Death

is

an

alliance

waiting

to

happen!

Based on the Novel by the same name by Manoj Vaz Concept, Story & Screenplay: © Manoj (Vaz) Ramchandran Tel: +91 9820313809. Email: [email protected] Concept, Story & Screenplay: © Manoj (Vaz) Ramchandran

SANDEEP D’SOUZA AKA Sandy () is a gay Model PREETI DAS (Paoli Dam) Co-ordinator and Preeti’s is a pretty, divorced woman best friend. in her mid thirties. An ex- international badminton player who also dabbled in acting, she is an officer in the Customs & Central Excise Department. A job she got through the Government Sports Quota and heads the Central Revenue Department’s Sports & Cultural Committee. She had eloped from home at the age of 18 and married Dr. Mandar Joshi (Ram her much older badminton Kapoor) is an alliance that coach, who turned out to be Preeti receives through the a cad with a wife in his village matrimonial site that raises in Uttarakhand. her heckles. Concept, Story & Screenplay: © Manoj (Vaz) Ramchandran

KAMINI VYAAS (Shilpa Shukla) is a tough as nails Private Investigator, MAJOR AJAY VYAAS who takes up the profession (Ajay Devgun) is a Kargil after her police officer veteran who has a limp from husband dies in a freak a bullet wound that he accident. sustained while capturing Tiger Point. A decorated officer and a sworn bachelor, he comes to to investigate the death of his sister.

DIRECTOR (Proposed) ~ ~ ~ Force RAJENDRA BHONSALE ~ (Nishikant Kamat) is a ~ deranged Sr. Inspector in ~ Dombivli Fast Mumbai Police and is the ~ Evano Oruvan (Tamil) surprise accomplice of ~ (Marathi) Sandy in the film. Concept, Story & Screenplay: © Manoj (Vaz) Ramchandran

DOT is an edge of the seat thriller and suspense film based on the soon to be released English fiction novel by the same name also written by Manoj Vaz (Ramchandran). DOT is the second novel by Manoj Vaz after the critically acclaimed and successful TINSEL (2015). Vaz is planning to release his new novel a month before the release of the film and create a media buzz to garner publicity for the film and vise versa. This is for the first time that such an innovative dual publicity campaign has been envisaged in and being an advertising and media person for more than three decades, it is an unique advertising pulse and opportunity that Vaz has caught on to. Concept, Story & Screenplay: © Manoj (Vaz) Ramchandran

It’s dark. A lap top is switched on. You can see long, feminine fingers with nail art, keying in a form on a matrimonial website www.matrimatters.com Eerie music and Song in the background (if possible pick up the rights of the song “Gumnaam hai koi…”) TITLES A tall, pretty looking woman opens the lock outside her door and comes in. It is a modest apartment. Song fades… The girl is happy. She changes in front of a mirror. Wearing only a bra and panty, she admires herself in front of the full length mirror. “Not bad Natasha, not bad at all for a 37 year old” she admires and tells herself and smiles. Suddenly she sees a movement near the window of her ground floor apartment. Immediately she shuts off the light. Just then the door bell rings. She wears a bathrobe and asks apprehensively “Who is it?” “It’s me“ comes the reply. “Thank God, it’s you”, she says with a smile and opens the door. FADE INTO DARKNESS Concept, Story & Screenplay: © Manoj (Vaz) Ramchandran

DISSOLVE…There are some people at a café. There is a Newspaper stand near the cashier. Camera pans the newspaper stand. The front page says “Model Natasha Raut Killed in Antop Hill Residence” in one paper and “Murder Most Foul in Mumbai” in another. A dusky, slim and beautiful girl (Preeti) is talking agitatedly on the phone. Pramod, her boyfriend of four years has chosen to break up with her on the phone while she is in midst of a CRDSC Committee meeting. Pramod is fledgling film maker and is commitment phobic. She loses her cool and gives him a piece of her mind over the phone. She has raised her voice without knowing and her colleagues in the meeting are taken aback to see the usually cheerful and genial Preeti in this avataar. After her talk, Preeti realizes what has happened and apologizes and excuses herself out of the meeting and heads home. She expertly boards the Churchgate-Borivali ladies special and gets a place to sit. She looks around to see women doing all sorts of chores in the train to save time. Some women are cutting vegetables and storing them into cheap zip lock plastic bags. Others are busy with their phones. Concept, Story & Screenplay: © Manoj (Vaz) Ramchandran

She calls her brother from the train and explains her position to him and asks him to come home. Preeti had lost her dad 4 years back and lived with her mother. Her dad Mr. Subrato Das who was livid when Preeti had eloped, but had grudgingly taken her back after she returned battered and bruised physically and emotionally. Her mother and brother had never approved of Pramod. They felt that he was spineless and could never give her the happiness she deserved. And now they had been proven right. Feeling terrible, she calls her best friend Sandy. Sandy is a gay model co-ordinator who had now diversified into production management. Sandy lives near her house, and offers to pick her up from Borivali Station. When she comes out of Borivali Station, she finds Sandy honking his new car to attract her attention. It is nice compact city SUV. Preeti is suitably impressed. Sandy explains the features of the car and the fact that it even had airbags on the Driver’s side. Preeti laughs and asks him why only on the driver’s side? Sandy laughs embarrasingly and says that he usually travels alone and besides it cost 50K more to have both. Concept, Story & Screenplay: © Manoj (Vaz) Ramchandran

