THE LEDGER
Part 9 — The Second Show
There was one thing Aravind knew very well about Chotu.
He was a complete movie fanatic.
And when it came to one actor, Chotu was almost impossible to control.
Shah Rukh Khan.
To Chotu, Shah Rukh Khan was not just an actor.
He was an emotion.
Chotu had watched almost every Shah Rukh Khan movie he could find from the 1990s and the early 2000s.
He knew the songs.
He remembered the dialogues.
He could imitate scenes.
Sometimes, even during work, he would suddenly start acting like Shah Rukh Khan.
Aravind would look at him and laugh.
“Did you come here to work or to act in movies?”
Chotu always had the same answer.
“Sir, life itself is a movie.”
Aravind would shake his head.
“You are too much.”
“That is my talent, sir.”
Chotu was also deeply involved in fan activities.
Film events.
Fan gatherings.
First-day shows.
Special screenings.
Whenever a new Shah Rukh Khan movie was released, Chotu became impossible to keep at home.
---
One evening, Chotu came to Aravind.
“Sir.”
“What?”
“We have to go to the cinema tonight.”
Aravind looked at him.
“I have work.”
“No work tonight, sir.”
“How do you know?”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Because Shah Rukh Khan has a new movie.”
Aravind laughed.
“You can go alone.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“You have to come with me.”
“Why?”
“It is Shah Rukh Khan, sir.”
Aravind stared at him for a moment.
Then he smiled.
“Fine.”
Chotu's face immediately lit up.
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Sir, you finally understand my value.”
“Don't push your luck.”
---
That night, they went to the cinema.
It was the second show.
When the movie ended, it was already past midnight.
Even after leaving the theatre, Chotu was still excited.
“Sir, did you see that scene?”
“Yes.”
“That was amazing, wasn't it?”
“Yes.”
“I told you!”
Aravind laughed.
“Will you stop talking about the movie?”
“Sir, the movie is over. The discussion has just started.”
They continued walking.
The streets were still crowded.
People were coming out of theatres.
Autos were moving through the road.
Cars passed by.
Tea shops were still open.
Then they heard shouting.
“Move!”
“Catch him!”
Chotu stopped.
Aravind looked ahead.
A large crowd had gathered near the roadside.
People were standing in a circle.
In the middle were four young men.
They were being attacked by two other men.
At first, Aravind thought it was an ordinary street fight.
But within seconds, he realized—
This was not an ordinary fight.
Two of the young men were already on the ground.
The other two tried to stand up and fight back.
But the two attackers moved with frightening precision.
One of them stepped forward.
A sharp strike.
The young man fell back.
Another tried to get up.
Another attack.
He went down again.
People in the crowd shouted.
“Enough!”
“Stop them!”
“Call the police!”
But nobody moved forward.
---
Chotu suddenly became silent.
His eyes were fixed on one of the young men lying on the ground.
He stared for several seconds.
Then he whispered,
“Sir…”
Aravind looked at him.
“What?”
“That is Hemanth.”
“Who?”
“Subbaya Shastri's son.”
Aravind looked again.
Chotu knew the family.
They had known each other for years.
The excitement of the movie had completely disappeared from Chotu's face.
“Sir, they are going to kill him.”
Aravind looked at the fight again.
Now he saw what Chotu was seeing.
This was not simply two men fighting four young men.
These two attackers were trained.
Their movements were controlled.
Their strikes were deliberate.
---
Several people in the crowd took out their phones.
They began recording.
Some stood far away.
Some sat near nearby shops while filming.
One person shouted:
“Call the police!”
Another shouted:
“Someone stop them!”
But nobody dared to step forward.
The attackers clearly knew how to fight.
Their movements suggested experience in combat sports.
Boxing.
MMA.
Other forms of martial arts.
They were not fighting like ordinary street criminals.
They were fighting like trained fighters.
---
Aravind's body became tense.
He had trained in Kalaripayattu for almost fifteen years.
He had also received police training.
He had faced dangerous situations before.
But he had never seen a street fight like this.
His eyes followed every movement.
One of the attackers was a heavily built man.
A big man.
He grabbed one of the young men and threw him toward the side of the road.
The young man fell.
He tried to get back up.
The big man moved toward him again.
Someone in the crowd shouted:
“Stop!”
Another shouted:
“Leave him!”
But nobody came closer.
Their fear was obvious.
---
Chotu tried to move forward.
Aravind grabbed his arm.
“Don't go alone.”
“Sir, that's Hemanth.”
“I know.”
“We have to help him.”
Aravind looked at the fight again.
As a police officer, he began calculating the situation.
Two attackers.
Four victims.
A large crowd.
Night.
Multiple people recording.
Vehicles nearby.
Possible escape routes.
But there was something else.
These two men were highly trained.
Why were they attacking these young men?
What had started the fight?
And why was everyone so afraid to intervene?
---
Hemanth suddenly managed to stand.
He took a step forward.
One of the attackers stopped him.
The crowd moved backward.
Chotu shouted,
“Hemanth!”
Hemanth looked up.
For a moment, he saw Chotu.
There was a brief sense of relief on his face.
Then the fight started again.
Chotu tried to rush forward.
Aravind stopped him.
“Chotu!”
“Sir!”
“If you go now, you will become the next victim.”
Chotu stood there, breathing heavily.
His eyes never left Hemanth.
---
Within minutes, all four young men were down.
Two of them tried to get back up.
But the attackers pushed them away again.
Then something changed.
Someone in the crowd shouted:
“Police are coming!”
The two attackers looked at each other.
For a second, neither moved.
Then they stepped back.
They ran toward a car parked nearby.
The doors opened.
Both men jumped inside.
The engine started.
The car sped away into the night.
---
The crowd slowly moved forward.
Some people helped Hemanth stand.
Others checked the videos they had recorded.
Some began making phone calls.
Chotu ran toward him.
“Hemanth!”
Hemanth struggled to focus.
“Chotu chetta…”
Hearing his voice, Chotu froze for a moment.
Then he helped him sit down.
Aravind stood a little away, watching everything.
His mind was already working.
Who were those two men?
If they were ordinary gang members—
where had they received that kind of training?
Who supported them?
Why had they attacked Hemanth and his friends?
And most importantly—
Why had nobody dared to stop them?
Chotu came back to Aravind.
“Sir…”
“What?”
“People recorded everything.”
Aravind looked at the phones in the crowd.
“Keep the videos.”
“Why?”
Aravind looked toward the road where the car had disappeared.
“Because…”
He paused.
“What we saw tonight may not have been just a fight.”
Chotu looked at him.
Aravind's voice became quiet.
“Someone may have been sending a message.”
Chotu said nothing.
The crowd slowly began to disperse.
The city returned to normal.
Autos continued moving.
People continued walking.
The lights of Mumbai remained bright.
But Aravind's mind was somewhere else.
He remembered the faces of the two attackers.
Their movements.
Their confidence.
The fear of the crowd.
And the way they had disappeared the moment someone mentioned the police.
One thing was becoming clear.
In the darker side of Mumbai—
it was not only money that moved through the network.
Trained men moved through it too.
And sooner or later, Aravind suspected—
their path would cross with L.G.C.
To be continued…
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