The Reality of Illusion

He woke up with a hypnic jerk. His head spun as he was suddenly jolted to consciousness. He realized he had woken up next to an unknown female companion. Their clothes lying on the floor suggested what they had been upto last night.

It was not unusual considering the fact that Apoorva Pandit was a renown womanizer and all the women he knew were aware of his reputation. But his life had taken a dramatic turn recently

He was a famous stand up comedian and he had recently insulted a famous celebrity on his show. The Celeb had not taken the joke very nicely and had slapped a lawsuit on his face.It was not an ordinary case as media had made it a case which showed continuously on all channels. The mud slinging had continued and Apoorva’s clean image in public that he had been sporting for quite a while had been tarnished

He had no celeb friends now, as the guy he had chosen to make fun of was the ruling king of indian cinema, a famous movie star and producer who could make or break any career.

After a long shower where he cried and prayed for his life to be back on track , he decided to wake the pretty damsel sleeping in his bed, But umpteen attempts to shake her out of sleep proved futile. Suddenly a spooky thought arouse , Was she dead, he thought. He checked her pulse and his fears were proven true, she was indeed dead.

He tried to recollect events from the previous night but he could not remember anything. He growled in frustration, tears rolling down from his cheek. It may have been planned, the famous celeb, Kamran Khan was hellbent on destroying Apoorva Pandit.

He decided to pack the dead body in his huge travelling suitcase and dump it near the garbage. Lifting from the bed seemed difficult as her body had grown tremendously heavy.Somehow with great difficulty when he lifted her, the doorbell rang.He dumped her back in the bed and checked from the keyhole. His wife was standing outside the door.

He had recently completed his divorce with his first wife and entered into a second marriage with his long time girlfriend Zoya Aziz. Time froze and Apoorva wiped the sweat from his head. There are times where you wish you could just escape, where you think you could just not face that event.His wife would be shattered to see another woman in their bed , more gruesome was the fact that it was A dead woman.

With a nose ring being her trademark, she looked every bit of the socialite she was. Partying, drinking, Junk parties were her life.Zoya Aziz was today’s liberated women who believed in living her life based on her conventions, she had even invented a religion of her own named Zoyaism where everything Zoya ever wanted to do was allowed

These conventions included falling in love with a married man. Zoya was head over heels in love with Apoorva Pandit, the host of the comedy show where she wrote the scripts.

There was a fantastic camaraderie between them and she felt at ease sharing anything with him. He was ,in her imagination a perfect man, with polished oratory skills, an intelligence that ensued that he spoke about any topic with flair and a spontaneous comic timing that garnered a tremendous applause in every episode.

A Strong overall personality made him stand out as he always well groomed and  he wore the most stylish suits.

She was hard to ignore , as he she shattered all gender stereotypes and usual thoughts on how a female should be. Zoya had no inhibitions ,she was secure and confident of her identity

She used to get into a random incapacitated thought whenever she thought about the bleak future of her relationship with Apoorva as even though he had left his wife to marry her, he had still not left his womanizing ways.

Every now and then she heard another story of Apoorva hitting on another TV Starlet by promising them meaty roles in TV Shows as he had strong connections in the TV Industry.

Zoya assailed his office time and again, she had an insinuation of something unpleasant prevailing there.she never made her suspicion evident to Apoorva .. but there was a paranoid and thin-skinned Apoorva who defended even without her asking which made her more unsure.

In the insane situation He remembered that this dead girl had once come for an audition and he faintly remembered meeting her last night in a discotheque.

Zoya screamed loud and banged the door. His hands were shivering as he opened the door knob. As expected Zoya first started the drama of tears and abuses and then she did the unthinkable, she called the cops and got him arrested for murder.

Kamran Khan paid a friendly visit to the prison where Apoorva had been kept.. He entered his cell and a fleet of cops entered behind him carrying a soft drink bottle and a comfortable cushioned chair . The Police Inspector held Kamran’s jacket before he sat on the cushioned chair in style.

In his typical filmy way he held his hand under his chin and posed as if thinking what to say and after a long patient pause he said ” Did u know my history before you joked about me ? “

A Furious gaze followed, Kamran Khan had red  bloodshot eyes below the dark sunglasses and he said in the typical nasal voice he had ” Do you know who i am ? ” I am the heartthrob of Indian Cinema ” Indian audience forgives me for everything i do” ” I hunt animals for my pleasure , i hunt women for my pleasure ” I Insult anyone i feel like insulting”” i run my car over sleeping beggars, as  they are supposed to die, they are worthless, Aren’t they”

“You make a joke about me and my estranged girlfriend and you think it is funny. Am i a joke ? “

“Yes, women leave me because they cannot handle my starry tantrums or the abuse i cause them, but then i am the star and i rule ” he said before leaving the cell and kicking apoorva in his belly.

After three months of struggle Apoorva was granted bail as the murder weapon was not found and there was not enough evidence against him.

