Rustom: Movie review and Story Narration:
For Akshay Kumar fans, Rustom is bound to be a full-on treat. The
courtroom drama is scripted, crafted and geared to give the lead actor
all the space that he needs in order to own the project.
The star of the show proves equal to the task. Unfortunately, Rustom,
which fictionalizes the sensational true story of naval officer Kawas
Manekshaw Nanavati, comes nowhere near becoming an irresistible
cinematic account of a murder trial.
Written by Vipul K Rawal and directed by Tinu Suresh Desai, Rustom
is a strangely bland film that throws more thematic strands into its
narrative wicker basket than it can hold - heroism of a man in uniform,
marital discord, culpable homicide and legal twists and turns.
An
apocryphal aircraft carrier scam involving the high and mighty is added
to the broth to lend the hero the sheen of a crusader.
The
first time the audience sees the film's titular figure, he emerges from a
naval vessel's engine room and strides out in style to the deck of the
ship.
There is no way anybody can miss the national flag fluttering in the background.
The unblemished character of Commander Rustom Pavri - he is a decorated
officer celebrated for his devotion to duty - remains untouched by the
complexities of a bitter legal contest or the nuances of a marriage gone
sour.
Not interested in exploring the frailties that the flesh is heir to, Rustom opts for a facile and melodramatic approach to the 1959 murder case.
The
handsomely mounted but anodyne film plays out like a straightforward
old school good-versus-evil tale in which the truly righteous are
allowed a transgression or two in the face of provocation.
Every character in the film struts around like a vainglorious clothes
horse. Rustom Pavri, the man in the dock, always sports his spotless
white naval uniform. Even when he is off duty and in police custody, he
is a picture of sartorial poise.
His stressed-out wife, despite
the serious crisis in her life, is never less than impeccable in her
choice of sarees and blouses.
The vamp, like all good old vamps,
dons western outfits and carries a slender cigarette holder as if it
were an extension of her lips, a la Marlene Dietrich.
And suave investigating officer Vincent Lobo (Pavan Malhotra, who, as
always, makes an impression that rises above the weaknesses of the film)
is never caught without his starched buttoned-down shirt, black tie and
pleated trousers as he goes about the job of establishing Rustom's
guilt.
Similarly, the physical spaces that these characters
occupy do not have a real, lived-in look. Even the late 1950s Bombay
street scenes, well presented as they are, cannot rescue the film from
its airy-fairy, disinfected feel.
An editor of a tabloid called
Truth (played by Kumud Mishra) - the character is obviously modelled on
Russi Karanjia of Blitz - is an unflattering caricature of a journalist
who gets hauled up on a daily basis by the judge for infringing the law.
Outside the sessions court, crowds carry completely-out-of-place
placards that read "Marry me Rustom", "I love you Rustom" and "I want
your baby Rustom". Are we at an IPL match or what?
Especially
unexceptionable is the way the court scenes are executed. It takes the
film away from the reality of the story and delivers an overacted,
overstretched passage that overstays its welcome.
The public
prosecutor (Sachin Khedekar) hectors and hollers his way through the
hearing. The judge (Anang Desai) adds to the drama with rather vacuous
wisecracks when he is not overruling or sustaining objections.
And
the jury - the K.M. Nanavati vs. the State of Maharashtra case was
India's last such trial by consensus - stands by dutifully until it is
time for them to up the ante even further.
Everything about
Rustom is overly spick and span, which does not allow cinematographer
Santhosh Thundiyil to go beyond the standard light-and- shade devices.
The
kernel of the story: an officer and a gentleman (Akshay Kumar) arrives
home after a long absence and stumbles upon an affair that his wife
(Ileana D'Cruz) is having with a wealthy social acquaintance of his
(Arjun Bajwa).
The Navy man loses his cool, confronts the notorious playboy and pumps three bullets into him.
All this happens within the first twenty minutes of the film and the rest of Rustom is devoted solely to creating a halo of moral superiority around the killer.
The
wife, Cynthia, trapped in a bubble of grief and remorse, mopes
ceaselessly, shedding copious tears in a bid to wash away her perceived
sin.
Not for once is the lady allowed to suggest, let alone assert, that what
she did outside her marriage might not be the big deal it is made out
to be.
In one scene, she does declare that "I don't care what
people think of me." But in another, she, more in line with the moral
codes she is forced to subscribe to, admits that she was "naive and
stupid".
Cynthia curses herself for betraying the trust of her husband and stands by him all through the legal process.
Nature
and fate play a part in Cynthia's dalliance with businessman Vikram
Makhija. Her husband is out at sea and the bored wife literally slips in
the rain and sprains her ankle.
Vikram, at hand to provide solace, exploits her vulnerability and the rest is inevitable.
The weakest part of Rustom
is the manner in which the character of businessman Vikram Makhija is
sketched out - as a scheming womanizer who is helped along by 'evil'
sister Priti (Esha Gupta).
There is little room in this construct for a layered investigation of motives and impulses.
Everything
is spelled out in black and white in the course of the protracted court
proceedings in which the lawyer of the deceased's sister loses no
opportunity to be scurrilous.
Defending himself - he refuses the services of a professional counsel - Rustom faces the allegations and insinuations without batting an eyelid.
Akshay's
cool, calm, composed avatar is bound to floor many, and not just his
ardent fans. There is little in this film that could displease the
actor's constituency.
Rustom is largely inoffensive, even
passable in the main, but could have been infinitely better had the
screenplay not been so utterly conventional and unimaginative.
Source:NDTV
