Conmen and other lovable rascals-II

A year ago, this column discussed why we love felons. That was after two convicts escaped by scaling the walls of a Haridwar jail, wearing monkey costumes. The jailers sat and watched, thinking they were watching Ramlila. As discussed then, there is a charming ingenuity about such rascality. Look at the number of films that have been churned out about jewel thieves, jail-breakers, conmen, train robbers and bank robbers—from the old wagon heists of the American Wild West and The Great Train Robbery of England to our Dev Anand’s Jewel Thief, MGR’s Ninaithadhai Mudippavan, Dharmendra’s Shalimar, Bachchan's Mr. Natwarlal, Sholay, and several recent Akshay Kumar films. The heroes conned tycoons, hoodwinked landlords, sneaked out of prisons, robbed banks, stole jewels and our hearts. All men of ingenuity and a lovable streak of daredevilry.

- R. PRASANNAN

Many readers told me that such ingenuity was no longer possible in the modern world of digital vigilance. Sentries no longer shout “halt, who goes there?” but digital alarms beep, e-boom barriers block passages, and 360-degree-eyed robots shoot intruders. Prisons, treasure houses, bank vaults and state secrets are safer in the digital world than in the world of Natwarlals.