Mindless rant ahead. Please feel free to skip and get some fresh air.
Was watching some random Tamil movie on cable that set me thinking on who were my favorite villain actors in Tamil cinema. I liked most of them including Ashokan, Nambiar, Radharavi et’al except for the pallakku pandi types but there were clearly favorites.
Raghuvaran and Nasser were on the list. But somehow my all-time favorite is Salim Ghouse more than anyone. Wierd, right ? That’s right, the villain in Thiruda Thiruda. He was also the baddie in Vetri Vizha. And right after him is Cochin Haneefa. Though Haneefa is now performing better as second villain or sidekick, he has enough movies behind him to prove that he could be the best. Haneefa got my blood boiling in Mahanadhi and his comical villainship is praise-worthy.
Next comes Kota Srinivasa Rao. Kota can be considered as the Morgan Freeman of Indian cinema. Puritans might have issues with that classification but I think Kota comes close to Morgan Freeman. And Morgan Freeman is my most favorite of Hollywood for the last decade or so.
How did I forget Sathyaraj and more importantly, Rajinikanth ? Rajini had some golden moments as the baddie. He performed better as a villain against Kamal. And I couldn’t recollect Kamal being a villain in any movie, recently except Kalaignan which was tremendously boring. BTW, I was in cuddalore when Kalaignan released and watched it thrice in three continous days. Those were some crazy days 🙂
kirukkal.com 
18 responses to “Who is the best baddie ?”
Along with Rajini and Sathyaraj…
Few came to my mind: Nambiar, who could give a equal fight for Biggies like MGR and Sivaji
Radaravi, for his role in Amaran
Nasar as “Beeda Seit”
Ajith in Vaali, better than Goodie Ajith role
Pasupathy in Virumaandi
Recently, Jayaram in Saroja
Waiting for Karthik and Vikram in Negative Shades
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@ And I couldn’t recollect Kamal being a villain in any movie, recently except Kalaignan which was tremendously boring.
he wasn’t actually a baddie….the viewer was made to believe that only to later find that his manger was the “real baddie”
In between kamal did play a baddie i dont remember the name…it was in his early days were he plays the role of an land lord or jamindar kind and he rapes a girl…:)
Can someone help me out wth. the name of the movie??
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hmm! interesting topic.
how could you leave out Anandraj & Ponnambalam (not counting his comic role in MMKR).
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I thought Sigappu Rojakkal was a pretty good villainous effort by Kamal, Michael (MMKR) wasn’t bad, Aalavandhaan was pretty bad, and Fletcher (Dasavatharam) was a bit of a disaster. I think he’d do really well in a subtly scary role sort of like Cary Grant in Suspicion. Kalaignan tried to do it, but was too unsibtly. I wish Unnaipol Oruvan does a good job.
Among my favourite recent heroes in villainous roles are: Prithivraj (Kana Kanden), Prasanna (Anjadhe), Ajith (Vaali), Surya (Nandha: not quite villainous, but his blue eyes were scary). Nithin Sathya (Satham Podadhe) almost makes the list.
And among the non-heroes: Jeeva (Kakka Kakka) and Pasupathi (Virumandi, Mumbai Express).
Weirdly enough, there’s one heroine who’d be on that list: Jyothika in Pachaikkili Muthucharam, and Jyothika in Chandramukhi. Ramya Krishnan was good in Padaiyappa, but not quite there.
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villians shine only in their debut /fresh/unknown/scary- Pasupathy in Virumadi, Haneefa in Mahanadhi, recently Mottai Thandavan in Naan Kadavul, Ashish Vidharthi – then they start masala movies: doing visk-visk , walking in slo-mo and ‘challenging’ vijay/ajit types…
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Who is the Zinda guy in Vetri Vizha? He was pretty good too…
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I think the best performance of Kota as villain was in Ram Gopal Varma’s Sarkar (Part-1). He plays a Tamil don in Mumnbai..man what a rocking performance that was!!chance-e illa!
His another notable performance as a villain in a Telugu film called Gaayam written by Mani Ratnam for Ram Gopal Varma. Radha Ravi dubbed his voice hin Tamil (Desam).
Prakash Raj in Aasai
Raghuvaran in Puriyatha Puthir
Rajini in Moondru Muduchu
Ajith in Samrat Ashoka??? What did u think?
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Spot on…Salim Ghouse is one of the best but tamil film industry didnt use him much…aprat from vetri vizha in “chinna kounder” also he did very well..Amazing voice…
and some more my favorites are “Senthamarai..with typical vat69 bottle and challenging rajini in moondru mugam was too good….
and one more is malyalam actor Thilagan…no one can forget the his role in the film chatriyan….”panneer selvam…nee varanum marupaidyum palya panner selvama varanum…”..Ultimate…
not but not the least RP Visvam…In the film “Elai jathi….jayapradha solra dialogue..”nan elaigalukaga padu pada poren…”…legendry reply from visvam…nee appurama padupadu…ipa en koooda padu..”
some othe other favorites..agni natchram villan,nayagan Inspector..recently pollathavn Selvam character…
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anand, Thanks for reminding Aalavandan and fletcher. I completely lost track of those. I thought parts of aalavandan was a good. pasupathi was also a good pic. nitin sathya’s role didnt appeal too much to me 🙂
//Who is the Zinda guy in Vetri Vizha? He was pretty good too…//
gradwolf, that was salim ghouse as mentioned in the post.
//Ajith in Samrat Ashoka?//
praveen, was it good. missed the movie.
Ram, Senthamarai was fantastic in mundroo mugam. thilagan is also a good one. completely forgot him. Thanks
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Villains who didn’t ham yet looked menacing!
1. Madhavan – AE
2. Kamal – Indiran Chandiran
3. Nagesh – Aboorva Sagotharakal
That Zinda guy in VetriVizha was top notch! He did not ham so our makkal patronized Raghuvaran and Prakashraj!
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Cuddalore Krishnalaya la Kalaignan was released. I watched FDFS there.
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Kamal played a kick-ass villain in Dasavatharam (even with the funny make-up)And also in Aalavandhaan..
Daniel Balaji in VV, Jeeva in Kaakha Kaakha
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//In between kamal did play a baddie i dont remember the name…it was in his early days were he plays the role of an land lord or jamindar kind and he rapes a girl…:)//
GumAsthAvin magaL
In another B/W film he plays a villanous charmer of girls. paruva-kaalam I think.
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Kamal played a villan in KB’s ooold movie, sollathan ninaikiren. the last scene of the movie show him to be a changed man, but he’s the baddie of the movie the heroine wants to transform. he was pretty good in it.
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jothika in pachaikili mutucharam
simran in paarthen rasithen
daniel balaji in vetaiyadu vilayadu
ajith in vaali
nithin satya in satham podathe
of course KAMALji in sigappu rojakkal
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i never knew salim ghouse had such a strong patronage… wow i am not alone!
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Senthamarai in Moondru Mugam and Malayoor Mambattiyan
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one more villian is karigalan, who acted is this movie called “solaiyamma”, where he rapes this brother’s wife in first night,natural rape, good one!
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