‘Inspired by true incidents’ when you read such words in connection to a movie, your expectations from the movie soar high almost involuntarily. And just one expectation which shouldn’t be shattered is that the incident should be done justice; sometimes too much of humour or slow progression of plot drains down the essence of the incident.
The interests of the viewers is lost when the attention span is tested for long as Rustom is unnecessarily dragged. The movie wanted to show a simple incident but the plot goes slow and steady juggling repeatedly between flashbacks, story narration and the actual crux of the story.
Directed by Tinu Suresh Desai and written by Vipul K Rawal, Rustom is inspired from the ‘Commander K. M. Nanavati vs. State of Maharashtra’; an Indian court case (1959) where commander Kawas Manekshaw Nanavati, a Naval Commander, was tried for the murder of Prem Ahuja, his wife’s lover.
‘3 shots that shocked the nation’ is kind of an over hyped tag line for after you are done watching the film, the relevance of the three bullets is just lost in the whole courtroom drama. Speaking of the courtroom, once the movie reaches the legal trial in the court, deliberate humour and unrealistic proceedings of the court are added. It’s a movie and you need to make it entertaining but when you claim that it is a creation inspired by true incidents then such a showcase of the trail contradicts the whole idea behind the movie. (For some viewers sincerely go to see what actually happened.)
The intriguing trailer portrayed Rustom to be a mystery film with a lot of entangled strings involving love, crime and patriotism. The movie has it all but may be a little too much of everything. The early 60s love between Rustom Pavri played by Akshay Kumar and Cynthia Pavri played by Ileana D’cruz is a bit extended however, it spurs the romantic feel of the black and white era.
Rage, heat of the moment or reaction in self defence, the crime committed by Naval Commander Rustom by killing his friend Vikram Makhija played by Arjan Bajwa is a mystery that keeps you hooked on. However after a certain point, the repetitive flashbacks kind of help you derive your own obvious perception of the occurrence of events. To add to the despair, the courtroom drama blows away the entire case as a moment of laughter. May be humour entertains but if it disrupts the seriousness of a case then probably it is not witty humour but a deliberate one.
The naval ship, water, dockyard, crowd multiplication outside the court and background creation have been created using visual effects and CGI. Some of the VFX sequences look artificial and do not go in sync with the rest of the movie. For example, the firearms being shot from the ship, the overview of the naval ship approaching the dockyard, the smoke emerging out of the chimney from the ship, the background creation through the windows of the courtroom look quite out of place. However, the creation of the naval ship and crowd multiplication is a commendable effort. VFX studio Fluiidmask have worked on this film.
Overall, Rustom is a gripping situation or rather an incident which is told in a dragging and sluggish way. The whole movie brings out the feel of the early 60s with costumes, makeup, dialogues, music and colour grading of the entire setting throughout. But, the gripping situation fails to maintain the interest level right till the end. In fact, a lot of strings are left open ended in the movie. But there is definitely one question that will keep ringing in your mind throughout the movie- What will finally happen to Rustom?