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Kanoon

1960 150’ b&w Hindi d/p B.R. Chopra pc B.R. Films s C.J. Pavri dial Akhtar-ul-Iman c M.N. Malhotra m Salil Choudhury lp Ashok Kumar, Rajendra Kumar, Nanda, Nana Palsikar, Mehmood, Om Prakash

Chopra’s courtroom drama and suspense movie tells of the progressive Judge Badriprasad (A. Kumar) whose daughter Meena (Nanda) is married to the equally progressive Public Prosecutor Kailash Khanna (R. Kumar). Kailash witnesses his father-in-law commit a murder. His dilemma grows when a petty thief is arrested and tried in Badriprasad’s court. Eventually, when Badriprasad is forced to step down and submit to a new investigation, the killer is found to be an identical look-alike of the judge. The unlikely ending is shored up by a strong plea against capital punishment. The long court sequences are alleviated by extensive film noir passages (cf. the crane movements along walls and corridors), and the film’s association with Hollywood models is enhanced by the absence of songs.

Film