Cast: Akshay Kumar, Ileana D’Cruz, Esha Gupta
Director: Tinu Suresh Desai
Much before our generation was born, a murder rocked the nation: the Nanavati case. It generated so much interest and aroused so much curiosity that we, as schoolchildren, have been privy to some hush-hush conversations centring round the sensational murder in 1959, and hankered to know more. Obviously, the unbelievable case of a man getting killed over an alleged love affair was grist to a great masala entertainer. It still is. Isn’t it? Rustom is not so much about the conventions of a typical bored housewife falling for a handsome dude with disastrous results story, but plumbs depths of how the lead male star could be made to look “heroic” in a role that has “substance” to up his chances of carving out a formidable niche for himself.
The crime-mystery film written by Vipul K. Rawal and directed by Tinu Suresh Desai kicks off with a decorated officer Akshay Kumar and Ileana D’Cruz playing Naval Commander Rustom Pavri and Cynthia (Ileana D’Cruz), and Rustom returning to Bombay after a trip to England, only to discover Cynthia having an affair with his friend and colleague Vikram Makhija (Arjan Bajwa). An enraged Rustom confronts his wife about her affair and heads straight to Vikram’s house to find out more. An argument between the two leads to an ensuing scuffle and Vikram gets killed.
The film clearly is designed to showcase Kumar’s still-in-demand status. On its own terms, it is wrong-headed. If the story’s signal virtue is supposed to be its subversive exhibition of how sexuality bridles at deadening routine and spousal neglect, why not go the whole hog? I do not endorse infidelity, but then I do live in a society where such behaviour is rampant. . When Rustom is brought before the judge (a stern Anang Desai) the film turns unwillingly funny, the court room scenes remind you of the ’60s drama. But the funniest is Esha Gupta who plays Vikram’s sister. Sporting skirts that possibly belonged to a very minuscule section of the Indian society in the ’60s, she tries hard to look seductive. If only Rustom could have been a good blend of precision and subtlety with betrayal at his naked best.
