Plot
In his dreams of making it big, Sachin unknowingly commits a grave mistake that tears apart the life of the young and lively Kinnari. Out of guilt, Sachin vows to commit his life to keeping a promise he made to her, and ultimately forming an unbreakable bond with her that will tie their fates together, but how he will keep this promise and the journey that Sachin's promise will take them both on forms the crux of this story.
Main characters
Sachin Kalsekar: Sachin is a smart-talking, rebellious and ambitious 19-year-old. Sachin is a poor boy who lives in a chawl in Mumbai, Maharashtra, but dreams of being big and ridding him and his family of their poverty, a family consisting of his money-minded and widowed mother who can go to any extent for money, as well as his younger brother and sister. Sachin's one mistake results in the murder of Kinnari's parents making him indirectly responsible for the orphaned Kinnari's life falling apart, and so commits his life to protecting and looking after her.
Kinnari Bhandari: 7-year-old Kinnari is the only daughter of the ACP and is chirpy, intelligent and mischievous. Her age may fool people, but her quick and smart-thinking often makes her a match for anyone. Kinnari's life falls apart when at such a tender age she witnesses the brutal murder of her parents, the result of her father's enmity with the local crime lord, Nana Bhomkar and Sachin's indirect involvement. Kinnari, unknown to the truth, forms an unbreakable bond with Sachin from then on who promises to protect and look after her out of guilt.
Girija Kalsekar: The widowed mother of Sachin, Mukta and Atul, Girija is a single-mother whose well-earning husband, Ashok, died 3 years ago, in an office-fire mishap, leaving her and her kids in poverty, causing them to move from their beautiful home to a chawl. Desperate to get herself and her children out of their poverty and plight, she pushes her eldest son, Sachin to somehow start a business as he is well-educated and capable. Her greed for money and desperation to end her family's poverty leads her to take the path of crime by starting an affair with her late husband's friend and the local crime lord, Nana Bhomkar to get his help to earn money through the selling of illegal drugs and using his power and control over the chawl residents to gain superiority over them and earn money through illegal means. Despite this, Girija remains dissatisfied at having to get her hands dirty continuously to earn livelihood for her family, which results in her making a secret deal with Nana to use Sachin to get rid of his biggest enemy, the ACP, with Nana not being allowed to disclose the true nature of the deal to Sachin or her involvement, all in return for Nana giving Sachin a large loan of money to start his business.
Mukta Kalsekar: Mukta is the younger sister of Sachin and is 11-years-old. She is image-conscious and vain about her good-looks and desires to be a model.
Atul Kalsekar: Atul is the younger brother of Sachin and is 9-years-old. He is short-tempered and aggressively protective of his family despite his age and looks up to his elder brother.
Nana Bhomkar/ Nana Bhau: Nana, also known as Nana Bhau by the mumbai crime ring and the chawl residents, he was a good friend of Girija's husband, Ashok Kalsekar. After her husband's death, Girija starts an affair with Nana by winning his heart by first gaining sympathy from him using her husband's death after being made homeless and having to shift to the chawl. Nana falls in love with Girija, although she has no feelings for him and only loves her late husband, but chooses to use Nana to make her life at the chawl financially easier. Nana, on the insistence of Girija makes a deal to use Sachin to kill the ACP so he can get back his black-money and illegally-obtained land that had been seized by the ACP, and in return would fund Sachin's starting up of a new business.
One chapter ends, and another begins:
As smoke and fire surrounds the house, khushi, struggling for breath and coughing, looks down across the room to look at the bodies of tai, pyaare and bindu. Khushi recalls returning home with abheer to find the three having killed her father, and her mother and father-in-law to her horror. Tai narrated how bindu had been watching over them for 4 months as tai made sure to have them released after kamini had initially released her from jail, and with pyaare's help, tai was able to escape from jail and had come here. Outraged at their actions, khushi gets into a scuffle with tai only to take away her knife and in an act of vengeance, khushi takes it upon herself to end tai's terror, killing tai, bindu and pyaare. It was during the scuffle that a candle had fallen down and the living room had caught fire with abheer noting that he could smell kerosene.
Khushi snaps out of her train of thought to see the well planned fire executed by tai blocking off the exit points of the house and the upstairs portion of the house already engulfed in flames. Abheer comfortingly holds khushi's shoulders and brings her into his embrace.
"You know khushi, no matter how short our love and happiness together has been, every moment i have spent with you over the past 4 months till now have been so beautiful and memorable that to a certain extent, even our inevitable death doesn't bother me. The only thing that hurts me is that we were so engrossed in our own world that the danger looming over our heads went unnoticed by us. What hurts is knowing that when we were lost in one another, our family suffered unimaginable pain and death at the hands of tai... we could have stopped it... if only we were here."
Abheer sobs remembering seeing his entire family's bodies in front of him when entering the house and feeling helpless and at a loss of words looking over their bodies.
Survi puts her head on abheer's shoulder and holds his hand. "Abheer, what happened can no longer be reversed, and what is about to happen is evident. But in our final moments i only want to be with you and remember the times we have spent together."
Abheer kisses khushi's forehead, whilst tightening his grip on khushi's hand further and shedding uncontrollable tears, knowing what was about to happen. As khushi and abheer share their final embrace, the view pans out to outside the mansion, with the house being engulfed in flames and the people within.
5 years later...
