Rustom : The Story that you need to know

The coming Independence day is going to be very exciting for the Bollywood fans. With Hrithik Roshan’s Mohenjo Daro releasing on August 12th, we will get to see a clash between him and the other superstar Akshay Kumar.

Kumar’s latest movie, Rustom is also scheduled to release on the same day. The plot of the movie is inspired by the famous case of naval officer K.M.Nanavati, the verdict of which is considered to be a landmark judgment of the Indian judiciary.

The actual incident took place on 27th April, 1959. On returning from work after many days, Nanavati found about the extra marital affair of his wife Sylvia, with one of his friends,Prem Ahuja. Sylvia, who now knew that Ahuja was a womanizer, confessed the infidelity to him.Enraged,he took his service revolver and went to Ahuja’s residence. When Ahuja denied the responsibility of Sylvia, and the couple’s three children, Nanavati shot him thrice, resulting to his death.

The defence argued that this was the case of culpable homicide, the killing was not intentional but happened in the rage of the moment. However, the prosecution presented it as a case of a pre-planned murder.The sessions court gave the judgment in favor of Nanavati, who pleaded ‘not guilty’ in the case. Following this, Mamie Ahuja, the victim’s sister took the case to high court, where Nanavati was charged guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. The Supreme court too held the decision.

In the middle of all this, the case received extensive media coverage, because of it’s intriguing story and Nanavati’s background of a reputed government officer. Being a Parsi himself, he received support from influential Parsi families of Mumbai,government officials and a wide sector of general public, who believed that Nanavati was a victim himself, suffering infidelity and betrayal.

After continuous protests in support of Nanavati , and the varied public opinion that the sentence was too harsh on him, He was finally acquitted after three years, when Mamie Ahuja gave consent for his pardon. Nanavati went to Canada after the case, he died in 2003.

The upcoming movie shows Kumar as Rustom Jhaveri, the character inspired by Nanavati. Ileana D’cruz plays his wife and Esha Gupta will be seen as the reel life portrayal of Mamie Ahuja.The trailer of the movie looks promising , and people are eagerly looking forward to the movie.

Even today, although it has been a long time since the case and it’s judgment, many of us do not know how justified it was. With no witnesses to the final incident except the accused and the victim, it is difficult to understand both the sides of the story.

Probably, the movie will help us make our own decisions as to what was right or wrong, and what should have been done.

The story needs to be told and the makers seem to have put in great efforts to convey it to the audience.Their response, and the result of the big clash between Hrithik and Akshay is something that even we are looking forward too.



Written by Avinash Srivastava
A Writer of Stories, Loves Novels and Movies