When films send you to the gallows

With the Supreme Court pronouncing death for Yakub Memon over his involvement in the 1993 bombings that took place in Mumbai, then Bombay, there's been a lot of conversation over the fairness of the judgment. No matter what side of the fence you stand on, there's no denying that it's the end of a long journey for Yakub. And one that, perhaps he's glad is coming to an end. Having been arrested way back in 2007, over multiple trials and hearings, he had been sitting in jail waiting for the final judgment,  preparing himself for the eventual, almost inevitable, pronouncement. With his fate now finally sealed, ironically, he can now see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

Death-row stories have time-and-again found favour with the entertainment world. Not surprisingly, audiences have lapped up these stories with aplomb. It may be difficult to imagine ourselves in the shoes of those people but these movies come as close to reality as a film probably can.  

In Cold Blood (1967)

An adaptation of Truman Capote's factual book of the same name, In Cold Blood is the story of Perry Smith played by Robert Blake and Richard Hickock played by Scott Wilson who break into a home and kill the family only to be caught by the police and sentenced for murder. The story chronicles their trial and life in prison basis the conversations the author had with the convicted in the original book. The movie wonderfully captures the minds of the killers as they go from being on the run to caught and convicted and eventually executed for their crimes.  

Dead Man Walking (1995)

The critically acclaimed film won susan sarandon a best actress oscar. Hollywood's favourite bad boy, sean penn, played Matthew Poncelet, a prisoner on death row in Louisiana, awaiting lethal injection for killing a teenage couple. Sarandon (then director Tim Robbins' partner) played Sister Helen Prejean, his spiritual adviser. It's about crime and punishment, anger and forgiveness, faith and faithlessness.

The Green Mile (1999)

With Tom Hanks spearheading the cast, The Green Mile is an adaptation of Stephen King's novel by the same name. Told in a flashback format, it's the account of Paul Edgecomb, who's a death-row correction officer during the Great Depression in the United States and a man completely cynical considering he watches people die every day thanks to his job. His life however has a turnaround with the entry John Coffey in his jail, a man accused of the murder of two children.  

I Want To Live (1958)

It's the movie that got Susan Hayward an Academy Award for her performance. I want to Live is the story of Barbara Graham, played by Susan, a prostitute on death row in California who's continuously pleading her innocence. The movie is an adaptation of Barbara's letters and some newspaper articles written on her case by journalist Ed Montgomery. Perhaps one of the few movies that presents a female convict, it is the story of a woman who tried to correct her life, got involved with the wrong man and landed in prison while trying to prove her innocence.

3 Deewarein (2003)

A highly-underrated movie that never got its due at the box-office, 3 Deewarein is one of Nagesh Kukunoor's most compelling works. The story of three convicts on death-row, Naseeruddin Shah, Jackie Shroff and Nagesh himself, the film also stars Juhi Chawla who's a documentary filmmaker with a troubled marriage and Gulshan Grover as the jail's custodian trying to reform the convicts. It's a wonderful account of each convict's life prior to the conviction and their unlikely bond with each other as they go about telling their story to the filmmaker.