TITLE:    VALENTINE

               WRITTEN BY: VISHAL ARORA

A man is found dead at the railway tracks it seems that he fell down from the train and got killed  he was wearing a religious shirt belonged to local organization ram sena the police think that it is straight forward case of accident and close the file

Two months before  

Kalpana lives in Mumbai she is a beautiful and a very talented girl born in Punjab jalandhar

Her father is retd army officer she has been bought up in various boarding schools and is very modern and carefree girl she is struggling to become model and actress in Mumbai she is also a part of the dance group  

She has a boyfriend ajay who is also aspiring model and he is  also part of the same dance group they live together in bandra Mumbai both of them are in love with each other and also very expressive about their feelings for each other

Jay and kapna are perform at at function playing radha Krishna and performing the ras leela they are both good dancers and perform well the audience is completely engrossed and they get a standing ovation aftaer the performance

Jay says to kalpana that tomorrow is Valentines Day and he has gift for her and they will go to the beach tomorrow

Its valentine day and ajay had decided to take kalpana to the Mumbai chowpatty as this was the place that they had first met he has some surprises for kalpana and want to celebrate their togetherness by the beach side

A cultural/religious organization has asked for ban on all valentine day celebrations in the city and had warned couples not to celebrate the same their people are roaming a over the city to prove that they mean business.

Mahesh rungte is local goon he is very young and wants to make it big in politics he has joined the ram sena which has given a call for ban on valentine day and has met its party chief kailsh dalpate

 He wants to prove that he is the most loyal soldier of the party and is roaming from place to place see that the ban is effective

He has been a several restaurants and bars and had asked couples in their to get lost he had roughed several youngsters, shoppers and all of them had obeyed his command

He now moves on to the chowpatty beach and starts harassing the couples who are their and all of them start fleeing the area

He sees kalpana and ajay lost in each other and ajay leans down on his knees and proposes to kalapana mahaesh snatches the ring away from ajay and starts harassing them

ajay very irritated at this harassment starts protesting Mahesh slaps on the face and ajay hits back.

A scuffle break down and all the boys who are their stars hitting and beating ajay they beat him mercilesslesly and then leave him their as kalpana tries to intervene she is also hit.

As all of them leave kalpana tries to get ajay up but ajay lies there life less kalpana cries for help some people who are gathered there rush ajay to the hospital

Doctors examine ajay and declare that he has gone into a coma kalpana is also shell shocked by the turn of events

The police arrive and kalpana tell them about the incident the police instead of calming tell her as to why she and her boyfriend were roaming about at the beach hen there was a warning by a certain organization about the same

Inspector jayadev who is there in the hospital for some other case asks the investigating officer to catch holds d of the criminals instead of harassing the girl

The media also comes to know of the same and the hospital is awash with reporters from every channel trying to get to kalpana

The incident gets reported in the media and makes a big splash

Several days pass and ajay does not recover kalpana sits there in his room staring at him the doctors tell her that this condition of ajay can continue for a very long time and advise her to take him home

Meanwhile in the media there is virtual debate going on people from all factions of the society are debating whether this harassment of people by a certain organization is plain dadagiri or means to gets political mileage

Kailash dalpate is their on every channel defending the actions of his people saying that they are trying to stop youngsters from the bad influences of the west and trying to preserve the cultural heritage of India

The ram sena out rightly denies any involvement of its people with the incident saying that their people don’t indulge in such violence some local elements would have done the same 

Meanwhile the police have rounded up some elements and call kaplpana to identify them kalpana goes to the police station but none of the people who had been caught were from the same group that harassed her

Jayadev meets her there and tells her that the police are under pressure not to touch the people of ram sena as they are the supporting party of the government in power.

Kalpana is completely shattered and comes and sits with ajay days start passing and ajay still does not recover meanwhile kalpana starts neglecting helf and her dressing and everything becomes much laid back she is completely lost in taking care of ajay .