He wanted to bust the star scandals and take revenge for everything he had faced. With a strong determination he decided to start afresh. He had realized that he had lost everything and even his comic timing. but he was a changed man. He decided to unravel the mystery behind the TV Starlet who was found murdered in his bed. He wanted to remember that night, he wanted to prove he was not guilty of murder.

He visited the ageing yesteryear superstar Nirmal Khanna who was now reduced to playing character roles mostly Kamran Khan’s father who suggested that the only way to solve this mess is to ask for forgiveness from Kamran Bhai as he is connected to the underworld.

Then the mystery unfolded, he was spying on Kamran Khan when he saw him walk out of his house holding Zoya by the waist. As they entered in his Black Mercedez car , she was dressed in a black gown which matched the fabric and colour of Kamran Khan’s  shining black suit. As the car moved out, he inquired with the security guard who told him that they were on their way to a reality show where Zoya was a contestant and Kamran was the Host.

“Papa” he shouted with ecstasy and came running towards him from a distance when he visited the school of his son Arush. Apoorva had a picture perfect family before zoya had come in his life and before the success of his show had gone into his head.He had a simple and caring wife Akansha and a son who idolized him.

Akansha had chosen to forgive him and accept him back in their life .The Best was yet to come. A Young man knocked the door of Apoorva’s house. He was a small time TV actor named Chetan who appeared in thriller shows. Apoorva was now being appreciated by a few people who had been traumatized by the star. They all saw a leader in him, someone who could fight for everyone’s right and become a messiah. This young mans girlfriend had been a part of the reality show produced by Kamran Khan and had recently committed suicide. He believed that her suicide was a conspiracy. There was more to it than meets the eye.

Chetan Goswami had worked in one scene with Kamran Khan in his blockbuster movie and he had experienced something traumatic. He had a fight scene with Kamran Khan, it was a roadside fight with which the movie was going to start. Chetan had thought that it was a normal action scene and he had been looking forward to his bit role with the big Star.

But what was shot was terrifyingly atrocious, it was not a scripted fight, it was a real fight and Kamran Khan had immensely enjoyed the sadistic pleasure he gained by hitting someone. Chetan had been terribly  wounded and almost killed. All his shouts, the pain on his face , everything was real. Kamran had no value for human life, all he cared about was making 200 crores at the box office.

That is what happened in Kamran’s films. The Torture Scenes were real, people whistled at the star’s style but behind the scenes it was humanity that was being slaughtered. Kamran thoroughly enjoyed them being filmed. He employed all new starlets, wannabe actors and enjoyed torturing them. Once he even fired at someone using a real gun and shot him in his hand.He had someones fingers chopped off in a film and showed close ups of his face with the real pain and trauma being captured in that scene. He was a danger to the society, his stardom had made him insane.

All this had to be exposed . But for that he needed to be in one of Kamran Khan’s films.

They needed someone unknown, unseen and unexposed on screen to star in a Kamran Khan film and expose his atrocious reality. There was great risk involved in this but they decided to send Arush for auditioning for the part of a child artiste in an upcoming film and he was instantly selected.

Akansha accompanied Arush to the film’s set and as per instructions she was shooting everything in the hidden cam in her purse. It was a sting operation that was going to be aired live on a popular news channel that had bought the story.

The Shooting location was an island away from the city . As a nervous Akansha spoke to Kamran Khan, he fidgeted playfully with Arush’s hair and told him to get inside his vanity vain and that he wanted to give him some acting lessons.

As they entered the vanity van, Akansha was stopped outside. Nirmal Khanna ran to her and said ” Get inside somehow, there is something wrong that he does to children ” Chetan came rushing , he had been serving drinks dressed as a waiter.

Akansha cried in agony, she had so stupid to let him take away her only child. When suddenly the door opened and Apoorva walked out . He had been hiding in the vanity van, expecting  Kamran to lure an actress in there with him.

He was going to shoot the real torture Kamran gave to the actors who were rewarded promising roles in his movies.

He had brought his son, as he still had hoped some humanity in Kamran. But Kamran had chosen to torture his son, his only child and it triggered a sudden rush of blood and he assassinated him by shooting him at point blank range.

 A dead Kamran Khan lied in a pool of blood, A Sobbing Arush was rescued. They got hold of many torture tapes that had been shot by Kamran Khan under the pretext of art,

Zoya stood in the court and testified against Kamran. She had lured by promising her a career in the reality shows genre.

That night Kamran had visited their house and sedated Apoorva so that he fell unconscious and then he had killed the TV Starlet by injecting her poison through a syringe. She had stood there and witnessed it and had been a partner in crime as she wanted to take revenge against Apoorva for his womanizing ways.

The Nightmare had ended. The Star had faded. Kamran Khan could now allow others to rest in peace after his demise.

Apoorva was back to doing his hit comedy show with more flair and this time his comic timing was even better. He had learnt a lesson in life however contrary to what one would expect, he still conducted auditions and cast new TV Starlets as co-hosts in every episode. Even though not  a womanizer anymore, he continued being a healthy flirt.