It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good! (Part IX)

I have selected the story, It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good! (Part IX), for today. I had written this story for an educational course, I was taking in the 1990s.

It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good! (Part IX)

An hour later, Radha had an interesting story to tell. A man came to Mumbai from Punjab in the 1980s. He hailed from a family predominantly into business. They were suffering from heavy losses due to the terrorism prevalent in those days. The man wanted to make good those losses in the city of opportunities. He first became a building contractor and within 10 years due to various scams that he had done, became a builder. With quite a few builders taking to filmmaking, he signed a hit director 2 years ago to make a movie. All the other technicians were novices. Some months back, he found that the director was delaying the project unnecessarily and demanding more money. Therefore, the producer went on to insure all his equipment, including the sets that were built, against accidents.

Any accidental damage to the equipment or set structure before all the schedules were completed would ensure him of easy money.

Malkani knew that threatening the director would not work and would point fingers at him only since everyone was witness to their argument about the pay hike. On the other hand, threatening other technicians would be ineffective. He could not stop the shooting since he had already invested a lot of money into the movie.

Anonymous threats to Syed would make him stop shooting out of fear. The next cinematographer, who again would have been a newcomer, would be threatened. This would go on and somehow the shooting would be completed. This was his plan. But Radha came to interview Syed and she happened to visit the laboratory to begin her investigations.

“But I haven’t understood how and why he framed Gaznavi and dropped the letter in your house?”

“That was easy. The 3 of us knew each other very well for the past 5 years. He could get the keys to both our houses at the drop of a hat. Gaznavi could be framed easily due to his plagiarized story.”

“You did not say this to me before?”

“I never thought that Malkani could do such a thing. How did you find out?”

“An idea, a couple of calls to the different insurance companies and the director of your film. I took my brother Kartik’s help wherever I could not access any information.”

“What will happen to Malkani?”

“My brother has informed the specific insurance company about the scam. When Malkani presents a claim to them, they will take care of it. Whatever he did boomeranged on his face.”

Asha said, “Yeah, it’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good!”