Is The Movie Rustom Based On A Real Life Incident?

Rustom movie is based on real-life events that transpired in Mumbai in the year 1959. This case is popularly known as K.M. Nanavati v/s State Of Maharashtra. This case led the public into deep anxiety as whether the murder at the center of the case was committed by Nanavati in the ‘heat of the moment’ or was it a ‘Premeditated move.’

The story told to us in the movie is partially correct. There were other things also in the case which were not disclosed by the film producers.

The story goes as:-
Commander Kawas Maneksaw Nanavati, a Parsi by birth, was a part of the Indian Navy and he settled down with his wife Sylvia and their two sons and a daughter in Bombay. Nanavati’s frequent staying away on assignments had Sylvia falling in love with a friend of her husband, Prem Ahuja. Sylvia wanted to marry Prem but Prem was not ready for the same, this got proved by many letters and was bought forward during the court case as testimony. On April 27, 1959, when Nanavati came back from an assignment and found Sylvia quite distraught, he asked her the reason behind the same. Sylvia told Nanavati the truth about her extra marital affair with Prem.

Next day, Nanavati dropped his family at Metro Cinemas, and drove to collect his pistol and six cartridges under a false pretext and then went to Prem’s office and then to his flat. Once there, Nanavati asked Prem if he intended to marry Sylvia and accept their children. When Prem refused to take any responsibility for the affair by saying that i cannot get married to all with whom I sleep, Nanavati shot him three times and then he turned himself in, in front of the Deputy Commissioner of police, after confessing his crime to the Provost Marshal of the western Naval Command. It was in fact the Marshal who advised him to surrender himself.

There was no witness in the case, as only two people were present when the incident happened and one amongst the two was dead.

The victim’s sister Mamie Ahuja and the prosecution contested the fact that what Nanavati had done was not because he lost his self-control after discovering the truth about his wife’s affair but was committed in cold blood. With this argument the then-young lawyer ram Jethmanali assisting in the prosecuting, appealed to the Bombay High Court. The court found Nanavati guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment. This case led to some unrest between the Parsi and the Sindhi communities as Nanavati belonged to Parsi community, Ahuja was a Sindhi. At the same time, Governor Vijaylakshmi Pandit received a mercy petition for Bhai Pratap, a prominent Sindhi businessman. Bureaucrats agreed that he could be pardoned. KM Nanavati walked in the same circle as the Gandhi-Nehru Family, and thus found favour from the Governor. Vijaylakshmi Pandit pounced and said that Bhai Pratap would be pardoned after Nanavati was pardoned. This would ensure that both the communities are happy.

After three years, Nanavati was finally released and he then left for Canada with his wife and children.