We are so often used to reading stories and watching movies from the hero’s perspective that we sometimes fail to realise how important the villain is to any decent plot.Villains have unfortunately been stereotyped over the years and have been merely reduced to serve the interests of the superhero.But thankfully he has not been made as monotonous as the hero has managed to devolve into.I have always found these anti-heroes interesting and I am pretty sure most people do. The human nature has always had a surreptitious liking for the dark,the gory and the rebel.Here is a list of the villains I have admired almost always more than the hero himself.
Ravana from the Ramayana:He was learned,well versed in all the shastras,the vedas and is said to have mastered the sixty four arts.He was a brilliant administrator,a brave warrior,a highly disciplined man,a good king and the most powerful man in the three worlds.The epic brilliantly fleshes out his character.Rama struggles to win him and recognises him as a formidable opponent.The only major blemish of Ravana is the abduction of Sita.The aaditya hridayam speaks of Rama seeking the Sun God’s help to win Ravana.Rama has to do penance ,train hard and seek the help of the monkey hordes to defeat him.Sri Lanka under Ravana was said to be better than the Indraloka.He conquers the nine planets and ties Indra up and drags him in the streets of Lanka.contrary to common perception he does not disrupt all the sages.He merely targets Vishvamitra whom he recognises as a kshatriya and not a brahmin,an arrogance stemming from the fact that by birth Ravan was a Brahmin .
Shylock,Merchant of Venice:In many ways one can sympathise with this Jew who was austracised by the society at large.His speech that deals with the emotions of a jew reiterating that they too are humans is one of the most brilliant of Shakespeare.One cannot help but be moved when he asks”Do we not die when you poison us?”Shylock’s argument that he lends money at high interests because he is not allowed by the prejudiced Christian community to do anything else has always seemed more coherent than Antonio’s Christian and Biblical values.I have always believed that Shylock is the hero of Merchant of Venice.
Duryodhana,The Mahabharath:he was again the astute administrator and a better king than Yudhishtira,in some ways.Bhasa’a play Urubhangam and the showering of heavenly flowers when duryodhana dies after the mace battle are a testimony to his greatness.
Nathuram Ghodse:he was not a hindu lunatic or a deranged fanatic as people thought.He had a family to care for and he shot point blank after unsuccessfully trying from a distance.His views for a Hindu state was not unsupported .Anyone who has read the shastras will agree that some of the Gandhian principles are contradictory to the fundamental vedantic phiosophy.If you like ghodse watch Kamal’s Hey Ram or read ‘Yes, My Majesty.’It is believed that his argument in the trial was so convincing that Nehru was forced to order a blackout.
Indira Gandhi:foolish stubbornness.Her nationalist policies and authoritative rule ravaged India.Yet she is the only man that ever sat on the Prime Minister’s chair.Her handling of the 1975 war and her unflinching support for the Soviet under extreme American pressure are worth admiring.
