Not every villain can tickle your funny bone

Salt ���N Pepper spelt resurrection for actor Baburaj. The film broke the jinx of his 18-year-old not-so-impressive run as a villain and set the floor rolling for a brand new innings ��� as a comedian. It clicked; today, he is no longer the goon or the criminal with bloodshot eyes. Buoyed by the success of the film and the confidence he earned from filmmakers who are willing to experiment with him in new avatars, Baburaj scripted a success story that many of his villain contemporaries took a lesson from.Though, not all villain-turned comedians have had an equally good run. TOI takes a look���
Sphadikam George: Trust him to essay the role of a cruel cop as convincing as can be (Sphadikam, Thandavam and Pathram are arguably the best among them). But Sphadikam George���s comic debut of sorts as the no-brains Police Superintendent in Jose Thomas��� recent flick was anything but impressive. For all of us who have over the years, seen him mouth dialogues packed with a punch before inviting the hero���s wrath and, of course, blows, witnessing his dumb act was a little too much to stomach.
Riyaz Khan: We���d rather see him as the regular villain in those triangular love stories or the muscle man brother who cows down his sister���s lover (Kochi Rajavu) than witness him experimenting with comedy as in the Dileep-starrer, The Speed Track.
Abu Salim: An ubiquitous presence in filmland goon circles with his straight-out-of-the-gym looks, Abu Salim is the last person you���d have imagined play a comic role. But he did, in the recent Dileep-starrer that has the hero playing a woman. However, the kidnapper Abu plays ��� pleading with the hero to spare him the blows as he is a heart patient ��� hardly went down well among the audience. Neither did the tears and sentimental dialogues intended for some laughs work in his favour.
Bheeman Raghu: He started out on the comic road much before Baburaj emerged a successful comedian, but Bheeman Raghu is best remembered for his roles with negative shades (Mrigaya and Vietnam Colony among them) than his comic stint in a handful of blink-and-miss films.