Gone in 60 seconds

Gone in 60 seconds

The exposing of a car hijacking ring involving educated young women points to the glamourisation of crime that has an unmistakable link to the genre of heist films. But, as morality takes a beating and adrenaline provides the ultimate rush, the demarcation between right and wrong becomes tenuous.

A beautiful woman befriends a young man owning a car or a bike and then goes for a long ride. In a secluded spot or near a restaurant, the couple leaves their transport and goes for a drink or, some intimate moments, and out from the shadows come out several men with a master key. The vehicle is stolen, the owner comes out from a romantic reverie and the girl can only express her sympathy.

But, a few months ago, the police busted a car hijacking ring and it was discovered that a major role in the stealing was played by the 'girl' in question as she was the one who took the unsuspecting young man to an isolated spot and later on signalled her 'other' friends to come and finish the act.

At that time, the news made top page as the whole car hijacking business was exposed with a new dimension – the presence of a woman. Today, a major English newspaper ran a story of the police arresting several groups involved in the trade and again, the involvement of women were found. And, this is disconcerting because, in the last couple of years we have seen that women have played major roles in several criminal activities. Just a little over a year ago, we read the story of a fraudulent matchmaking organisation where one single woman was used to lure in young men willing to go abroad.

In that scenario, the girl in question was shown to be holding a foreign passport and utilising it to the maximum with a small ring of men took large sums of money from people.

Fortunately, their exploitative business came to a halt when one of the many men married to the same girl lodged a case with police. Then, there is the publicised case of the out of work Dhaliwood actress, who, after acquiring information of a certain family, which has a member residing abroad, used to move in on the family members under the disguise of a friend of the member staying overseas. Her way of operating was ingenious: after getting friendly with the family, she would ask for a sum of money in local currency saying that since she has just come back from overseas, she only has foreign currency.

The actress was caught in time but from time to time we still see cases of fraud and deception involving young women.

Today, we find that women are being used for hijacking cars and motorbikes and reportedly, the girl arrested just months ago is only 20 years old. When someone becomes engaged in crime at a young age, one is compelled to ask about the moral vacuum that is taking shape within us. Needless to say it is a very grim forecast on the erosion of values in society. But before we start tearing our vocal chords condemning such crimes and the involvement of women in them, perhaps there should be some in depth search for the motivation of such acts and, the association of romance and adventure to acts, that in reality are nothing but blatant acts of crime.

The finger, I am sorry to say, points at the undeniable influence of Hollywood and Bollywood. That genre of heist films may provide the adrenaline rush but once it's put to practice in real life, the social fabric starts to become tainted.

Today, car hijacking involves pretty young women, use of high tech gadgets, a carefully laid plan and clandestine links with high-ups. Of course, when the newspaper reports such a case, it makes intriguing reading but once the thrill subsides, there is much more to it that the fun.

Experts say that the idea of the recent bomb attack in Mumbai was taken from a film and way back in 2001, just after the 9/11 bombing, analysts pointed to the uncanny resemblance between the real attack and a fictional one in a film.

The reality is that, people will continue to be influenced by films and books but maybe there should be a halt to glamourising certain acts in movies.

In several Hollywood movies, stealing of cars, especially sports cars, was presented with bravado and this theme was quickly picked up by Bollywood and used in the film, Dhoom, and others.

The sad thing is that though the villain in such films are shown to die in the end, their acts of machismo, no matter how criminal, eclipse the good guy and remains in viewer memory. Understandably, when the human mind is impressed with a certain act, no matter how fictional, s/he will, at a certain point, start to think of that as right. In every decade, we have movies that have unabashedly glamourised stealing of paintings, cars, gems and all these acts were justified in one way or the other.

The truth is: we loved every bit of it, and today, if young people, especially women are lured into high profile crime, then one has to think deeper to find a link that joins crime, educated young and movies.

Gone in 60 seconds' is an entertaining film, but let's ask what is gone, the car, the bike or the sense of right and wrong.

By Towheed Feroze