Rustom (2016) (Movie Review)

Dir: Tinu Desai

Starring: Akshay Kumar, Illeana D’Cruz

Dur: 2hrs 30 mins

Genre: Drama

Rating: 4/5

The poster of ‘Rustom’ carries the caption “Three shots that shook the nation”. I won’t call it a bad caption but it doesn’t authentically reflect the reality. The three shots shook a lot of people but it is presumptuous to say that it shook the nation. For the vast majority of Indians, myself included, Rustom, or should I say Naval Officer, Nanavati, is an unknown person from an unknown era who did… who cares! Nobody even remembers. And yet here we are with Rustom, trying to bring into our dulled or perhaps indifferent consciousness, a historical action that created a wave in an otherwise fairly still lake.

The film is based on the Nanavati case, wherein Naval Officer K.M. Nanavati, shot and killed his wife’s lover. The whole issue is not so much about whether what he did was right or wrong, although that aspect is also brought out very beautifully in the film; the key issue rather is legal: Did he commit the crime ‘in the heat of the moment’ or was it premeditated. The courtroom drama plays out smoothly and is the major chunk of the film. The performances are really good. Akshay brilliantly portrays a suave yet shrewd and upright officer. Illeana delights in her role as the guilty and repentant wife. Esha Gupta plays the strong and high-nosed sister of the deceased lover. Sachin Khedekar plays the bungling lawyer who is supposed to be the best in the city but who ends up being humiliated by Rustom despite his lack of legal knowledge. In fact, the humiliation is taken a bit too far and Sachin is made to look like a fool just to prove the point. No experienced lawyer would behave the way he was shown to behave. On this point, the film does lose a few points but overall, it’s a great story. If you’re looking for spice then you’re not going to get any but if courtroom drama is your area of interest than this is a must watch.