The Irresistible Bad Guys

Shri Durga, a ballet on the triumph of good over evil, has long been a mainstay of the annual festival of Delhi's Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra. It's a high octane production, with colourful sets, dramatic stage lighting, music and dance. But the highpoint of the production is Mahishasura – the demon king who is killed by goddess Durga.

Dressed in black, with dramatic make up and ornaments, the dancer enacting Mahishasura holds the audience's attention with his vaulting leaps and cartwheels – a combination of Hatha Yoga and Mayurbhanj Chhau, the semi-classical traditional dance form from Orissa.

"It is undoubtedly more challenging to play the demon," says Swapan Mojumdar, 37, who has been enacting Mahishasura since 2003, including inside Rashtrapati Bhawan once, and has also essayed other mythological villains such as Daksha (Parvati's father, who forbade her marriage with Shiva). "The audience's sympathy is already with the positive characters, but the actor playing the villain has to go the extra mile to gain their sympathy and be appreciated. He must not only develop the character but also project the evil aspects powerfully," adds Mojumdar.

"In the characterisation of the protagonist, one's creativity is limited by existing perceptions. But when it comes to negative characters, one can experiment," adds Shobha Deepak Singh, producer and director of Shri Durga.

Negative characters attract us more, says Vibhanshu Vaibhav, a Hindi playwright who has written several mythological plays such as Panchali, Manthan and Maharathi. Says Vaibhav, "Audiences are curious to know what made them evil. In fact, until a villain has been fleshed out, the hero cannot be conceptualised."

As evident in mythology, Ravana is strong, intelligent and a devotee of Shiva. Atul Satya Koushik's Raavan ki Ramayan, in which Puneet Issar (the actor who famously played Duryodhana in the TV serial Mahabharat), concentrates on just this aspect of Ravana. "Rama is a simple man. Ravana, on the other hand, is flamboyant. So much about him was good – he was a skilled warrior, very strong, could fly the pushpak, manoeuvre the nakshatras, etc. I could explore why such an interesting character suffered a moral fall," says Koushik.

Chennai-based Bharatnatyam dancer Pournaa Sridhar feels that more and more artistes are exploring negative characters these days. "When a dancer performs a positive character, she has to portray the various shades of happiness. But when she is performing a negative character, it allows her to show them in a sympathetic light and inspire sadness at his villainy. It is a challenge because the performance must not be seen to glorify the villain," says Sridhar who has played Ravana in ballet based on the Ramayana.