This article revisits the sensational Nanavati case that captured public imagination half a century ago, examining its creation as an iconic media event through photographic images in the tabloid Blitz and its immediate after life in a film, Yeh Raaste Hain Pyar Ke (The Roads that Lead to Love, R.K. Nayyar, 1963). Examining the proliferation of detail around this sudden and unexpected event, the article argues that even though the tabloid pushed the borders of photographic representation toward the realm of speculation and even fantasy, there were registers of affect that an evidential form could not express. This is where cinema made an entry, to explore the subjectivity and inner worlds of the protagonists of this human drama and to contain its scandalous excess through narrative resolution. The article explores how both forms of media allowed for the articulation of regimes of public fantasy through melodrama, if in rather different ways.
Abbas, K.A. (1952). Anhonee [Motion picture]. India, Hindi.
2.
Abraham, Psyche. (2006).From Kippers to Karimeen. New Delhi: Roli Books.
3.
Anand, Vijay. (1965). Guide [Motion picture]. India, Hindi.
4.
Anderson, Jeffrey M. (January 14, 2000). A talk with Errol Morris: Non fiction auteur. Retrieved from http://www.combustiblecelluloid.com.intmorris.shtml (accessed on April 9, 2011).
5.
Barthes, Roland. (1982). Diderot, Brecht, Eisenstein. Selected and translated by Stephen Heath. Image Music Text. London: Fontana Paperbacks.
6.
Bhaskar, Ira. (June 2009). The limits of desire. Seminar: The Circuits of Cinema, 598. Retrieved from http://www.india-seminar.com/2009/598/598_ira_bhaskar.htm (accessed on April 5, 2011).
7.
Blitz. (1959, October 17). Tragedy of the eternal Triangle: Sylvia Nanavati tells her story of love and torture. (By Staff Reporter).
8.
Blitz. (1959, October 24). Full pictorial record of the Nanavati case: Three shots that shook the nation (By Homi D. Mistry) (Pictures by B.K. Sanil).
9.
Blitz. (1959, October 31). Blitz makes history as its print-order soars to 1,52,500: Nanavati… What next? (By Legal Correspondent).
10.
Blitz. (1960, September 10). Nanavati sheds uniform, bids farewell to arms, surrenders to warrant (By Homi D. Mistry).
11.
Blitz. (1960, September 17). Nanavati: Journey to Jail.
12.
Blitz. (1962, April 7). Nanavati mercy petitions cry with the agony of a whole family: Complete justice with mercy! (By Homi D. Mistry)
13.
Blitz. (1963, February 9). ‘Yeh Raastey…’ Producers owe a debt to Nanavati.
14.
Blitz. (1963, February 16). A great trial inspires a great movie… Yeh Raaste captures the tragedy, torments and tears of L’Affair Nanavati (By D. Nadkarni).
15.
Brooks, Peter. (1984).The melodramatic imagination: Balzac, Henry James, melodrama and the mode of excess. New York: Columbia University Press.
16.
Chopra, B.R. (1963). Gumrah [Motion picture]. India, Hindi.
17.
Chopra, B.R. (1956). Ek hi rasta [Motion picture]. India, Hindi.
18.
Current. (1959, November 4). Lavatory Journalism.
19.
Current. (1959, December 2).
20.
Elsaesser, Thomas. (1987). Tales of sound and fury: Observations on the family melodrama. In Home is where the heart is: Studies in melodrama and the woman’s film. London: BFI Publishing, pp. 55.
21.
Filmfare. (1963, February 22). Fears to face facts.
22.
Filmfare. (1963, March 8). Leela Naidu at home.
23.
Filmindia. (1957, July).
24.
Foucault, Michel. (1984). Truth and power & Nietzche, genealogy, history. In Paul Rabinow (Ed.), The Foucault reader (pp. 55–77). New York: Pantheon Books.
25.
Gulzar. (1970). Achanak [Motion picture]. India, Hindi.
26.
Hahn, Emily. (1960). Commander Nanavati and the unwritten law. New Yorker, November 26.
27.
Jain, Jyotindra. (2006). Recasting the imagery of Kalighat painting. In Kalighat painting: Images from a changing world. Mapin Publishing Pvt Ltd.
