BR Chopra dared to make Hindi cinema’s first song-less film in 1960, which won a National Award

Like many of his previous films, Naya Daur and Sadhna, Kanoon too, picked up one problem that affected the functioning of the society and constructed its story around it. Here, the film talks about capital punishment and if implementing this actually serves the society in any way. Kanoon opens with a man who is being questioned for murdering someone, and if proven guilty, he would be sentenced to prison, or given a death sentence. The man pleads guilty but insists that he has already served ten years in prison for the same crime which shocks the judge. The man pleads, and dies on the stand. The incident has nothing to do with the plot of the film but presents the audience with the dilemma, ‘What happens when an innocent man gets punished for a crime that he hasn’t committed?’

Kanoon examines this and introduces a murder into its plot. Of course, there is a love story that is challenged by the moral compass of the protagonist but that takes a back seat because BR Chopra treats it primarily like a thriller. The film isn’t exactly a whodunnit as Chopra shows you the entire murder sequence in complete detail but as the courtroom drama starts taking shape, the audience is asked to question if the events they saw are the complete truth. Kanoon questions the legal system and asks if witnesses, or even so-called valid proof is enough to convict someone because witnesses suffer from bias and proofs could be manipulated.

Kanoon won BR Chopra his first Nation Film Award. (Photo: NFAI Official/Twitter)

The 1957 V Shantaram film Do Ankhen Barah Haath also spoke about the legal system when it questioned if treating prisoners in an inhumane fashion in jails actually serves the society in any way. Do Ankhen Barah Haath spoke about a utopian open prison and Kanoon takes that conversation forward when it starts questioning if the measures used to find justice are strong enough to hold the weight of the truth.

Watching Kanoon in 2023 isn’t a particularly extraordinary experience because pulling the ‘it was a lookalike and not me’ twist isn’t appreciated anymore. The film effortlessly sails through without any songs, but that too, isn’t an unusual experience today. But the complicated dilemma that holds the film together is its clear distinction between perception and truth. Being an eye-witness, and telling the truth, doesn’t make one’s testimony true, and that’s probably what makes Kanoon a timeless experience.