Prem Ahuja was of a stocky, squarish built with his hair in the front stylishly rolled up in a puff. He was known to be a smooth charmer and a polished high society playboy. The suave Rehman matched him in physical attributes and the facial structure. To essay Prem's charm in wooing women would be easy for Rehman, a consummate actor.

Years later, in 1973, Gulzar directed a sensitive story in Achanak which had echoes of the Nanavati case but with a twist in the tale.

The film, Vinod Khanna's second with Gulzar after Mere Apne established Vinod Khanna's reputation as a sensitive actor in Bollywood. His co-stars in the movie were the Tollygunge actress Lily Chakraborty and Bollywood's favourite policeman Iftekhar.

Here again, Vinod Khanna with his well-built physique, his height and good looks was a throwback to Commander Kawas Nanavati.

Vinod Khanna is an Army man. He returns home after the hard fought and bloody 1971 war. He floats on a joyous reverie during the entire train journey as he heads home and relives the happy moments spent with his wife, eager now to meet her.

He remembers the way he stood and watched her dress up - applying her makeup and her lipstick and that naughty episode which the lipstick triggered off… The memories are so tangible that he laughs out aloud - and the reverie is broken as he discovers that he is still traveling.

But, very much like Commander Nanavati, he returns home to discover that his wife loves him no more. She is intimately involved with another man… who is a close friend.

Betrayal and anger cloud his rational thoughts and in a fit of emotion he shoots his wife and her lover.

He is sentenced to death. For some time he is in the hospital recovering from a fatal gun wound got when he was trying to escape the police.

The massive public sympathy for Commander Nanavati and the favourable attitude of Provost Marshall Samuel towards the Commander finds an echo in the police chief played by Iftekhar and the sympathetic nurse Farida Jalal.

Vinod Khanna as the soldier is scripted as a goodhearted young man. While in hospital, he makes sure that young Farida Jalal always sincere in her duty is able to keep her rendezvous with her boyfriend.

On the field, he is a jawan of extraordinary courage and an inspiration for the other soldiers. He has been outstanding in his duty towards the nation. And his deep sense of patriotism and loyalty has been exemplary. To his wife he has been a loving husband. But the nature of his work has demanded long periods of absence from the family.

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