That night, her brother Ajay diplomatically convinces her to dump Pramod and register herself on India’s leading matrimony website www.matrimatters.com. Her mother also coaxes her. Preeti agrees. That night she creates and uploads her profile on the website. The next day, she is flooded with responses. But most of them are from fickle people looking for a roll in the hay. For two-three days it continues. She talks to her brother and he tells her to take a premium (paid) account. She decides to do that. Immediate the profiles are more genuine and interesting. She shortlists a few and goes out for coffee with some of them. To be safe she always chose a café near her house and met them before sun down. Some were interesting but not interesting enough. Then she comes across the profile of Prakash Pal, the owner of Pal Motors whose father was her Dad’s good friend. She know Prakash socially and knew that he had been through a messy divorce. More over, since he was a Bengali too, her mother would be happy with the alliance. She calls him and sets up a coffee date. Concept, Story & Screenplay: © Manoj (Vaz) Ramchandran

She meets Prakash a few times and he is eager to take out on a getaway retreat but procrastinates meeting her family. Then one day she gets a few missed calls and finally the voice on the other end speaks and a stammering feminine voice asks her why she was trying to ruin her life? Preeti is perplexed. She finds out that the girl is Prakash’s girl friend. Preeti tells her to meet her at a café near her office. They meet and Preeti shows her the texts that Prakash had sent her. Both decide to dump the cad. Preeti, now becomes even more wary of online overtures. After a week, she gets an enquiry from Dr. Mandar Joshi – an Orthopedic Surgeon from Chembur in Central Mumbai. Dr. Joshi was a widower with no children. He lived with his mother in a premium housing society in Chembur and had his private hospital nearby. Everything seemed perfect about Mandar, but he did not delve about his relationship with his dead wife even when Preeti probed. Preeti and Ajay also met his mother. Mrs Vandana Joshi though well educated and smart, seemed to a socialite who had gone discreet. The mother son hardly interacted with anybody else. Concept, Story & Screenplay: © Manoj (Vaz) Ramchandran

She also finds that Mandar is a chain smoker, which was very strange for a doctor. She asks a colleague of hers who stays in Chembur to find out more about Mandar. She comes back to her after a couple of days saying, nobody knows much about the doctor but his dead wife’s family had registered a police case against him holding him responsible for their daughter’s death. Preeti is scared and doesn’t get sleep all night getting all kinds of nightmares. She switches on the TV at 5 am and stumbles on a News Channel report on the serial killings in Mumbai. The reporter says that four women have been killed. All in their mid-thirties and the funny part is that all of them had registered themselves on a matrimonial website just a few weeks ago. The News Channel was calling him the Dotcom Murderer. Scared, at six in the morning, she decides to get the mysterious doctor investigated. She Googles “Private Investigators in Mumbai” on her tab. She gets many responses but the 9th one catches her eye. It was a female Private Investigator named Kamini Vyas. She had an exciting roster of solved cases and seemed tough as nails. Concept, Story & Screenplay: © Manoj (Vaz) Ramchandran

Early in morning, she calls up Kamini’s office number and fixes up an appointment. She leaves office after lunch and goes to her office address. It is a small, stuffy office that stank of stale cigarette smoke. Kamini is not in the office, the fat, rude receptionist asks her to wait. There is a skinny accountant typing away on the key board. Kamini (Shilpa Shukla) arrives. She is non-apologetic about being late. She gesticulates Preeti to come to her small cabin. As Preeti sits, she lights up a cigarette and offers one to Preeti. Preeti declines and tells her why she is there. Kamini questions her thoroughly and asks her to send Mandar’s photo to her on WhatsApp. Preeti, curiously, asks Kamini how does she manage to stay safe in such a dangerous profession. Kamini points to her hand bag. She says the bulge u see is not lipstick. She takes out the Glock and keeps it in front of Preeti and twirls it. “This is a Glock Safe Action Pistol. Standard issue for law enforcement officers in the US. It is a Austrian made polymer-framed, short recoil-operated, locked-breech semi- automatic.” She smiles “this keeps me safe.” Concept, Story & Screenplay: © Manoj (Vaz) Ramchandran

She then looks at the photo ponderously and says she will give her a report in a week’s time. She says it will cost her Rs. 30,000/- of which she needed Rs. 15000/- as advance. Preeti pays up. Three days later, she is having coffee with Sandy when Kamini gives a call. She says that it is true. Mandar’s wife’s family had lodged an FIR against him, but what is shocking is that the police had also interrogated him in the Natasha Rane murder case. Preeti is shocked. Kamini tells her that there is possibly a witness to the Natasha murder. Alfred Pinto, a slightly deranged young man and a notorious voyeur in the Antop Hill area. Kamini says, she has made contact with Alfie and is on her way to meet him at 7 pm at an Irani joint near the entrance of Five Gardens in Wadala. Preeti says she would like to meet him too. Preeti and Sandy reach Irani restaurant 10 minutes before time. Kamini arrives exactly on time. They wait for an hour. Alfie does not turn up. Kamini tries calling his cell phone but it is switched off. Concept, Story & Screenplay: © Manoj (Vaz) Ramchandran

