Half Robin Hood’s


In earlier times when the only way to get rich was by being evil or corrupt, the criminals that the audiences could support were variants of Robin Hood: guys who robbed from the (criminal) rich and gave it to the poor.

Modern day stories and movies are a bit greyer and so the reason that the audience would still root for the “bad guy” became something personal about the criminal. You support Ocean’s Eleven (apart from the fact that it includes George Clooney and Brad Pitt) because it’s the robbing of a jerk who has also “stolen” Clooney’s girlfriend. The Italian Job is about a bunch of thieves who want to take revenge on their ex-partner who betrayed them and killed their boss. And so on.

And now there is Special 26. Akshay Kumar and his gang of conmen have no noble motive; they’re not right’ing any wrongs; and they they’re half Robin Hood’s: they steal from the rich, but don’t give to the poor. Their victims are chosen not because they are corrupt (which they are) but because that very corruption prevents them from reporting the theft of their black money!

Interesting that a Bollywood movie bypassed all those formula justifications for the criminals and still made us want the bad guys to win at the end of the movie!

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