BLUFFMASTERS: Posters of some recent Hindi films dealing with unapologetic tricksters and (below right ) Hrithik Roshan in Dhoom:2

Do you like heists? When the lead pair sold the Taj Mahal to a group of international tourists in Bunty aur Babli, did you cheer them lustily? Did you exult when Shahid Kapur swindled millions of dollars from his business partners in Badmaash Company? And years ago, did you chew your nails to bits when the hero walked away with a precious diamond in Shalimar?

If your answer is yes, get ready for an adrenaline rush once again. Con — a subject that Bollywood can never tire of — is in. Akshay Kumar’s rib-tickling comic act as a con artist in Farah Khan’s Tees Maar Khan (TMK), released late last year, has set the mood for more such con-centric films. Last week, when Dharmendra returned to the big screen with Yamla Pagla Deewana (YPD), audiences were happy to find that he was doing what he was best at — conning people. And later this year, heist lovers can get their money’s worth when they watch Abbas-Mustan Bumawala’s Players, a remake of the Hollywood classic The Italian Job.

“Con is interesting,” says YPD’s writer Jasvinder Singh Bath. “That’s because everyone has been conned sometime or another in their life,” he reasons.

But experts stress that the reason such films work is not so much that audiences identify with the characters but the high drama that the plots demand.

“It’s one of the most interesting and mischievous roles to play,” asserts actor Akshay Kumar. “It’s almost like playing a double role, for you are your character and then when you are in the midst of your heist you are a devious untrusting convict.”

Bollywood has always revelled in films that deal with swindles. A great many hits — including Jewel Thief (1967), Victoria No. 203 (1972) and Dhoom 2: Back in Action (2006) — revolved around confidence tricksters. Actors such as Dev Anand and Dharmendra were the old lovable con artists audiences could never have enough of. “Now, after many years, I am back playing a con artist — and I love it,” says Dharmendra, who had viewers sitting on the edge of their seats as he tiptoed on a floor made out like a chessboard to pocket the sparkler in Shalimar (1978).

Clearly, it’s an evergreen theme. “It’s the wow factor.” says Sanjay Gadhvi, who directed Dhoom 1 & 2. “Big stars and innovative script with lots of thrills turn a conman into a memorable character,” he says.

Indeed, the interesting twists and turns in the plots are an important ingredient for such films. From Rohan Sippy’s Bluffmaster and Shaad Ali’s Bunty Aur Babli (B&B) to Parmeet Sethi’s Badmaash Company and Dibakar Banerjee’s Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! (Ollo), the films have all taken off on intelligent plotting.

“B&B was not about professional con artists — it was about the mismatch between the aspirations and opportunities of our small town youth. Their initial cons were driven by survival, but somewhere along the way they started feeling that it was perhaps their true calling,” says B&B scriptwriter Jaideep Sahni. “So, we ensured that their cons began simply and with experience moved to more difficult ones, like selling the Taj Mahal.”

Directors hold that any film that revolves around a swindle has to have an intelligent plot to succeed. A conman, they argue, is by nature intelligent — and the film has to reflect that.

“A well-scripted con character never goes wrong,” asserts Bath. Sahni, who also scripted Khosla Ka Ghosla (KKG), which dealt with a group of people set to outcon a conman, stresses that the story and characters have to be realistic to make the plot interesting and credible.

“In B&B, we had to think like the lead pair, and the con acts were specific to them,” he says. Likewise, the turns in the drama revolving around the Khosla family — honest middle-class people — had to keep the characters in mind when the plot was being scripted.

Bath believes that the films click because everybody wants to be a con artist. “Deep in the heart, every single man sitting in the auditorium dreams of being able to execute a duping business with finesse. And they derive pleasure of a different kind from seeing the lead actor do so. That’s why conmen are the best remembered characters,” he says.

However, many stress that the conmen of today’s films are different from their counterparts in earlier films. “People today accept a lead actor in shades of grey,” says director Amol Gupte.

Yesterday’s conmen were men with hearts of gold who swindled others only because they had to. Today’s heroes need no excuse — some like Abhay Deol in Ollo do so just for a high. Abhishek Bachchan in Bluffmaster even trains an amateur conman in the film. “Today’s films are made as black comedies where realism touches each con act,” says film historian Anil Zalkar. “For instance, the act in KKG revolved around a land scam which was realistic. In the Sixties or the Seventies, the act was fabricated and was like a challenge that the hero took on.”

But social scientist Shiv Visvanathan believes that the new films don’t leave a lasting impact on the viewers because they lack a message. “This is the period of confusion for Bollywood — nothing is doing well, be it family drama, romantic comedy or action. So filmmakers are trying their hand at directing thrillers. But ill-constructed characters and blurred scripts are making such films bomb at the box office,” he says.

Indeed, many films — from Dhamaal (2007) to De Dana Dan and Short Kut (both 2009) and even TMK (2010) — failed to capture the imagination of viewers. Parmeet Sethi, writer and director of Badmaash Company, a film about four friends who swindle people across the globe, however, feels that the subject is still fresh for most directors.” That apart, with so many scams surfacing, it’s only obvious that filmmakers are making films related to conning,” adds Sethi.

What’s next then? Something on 2G spectrum, perhaps?