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Murder Most Foul - 10

by Bala
(Mumbai)

Story so far


Bollywood's reigning queen Sudha's ex husband Sudhir goes missing. Speculations rise as to whether she alone, or she along with the upcoming actor Pritam, have a hand in his missing. Sudhir's mother gives a statement to the press that she does not suspect Sudha. So where is Sudhir? Prior to that Sudha and Sudhir meet in a musical program, become popular singers, Sudha becomes a star, they get married secretly, he sits for final exam, waits for the results, gives excuses to his parents for continuing to stay in Bangalore...


Chapter 10

But Sudhir was very disappointed about not getting any opening for playback singing. Even though the music in the film was popular and he was appreciated for his singing in that film he did not receive even ONE offer from any music director for their future films!

The reasons were obvious. The film was a launching pad for Sudha and was concentrated on her.

All the other parameters were subsidiary to that fact. So while she became a hot celebrity after the success of that film none of the other participants including the hero, the music director, Sudhir or the others got any recognition.

Sudha was getting paired with the existing big heroes who had their regular popular male playback singers for the upcoming films. They were not willing to take any risk by trying Sudhir as their playback singer!

So after making a few rounds of the studios he stopped hoping to become a playback singer altogether.

He started making rounds of civil engineering companies in an attempt to get the practical training stint that he had "promised" his parents, but there also he was getting no
results!

But the biggest problem was after the results were declared. Though he had passed out with a high percentage, he realized that getting a job in Bangalore may be impossible.

Why?

Because he had made an attempt as a playback singer in a hit film and so in all the companies he went for the interview the officials asked him what he proposed to do in his career. Was he going to work as a civil engineer or was he going to try to make a career as a playback singer.

Initially he replied that he would work in their companies as a civil engineer but simultaneously he would try to sing in films also as a playback singer with their permission! Without any more questions thereafter, he was shown the door after he replied that way!

Hence in the subsequent interviews he replied that he sang in the film as a jolly good experience since he got a surprise break that's all. He had no intentions of becoming a playback singer etc

They appreciated that kind of reply from him.

Afterwards they asked him whether he would continue his musical stage shows even though he was not interested in becoming a playback singer.

He replied that he had sung on a couple of programs after the release of the film but without Sudha the programs were not appreciated and so he was not interested in such stage shows any more.

Thus he managed to get a reasonably good job in a civil engineering company after a couple of months of efforts who agreed to give him the necessary practical training certificate to enable him to get his degree. He continued to stay in the tiny one room accommodation for the initial few months and started working in the company where he got the job.

After getting his job he informed his parents about it. Though they were very angry about it they reluctantly agreed to it with the condition that he should try to get a transfer to Ahmedabad at the earliest opportunity.

But nobody left him to live with peace of mind. People asked him about his experiences as a singer in the film and slowly and subsequently developed the habit of passing snide remarks behind his back linking him and Sudha even though they were friendly with him on his face!

Having temporarily solved his survival problems in Bangalore he began worrying about what was going to happen of his marriage with Sudha. Whether it was going to remain as a drama for his memory only since he had the photos of the marriage with him or would he ultimately get the chance to live happily ever after with Sudha!

The answer was yes and no for that!

*******

To be continued....

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