The Fan

The famous actress of Indian cinema, Alaka, was no more. It was an unbelievable shock for everyone. She was married to a director, Suresh, and was survived by a son, Kunal, and daughter, Kanushi. Her husband was so loving and caring that he had lost consciousness after hearing the news. As soon as reached home, his daughter came running to him and started crying loudly. When he couldn't control himself, how could he control his daughter? He just placed the Filmfare award near her body and started to sob. Suresh's brother, Ramesh tried to pacify Kanushi, but she shrugged her shoulder off as she never used to like him. Ramesh moved back from them and came near Alaka and tried to crease out the white bedsheet that was put on Alaka's body. Kanushi became wild on seeing this and screamed in front of everyone, "don't you dare touch my mom's body, you only killed her.".Ramesh was startled to hear this and stepped back. He was rubbed off by his nephew, Kunal, who told him not to show his face till his mom's funeral is over.

Ramesh looked at his brother for support, which was of no use. He walked straight into his room amidst the crowd who were looking at him with suspicious eyes. Ramesh was very close to Alaka than Suresh as he had lost his wife in an accident and found solace in Alaka, which was mistaken by her kids. Alaka had only one bad habit, drinking, and that was how she became close to Ramesh when they used to sit late and wait for Suresh who would sometimes accompany them. Ramesh always used to drop her till her bedroom because he knew that Alaka would go into the world of ecstasy after having 4 to 5 pegs. That was when both her kids used to watch their uncle, Ramesh, bring her to the bedroom, which was unsightly according to them. That night also the same thing happened and as Ramesh was leaving her bedroom, Kanushi scolded him badly and on hearing that, Alaka came out in a drowsy state and told her to just go and sleep and that it was not right on her part to talk to her uncle like that and banged the door on her face. That was the last time Kanushi had seen her mom, alive.

A police complaint was registered and the officer in charge dropped into Alaka's house and took permission from Suresh, her husband, to take her body to do post mortem. Suresh immediately agreed and Alaka's body was shifted to the hospital. The pathologist started his duty. Nowhere could he find traces of injury or wound on her body and declared that it was a natural death since lab report also showed traces of alcohol in her blood. The body was handed over to Alaka's family and funeral rights were carried out. It took a while for Suresh to overcome the loss of his beloved wife, Alaka, but as he got busy with his work, slowly things started coming back to normalcy.

Ramesh could not stay at home since he was close to Alaka, as a friend of course, which was mistaken for a relationship by people surrounding them. As he was feeling bored, he thought he would go to Alaka's room and get a book to read. As soon as he entered the room, he was grief-stricken. The room was neatly kept. He had always appreciated Alaka's precision in keeping everything intact and in its place unlike his brother Suresh. Alaka was not only beautiful but also had a flare towards painting. He went towards the rack of canvases, which was filled with her story, story of loneliness, Alas, Suresh could have understood this. Ramesh took one of her paintings where she had made him hold the pot for 3 hours continuously for object drawing and when it was done, she had shown a thumbs up, and as his hands were paining, he had just dropped the pot and had got nice scoldings from Alaka. Ramesh just grinned and put it back. He went towards the book rack and while walking on the carpet stepped on something, it was a tiny pill, he bent down to pick it up, and coincidentally, the bedroom door was opened by Suresh. He got suspicious of Ramesh and asked him as to what made him come to his bedroom. Ramesh slowly slipped the pill into his pocket and told him that he had come to check on a few books and walked past him.

As soon as he entered the room, he locked it and took out the pill from his pocket. It was a small white pill that he had never seen Alaka taking. He was sure of having left Alaka in her room and after she had scolded Kanushi, Alaka had banged the door on her face. After that, he was awoken in the morning when Kunal had called out for him leaking out Alaka's death news. He was sure that someone had entered Alaka's bedroom after he had left her. He started doubting the security guard but then felt it was wrong on his part to even think like that since none of the security personnel were allowed inside their home, leave aside entering Alaka's bedroom. He was sure of Suresh who had gone to attend the Filmfare awards, and that he wouldn't leave it midway since he had to collect the award, and he had come home only in the morning with the Filmfare award.

