In the year 1959 there was a famous Indian court case in Mumbai( at that time Bombay) , where Commander Kawas Manekshaw Nanavati, a Naval Officer , was tried for the murder of Prem Ahuja, his wife’s close friend. Thereafter, in 1963 there was a film ‘Yeh Rastey Hain Pyaar Ke’ starring Sunil Dutt and Leela Naidu which was a thinly-disguised version of this case. 10 years later, Gulzar directed a film ‘Achanak’, which was also inspired by this famous case.
Now, Neeraj Pandey, Aruna Bhatia, Zee Studios and others have offered a similar tale for the new generation, in the form of ‘Rustom’, which is directed by Tinu Suresh Desai . In the story of this film, we find Rustom Pavri (Akshay Kumar) a naval officer ,happily married to Cynthia (Ileana D’Cruz). When Rustom is deputed on a long tour, Cynthia and Vikram Makhija (Arjan Bajwa) a family friend come closer and have an affair. Rustom returns from the tour, before his scheduled arrival and is furious to find out about his wife’s affair with Vikram. He confronts Vikram, who is killed in a scuffle. Rustom is then tried for the murder, in court of law, where Rustom himself fights for his defence, against the charges made by prosecution lawyer Lakshman Khargani( Sachin Khdekar).
The screenplay of this film has been made interesting through flashbacks, during the court battle. The director has cleverly shown the Mumbai lifestyle during early 60s, with the public support coming for Rustom, besides people from his own community. Since, those days the final decisions of such cases were referred by the Judge to the members of the Jury, in this case, the Jury decide the case with majority vote. Today, not many are aware of the actual outcome of the Nanavati case. Accordingly, the makers of this film have taken cinematic liberties to make this case more interesting, by making Rustom fighting his own case, without using defence lawyer and making the Jury deciding the case, instead of Governor pardoning his sentence, in actual Nanavati case. So, this film is not a detailed account of all the important happenings, to unfold the mystery, behind the murder. However, the plot has been developed very well, in this cinematic version.
Akshay Kumar is at his best in the title role, but good performance also comes from Iliana D’cruz. There are many other important characters played by Arjan Bajwa, Esha Gupta,Anang Desai, Sachin Khedekar, Usha Nadkarni,Pavan Malhotra,Parmeet Sethi and others. There is not much scope for music, but the two songs are just fine. Cinematography by Santosh Thundiyil is also the plus point of this film, besides good screenplay and dialogues. All in all, ‘Rustom’ is a captivating court trial, inspired from a real happening.
Rating (***1/2)
Review By: Ulhas Shirke