The Verdict – State vs Nanavati: A gripping courtroom drama

Here is the real-life story. Kawas Manekshaw Nanavati, a Parsi commander of the Indian Navy, was away on duty for long periods. In his absence, his English wife Sylvia had an affair with the commander’s friend, Prem Bhagwan Ahuja.

After Sylvia confessed her guilt to her husband on his return, Nanavati confronted Ahuja and shot him thrice with his service revolver. Ahuja was killed, and the commander surrendered himself to the police thereafter.

During his trial, Nanavati found support from the powerful Parsi community of the city. The man who rose in his defence with his widely read articles was Russi Karanjia, the influential editor of Blitz, a weekly with editions in English, Urdu, Hindi and Marathi that had a significant impact on public opinion during those times.

Was Nanavati guilty of premeditated murder or did Ahuja die due to accidental shooting? The jury found Nanavati ‘not guilty’, a verdict set aside by Justice R B Mehta. Mehta found holes in the defence’s theory of accidental shooting and referred the case to the Bombay High Court. The high court gave him life imprisonment, while the government abolished the system of jury trials in India.

Nanavati’s sentence was reduced to three years by Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, the then Governor of Bombay. After his release from prison n 1964, he and his family left for Canada where he worked as an insurance salesman and remained an important member of the Parsi community until his death.

The Nanavati case with its multiple twists and turns has inspired three Bollywood films so far.

The first was RK Nayyar’s Yeh Rastey Hain Pyar Ke (1963), a thematically ambitious film for those times featuring Sunil Dutt and Leela Naidu in which Dutt plays a commercial pilot. In the film, the wife is shown as committing suicide out of guilt, which didn’t impress the conservative viewer of the 1960s.

The second was the Gulzar-helmed film Achanak (1973) starring Vinod Khanna and Lily Chakroborty. Here, Khanna’s character of an army officer gets a death penalty for killing his wife and her lover.

Akshay Kumar played the eponymous character of Rustom Pavri, a naval officer, in Rustom directed by Tinu Suresh Desai. The story introduces a conspiracy angle, which is pure fiction. Towards the end, Pavri and his wife (played by Ileana D’Cruz) walk out of the court with their heads held high after Rustom, it is proved, is ‘not guilty.’ Rustom’s plot was far removed from reality, but the film was a box-office success.

ALTBalaji's The Verdict – State vs Nanavati also showing on ZEE5 is a 10-episode web series. Created and produced by Ekta Kapoor, the courtroom drama has benefitted from the availability of a readymade story on which the script is based.

The medium was an opportunity to show the case in much more detail, which has been done with a fair degree of success. The Bombay of the 1950s with its vehicles, costumes, offices and homes comes alive, playing an important role in making it watchable.

Sumeet Vyas as Ram Jethmalani, who played an important role in the prosecution’s side, is unimpressive as the nonagenarian lawyer sharing the story of the case with a young man in awe. But he is brilliant as the arrogant young Jethmalani taking part in the proceedings from the sidelines in the late 1950s.

There are times when the talented Manav Kaul seems inexplicably uneasy as the naval commander. His performance, on the whole, is passable. The gorgeous Elli AvrRam as Sylvia, his wife, depicts her character’s plight and emotions with conviction. Angad Bedi, as Nanavati’s flamboyant lawyer Karl Khandalavala, is solid and effective.

Two characters that stand out are those of Karanjia (Saurabh Shukla, marvellous) and public prosecutor Chandu Trivedi (Makarand Deshpande, equally good). Wearing a pencil moustache and without his clumsy hairstyle. Deshpande is almost unrecognisable. Hats off to the make-up department, which created that look for the gifted actor.

Viraf Patel as Ahuja delivers according to expectations in a brief but significant role, while the gifted Kubbra Sait who plays his sister Mamie is predictably good whenever she appears on the screen.

Everybody interested in topics of general interest has a fair idea of the Nanavati case. What this web series does not offer, therefore, are significant subplots that can surprise the viewer. But the makers deserve good scores in the writing and directing departments, resulting in a series that deserves to be binge-watched. Find time for it if you don’t have 16-hour working days during the holiday season.