How does one depict a heroic villain? One particular case study highlights the balancing act needed to effectively tell such a story without alienating part of the audience in the process. Temper was a 2015 Telugu language film directed by Puri Jagannadh and starring Jr. NTR. The film is about a dirty cop, Daya, who comes face to face with the fruits of his evil deeds and becomes the cop he was meant to be. Although it suffers from a shaky first half, the second half of the film quickly pays off in multiple ways, and the film is a decent watch. This type of story is not unknown to Indian cinema in general; in fact, the beginning of the film is self reflexive: Daya is shown to have been inspired by cop movies starring Jr. NTR's relatives, notably his uncle Nandamuri Balakrishna and his famous grandfather N.T. Rama Rao*. Ironically, it shows that such flamboyant depictions of policemen in media aren't ideal role models or rooted to reality.
The 2018 remake of Temper, Simmba, takes this self reflection and takes it into completely over the top territory. It's kind of fitting, considering that Rohit Shetty, Bollywood's king of over the top schlock, directed the film. He directed Singham, the film that singlehandedly introduced me to Indian cinema. The first half of this remake is more comedic and more musical, and Ranveer Singh approaches the corrupt cop character in a different, almost flamboyantly wacky way. But Simmba's treatment of the villainous hero ultimately reveals a major problem with Rohit Shetty's cop characters and his views on justice.
To defeat the villains in 2018's Simmba, the main characters of the film commit what is called an encounter killing. We in the Philippines would call this an extrajudicial killing, which carries with it a lot of negative cultural connotations. Admittedly I don't know how Indians view encounter killings, but this translated negatively to me. It completely took me out of the film and I enjoyed it far less than its predecessors.
To be fair, having cops take the law into their own hands isn't a new thing, especially with this director. Rohit Shetty has done this before with both Singham and the sequel Singham Returns, but it's never been as blatantly portrayed as it has been here. The film creates several contrivances to try to justify the notion that our protagonists had no choice, and that this was the only way for them to attain justice. The film also adds an additional layer, adding social commentary on violence against women on top of what already exists. The reasons for dispensing justice, given the manner by which it is dispensed, come off here as a bit flimsy. Puri Jagannadh's original version, on the other hand, offers a saving throw to our protagonists that conveniently take them out of this predicament. The protagonists of Temper still do some pretty shady, ethically iffy things, but they still function within the logic and moral standards established by the film (shaky as they are).
And that is why while Temper has a weaker first half, it is ultimately the better film in my view. The remake takes one step too far and crosses the line into dangerous populist sentiment. Perhaps, one could argue, a film like Simmba is escapist fantasy, and the questionable acts committed by its protagonists only work within that universe. Of course, in a clearly black-and-white world where evil must be vanquished and the good guys are truly good, perhaps these methods would be tolerable. But in the real world, one cannot match evil with evil. And given what is happening today, the shenanigans of Simmba and company hit a little too close to home.
*perhaps fortituously, one of N.T. Rama Rao's first movie roles was that of a police officer.
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