28.
Khan, Mehboob. (1949). Andaz [Motion picture]. India, Hindi.
29.
Khosla, Raj. (1960). Bambai ka babu [Motion picture]. India, Hindi.
30.
Maheshwary, Ram. (1965). Kajal [Motion picture]. India, Hindi.
31.
Majumdar, Neepa. (2009).Wanted: Cultured ladies only! Female stardom and cinema in India. 1930s–1950s. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
32.
Mistry, Rohinton. (1991).Such a long journey. Canada, India: McClelland and Stewart.
33.
Modi, Sohrab. (1938). Jailor (Version 1) [Motion picture]. India, Hindi.
34.
Modi, Sohrab. (1958). Jailor (Version II) [Motion picture]. India, Hindi.
35.
Mort, Frank. (2008). Morality, majesty, and murder in 1950s London: Metropolitan culture and English modernity. In G. Prakash & K.M. Kruse (Eds), The spaces of the modern city: Imaginaries, politics and everyday life (pp. 313–345). Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.
36.
Mukherjee, Hrishikesh. (1960). Anuradha [Motion picture]. India, Hindi.
37.
Naidu, Leela with Pinto, Jerry. (2010).Leela: A patchwork life. New Delhi: Penguin Viking.
38.
Orsini, Francesca. (2007).Love in South Asia: A cultural history. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press India Pvt Ltd.
39.
Pinney, Christopher. (2008).The coming of photography in India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
40.
Prakash, Gyan. (2003). Blitz’s Bombay, Seminar, 528. Retrieved from http://www.india-seminar.com/2003/528/528%20gyan% (accessed on April 5, 2011).
41.
Prakash, Gyan. (2010).Mumbai fables. New Delhi: Harper Collins Publishers India.
42.
Przyblyski, Jeannene M. (1995). Moving pictures: Photography, narrative, and the Paris Commune of 1871. In Leo Charney & Vanessa R. Shwartz (Eds), Cinema and the invention of modern life (pp. 255–263). Berkley and LA: University of California Press.
43.
Rushdie, Salman. (1981).Midnight’s children. UK: Jonathan Cape.
44.
Sagar, Ramanand. (1965). Arzoo [Motion picture]. India, Hindi.
45.
Sahu, Kishor. (1960). Dil Apna Aur Preet Parayi [Motion picture]. India, Hindi.
46.
Sangari, Kumkum. (2007). Love’s repertoire: Qurratulain Hyder’s river of fire. In F. Orsini (Ed.), Love in South Asia, A cultural history (pp. 259–285). New Delhi: Cambridge University Press India Pvt Ltd.
47.
Sarkar, Tanika. (2001). Talking about scandals: Religion, law and love in late 19th century Bengal. In Hindu wife, Hindu nation: Community, religion and cultural nationalism. New Delhi: Permanent Black.
48.
Setalvad, Motilal C. (1971).My life: Law and other things. Bombay: N. M. Tripathi Pvt Ltd.
49.
Sethi, Aarti. (2005). The honorable murder: The trial of Kawas Maneckshaw Nanavati. In Monica Narula, Shuddhabrata Sengupta, & Jeebesh Bagchi (Eds), Bare acts: Sarai reader 5 (pp. 444–453). Delhi: CSDS.
50.
Singer, Ben. (2001). Melodrama and modernity: Early sensational cinema and its contexts. New York: Columbia University Press.
51.
Sinha, Indra. (2002).The death of Mr Love. London: Sribner.
52.
Suri, Narendra. (1958). Lajwanti [Motion picture]. India, Hindi.
53.
Thapar, Raj. (1991).All these years: A memoir. New Delhi: Seminar Publications.
54.
The Indian Express. (1959, October 15). Bombay.
55.
The Indian Express. (1959, October 22).
56.
The Indian Express. (1960, February 8). Advertisement for the film.
57.
The Indian Express. (1960, September 9).
58.
Time. (1960, March 28). For the love of Sylvia. Time. Retrieved from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,826134,00.html (accessed on April 10, 2011).
59.
Trotti, Micheal A. (2003). Murder made real: The visual revolution of the halftone. The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 111(4). Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4250142 (accessed on October 2, 2009).
