Whatever you might say of Ajmal Amir Kasab’s stunning turnaround yesterday, it truly is worthy of Bollywood. If I were Ram Gopal Verma or Mahesh Bhatt, I would be kicking myself in anger, or envy, or simply be writing out the borrowed script as fast as I could. Maybe Kasab is the innocent starry-eyed kid who came seeking Bollywood. After all, the elaborate story he presented in court – repudiating everything he has said over the past several months including his own identity – is affirmation of his exceptional talent, perhaps a precocious one considering he still is in his teens.

How do we get these scripts?

Kasab is not Kasab at all. The real one was killed by cops. The man being masqueraded as Kasab is actually one of a bunch of boys who came to find fame in Bollywood. He was arrested days before the 26/11 attacks but when bad cops started looking around for a fall guy for the 26/11 attacks, they picked him up. By the way, of the 10 gunmen who came to Mumbai for the terror attack, all trained jihadis, nine happily died. But one turned out to be a coward. So much so, he threw his hands up when confronted by police and surrendered without a single bullet injury. Now that is a fatal flaw in jihadi training but hardly so in a Bollywood script.

What is one to do with a farce of a trial? What do we do with people like Kasab who say anything they please without any regard to facts, truth or conscience?

So should we be mocking our criminal prosecution system that creates this kind of situation? After all, this is not the first time somebody has turned around and denied everything he once voluntarily confessed including his name and identity?

Should be ridicule prosecutors who chose to level a long list of 85 charges against the 26/11 attacker, ensuring a long, meandering trial, rather than speedy justice? Would it not have been prudent to nail him on one unimpeachable charge that would attract the most severe punishment?

Or should be review a judicial system that leads to such farce? Or consider why it tolerates it? Should Kasab’s trial have been ended with his confession, instead of being dragged on?

For now, the least we can do is marvel at the young Pakistani’s imagination. Or maybe he is not even a Pakistani.