Nanavati trial gets a contemporary edge

The Nanavati case is one of those crimes - like the Aarushi Talwar murder now - that became emblematic of its times. It captured the imagination of India in the early 1960s with what it revealed of the salacious goings-on in Mumbai high society. That the protagonists were handsome young men and a beautiful young woman, a British national to boot, didn't hurt. After all if there's something the world loves more than a lover, it is a scandal.

But what attracted Feisal Alkazi to write and direct The Khambatta Case, based on the sensational case, is the fact that it was probably India's first media trial with Russi Karanjia's Blitz, a weekly tabloid, going all out to milk the drama for all it was worth with sensational details splashed in banner headlines. "This gives it a contemporary flavour," says Alkazi, who puts Karanjia on centrestage and even has him say at one point - "The nation wants to know..."

The Khambatta Case has already had four shows in Delhi. The response, Alkazi says, was far more enthusiastic than he had expected. "I've had many emails from people who wrote to say that they were among the crowd that thronged the road that led to the court for a glimpse of Nanavati. Someone even wrote to tell me that his neighbour had had an affair with Ahuja, much before he met Sophie." Alkazi would like to take it to Mumbai next, if he can find the funds - "I am also open to some other group doing it - Alyque [Padamsee] perhaps, or Lillete Dubey."

But first the facts of the case: Kawas Nanavati, a naval commander, went to the Gamdevi police station on April 27, 1959, saying he had shot dead a Sindhi businessman called Prem Ahuja. The motive - Nanavati had discovered that Ahuja was having an affair with Sophie, his wife. A straightforward case, it would seem. But the relentless publicity Karanjia gave the case, and Blitz's obvious support for Nanavati - portrayed as an upright citizen and patriotic soldier who had defended his honour by killing a degenerate playboy who had seduced his wife - muddied the waters. Was it a heat of the moment crime, or a premeditated murder - the entire Blitz readership, and their friends, weighed in on the matter, so much so that when the jury pronounced a not-guilty verdict, the judge struck it down, saying they had been influenced by the media. "I had decided at one point to actually have members of the audience as jurists, but abandoned the idea because that would be too sensational," says Alkazi.

The Khambatta Case does not make too many changes in the narrative, except for one -- in the play, Khambatta is acquitted as the judge ruled he was "temporarily insane" when the shooting happened. In real life, Nanavati was convicted and did time in jail. Along with Karanjia, the play also highlights the lawyer who defended Nanavati - the eminent art-historian Karl Khadalavala.

In Alkazi's play, the focus is not the murder, it is the marriage - a dysfunctional one evidently, where Sophie's, or Rosie's in the play, act of adultery is the culmination of many small flirtations that had provoked her husband. And yet, she's not the villain. Alkazi shows her as much a victim of a marriage gone sour that she couldn't get out of. "Apparently, they moved to Canada after the trial and settled there. She is alive, but he died a few years ago."

The play ends with the couple facing each other after Khambatta's acquittal - not talking, not embracing. Will they stay together? The audience is left to decide.