A Leela Naidu film : Ya Raste hain Pyar ke
Background :
In the late 50s, Nanavati case – a criminal case, famously called as “Crime of passion”, brought a big change in Indian legal system and after this case Jury system was abolished from India. Accused was a Parsi naval officer Commander Kawas M Nanavati who was charged for killing the lover, Prem Ahuja- a sindhi businessman, of his Anglo Indian wife Sylvia. Nanavati was often away on his duty in the sea and leaving his wife alone in Bombay. Prem Ahuja, the rich Casanova, allured Sylvia and thus started a story of love and betrayal, which ended with a planned murder of Prem by Cdr Nanavati.
YB Chandrachud, who later became Chief Justice of Supreme court, was public prosecutor in the case. Ram Jethamlani , being a sindhi, was helping prosecution to nail the parsi Nanavati and Nanavati got life sentence. Nanavati was very bright naval officer and whole Navy was also supporting him. Case also became a battle between Parsi and Sindhi communities of India and who’s who of both the communities became involved in the case. Time takes strange turn and soon circumstances became like this that a well known Sindhi businessman fell in a serious legal trap and he appealed for mercy before President of India. He knew Ram Jethamlani through a common friend and asked him to intervene in the case. On other side Parsi community was putting pressure on the govt. to pardon Nanavati. Ram Jethamlani utilized his maneuvering power and soon a settlement was made and both the accused got mercy from President. Nanavati left India with his wife and children. Both the communities were satisfied. Due to controversy about the role of Jurors involved in this high profile Nanavati case, Jury system was abolished from India. (Though Basu Chaterjee made an interesting film “Ek Ruka Hua faisla” ( remake of 12 Angry Men) in mid 80s where fate of a person, accused for the murder of his own father, is decided by 12 members of a Jury where 11 members of the jury are in favor of life sentence and only one person, KK Raina , opposes the decision and argues and in the end convinces rest of the jurors that accused is innocent).
Ye Raaste hain Pyar ke (1963) :
Actress Saadhna’s husband Rk Naiyar had directed this film. Dashing Sunil Datt had played the character which was based on Nanavati. Later he did almost similar role in BR Chopra’s Hamraj . Strikingly beautiful Leela Naidu had played the role of Sylvia.
Song – Ye Khamoshiyan ye tanhaiyan
Leela Naidu had been Femina Miss India and Vogue magazine had described her as one of the most beautiful women on earth. She had acted before in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Anuradha where she had played title role and film was awarded with President’s Golden lotus award, now known as National award. Leela Naidu did few films only. She married twice, first to Hotelier Bikki Oberoi and later she married to Poet Dom Moraes. She did 2 films with merchant Ivory also. Last time She was seen in Pradeep Krishn’s Electric Moon and before that in mid 80s she did Shyam Benegal’s Trikaal also. If she had acted only in one film Anuradha even then she would have been remembered by the people.
Rehman had adequately essayed the role of Prem Ahuja.
Song – ye raaste hain pyar ke
With a charming smile and suave persona he was so befitting in the role of a lady charmer Prem. Whenever character artists will be discussed in a proper way, Rehman will be a prominent figure there.
Song – Aaj meri zindagi
Ashok Kumar , Motilal and Shashikala were other actors in in the film. Courtroom verbal battle between Ashok Kumar and Motilal is another highlight of the film.
Ravi had given the good music. Though the case was a highly discussed case in India but perhaps film did not get that much commercial success but it is a good watch and to some extent a rare film based on a real life story.
Tags: Leela Naidu, Merchant Ivory, Nanawati, Prem Ahuja, Ram Jethamlani, Ravi, Rehman, RK Naiyar, shyam benegal, sunil dutt, Trikal, YB Chandrachud
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
George, Do you think Basu was opionated about jury system in Indian law system in this film?
Although one could argue that “Ek Ruka Hua Faisla” benefitted from a historical precedent, Basu Chatterjee’s film was a fairly faithful adaptation of “12 Angry Men”
Yes… 12 Angry Men! I see George has already stepped in with that info.
RK: I don’t think Basu’s movie had anything to do with the Indian system, for the Nanavati case was in the 50s and the trial by jury system was abolished in the 60s. My view is that Basu just wanted to re-make Twelve Angry Men.
As for the original, Henry Fonda was outstanding.
Disclosure: I did not know that 12 Angry Men had been re-made!
Anantha: Not on Jury system but Basu was showing hopeless shades of law where decisions are dependent on the moods of the jury. Do you remember in the ERHF, except KK Raina’s character rest 11 members of jury have biased views and it was like teachers do when they check the examination copies. If their mood is good students get good marks if not then God save Students. All the members of jury have some important work to do and they are in hurry and they find re-discussion waste of time. They dont bother its matter of life and death for accused. for one of them, his tickets of pictures will go waste. One is angry because his son does not treat him well and so he thinks accused surely has killed tother man. Through characters and their traits Basu was showing loop holes in such systems where so called citizens can decide fate of life of someone.
The nanavati case was also made on small screen…bhanwar on sony which had court cases in india which are considered as milestones. harsh chhaya played the naval officer..brilliantly executed.
Illuzon:
thanks for info. Was not knowing abt TV serial.