When Bollywood wants to show sin, they turn to drugs.
With Rohan Sippy's Dum Maaro Dum out in theatres this Friday, here's a look at some truly memorable on-screen drug addicts.
Dum Maaro Dum
We haven't watched the film yet, but despite the inane lyrics, it's hard not to notice Deepika Padukone shaking her booty in the title track. She's at a rave, she's hopped on uppers of all sorts, and getting into quite the saucy groove. Not bad at all.
Hare Rama Hare Krishna
Image: Zeenat Aman in Hare Rama Hare KrishnaAnd then there's the original junkie icon from the classic song. Zeenat Aman, tripping on pot in a Nepalese love-in, looking every single technicolor shade of groovy.
She looked stunning, the scene was shot appropriately hazy, and the colours and chillums were quite perfect.
Dev D
Image: Abhay Deol in Dev DIn Anurag Kashyap's unforgettable take on Sarat Chandra's frequently adapted Devdas, Abhay Deol starts off looking like a heavy drinker who occasionally smokes some weed.
But as his depression increases, he spirals into the harshest kinds of substance abuse, drugging himself completely out of control.
Kaminey
Image: Chandan Roy Sanyal in KamineyIn Vishal Bhardwaj's uproarious roller coaster actioner, Chandan Roy Sanyal played Michael, a Bengali gangster significantly in love with cocaine.
A hardcore addict thriving on the rush from the white powder, he was resultantly jumpier than Jack Flash and insanely, irresistibly reckless.
Khamosh
Image: Pankaj Kapoor in KhamoshVidhu Vinod Chopra's wonderful murder mystery had a stellar cast, most of whom were overshadowed by Pankaj Kapoor's disarmingly realistic junkie.
A depressed and completely unstable addict, his character was crippled by his dependence on heroin.
Saat Khoon Maaf
Image: John Abraham in Saat Khoon MaafEach of Susanna's husbands had fatal flaws in Bhardwaj's Saat Khoon Maaf, and John Abraham's Jimmy Stetson liked his drugs quite a bit.
Going from spliffs to cocaine to heroin, the rockstar tried to wean himself off but failed miserably.
Gulaal
Image: Jesse Randhawa in GulaalIn this tale of red-faced revolution in Rajasthan, model Jesse Randhawa played a young teacher who gets ragged brutally by goons at her university, stripped naked and locked in a dark room with a stranger. She emerges from this trauma an apathetic junkie, looking to marijuana for comfort.
Jaanbaaz
Image: Sridevi in JaanbaazFeroz Khan directed and starred in this steamy 1980s actioner, playing a cop married to Sridevi.
She gets forced into drug addiction and eventually dies as a result of it. Khan then vows to eliminate the drug menace, and wages war on the criminals responsible.
Charas
Image: Hema Malini in CharasBorrowing liberally from Alistair Maclean's Puppet On A Chain, Ramanand Sagar's Charas features Ajit blackmailing Hema Malini and using her to smuggle drugs.
Lata Mangeshkar and Mahendra Kapoor sang the film's odd but amusing title track, Charas Charas.
Traffic Signal
Image: Ranvir Shorey in Traffic SignalMadhur Bhandarkar's self-proclaimed 'hard-hitting' film about the streets of Mumbai cast Ranvir Shorey as Dominic, a hardened, helpless junkie.
Shorey delivers a brilliant, haunting performance and is without a doubt the best thing in an otherwise forgettable film.
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