Ever wondered if the big bad beefy villains had a back story? Did their mothers drop them when they were babies and their brains get damaged? Or were they teased mercilessly as kids for looking weird and hence they became villains? Or were they simply born to be evil?

But a good villain is a thing of pure joy. We love Gabbar and Mogambo simply because their evil plans were just so awesome in the true sense of the word. Gabbar was evil because he did not know anything else (he has no back story like the dacoits in Reshma Aur Shera) he just liked being the guy who could instill fear in little kids. Remember the dialog: Warna Gabbar aa jayega!

Mogambo was pure genius. He was know-it-all. He played to the gallery. He punished the erring minions in acid baths, captured the hapless villagers, planted mines so they could not escape, and when he was happy, he said, simply, ‘Mogambo khush hua!’

What kind of villain appeals to you?

DESTROY EVERYTHING!

Transformers, X-Men, Aliens, Predators, Mars Attacks, Independence Day, and other movies of the ilk have strange villains who render large portions of third world useless by laser-like beams of destruction (so the hero can save the rest of the civilized world!). Machines in The Matrix just hate human beings and the mutant Godzilla (or giant squids, anacondas and sharks) destroy humans because the species gets in their way.

But if the alien species arrive from outer space are looking to colonise new worlds and the movies instill humongous fear in everyone. War Of The Worlds is a brilliant example. But fun part is, that the end is rather tame. It does not need Arnold Schwarzenegger to kill these Predators, but a simple case of the bird flu destroys them...

KNEEL BEFORE ZOD

This villainous command was given to the President of United States in Superman II and you’ll discover that many supervillains, Mogambo included, suffered the God Complex. Mythological movies like Bhakt Prahlad were happy to create villains like the king who wanted to be called God. In the movies you watched in the 70s and the 80s, villains made the hapless villagers bow and scrape before them and used the ‘hunter’ (Pran and his whip were never separated). Prem Chopra, Jeevan, Ranjeet, Amrish Puri have all played the part of lesser and greater gods, unleashing terror and cruelty from their position of power.

Freddy Krueger holds up his scary claw and calls it God too!

UNABASHED EVIL

Some guys make Gabbar Singh look like Santa Claus. They are pure evil. Joker as played by Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight wants to be bad simply because he can and he doesn’t care. Hans Gruber in Die Hard is by far the cruellest villain ever. He has no compunction in killing the hostages, he doesn’t care if his henchmen live or die as long as his aim is fulfilled. We want to clap when he gets thrown off the building!

Emperor Palpitane in Star Wars and the power he wields over Darth Vader make them both totally evil villains. You cannot miss the calmness in both their demeanours as they take on the Jedi knights. Darth Vader actually uses information like, ‘I am your father’ while wanting to kill Luke.

Sukhilala in Mother India can be awarded the creepiest villain ever award when it comes to Bollywood. He not only coveted the land, but also the woman and hated the kids. Amrish Puri in Koyla does a pretty decent job of being hateful and mean to both Shah Rukh and Madhuri.

The voodoo guy in Jame Bond’s Live and Let Die still makes you look around and check for the undead more than the demon in Paranormal Activity. But Mister Blonde from Reservoir Dogs takes creepiness to a different level altogether. He is a remorseless villain, matched only by Detective Scagnetti from Natural Born Killers, or even Dennis Hopper’s Frank Booth from Blue Velvet.

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