Seamy, dark, dank dens, backlit walls and ugly, bandana clad mafia warlords. Lingo is Bambaiya, more akin to Gujarati and Marathi (except in the case of the famous Nayagan, where it was Bambaiya Tamil), booby traps and cunning manipulations that talk of life and death. All this and more has caught the attention of the cinegoer today. Producers and directors have suddenly realized that we have overdone the corrupt politician bit and now it is time for the really really bad men, meaning men who are professional baddies. The hero is no longer the Mr. Clean, he may well be in cahoots with mafia dons - no grays here, it's all black. Come to think of it, these men have an excuse for being evil - it is their bread and butter.

The underworld, mostly Mumbai, as shown in our cinema today, is an epic of manipulations, gore and blood, and finally unlimited power. One wonders if the underworld projected in Satya, Company and now Road seem more attractive than the world we live in? The only negative is the sure and horrible death that awaits each member - the underworld is ruthless, heartless, and unforgiving. You miss one, you die. But what if you plan well, calculate your moves and then take all the right steps? Then you succeed and reach the top. Well, then how is the career as an underworld don different from one in Dalal Street? It's a cutthroat world in the latter too… with as many pitfalls awaiting a failure… so why not Do a Dawood?

As for their women, in the first, hesitant steps of mafia heroes, the 'kudi' still used to be shocked by the blood splatters. Remember Urmila Matondkar's shocked eyes in Satya? But the latest Nikal le bhaiya… samhal le bhaiya is a pleasure to watch. And Antara Mali in Road outdoes the most advanced women of crime. One weeps for ladies of loose character and the courtesans of the yore, those who consorted with the dacoits and loved them sincerely, often dying in their endeavor. Getting cozy dens to cavort with the rich underworld warlords seems like a very lucrative proposition for an attractive and unemployed girl today… but she has to have loads of oomph to carry off the fat dada on her little finger.

Crime is no longer shocking; it is here to stay, so our cinema (that aptly reflects the society) might as well accept it as a genre too. After all, as long as it keeps the cash registers ringing, crime pays…
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