Different Strokes for Different Folks

Human psychology is sensitively handled by director V.Shantaram in his 1957 classic Do Aankhen Barah Haath. Shantaram plays the lead as a forward-looking Jail Warden who believes that the system of Law, Justice and Punishment must focus on the single objective of returning those who drift into crime back into the mainstream of society.

The message from this ahead-of-times movie is that human beings are too valuable to be marginalised, shunned and ignored by the society only because they broke the law, whether deliberately, or by mistake.

 The story in the movie has six hardened criminals who are made to reside in an abandoned farm with only the Warden as security. It is like an ‘open jail’ with a flimsy fence at the perimeter. As a reform about which everyone else was skeptical, the young Warden plans to use the virtues of hard work and kindness to ‘imprison’ the surly and bitter murderers. The proof of his reforms being a win will be when the prisoners stay back, rather than kill the Warden and make good their escape.

 In one unforgettable scene in the movie, on a day when the Warden is away, the criminals hear a melodious voice and rush out to see a beautiful girl singing, to attract buyers for the hand-made toys that she was selling. The notorious six have had a bitter debate just that morning on making good their escape, without reaching a consensus. Starved for anything so desirable, the pretty picture that the girl makes literally makes them salivate, and they rush to the fence. Six burly men lean on the fence and it gives way. With all 12 eyes fixated on the girl, 12 brawny arms pull the fence back to its erect position, and through the barbed wire, they continue to ogle at the girl, until she turns the corner and vanishes.

The metaphor of the fence makes this scene iconic.

It was not the physical fence that was stopping the crooks from running away. It was what they were carrying in their minds that was keeping them ‘in’.

The socially aware Warden knew this and had embarked on this ‘experiment’ to prove that what you think of yourself matters more than whatever the society may have as opinions about you. When you merely ‘mirror’ others’ beliefs about you, you feel trapped and helpless. These six dangerous men, in their minds, were criminals and prisoners.

Our society is scandalously harsh on those who have broken the law. Witness recent comments by English cricketers Steve Harmison and Monty Panesar about Steve Smith, the Australian who was suspended for a year on charges of ball tampering: “When his name will be placed alongside great cricketers then there will be a question that is he really a great or just a good cricketer who is also a cheat.” This is strange considering the astounding quality of cricket that both Steve Smith and David Warner have put on display ever since their return to the game.

Mukund is a Senior Manager who blotched up deliverables on a major project for a big customer. They stripped him of all his responsibilities, brought his team down to just 5 people from the 70 people that he had earlier, froze his increments and promotions for 3 years now. Instead of quitting, he has stayed on, worked harder than before and proved his worth. Yet, when his name comes up for a new project, whispers about that one bad project are never far behind. A wonderful talent, being wasted.

 And now, at the other extreme, in a misplaced sense of justice, we have a terrorist who got released before he did his time in England jails, and he goes about stabbing people on London Bridge last week, killing two people. The British PM says we are going to ‘fix’ this loophole in the law. Laws are oftentimes oblivious to the damages they cause.

Terrorists, businessmen and politicians who habitually break laws are not the same as Smith, Warner and Mukund who have built and displayed formidable mental fortitude that overcome the societal punishments dished out beyond lawful sanctions.

They are champions in their own minds, and the guilt of their past wrong doings is now carried by those around them. Recognising this transformation needs customising laws by calibrating law breakers for accommodation within societies.

We live in a place where Law is over-rated, and Justice remains under-stated.