Breaking the mould: The best of the anti-heroes on OTT platforms

Anti-heroes are the characters that don't fit in the traditional definition of the ideal heroes, but that does not take away how interesting their stories are. From time to time, we have come to love these grey characters, their good and not-so-good sides, and some questionable morals with rightly placed hearts.  From Jaideep Ahlawat’s Hathi Ram to Pratik Gandhi’s Harshad Mehta, the x-factor of their characters has kept the audience glued to their unexplainable charisma.

Hathi Ram Chaudhary from Paatal Lok

One of the insanely well-developed characters of recent times, Hathi Ram Chaudhary, brought alive by the ever-talented Jaideep Ahlawat is the very moral anchor of the story of ‘Paatal Lok’, where everybody is out for an agenda. Not that Chaudhary doesn’t, but his under-achiever soul will make you fall for him, despite his mistakes along the journey.

Sunny from Farzi

An artist so good at his art, that it takes him from a struggling hustler to the heights of money piles, literally. In Sunny’s earlier efforts and failures in the show, one can find themselves one way or the other. Then, Shahid Kapoor’s endearing way of playing a character that could have easily been a ‘bad guy’ in any other show, takes it home. For directors Raj and DK, this is not the first time building such characters, and the experience shows.

Srikant Tiwari from The Family Man

Sunny from Farzi was never possible without Srikant. Their stories take place in the same universe created by Raj and DK, and still, the stakes are on the global level here. In this world, Srikant is an everyday man, at least for the most part. When he’s not, he has his ways of helping the world out. Who better to play such a complex character with a tinge of humour, than the thespian powerhouse Manoj Bajpayee?

Sheel Chaudhary from Mai

The OTT worlds may be relatively new, but the smaller screens are not. Not far back, Sakshi Tanwar was playing the roles of predefined ideal ‘Indian women’ on TV, rooted in traditions and bound by the scripts that preached righteousness. Therefore, when ‘Mai’ hit, the transition of the mother turning merciless hit even harder. You can always imagine Tanwar playing a mother, and yet you will always be surprised to see her avenging the murder of her child.

Aarya Sareen from Aarya

Grey characters do stay between black and white by their very definition, and that’s what makes them interesting. However, with Aarya, the story started from white and the transition to grey took place right in front of the eyes of the audience. Actor Sushmita Sen, after years in the industry, found a role meaty enough for her calibre, and then there was no one stopping Sareen on the screen and Sen off the screen.

Harshad Mehta from Scam 1992

It’s an incredible feat of the show’s team to make a scammer magnetic, without glorifying his wrongdoings or his downfall. Harshad Mehta, with his clever words, reasoned every questionable action of his, and the audience was ready to eat it up. Pratik Gandhi, with his never-skipping-a-beat performance, stepped up the ladder of the entertainment industry, levelling up to the Hindi industry from the Gujarati one.

Right or wrong, the stories they have told have made lasting impressions on the minds and hearts of the audience, and no one can have enough of these morally complex characters.