Something terrifying is taking place in urban India – and it is giving love a very bad name!
Readers may recall that sometime back, newspapers in Mumbai were filled with horrific details about a crime of passion, involving a luscious ‘model’ called Moon Das, her besotted lover from Rourkela, a certain Avinash Patnaik, and their respective family members. Going by available data, the small town guy had fallen big time for the big city glam gal during one of her stage shows, and decided she was the one for him.
While details kept changing, one thing remained clear – Patnaik drove a really long distance from his home, armed with a weapon, and with vengeance in his heart. He was all set to confront Moon, who had been thwarting his advances, and settle scores once and for all. He waited for his lover to return to her suburban flat late one night, while she was out with another man. If this is sounding like a Mahesh Bhatt script, don’t worry, I’m sure Mahesh has already registered the story based on this tragedy.
Well… Moon was greeted with a barrel of a gun, as Patnaik flew into a fit of jealousy. Incredibly enough, Moon and her beau-of-the-moment, showed tremendous presence of mind, by shutting the door on Patnaik’s face and locking it from the outside, before rushing to the nearest cop station. In the interim, Patnaik turned the gun on the two defenceless occupants of the flat, Moon’s mother and maternal uncle and shot them dead, before killing himself. That was the flow of events so far.
Patnaik was dead. So were two innocents. Moon positioned herself as a Joan of Arc, and wonder of wonders, got herself a bravery award! Her interviews were splashed in countless mass circulated publications, clad in alluring bikini tops, while offering quotes that sounded as they had been generated by a canny talent scout. There was speculation that such a young person, would want to flee at the first opportunity, after losing her mother. Mumbai offers little solace to those who mess up. It was thought Moon would prefer the comfort zone of Kolkata, her home town, rather than dealing with pesky journos and intrusive television-wallahs after the trauma she has endured.
Hell no! Moon had discovered the world’s most addictive narcotic – fame. And she wasn’t going to leave! After weeping into her pretty scarves, making sure not to smudge the mascara, or dislodge those coloured lenses, Moon announced her decision to dig in her heels and go for the main chance, right here in the very city that had taken away her beloved mother. Of course, Moon was doing it all for mummy! She planned to make it big in Bollywood just like mummy always wanted! Moon wanted to make sure she lived upto mummy’s dreams … and that’s the only reason Moon was not packing her bags just yet!
Hats off to the spunky girl. Even Mahesh Bhatt couldn’t have scripted it better.
There were several troubling issues involved though, the most crucial one being the tattered state of emotional investments in today’s stressed out times. Forget the charges from the Patnaik family that accused Moon of being nothing more than a ruthless gold digger, who took advantage of a rich man’s devotion to her. Papa Patnaik even furnished copies of incriminatory bank transactions which establish that his son had indeed transferred considerable funds into Moon’s account. There was photographic evidence to show that Moon’s family had holidayed with Patnaik at his expense.
Obviously, something went horribly wrong at some point. What was that ‘something’? Was Moon nothing more than an avaricious call girl milking her wealthy lover? Did she sell her sexuality in order to get ahead? Cheesy, semi-nude cover shots for Debonair started doing the rounds. Was her mother a party to all this? Did mummy actually encourage Moon to exploit her physical assets? Was it nothing but greed that drove Moon’s family to trade in on the girl’s ample assets?
Who then was the vamp of the piece and who the victim? Three people died. Soon, the cops lost interest in getting to the bottom of this whodunit (Patnaik’s family saw it as a murder). Moon was the one who escaped – literally and metaphorically. How she will choose to handle her future would be fascinating to monitor. However, cold-bloodedly speaking, Moon couldn’t have asked for a bigger break! From being just another anonymous starlet looking for roles, she was elevated to the front pages of tabloids – a huge leap, in terms of ‘brand awareness’. The price? A dead mother.
Wonder what Moon would consider fair ‘compensation’ for that loss!