hero's family was beaten for answers. As a character, that didn't feel as an improvement, but Akshaye Khanna's dry performance did some wonders here.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 26, 2022 08:37 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).