The Dark Room

Behind The Story: When I was in my Post Graduation, we used to have frequent discussions about Ram Gopal Varma, and I was the only person on the supportive side. One of my friends stated "RGV is a Smart Idiot. He took a Movie KAUN with only three characters in a single house and made money.". This gave me an idea that when Dronacharya could make it in a single house, why not Ekalayva try for the same in a single room with three characters. With the same thought in my mind, I started off home, after college. We used to take a Bus (Number 400) to reach Gajuwaka from R.T.C Complex at Vizag, and midway was the Railway Station. As usual, the bus stopped there and a man with sweat face rushed into the bus worried with a Black Bag in his Hands. Then came the "The Dark Room". Digest the Picture below first for an understanding of the Story. Do Care To Comment as well. Thanks In Advance.

The Doors of the room open and Murali enters into the room and immediately closes the door. Carrying a Black Bag in his hands out of the common habit, he switches on the light. The bag in his hands alarm him of the biggest mistake he has done and Murali regretting the Blunder committed turns off the light and switches on the bed lamp. He immediately rushes towards his bed and places the Black Bag beneath it. He lies down on the bed and looks at the clock.

The time is 2:00 am and the whole room is quiet except for the creek from the window. He gets up steadily and peeps out of the window for any uncommon happening on the streets. He closes it off and lies back on the bed. (Something is disturbing him). He goes to the Wash Basin to wash his face.

The Basin has a mirror attached. Murali is able to see his faded reflection of his face in the Mirror due to the dull light of the bed lamp. But his untidy face with sweat all over is crystal clear. He opens the tap and cleans his face and hands off. Blood stains on his hands and face get washed away in the water like a wild smoke in the autumn forest. Picking a water bottle from the Dining Table he rests on the Bed. He drinks some Water and looks at the Telephone.

He grabs the phone and makes a call to Sudha who is his college mate staying at a Hostel nearby and tells her that there is something he has to talk to her and pleads her to come to his room the next day morning without failure. (Phone Hangs Up)

Murali gets up and moves to the window again; He opens the window and tries to notice what is happening outside. After gazing wildly from the partially open window for a while, he closes and returns to his bed staring at the clock. It is 2:30 a.m. He picks up the telephone and makes a call to Chandu, his best friend who is a locale but studying in the nearby town and requests him to come to his room the first thing the next morning without failure. (Phone Hangs Up)

The whole night Murali will not be able to sleep. Gazing at the Black Bag under the bed, peeping out of the window and looking at the lazy clock which hardly moves any time, he finds it the most difficult to get over that night. Seconds, Minutes, Hours pass by and Murali doesn’t even if he slept or not.

Murali regains his senses and combating the hangover of the last night he opens his eyes to see the clock showing 8:00 am and jumps on to the floor to confirm if everything was a nightmare or not. The Black Bag under the bed worries him more. Repenting for what has happened last night, he searches for a suitable place in the room to hide this bag. He finds that the Cupboard will be a better hiding place and opens the Cupboard.
(The Cupboard consists of 3 Shelves with the bottom rack and the top rack being empty and the middle rack arranged with books.) He places the Black Bag in the bottom rack of the cupboard and then opens the window to see what is happening outside and then closes it again. He then goes to have a bath.

Hearing a knock on the door, Murali rushes to the door with a towel covering his wet masculine body with hair all over his chest surrounded by pumping muscles all over. He opens the door to find a girl wearing Jeans and a Shirt staring at him. (Sudha arrives). She comes in and sits on the bed asking him for something to eat. Murali goes in to get something for her when Sudha observes that the window is closed, she tries to open the window a refrains after hearing Murali’s scary shout not to open the window; Just before Sudha demands an explanation Murali pushes her on to the bed and starts kissing her all over. Sudha pushes him away and asks what has happened and why did Murali call her the last night.

Murali’s facial expressions change all of a sudden and then he gets up out of the bed and opens the cupboard to take the Black Bag out of that. Sudha mysteriously looks at the bag and opens it. (And a few hours pass away)

Sudha opens the door after hearing several knocks on the door to find a guy standing there with a college bag (Chandu Enters). Sudha welcomes him and introduces herself and tells that Murali has gone outside to file a complaint against the Telephone as it is not working properly and will be right back. Chandu enters inside the room.

The only window in the room which is closed and hiding all the light away from the room catches the attention of Chandu and he moves forward to open it. He senses Sudha staring at him and just then the Telephone rings. With a confused look Chandu looks at the ringing Telephone and stares at Sudha. She comforts him stating that the defect might have been rectified and Murali should start off soon. With a smile on his face, Chandu approaches the Cupboard to find any book to kill some time.

Chandu opens the door of the Cupboard and almost faints after he shockingly finds the dead body of Murali in the Last Shelf of the Cupboard. Before he could believe it to his eyes, he gets a big blow on his head by some metallic objects and Chandu faints for real now.

After some time, Chandu regains his senses to find himself tied to one of the chairs and a tape stuck to his mouth. He sees Sudha sitting on the Floor weeping. Scared Sudha starts explaining that druken Murali steals somebody’s money the last night and then calls Sudha to his room; and then while explaining the whole scene Sudha gets horrified at this and pleads Murali to go to the Police Station. But Murali doesn't listen to her and argues. Sudha hits Murali with an Iron Box and Murali falls to the ground dead; exactly at that moment Chandu knocks on the door. So confused Sudha has nothing to do but worriedly hides Murali’s Body in the Shelf.

After hearding her story, Chandu feels sorry for her and then he promises Sudha that he would not create trouble but help her. Sudha then comes and unties him. Chandu then asks her about the bag. Sudha takes out the bag she has hidden it under the bed and shows it to him. He then asks Sudha to wash her face, while he picks up the Telephone to call the Police. Chandu dials a 3 digit number and starts talking. Satisifed Sudha goes to the wash basin to wash her face. She opens the Tap, bends down to water her face. She rises back to find in the mirror, Chandu standing behind her with the same Iron Box which Sudha used earlier to attack Murali. But before Sudha could realize the situation and pick up any strength Chandu strangles her to death with the wire of the Iron Box.

After sending her to death, Chandu reaches to the Telephone to confirm that he dialed 199 instead of 100. After hearing an invalid number message over the Telephone, he sighs with a relief and now picks up a cigarette lying on the table and starts picking the books at a random pace and putting them back. (The Cupboard now has Books in the top rack, The body of Sudha in the middle rack and Murali in the bottom rack). Once done, he goes to the window to throw away the finished Cigarette when something strange outside the window catches his attention. With a horrifying look on his face, he hurriedly takes the Black Bag and comes out of the room; closes the Doors and goes off.

After crossing a few streets he enters into a House with a few people observing silence. He takes few steps ahead to find his weeping Mother at the corner of a room in the house. Chandu seeks for an explanation when his mother points him to a room inside. Chandu in a confused state goes in and with fear only to see the corpse of his Father lying inside.

His Mother comes and tells “Your Uncle has newly shifted to this place and has been to outstation. Your Aunt was not feeling well and she asked for me and your Father to come here. Some thief broke last night, robbed us killing your Father”. Chandu with fear in his eyes slowly comes out and opens the Black Bag he left outside. His Mother who follows him outside to see what was in the Black Bag and gets faints after identifying the same Jewelry in the Black Bag that was stolen the previous night.

Chandu in a horrified state of mind slowly drags his feet and forcibly looks up at the sky into nowhere. The Dark Room with the windows open is staring at him lonely.


The Dark Room by Raaj K Modi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.