I first read Fyodor Dostoevsky’s, Crime and Punishment while still in school and inadvertently fell for the protagonist Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov for his intellectual intensity. Years later, today, I question the nonchalance with which I, and no doubt most readers of this psychological thriller – which is considered one of the greatest novels of all time in world literature – sided with the protagonist, who was an anti-hero by virtue of being on the wrong side of the law. Of course, the justification that the fictional Raskolnikov offers not only to those who come to know about his ‘misdeed’ but also to his own conscience, is that his victim was a cruel and cantankerous pawnbroker who was, in her dealings, merciless and remorseless.

Dostoevsky was himself in penury, with a debt that he found difficult to pay back when he wrote the novel and his empathy lay very much with his main character. Vicariously the reader was supposed to, if not downright expected to, identify with his predicament. Dostoevsky’s protagonist is however by no means a standalone example of a literary or cinematic character who has legitimate justification or who earns the empathy of readers and audiences in spite of their so-called ‘wrongdoing’. Books, films, plays, etc. galore, in which characters who have committed offences because they were driven to it by adverse circumstances or in self-defence or for a cause (like a freedom fighter) get the readers’/viewers’ sympathies.

One of our contributors, Gautaman Bhaskaran, has written for today’s pages about Laapataa Ladies, the film by Kiran Rao, which is an Oscar entry from India. Though ostensibly about mistaken identities, the filmmaker actually also touches subtly, satirically (and sweetly) on the issue of punishment and crime (though compared to Raskolnikov’s, Rao’s protagonist’s ‘wrongdoing’ is a trivial ‘theft’ which is later established to be a false allegation. Nevertheless, Rao’s protagonist too lands in prison or at least the police lock-up.

The discussion about crimes and their punishment is dealt with in an ‘opinion’ piece this week by our contributor, Prof. Deepa Majumdar. However, she discusses serious crimes, and the nature of the punishments which is a topic of debate and discussion the world over.