She starts losing her composure she seemed to disturbed and is not able to dance or perform her trope tries to support her but she goes into a shell

Jaydev comes and meets her sometimes and tries to help her but the only question that kalpana keeps asking is when the police would get those criminals behind bars

Jayadev had developed a liking for kalpana not in romantic way but he likes kalpana and likes talking to her he finds way and means to get kalpana out of her shell

He invites her over to his placed to meet his wife and kid kalpana does that and finds the change refreshing she becomes friends with Mahesh wife and kid and she likes Mahesh a lot

Mahesh keeps on meeting kalpana and forms a strong bond with kalpana 

Present time

A man comes to the police and tells them that he had  seen the man who died in the accident with some others harassing a couple in the train they were taunting the girl who was hindu that she was shame as the boy was muslim the girl was crying and the boy was also slapped by them

Finally both the boy and the girl got down at the station the group barring the man also got down he also got down at the station

This opens a fresh angle

Te police open a fresh investigation and jaydev starts probing the same he gets hold of a autorichaw walla who had driven the boy and the girl home

He gets hold of the boy and the girl and after investigating he concludes that they were not involved in the same

But what he comes to know that there was also a girl sitting at last row her face was covered with scarf the man who had given the police information also confirms the same.

The police area tries there best to find who that girl was

Meanwhile another incident  happens a local ram sena worker who had gone ahead and slapped a model and threatened her because she had done some provocative ad campaign and the girl was hit badly the guy got arrested but was soon released on bail and was still threatening the girl

This man was found dead as he fell down from the 18 story apartment the police suspect it is case of murder 

Meanwhile the ram sena had organized a rally for all its party workers its massive rally and heavy security arrangements were made for the same workers from all across India are present there 

Party workers were organize on the basis of the region that they belonged to workers from mumabi were gathered at certain location the police are hard pressed to provide security

Jaydev is also on duty during the rally as he is scanning the crowd he sees kalpana who is standing in the crowd and is watching everyone very intently she is also dressed in the party clothes and wearing a scarf .

Kalpana is looking for Mahesh suddenly she sees Mahesh and she starts to move toward him jayadev rushes towards kaplpana but suddenly she is lost in the crowd

As the rally gets over kalpana follows Mahesh to wherever he goes s and finally comes to know where he lives

We see kalpana going to some dingy markets and she purchases a pistol.

Jayadev meets kaplana and tries to find out where she was when the man in the train got killed and what was she doing in the rally kalpana denies any involvement.

As jayadev leaves kaplana recalls the train incident she saw a group of men harassing a girl and his boyfriend as they kept on harassing her she also grew more and angrier when finally the boy and the girl ran away and the group leader was left in the train

She came near to him and flirted with him the guy responded as he tried to more fresh she told him that she was a muslim and how can he flirt with her the guy told her that its all a politics and it hardly matters as thy were standing near the door the guy tried to kiss her and she pushed him out of the train

She recalls all this in flash back

She recalls how she was filled with dread and fear after the she did this how she roamed from street to street and finally went and sat with ajay

Then she remembers her looking at the newspaper and the man slapping and hitting the model she followed the whole incident and she dos not know why but she got hold of the guy address went to his apartment flirted with him and the finally threw him off the apartment window .

Here jayadev talks to one of his informers and asks him to follow kalpana night and day and report to him.

The informers name is mukesh

He starts following kalapna ,kalapna follows  set routine which revolves round ajay in the hospital her dance classes and then most of the time she sits at the beach just lost in herself .

She also seem to mingling with the crowd of ram sena she is seen participating with the ram sena workers and slowly and slowly she is getting close to Mahesh

Maukesh reports all this to jaydev

Here mukesha who is also alocal goon baeats up one of the shopkeepers on pretty row the man is hit badly and the matter gets reported to the police Mahesh is arrested and jaydev warn him to keep control of himself

Mahesh is released on bail

Jayadev meets kalpana and again tries to probe whether she is involved in these killings as they talk they get into discussion about Mahesh ram sena and all that is being done in the name if morality and kalpana tells jayadev that someone needs to do something about this blatant violation of people live

Jayadev tells kalpana that he will hate to arrest a friend kalapna tell her that that the time will never come

Here ajay dies in the hospital but it does not make kalpana cry she is calm and composed jayadev feels that she is up to something.

