There are men. and men. and men. I can go as far as to say, that each man is a unique specimen, replete with his own set of idiosyncrasies (as is each woman).

However, as far as popular fiction is concerned there are two types of men – the nice men who are your best friends, who are there no matter what; and there are the bad boys – who you, unfortunately, fall for – and that is a long road of tears and battles. And, generally the kind of men we remember in books and screen are the latter. If i asked you to name 5 nice men in fiction – you possibly will be stuck after the first. Who is the guy Scarlett O’ Hara falls for, but never marries – would be your response. And, then there would be a blank. Because, after all, nice guys finish last (atleast in the fictional romantic stakes). In real life, i would guess that nice guys score much higher than the messed up heroes from films, simply because a film gets over in 3 hours, and jhelofying a romantic hero will take the rest of your life.

I am not quite sure when the narrative of a brooding, dark, sullen male became either the gold standard or the mould in which all other romantic heroes were written. Look at Mills and Boons. an entire business built on an obnoxious specimen, who hooks a post teenager (almost young enough to be his daughter). And then reforms because of her love ie., becomes less obnoxious.

Today on Amitabh Bachchan’s birthday, i couldn’t but help look at him as the romantic hero, especially in those films that he was also the angry young man. Do you really want such a man in your life, is the question ? Do women really believe they can transform such men ? Do such men really exist?

I wrote about his best romantic roles in films – the angry young lover …