All the three postmen I know have never talked to me as much as they have talked to me during the last five days. And all they have talked to me is about that monster of a man they have seen in Tanuja Chandra’s Dushman. They don’t know his name. They only know him as the man who can put both the devil and the monster to shame. Said the senior postman, “I have seen many bad men in many bad films. I have seen Pran and Kanhaiyalal and Shakti Kapoor and Gabbar Singh. I have seen all of them bringing out the shaitaans in a human being but this postman, this actor, this new young actor, whose name I am sorry I don’t know, is the most sinister of them all. He is a rapist, a killer, a man who doesn’t have a conscience, a man who doesn’t know what it is to be human. I tell you that man really made me want to stand up and strangle him to death. I know many other young men and women in the audience watching him in Dushman would love to do the same thing.” Said the other postman, “I have been seeing Hindi films regularly. I normally don’t respond to what the characters do because I know they are playing a role. But this postman is the limit. He crosses all limits of evil. He is so real, so scary, so detestable. I have never reacted to a character the way I have to this man. I could have killed him at the risk of my life and put my family’s life at stake. No society can be safe with sinister men like him prowling all over, thirsty for blood, hungry for flesh.” The third postman was worried. “I hope people don’t look at postmen as someone even close to that devilish man. That actor, I think his name is some Rana, has certainly done a great deal of harm to our image.”

My three postmen are not the only three men who have reacted so violently to the performance of Ashutosh Rana in Dushman, the new all evil man who is certainly going to give all the bad men around a good run for their money. Ashutosh has been hated, people have been baying for his blood helplessly, and these helpless people come from all classes. And surprisingly the people who are scared of him the most are young-college going youth who find him so repulsive that the only instinct he arouses in them is revenge; revenge of the most brutal kind, the only kind of punishment that can do justice to a man who has ceased to be human.

Talking about sheer talent Ashutosh Rana (Dushman) and Manoj Vajpai (Satya) are two of the most talked about actors today. They have breathed life into characters which are more psychic, more mean in the mind, more monstrous in the mind than all the mighty villains we have watched all over the place, villains who slowly but sadly are being reduced to mere cut-outs and robots and comic-book caricatures.

Like Manoj (whom I have already talked about) Ashutosh is also from the National School of Drama (sometimes I wonder what some of our better made films would do without these actors and actresses who have had the privilege of learning what good or great acting is all about). Ashutosh was living in Madhya Pradesh but was always interested in moving out, moving up. He proved he was a good actor when he was four. He proved he was a better actor when he was twenty-four, and now he is aiming to be the best all over the country when he is touching thirty. This one role in Dushman has made Ashutosh Rana a name to reckon with. Today, even the cast of Dushman reads Sanjay Dutt, Kajol and Ashutosh Rana (in capital letters). It proves without doubt that Ashutosh has arrived and is welcome. Says Ashutosh over a bowl of mango slices with ice-cream in the coffee shop of a five-star hotel (where both Ashutosh and I look like misfits because of our looks and eyes. The waiter even gives me a dirty look and wonders whether we will pay up. Ashutosh glares at him and the waiter from another planet melts faster than the icecrean in our bowls): “I am naturally very thrilled with the kind of reaction I have been receiving. It all started when director Tanuja Chandra who was directing her first film announced that she was casting me as the main villain in Dushman with time-tested actors like Sanjay Dutt and Kajol. It was a calculated risk she was taking but she said she was sure she wanted me and no one else to play that menacing role after watching me play the goonda in Swabhimaan, the TV serial. It was a heaven sent opportunity. It was also a very difficult role with various shades. I could give it up in fright but I didn’t want to be a wimp. I took it up as a challenge and put my whole being in it for days. My first reward came when Mahesh Bhatt sahab went to town praising my performance. He said no one could stop me now. He said I was sure to reach the top as an actor. I thought he was talking to me in a dream. He wasn’t. It was his gut reaction to my role, something which really gave the actor in me a kick which led me to a place I couldn’t easily recognise. I am also very thankful to my young producer, Pooja Bhatt, who would have got any other actor to play this role but saw to it that I was the only one. And what can I say about my co-artistes like Sanjay Dutt and Kajol? They gave me all the encouragement and all the scope to get better with every scene, every take. I must specially thank Kajol who inspired me to play it rough with her without caring for who she was or what her standing as a star was. They not only co-operated with me but embraced me and encouraged me all the more after every shot I did. I never could dream of an experience like this. I am lucky it has happened to me. I will be very very unlucky if I don’t make the best of it now,” Ashutosh says.

The bad man, the angry man, the violent man comes to Ashutosh naturally because all the great memories he has are of a young Ashutosh going around going wild, going at people with fists of fire and fury. He now hopes to experiment with himself as an actor. He is aware of the various shades that villainy can take. He has seen all the big bad men in Hindi films at their best (worst). He wants to prove that he can go a few steps further, he has a mind and a body to make that happen. He is already playing the devil in films like Sangharsh and Janwar and Pranlal Mehta’s next. He knows he can do his best as the bad man. He also knows that he can be the best as a good man if he wants. He is the kind of man who wants to use his life, his talent to keep aiming higher. He will do anything to make Ashutosh Rana, the actor proud, proud positively. He wants to be known as a good man, and a good actor. It’s difficult, but koshish karne mein kya harz hai? And he has rarely lost a challenge. All I can say at this stage is watch this man. He will force you to even if I don’t ask you to.