Death penalty or life imprisonment? Which is ‘more’ moral - or, to put it the other way around - more immoral?
At a time when the country is debating this question, a Russian short story by Anton Chekov, written 124 years ago and which argues this point, is now getting a movie adaptation in Malayalam. ‘The Bet’ was written in 1889, and remains to this day one of the glittering examples of the perfectly crafted short story.
The film adaptation, titled Panthayam, directed by Kiran Ravindran of Thiruvananthapuram, will be one-and-a-half hours long and has just two actors - the seasoned Ravi Vallathol and newcomer Deepu. Ravi Vallathol will play the Banker, who argues that he would choose instant death were he given a choice between the two. “Capital punishment kills a man at once, but lifelong imprisonment kills him slowly. Which executioner is the more humane, he who kills you in a few minutes or he who drags the life out of you in the course of many years?” - is how the banker, a millionaire several times over, sees it.
Not so the young lawyer for whom life imprisonment is at any time better than capital punishment. For him, it is better to live somehow than not live at all.
The two place a bet; the banker offers his young friend two million dollars for remaining in solitary confinement for five years.
The incensed lawyer says he will remain incarcerated for not five, but 15 years. What follows is the stuff that makes up great literature.
Work on the film is expected to be completed in two months. “I’d read a Malayalam translation some years ago, but re-read it for making the movie,” said Kiran, who also has written the screenplay and dialogue for the movie version.
“I’d at first planned the movie in a small way, but saw it was topical because of the debate over death penalty and lifer after the hangings of Afzal Guru and Ajmal Kasab and thought there was scope for a bigger canvas,” said Kiran, who lives at Sasthamangalam and had recently made a documentary on the life of film-maker J C Daniel.
“This perhaps is the first Malayalam film adaptation of the short story,” he said. Maithreyi and the Magic Lantern are producing the film, cinematography is by Saju Aroor and editing by S R Sreejith.