The Charm of Villainy

When I recount the favorite acting performances I loved over the years, I have some brilliant and dark villain characters up there in the top of my list.

I used to feel bad about this as the "moral good guy" inside me didn’t like this one little bit.

Then I stumbled upon the question as to Why does it happen to me?

May be their complexity, unpredictability, raw power, and intriguing nature hooked me... Infatuation!

Or May be, as in many superhero movies, they are more realistic than those near-perfect heroes, whom I found difficult to relate with.

May be I empathized with the past of my favorite villains.

They had a never say never attitude around themselves and their persistence despite the heavy odds, and a whole world against them got to me...!

Maybe I loved getting under their head and thinking patterns – only to be stumped by their unpredictability, their ingenious creativity in opening new fronts of possibilities every time when they were cornered.

They were always ahead of the thinking game… with me, the viewer!

Maybe they secretly make me face my own dark side (there comes my guilt ??)

Maybe the “Hero- self identification ” in my head got fascinated by the ways in which these despicable villains consistently pursue me on my shortfalls and weaknesses and push me hard to level -up for survival or winning.

These villains were doing one thing great throughout the movie.

They are always attacking the hero’s greatest weaknesses and making him transform. They are showing a mirror to the hero to have a tryst with his true identity. They are always pushing him with difficult choices!

In our Life as well, there will be situations like these Supervillains who will set out to torment or test us! They will put up against difficult life choices which help us understand ourselves better. We can transform or perish - the choice is ours.

We can be our own Heroes if we consider these supervillain situations as God given opportunities to level up the essential nature of our defining characters and transform ourselves to something bigger!!

As Victor Frankl famously said..

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response”

Let us all be our own Villains!!

-- Prince Ramanan