Reel and the Real...

A quiet place in the outskirts of the city, it was almost evening, it was getting darker.

There was a gunshot, and a few more followed that. An ‘Encounter’ was taking place in that old, damaged factory building. Major Vikram, the chief of Commando force was the one-man army dealing with the terrorists who were hiding in that building. He was skillfully escaping from the bullets fired from the AK47s of the terrorists at the same time shooting back with his gun. The well built Major, who was in his early 40s, was fighting fiercely with the terrorists. The terrorists were not able to stand against his agility and speed. They either became a prey to his immaculate accuracy in shooting or his stunning command in the martial arts.

After a fierce battle for around 20 minutes, bodies of more than 10 militants lay lifeless all around that dark building. Major started walking calmly dusting away the dirt on his black uniform. The crane with the camera moved up to can the top-view of that shot.

“Cut it…” “Excellent shot sir…fantastic…chanceless performance…” exclaimed the debut director who was heavily impressed by the veteran actor’s performance in that scene.

Sitting on his chair with a smile ‘The Terror of Terror’ ‘Mr. Patriot’ Pawan Kumar said, “What big deal Sir…I’m blessed enough to show my real life passion in front of the camera too…I love my country and always love to fight for the good…that’s what I say and do on the screen too…”

“No Sir…you are being too modest…you do these characters so wonderfully that even the real Commandos will not match your body language…they will have to take lessons from you Sir…”

“No No sir…you are praising me too much…”

As the conversation was going on, Pawan turned towards his secretary, and he placed a Davidoff cigarette on his lips and lit it. Pawan started smoking it with deep passion.

“Pawan Sir…you get ready for the next scene…I will ask the associate to make arrangements for the scene…” said the director and he moved away.

Just as the director moved away, Pawan made a call from his cell phone. As he started talking, he stood up in respect dropped the cigarette down and also lowered his tone, also indicated his Secretary to move away. The phone conversation went on like this…

“Salaam Bhai…”

“………”

“Yaya…Im talking from our shooting spot only…”

“………”

“It’s going fine Bhai…Its all your blessing…It’s just my name as producer…Its all your money na Bhai…”

“………”

“Yes Bhai…It’s a military officer role in this one also…just now shot down some 10-12 guys…” and giggles.

“………”

“Ok Bhai…how are our guys doing…Is everything going fine…”

“Hello…Hello…is this Pawan Sir…Sir…Im you fan Sir…My name is…” someone interfered in their conversation.

“Shit!!! Seems like a cross-talk…God knows how these a******s get my number…And this cross-talk also…I should first shoot the bloody service-providers…”

“Ok Bhai…Will call u after the shooting…Salaam Bhai…”

“………”

At the same time, director discussing with his associate was all praises for his hero.

“Ohh…What a man…See his fitness and dedication even at this age…What dialogue delivery man…chance-less…and the the fire in his dialogs, he will give any hero a run for his money…and you know,people talk bad about this man also…I can’t imagine how they can talk ill about such a good man…he is doing so much for the country also…be it Kargil or tsunami, whatever the issue…he is donating so much man…”

He went on praising Pawan and his associate was nodding in affirmation.

Time was past six in the evening, “Packup…” said the director. He then moved to Pawan, who was about to leave home in his Audi SUV.

“Sir…we can finish the Airport fight scene tomorrow…I talked to the minister and got all the permissions for the shoot…”

“Wow!!! That’s great news… really great news…”

“Ya…but the bloody minister…he really made us beg for it…he also demanded more money this time…”

“Ohh…that’s okay…and what can we do…if everything has to go according to our plan, sometimes we have to shell out some extra money…but anyways, that Airport sequence will be one of our USPs…so never mind sir…” consoled Pawan.

“Yes sir…that’s also correct…we have permission to shoot in any corner of the Airport…We’ll just make full use of it…we’ll make this chase sequence a never-seen-before one…”

“Yaya…definitely…” said Pawan and moved off in his SUV.

“See man…what a professional…he is just concerned about the movie…not about the few extra millions shelled out for the purpose…he is the REAL HERO man…” said the hero-obsessed director to his associate.

Around the same time, Pawan, who was now driving to his farm house in the ECR, made a call to ‘Bhai’.

“Hello Bhai…some serious news for you…”

“………”

“Send two of our guys tomorrow…you had to make a map for the Airport Operation na…tomorrow we are having the shooting at Airport only…if u send them, I will take them there as my Personal make-up man or Hair designer…that idiot director has got permission to shoot in any corner of the airport…that makes our job so easy, we can make a detailed map of the airport…”

“………”

“And one more thing Bhai…please don’t send those Pakistani guys…send someone who knows Tamil and looks like a local…and send only two guys…also Bhai, send along with them two ‘big’ suitcases each”

“………”

“Thanks Bhai…Salaam Bhai…”

With a weird and cruel smile running across his lips, Pawan cut the call and lighted a Davidoff himself and started smoking. The smoke he let out went out of the open car window, and faded into oblivion, just like their conversation…

Or did it…?

To be continued…