Ek Ruka Hua Faisla (1986)

One dissenting juror in a murder trial tries to influence the verdict with his personal prejudices and biases

Director:

Basu Chatterjee

Writers:

Ranjit Kapoor (dialogue), Ranjit Kapoor (screenplay)

Stars:

Deepak Kejriwal, Amitabh Srivastava, Pankaj Kapur

Cast

Cast overview:
Deepak Kejriwal	...	Juror #1
Amitabh Srivastava	...	Juror #2
Pankaj Kapur	...	Juror #3
S.M. Zaheer	...	Juror #4
Subhash Udghate	...	Juror #5
Hemant Mishra	...	Juror #6
M.K. Raina	...	Juror #7
K.K. Raina	...	Juror #8
Annu Kapoor	...	Juror #9
Subbiraj	...	Juror #10
Shailendra Goel	...	Juror #11
Aziz Qureshi	...	Juror #12
C.D. Sindhu	...	Gatekeeper

Storyline

Twelve male members of a jury gather together in an enclosed room to deliberate their decision on a charge of murder against a young man who has been accused of killing his elderly father. All of the jury, save for one, are convinced of this young man's guilt, and they would like to convince their colleague also to come to the same unanimous decision. But will they be able to convince him to change his verdict?

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Plot Keywords:

man wears eyeglasses | verdict | jury | prejudice | single set production | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Did You Know?

Trivia

M.K. Raina and K.K. Raina are siblings sitting next to each other. They both graduated from National School of Drama.

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Connections

Version of Studio One in Hollywood: Twelve Angry Men (1954)

User Reviews

How can our mind be spontaneous with the burden of all our past knowledge

To overcome our prejudices, to think beyond what we know and to observe the real truth without any presumptions of the observer is not something easily achieved. Many scholars like J Krishnamurthy have even called this practice as the greatest form of meditation one can do. This sounds true, since most of us all are so prepossessed with our knowledge, that the reality in front of us is always shadowed by the images projected by our mind, our thoughts and our accumulated concepts.

"Ek ruka hua faisala" is a story of such 11 men, who are all biased in their decision over a legal verdict, a murder case. The twelfth person in the group was an indifferent guy who tries to convince the group by his rationale thinking. It's decided that until any consensus is reached within the sequestered jurors, they all have to sit together and listen to what others are saying.

The movie left me thinking behind, the way I view things myself, the way I take my decisions, where does this promptness to do something comes from, am I ever reached at the reality before judging the activities of mind as right and wrong. I think most of the times it never happens.

The life would be much different if we are able to observe the things without the burden of our past knowledge. I hope in that case, we may as spontaneous as a little child and might have reached more closer to the reality then.

All the performers have done their part exceptionally well, particularly Pankaj Kapur, who played a stubborn middle age man. I have watched some of his movies like "The Blue Umbrella", which left an impact of his performance on me. And this knowledge was with me all the while I was watching him again, listening to the dialogues he delivered. It seems once again I have seen what I wished to watch, I have appreciated what I was prepared to appreciate and the distinctness between the observer and the observed is lost again.

The movie is a master piece, the story and the concept behind needs to be observed.

Details

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Release Date:

23 July 1986 (India)

Also Known As:

Hung Jury

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

127 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1