Dhurandhar afterthought: Why isn't there a great villain's role for Arjun Rampal?

As Major Iqbal in Dhurandhar, Arjun Rampal aces the villain's act again, after Raajneeti and Om Shanti Om. Yet, Bollywood is still to create a memorable antagonist for the actor.

Interesting, how Aditya Dhar has under-utilised Arjun Rampal's portrayal of a villain in the Dhurandhar franchise so far. Among the antagonists stacked up in the blockbuster first film, Rampal's Pakistani ISI boss, Major Iqbal, comes across as the one with minimal footage. Yet Dhar has already maximised the character’s impact in a way.

At a glance, the trumpcard villain of Dhurandhar is Akshaye Khanna as Rehman Dakait, playing the essential Bollywood prototype with vim and authorbacked punchlines, even an entry dance set to FA9LA, the chartbuster that’s now set a Guinness World Record. But Rampal's essence lay elsewhere. Writer-director Dhar cleverly used the antagonist Iqbal to set the mood for the film before release – in the trailer.

If the first scene of a film's trailer provides the big bang impact and defines what's coming up, Rampal's Iqbal had the first stab at brutalising audience senses. In that opening scene of the trailer, he coldly spewed lines about Pakistan's post-1971 depression and the vow to "Bleed India with a Thousand Cuts", even as he lazily took a drag at his cigar and then went on to unleash gruesome torture upon a captured Indian spy with fishhooks and chains.

Dhar had given away Rampal's standout scene of villainy from Dhurandhar part 1 in its entirety, even before the release of the film.

Remarkably enough, however, long after watching the trailer and the film, as we gear up for Dhurandhar: The Revenge, the sinister calm about Major Iqbal continues to scream in mind. Fans have spotted an exciting villain in Major Iqbal, and a large part of the success of Dhurandhar 2 could depend on how smartly the script pits Iqbal against Ranveer Singh’s protagonist Hamza Ali Mazari, whose backstory as Jaskirat Singh Rangi will be revealed in the sequel.

Here's the official trailer of Dhurandhar: