Swati
lets herself into the apartment and rushes to the phone, leaving the door open
behind her. She answers the call, and is happy to speak with Vishal. They make
some small talk while a loud hissing sound creeps in on the soundtrack. We see
the watchman walk through the open door and stand back, leering at Swati as she
keeps her back to him. When Swati hangs up the phone, she turns and is given a
fright when she finds she is not alone.
Understandably upset, she asks him hastily what he's doing there. In a somewhat creepy tone of voice, he tells her that the elevator is working again. She then asks why he didn't ring her doorbell before coming in. With a smile he tells her that the door was standing open, so he helped himself. Getting flustered, she asks him what he wants. His response has me confused. He tells her that he is here to give her "the society bill."
The readers respond! I had been confused as to what exactly the society bill was. Helpful (and mysteriously named) reader John Doe writes in to say:
"The building that they're living in is probably a Co-operative Housing Society (CHS), as most buildings like these are. A CHS levies a monthly charge on all tenants or apartment-holders, covering building maintenance, elevator maintenance, salaries of the watchmen, water, electricity (common areas like lobbies), insurance and municipal property tax. This is commonly called 'society bill'."
Thanks John!
Swati is growing more irritable by the second. She asks him why he didn't give this to her when she was downstairs, but he simply tells her that he forgot. Seeing that they have run out of things to talk about, Swati suggests that he go now. While he's heading out, she tells him that under no circumstances is he to come into her apartment again without ringing the bell. The watchman swaggers off towards the elevator while Swati shuts the door and looks angry.
Back at the office, we find Vishal ending his day. After some scenes of him driving home, we cut to the interior of the apartment. Now, I need to both clarify something and also once again ask for a little help. The scene is relying on a practice that I personally do not understand, but have seen this in several movies. On more than one occasion, I've seen people ring the doorbell to their own house to be let in. Is this a common practice? I never understood this, but it pops up often enough to make me think that often people don't carry their house keys when they know someone is going to be home. Anyway, here this is used to make us think that Vishal is at the door, trying to get inside. We hear the buzzer going, and Swati rushes downstairs in a bathrobe to answer it. However, we cut to the parking garage and see that Vishal is just now getting out of his car, so it can't be him at the door. We also see him walk past the empty watchman chair outside, so it's looking like the watchman has come back to hassle Swati some more.
Vishal
finally arrives at his own apartment door and pushes the buzzer. Skittish little
Bai eventually answers it, and reveals herself to be the red herring from a
moment ago. Whew! Vishal heads upstairs as Bai gets back on her hands and
knees and resumes washing the floor with a cloth. We hear sounds of an argument
coming from upstairs, but it is not subtitled. I am guessing that Swati is
complaining to Vishal about the impudence of the watchman that afternoon. Bai
seems to be greatly amused by this, and giggles a little as she looks upstairs
to the sounds of frustration. Oh, and lest we fail to notice, the camera gets a
little wobbly and weaves about a bit, calling attention to the fact that the
doll Swati found earlier is on the chair behind Bai.
We cut to a beach somewhere and join the married couple as they continue discussing their problem with the watchman. Vishal thinks he needs to say something to him about his behavior, but Swati tells him that she's already warned the watchman not to do it again. This doesn't sit well with Vishal, and he goes back to the guard post to speak to him personally. However the seat is predictably empty. So they go to the next person in the chain of command, and discuss their options with Thakkar.
Thakkar
is less than helpful. His response is basically "good help is hard to find these
days." Vishal says that's no excuse for the kind of hassle they are getting.
Thakkar agrees, and starts to explain a little bit about the watchman's past. He
says that after Manjeet's death, the watchman became a witness in the
investigation. At the mention of Manjeet, Swati asks who they are talking about.
We learn here that Vishal has yet to mention the grisly events that took place
in their new home.
We make a jump cut to late that night. As the camera pans across a darkened exterior shot of the apartment building, we hear Swati telling Vishal that she can't believe he didn't think someone dying in their apartment to be important enough to tell her. In fact, he still doesn't see why it's a big deal, and tells her that she's overreacting. He explains that he didn't tell her about the tragedy that took place there so that she wouldn't worry about it, and be as happy with the new place as he was. Vishal finally concedes that if she still feels that he should have told her, then he is sorry he didn't.
After
a moment of hesitation, Swati starts to playfully poke Vishal's shoulder, and
things seem to be forgiven. Vishal does say that she probably does agree with
him about her worrying too much. Vishal then pushes his luck and says that even
Manjeet's ghost would agree with him. This makes Swati laugh out loud, and all
is joyful and happy! That is until we get a low angle shot of the two of them,
with Millennium Boy (I got a good look at the spooky doll's sweater, and this is
what's printed on it) in the foreground.
Later that night, we have another external shot of the building and some rather unusual sounds make their way into the soundtrack. A few odd shrieks and growls are clearly heard, as well as some dissonant musical noises. Inside the flat, Swati is having problems sleeping. She lies in bed listening to the ticking of a clock, and the camera keeps her face closely framed. She blinks in time with the ticking for a bit, then decides to get up since she can't sleep. She tiptoes her way downstairs and plops on the couch to catch a little late night TV.
