When bad is good

Remember that tobacco chewing, spitfire, cruel Gabbar of the Sholay days. Gabbar and his likes epitomised everything that our parents had warned us against. Enter the suave bad guy of the metrosexual era.
Holding the upper hand in almost the whole of the film until they are finally undone, these men get even more mileage than the good guy.
The glossier, slicker Dhoom 2 was all about a sizzling barechested Hrithik Roshan.While bad guy Hrithik is everything that guys aspire to be and girls dream of ��� handsome, hot, great dancer, smooth talker. His adversary Abhishek is a boring dude sporting Hawaiian shirts, bead bracelets and white shoes.
And guess what, these bad guys also end up getting the girl. How would you explain Catherine���s love for Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. The story���s no different in real life. Take Monica Bedi���s love for Abu Salem. Stories of suave criminals of the likes of Charles Sobhraj provide enough stimulus for the public and our ever inspirational film-makers even get inspired to replicate this in celluloid as is evident from movies like Gangster, Shootout at Lokhandwala etc.
Anurag Basu, the director of Gangster, says, ���Evil has a charm of its own, people are attracted towards evil. Why else would the crime shows of news channels garner the highest TRPs? In Gangster I chose to tell the story of a bad guy but I did provide some justiciation to let the audience into the mind of the villain and let them know that he was not out and out evil and had some shades of gray in his character. But like evil has its pitfitalls, my protagonist too meets his end.���
So, why do we try to look for innate goodness in souls twisted with perversion and sometimes end up wishing that they are not caught by the good guys? Are we seduced by evil or is it that we find our own innate darkness reflected in their deeds?
In movies like Spider Man 3, Super Man and even Batman it���s the bad guy who mkes the plot more interesting.
Think Star Wars. Who comes to mind? Not squeaky clean Luke Skywalker, but Darth Vader. So what if the brilliant, suave, cultured and witty Hannibal Lecter is a cannibal? He still steals the show.
Shobhaa De explains, ���We have a fascination for good looking criminals ��� that���s it. Dangerous lives are more intriguing than ordinary, mundane ones. Good girls get frequently attracted to bad boys. A classic case of opposites attracting?���
These men may be super creepy, lying, wife-killing, runaway scoundrels but their toned bodies, deep eyes, strong jaw line,
great lips, luscious hair and gift of the gab make it impossible for us to not talk about them.
Women like men with a bad boy image. They like men who are always on the edge, who take risks and who are unpredictable. If only physical beauty took the soul into account!