The scene shifts to a busy Mumbai chawl (the same chawl survi and karthik used to live in).
"Dada, Ayi is calling you, so come quickly." Mukta informs Sachin in an irate tone as she blows on her fresh manicure and walks out in a huff from his room as Sachin, even after Mukta's very vocal message to him does not budge from under his duvet cover.
Girija paces back and forth in the living room whilst throwing nervous glances towards the ticking clock, then her eyes move impatiently towards the door of Sachin's bedroom, awaiting his arrival. 20 minutes later Sachin comes out freshened up and greets a visibly irritated Girija. She turns to him with her nostrils flared up in anger and her hands balled up into fists placed on either hip.
"When you have no sense of value for time how on earth will you make it big in life, my boy? Do you have any idea with how much effort I convinced Nana to help you in starting your business venture, but you seem too busy in dreaming big rather than trying to become big from the comfort of your bed" fumes Girija.
"Oh Ayi, you don't understand a simple thing, do you? If I'm going to make it big I need all the energy I can get, that includes getting maximum amount of sleep as possible, which isn't possible in this paagal khana of a house with you doing tandav on my head now, is it?" Sachin chimes back, still at ease despite his mother's visible rage.
Mukta looks up at Sachin from her seat on the sofa, still waiting for her manicure to dry and rolls her eyes at Sachin. "Well there goes Dada trying to tame Ayi's anger again with his non-existent sense of humour, but it won't work any wonders for you today. Ayi is trying really hard to get us out of this poverty and you still seem to be too relaxed despite seeing her slave away to make ends meet for us".
Mukta spits the words at Sachin to make it sound as harsh as possible, which work, as Sachin's eyes fall on Girija as he gulps down in guilt as he notices signs of sleep deprivation in his mother's eyes.
Atul, who is sat on the far side of the room on the dining table, jotting something down in a textbook, stops to throw a harsh glare at Mukta. "Mind your word's Akka. Dada has being doing his fair share of hard work by juggling college and working in the accounts office. You just shut up and carry on pampering yourself whilst Ayi and Dada slave away trying to make ends meet whilst you blow all their hard-earned money on your cosmetics", fires back Atul.
Sachin comes between the bickering siblings. "Ok you two there's no need to start your daily family feud over me". Sachin softens his eyes, looking now at Atul to gesture him to calm down. Atul, understanding his gesture takes back his seat and returns to his school work.
Girija turns towards Mukta and walks towards her until she is towering over her intimidatingly, whilst Mukta cowers upon seeing her changed, threatening expression. She places her hand on Mukta's arm only to tighten her grip slowly on it, which seemingly goes unnoticed by the boys. Mukta winces slightly at her grip, looking towards Sachin in hopes that he notices, as Girija looks behind her at Sachin and forward to Atul. She lets go of her arms and softens her eyes but maintains a stiff jaw as she speaks to Mukta.
"A son is answerable to nobody but his parents. If I see your Dada do any wrong, you can trust that your Ayi will reprimand him. You shouldn't feel the need to question your Dada, who without a doubt does more than most sons do nowadays for their parents. With your father gone, your Dada is no less than your father and should receive all the due respect that you would give your father if he was still with us, do you understand?" Girija's expressions turn increasingly threatening but once again soften as Sachin walks up to her side.
"You know Mukta don't you, she's just concerned like I am seeing you work so hard for us. And Mukta, don't you worry. We won't need to see these days of hardship for too long, as mine and Ayi's hard work combined will get us out of this financial constraint in no time. Till then you and chotu keep your cool with one another."
Girija caresses Sachin's cheek, pleased with his support for her. "It makes a mother proud when her son is happily willing to be his mother's support, but don't ever look at your mother with pity as I see you do often. Mukta didn't mean what she said..." Girija pauses to subtly warn her once again before continuing, "...and your mother could go beyond the tiresome work she is doing to give her children a better life, and I know all too well that is why you chose to work whilst studying. But son, education only helps you to a certain extent, as if you want a life where there is no dearth of what you want and need, it is essential to look for a quick and easy route outside of just education and paid employment..." she pauses once again to look at a picture of Sachin's father posing with a man, with the man placing his arm around her husband's shoulders, and slightly smirks in deep thought at the picture as her eyes close in on just the man accompanying her husband in the picture, she finishes her speech to Sachin, "...such as getting help from people you trust or using your contacts to get what you need more easily and quickly, which is exactly why I approached Nana for help, so we need to go now to meet him, so c'mon."
"Ok Ayi, I will come, but Atul has a point. I don't get why you buy Mukta all this makeup and clothes when we are already strapped for cash? All the chawl residents are often heard making comments that we struggle to pay our bills yet the daughter of the house is constantly decked up". Queries Sachin.
"No matter how poor a parent is, they want to be able to fulfil the demands of their children. And like I said I have no problem working hard to give you everything you want and need, so if Mukta wants all these nice clothes and makeup, how can I refuse her knowing how happy it makes her?" Answers Girija as she grabs Sachin by the elbow to usher him out of the home quickly.
As they leave Mukta looks at the door from where they left, with an expression of confusion on her face. "Ayi either needs more sleep or she's just getting too old, which would explain her bad memory? Am I an idiot to ask her for nice clothes and makeup when I know she can't afford it? Or was it that Ayi... No! Why would she need to lie about that to Dada?" She shakes the thought off and then inspects her manicure.
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