A day later, Kamini call her saying that she had traced Alfie’s cell phone to Madgaon, Goa. She tells her that she plans to take a bus to Goa that evening. Preeti confers with Sandy. He tells her that he has an event coming up in Goa and doesn’t mind driving down with Kamini. Kamini is happy to save the bus fare. Kamini and Sandy are driving to Goa. Kamini tells him that it looks like something has scared Alfie. She tells him that she has been calling him but he doesn’t answer her calls. Late at night while they are driving, Kamini gets a call from Alfie. Her phone is connected to the state-of-the-art bluetooth speakers in the SUV. Kamini asks him why didn’t he turn up at the restaurant at Five Gardens and why is he not picking up her calls. Alfie, who is clearly emboldened by a few pegs of Feni, says I did not meet you because you were with the murderer. There is pin drop silence in the car. In a instant, Kamini pushes back her seat and unbuckles her seat belt and reaches for her hand bag with the gun in it. And Sandy drives the car out of the road and into a tree on the side of the road at 120 kms per hour. Concept, Story & Screenplay: © Manoj (Vaz) Ramchandran

The air bags on the driver’s side deploy as the car is smashed. Kamini is thrown out of the windscreen and smashes her head against the tree and dies immediately. They are taken to a hospital in Chiplun. Sandy survives with a couple of fractured ribs and a broken collar bone. Preeti receives a call late that night from the hospital informing her of the accident. Filled with guilt and remorse, she calls up her brother Ajay and leave with him to Chiplun early morning. They reach the hospital at around noon. They are led straight to Sandy’s room where Sandy is conscious. He tells them how a dog got in his way on the highway and in a bid to save the dog he had lost control of the car and hit the tree and because of him Kamini was dead. Preeti asks him if Kamini’s relatives have been informed? He says they found her brother’s number on her mobile and that he is on his way to claim the body. The hospital staff tells Preeti that Sandy needs to be kept under observation for a day more and can be discharged the next day. Preeti and Ajay decide to stay over in a hotel in Chiplun. Concept, Story & Screenplay: © Manoj (Vaz) Ramchandran

The next morning they are back in the hospital. They have to wait outside as he is being routinely interrogated about the accident by the local cops. When they meet him, they find that Sandy is better and the staff says he will be discharged in the afternoon after the Doctor in-charge signs his discharge papers. As they walk out of the hospital room towards the lobby, they see a unshaven, dark, well built man (Ajay Devgun) with brooding good looks with a newspaper in his hand. The man looks at them and asks, “Are you Preeti Das?” Preeti replies in the affirmative. The man walks towards them, they can see that he has a pronounced limp, which he tries to hide. “I am Major Karan Vyaas, Kamini’s brother” and continues, “Can I have a few minutes of your time?” They sit in the hotel cafeteria and order coffee. Preeti says she is very sorry about Kamini. Karan tells her that the hospital will hand over the body in the afternoon and he had made arrangements to fly her body back to their village near Jodhpur in Rajasthan. Concept, Story & Screenplay: © Manoj (Vaz) Ramchandran

He then asks her, what was the case Kamini was working on. Preeti tells him everything and the fact that Kamini and Sandy were on the way to Goa to talk to a certain Alfred Pinto who was a witness to one of the dotcom murders. Karan looks at her searchingly and shows her the newspaper in his hand and asks, “This Alfred Pinto?” He shows them a small news item carrying the headline “MAN FOUND DEAD IN MADGAON” The report said a man named Alfred Pinto, a resident of Antop Hill, Mumbai, had been found murdered with his throat slit in a rented shack in Madgaon. No motive or suspect was found yet. The police were investigating. Preeti and Ajay are shocked. Karan says that he smells something fishy and that he will be back in Mumbai after he finishes his sister’s last rites. “Kamini always wore a seat belt even in the city, it is strange that she wasn’t wearing it on the highway. I will get in touch with you,” he says and swaggers off, his powerful shoulders swaying with each limp. ……FADE. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ INTERMISSION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Concept, Story & Screenplay: © Manoj (Vaz) Ramchandran

The questions that the second half of the film will answer are: What is Sandy murky past? Is Dr. Mandar Joshi connected with the dot com murders? What is the secret about his dead wife that Dr. Mandar Joshi is trying to hide? If Sandy was in the hospital in Chiplun… Who killed Alfred Pinto in Goa? Will Major Karan Vyaas get to the bottom of his sister’s murder? Is Preeti the next target of the Dot Com Murderer? Will Preeti and Karan be able to put all the pieces of the murder mystery together? Will Preeti find love after all? Will it be the brooding Major Karan Vyaas?