Somewhere something had gone wrong. He thought about it and left home the next morning. Kanushi wanted a saree to wear for her college and went into her mother's bedroom and opened her wardrobe. Alaka had neatly folded them in a corner. Kanushi liked the pink colored saree and took it out, dhop, fell the diary. Kanushi took it and opened it. It was her mom's personal diary. She started flipping the pages and tears rolled down her eyes.

In the meantime, Ramesh went to the police station to meet the inspector who had facilitated Alaka's postmortem. The inspector immediately got up to wish him. Ramesh handed over the pill to him, which he had wrapped in a paper. The inspector told Ramesh that he would get back to him soon and as he was an ardent fan of Alaka, he would definitely find out the truth behind her death. Ramesh felt relieved and went home with relief. Suresh came home in the evening that day and told Ramesh about his new venture. Ramesh warned him against it as the film was a multistarrer and that he wouldn't be able to produce it. Suresh got enraged by this but told him that he had found producers who could finance his new venture and as he was about to get up from his chair, he had to sit back on hearing Ramesh say that he had gone to the police station in the morning and had handed over the pill that he had found on the floor of Alaka's bedroom. Suresh was about to say something to him when the doorbell rang and the house staff informed them of the arrival of police.

The sub-inspector came in with papers in his hand. He slowly moved towards Ramesh and held him by his collar, which was pretty shocking for Ramesh. He told the inspector to behave himself and requested him to leave his collar. The inspector replied, "game over Mr. Ramesh, you are like the snake, who was fed milk by Alaka and once you got to know that Alaka had known your true colors, you killed her by poisoning her.". Suresh got up from his chair and retaliated, "I knew from the beginning that it was you. I didn't believe when Kanushi had suspected you, I had supported you and you poisoned your own sister in law who had treated you like a son.".

On hearing the chaos both Kanushi and Kunal came out of their rooms to the hall. On seeing them, Suresh went to Kanushi and told her that she was right. Suresh got upset and told Ramesh " all you wanted is her money?" "Shame on you". The sub-inspector told Suresh to give away all Alaka's money to Ramesh with which he would be happy. Suresh immediately reacted negatively and said that he needed it for his future production. It was the slip of a tongue, which cost Suresh his freedom. The sub-inspector released Ramesh's collar and walked towards Suresh. He could see Suresh sweating all over. He handed over the insurance paper and informed the constables to arrest him. Suresh tried to escape from their hands, but police being police, handcuffed him.

The sub-inspector sat down and cleared things out for Ramesh and family who were still in shock except for Kanushi. She handed over her mom's diary to the inspector. The inspector told Ramesh since Alaka was a popular actress, Suresh had got her insured for a lump sum amount, which was about to expire this year. He wanted money from some way or the other to produce his new movie as he had gone bankrupt by producing other movies. He knew that Alaka wouldn't lend him money since she was tired of his failure. She had mentioned all this in her diary and how Ramesh used to console her as a friend every time Suresh used to pester her for money. Suresh was a thriller specialist and as he used to watch a lot of Hollywood movies, he had got inspired and has started slowly poisoning her. Ramesh interrupted him by saying that it was wrong to suspect someone without any proof. The sub-inspector then responded that Suresh had started to mix phenobarbital, a drug, which puts you to sleep in the water that she used to drink in the night. The flask of water was replaced every morning before Suresh used to leave, and that was consumed by Alaka throughout the day. On the day of Alaka's demise, he had put extra doses of phenobarbital in the flask and one of the pills had accidentally fallen down and was later found by Ramesh.

Inspector told them that Suresh's plan was perfect, but God's plan was even more perfect. The inspector told them that as an ardent fan of Alaka, he was not able to meet her personally, but then God gave him a chance to become her real fan by finding out the truth behind her death and that he was proud of upholding the justice, showing the mark of a true FAN. Kanushi hugged Ramesh and apologized for her behavior. Kunal couldn't wait to join them. Ramesh presented one of Alaka's paintings to the sub-inspector who was very happy about receiving it.