No good samaritan heroes

In a welcome change from hero being all ethical and virtuous, the Telugu film industry and audience started accepting protagonist with grey shades

Balakrishna, who more often than not plays larger than life characters, is seen in a new avatar in the trailer of his upcoming film, ‘Paisa Vasool’. Going by the trailer, it looks like actor is playing a character with grey shades, which of late has become a new trend in the industry.

The eight-decade-old Telugu film industry from its inception, has laid down norms of how a protagonist should be; all virtuous, good mannered, valour, benevolent and the list continues. Most of the films made, the character of the hero is a sum total of these traits or combination of some of these traits.

Experimenting with characterisation of protagonist is unheard of in the industry. It was Allu Arjun as his turn as Arya in Sukumar’s ‘Arya 2’, who broke all the existing norms in the industry. Arya character was a welcome change in Telugu cinema. It belongs to a select group of films, where the protagonist is not white, he is grey. Even though the movie failed to mint money at box office, it gave actors, directors and writers a new fodder, heroes with grey characters.

After ‘Arya 2’ there was a brief lull until NTR Jr’s ‘Temper’ in which he donned a role of a police officer with questionable morals. The movie nevertheless was a commercial and critical success with audience lapping up to the grey characters.

Similarly, Rana Daggubati's Jogendra in ‘Nene Raju Nene Mantri’ joins hands with Ashutosh Rana to assassinate Chief Minister but in the turn of events, he saves the Chief Minister from assassination attempt, throws Ashutosh Rana in jail and secures Cabinet berth.

Though Nithiin's recent release 'Lie' failed to deliver the goods at the box office, the character he plays is not white. He is NIA spy, who lies for a living and tweaks rules at his whim and fancy.

It cannot be dismissed altogether that the industry hasn't toyed with hero with grey shades earlier. There were attempts mostly feeble but box office and critical failure of such movies meant that the idea was shelved for the long time.

Eventhough the trend of grey hero has started; writers, directors and actors are not bold enough to make him out and out grey. There is always redemption in the third act or at pre-climax. In 'Nene Raju Nene Mantri', Rana changes his ways after Kajal his pillar of support questions him. In 'Temper' NTR Jr changes into an honest cop after he sees horrific video of a woman being subjected to abuse.

Summing up the trend, a source close to director Puri Jagannath says, “Even Balakrishna’s character has grey shades in ‘Paisa Vasool’, but everything will be redeemed with an interesting twist. Predictable roles have become redundant these days, forcing big stars to portray grey shades. Besides Puri dislikes films around self-piteous and righteous roles and likes to give his protagonists a touch of grey to keep audience guessing, what the character will do next, rather than being too apparent. No doubt, more and more stars will join the bandwagon,” he concludes.

Aditya Parankusam