Kumar is in serious mode and brings a certain dignity to his one-dimensional character. Frustratingly, an unconvincing subplot is concocted in order to justify Cynthia's cheating.

Director Tinu Suresh Desai's take on this landmark crime is flat and uninspired.

Screaming excess threatens to stifle the emotion and tragedy; Kumar has only to hit the same note of dogged honour and wait for the storm to pass. As an exercise in medium-high style, however, it retains the attention.

The reenactment of the Nanavati murder case sees Akshay draw a convincing, if somewhat predictably airbrushed, portrait of a naval officer who killed a man with whom his wife was having an affair.