Krack, Master’s success, a reminder of this fact!

A hero is only as good as his villain, reads a dialogue from a popular superhero film and it’s a statement that holds true for the film industry too. Most filmmakers conveniently glorify the hero to great heights and reduce the villain to a series of punch dialogues and comical relief. However, the success of films like Krack and Master have proved how important it is to have a strong villain in a commercial film.

Krack, that starred Ravi Teja, Shruti Haasan in the lead roles, had not one but three villains Chirag Jani, Ravi Shankar and Samuthirakani. No prizes for guessing that it’s Samuthirakani who impressed the most as Katari Krishna, a notorious goon from Ongole. Director Gopichand Malineni established the character with impressive conviction and gave him a strong backstory to complement his actions. He’s always one step ahead of the hero, which added enough tension and thrill to the cop-drama.

Meanwhile, Master, featuring Vijay, Vijay Sethupathi and Malavika Mohanan, that turned out to be a profitable venture in Telugu and a blockbuster in Tamil, is an equally credible example of the above-mentioned fact. The film starts from the flashback portions of the villain in the juvenile prison and offers us a solid reason as to why he’s so cruel and evil in the early years of his life. For a major part of the film, you root for Vijay Sethupathi’s character more than Vijay’s and that’s why the mind games, verbal duels between the two actors are so fascinating to watch!

Of course, credit needs to be given to the lead actors in both the films, Ravi Teja and Vijay for being secure enough to star in a script where the villain’s character is as strong as the hero (if not more). Vijay Sethupathi’s next Telugu film is Uppena, where his character is said to be as evil as Rao Gopal Rao in the Bapu-Ramana classic Muthyala Muggu. Well, one can’t wait to see what the actor has to offer there!