There's a distinct market for bad boys. They make for easy stardom, be it in politics or movies, sports or TV shows. They have quick recall, a sly charm of their own, and (funnily) the more you chastise them in public, the more popular they tend to become. You can call it the Sobhraj syndrome if you want but there are actually much better examples nearer home. Of stars who do all things wrong, from possessing illegal assault rifles to beating up their girlfriends to killing black bucks to partying with the Mob. Yet, apart from brief spells, they have managed to stay out of jail and grow their mystique. It is this that earns them crores in acting fees and sponsorships and makes them iconic role models for a generation that's in constant search of Gomorrah.
But they are nothing compared to what the bad boys of politics do. The bad boys of politics murder, rape, plunder, loot, extort, lynch, torch and terrorise and yet, despite all that, manage to win elections—sometimes from even behind bars. How do they do that? Simple. The bad boy network is far stronger than the old boy network. It works like magic in a political environment where thieves and criminals flourish and decent people stick out like a sore, septic thumb. The bigger the thug you are, the more your appeal, the more you can terrorise the public into voting for you or at least paying for your Lamborghini lifestyle.
What is it about these bad boys that draw them votes, women, money, sponsorship and instant fame? Frankly, it's not easy to identify this particular DNA. One thing, however, is clear. In today's times, good is often seen as boring and Mother Teresa, may her soul rest in peace, is not exactly a popular role model any more. Xaviera Hollander, better known as the Happy Hooker, sold more copies of her autobiography than Malcolm Muggeridge's brilliant biography of Kolkata's Saint of the Streets. In fact, the Marxists who talk so much about the poor have spent almost three decades trying to chuck out the legendary Jack Preger, an amazing British doctor who came to Kolkata in 1980 and fell so much in love with its slum dwellers that he stayed back to look after them, treat them free. He has had to do that in intermittent spells because he keeps getting thrown out by the immigration guys, put behind bars, harassed by the law enforcers and saffronites simply because no one likes a good guy.
On the other hand, look at Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur. Her alleged role in the Malegaon terror blasts has made her an iconic star in the Hindutva firmament. So is Lt Col Srikant Prasad Purohit, the army officer accused of being a terrorist and his associate Dayanand Pandey alias Sudhakar Dwivedi alias Swami Amritanand Dev Teerth Maharaj, yet another scary new face of terrorism. The net is buzzing with their admirers. Afzal Guru also has his fans who don't want him to hang though the courts believe the evidence against him is pretty much clinching. Safdar Nagori of SIMI has his own fan following. So much for our national consensus against terrorism. Almost every alleged terrorist has his or her own fan club on Orkut. Some are flag bearers of militant Islam. Others, of angry vengeful Hindutva. Meanwhile, the guy who killed Graham Staines and burnt his kids alive, Dara Singh is strutting around a free man in Orissa. No wonder the goons there are merrily going around killing Christian tribals, burning their homes and torching their churches because they have figured out that the bigger and more ghastly the crime, the less likely it is to be punished in today's India.
In fact, the industry of bad is so big today that the villain of a movie is invariably much bigger than the hero. Remember Dark Knight, the recent Batman flick that bust all box office records? Most people do not even recall Christian Bale as Batman. But everyone remembers Heath Ledger as the iconic villain, the Joker. It was the Joker who gave Dark Knight the biggest opening in Hollywood history. The Bond movies have always celebrated their villains, from Scaramanga to Auric Goldfinger, Dr No to Le Chiffre to Mr Big to Blofeld. Each one was more exciting than the other. So were the not so nice girls. From Pussy Galore to Vesper Lynd, Tiffany Case to Honeychile Rider, each one so memorable that you could build an entire franchise around her. Remember Poison Ivy, supervillainess, enemy of Batman? Bad is so good on the screen that people are forgetting even the superheroes.
Will good ever regain its old appeal? Not likely. The bad boys are conquering every space and taking the Emporia of Bad to new heights of popularity. It won't be easy to bring them down from there. No, not in a long time.
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