Here kalpana has gotten close to Mahesh she asks mahesh out for stroll for a dinner Mahesh is also infatuated with kalpana he has never gone out with such a beautiful woman.

As they meet out and then spend time together its gets late in the night.

Kalpana asks Mahesh to come with her to the beach .

Here one of the workers of ram sena recognizes kalpana as the girl who was with ajay he phones in Mahesh and tells him about the same.

Mahesh comes to realize that kalpana is up to something as they are near the secluded spot on the beach he starts hitting at kalpana he opens her bag and finds the gun.

Here jaydev also turns up at the beach kalpana and Mahesh get into scuffle and Mahesh gets shot jayadev reaches the place and asks kalpana to leave saying that that the man who was  beaten up by Mahesh has died and he will say that when he tried to arrest Mahesh  he resisted and  in the process got shot .

Kalpana who has not cried since ajay death starts crying and the then she just leaves.

The story ends with kalpana spraying ajay ashes and the looking at the poster of the ram sena chief.   

  

                       

Malwa

Story

This story is set in early 1800 and deals with the opium trade which was prevalent in those times

Jamshedji is the biggest opium trader in Bombay and in India he stared out small but has grown into wealth and stature he is most prominent Indian in Bombay

Rustom is young lad whose father was once the partner and best friend of Jamshedji

Rustom want to enter the opium trade but Jamshedji has stalled his entry everywhere he has not allowed Rustom to get the license of opium trade that is required

Rustom hates Jamshedji and thinks he killed his father who died on trip to china so that he can have the whole business to himself

Jamshedji has daughter Rehan she is beautiful and independent and in love with Rustom

Rustom also loves Rehan but he never told her he first wants to make name for himself in the opium trade and then would go to Jamshedji for his daughter hand

Rustom meets an American William who has come to India in an old ship which he ahs stolen from his father and now wants to enter the opium trade he ahs license for opium but he needs local man

William and Rustom enter into partnership they buy opium and then transport the same in their ship and make good profit.

Rustom In his enjoyment consumes opium and then slowly consumes more

The opium sold in Bombay is Bengal opium which is grown by the British but malwa opium which is grown in central India is of much better variety and cheap so is flooding the markets and British are not getting good price at their auctions

So British go ahead and impose a steep duty on he import and shipping of malwa opium from Bombay

But Rustom who has now become a prominent opium trader and some other young traders they start buying opium directly and shipping it through Daman which is controlled by the Portuguese

And the British Bengal opium has no takers in china and malwa opium has flooded the Chinese market

British are now desperate they bring in strong an Henry who is shrewd and brutal and his brief is to somehow control the Parsi traders who are trading in malwa opium

Henry meets Jamshedji and offers hi m exclusive rights to all opium auctioned in the city if can control malwa traders

Henry also wants to marry Rehan

British prevail in Portuguese and the port of Daman is closed

But ruato m is not deterred he transports the biggest shipment of malwa opium through land route of sindh himself and cheap malwa opium destroys Bengal opium at the auctions in canton the British shipment is sold at half the price

But Rustom on this trip also comes to know of the devastation this opium is having on the Chinese people and is filled with guilt and how this has destroyed an entire generation of Chinese men

And slowly and slowly he is also becoming addicted to opium

He comes back

Now he is prominent so he proposes to Rehan she accepts but tries to dissuade him from the opium trade

The British wants to hit back at the Parsi traders

So they this time to something drastic

They start shooting dogs saying that they are creating a nuisance in Bombay

The parsi revered dogs and the fist ever animal rights riots break out in Bombay

Thousands of people are put behind bars

Finally an agreement is reached and they are released but malwa opium is also now transported only through British ports

Rustom meets Jamshedji and asks for Rehan hand

They have verbal duel and finally Rustom comes to know that his father as killed by British when he after seeing what opium has done to china tried to burn a shipment

Rustom decides to leave the opium trade but not before he takes his father revenge

Rustom burns the godowm that has the biggest store of opium in British history but is not arrested as Jamshedji vouched far him.

Rustom leaves opium trade and opium and marries Rehan.