Ballu
starts shooting all the bad guys. He tosses his gun to the most outspoken of the
beaten-up villagers, then begins punching people. Also great is when he throws a
giant rock that hits a bad guy in the face. Unfortunately, Ballu takes a slug in
the leg from a nearby rifleman. He's able to duck for cover before the second
shot is fired, and kills the guy with a machine gun that he found in the Jeep he
uses for cover. He also shoots the ballot boxes with the phony votes, which for
some reason explode.
The townspeople all start cheering for Ballu, who gets his first warm fuzzy
feeling for helping people out. See? You still get to shoot things and hit
people even when you're one of the good guys Ballu! It's not so bad! Ganga gives
him an approving smile as they drive out of town.
Later that night we see the gang at their temporary hideout. They manage to
get the bullet out of Ballu's leg and discuss the possibility of getting him to
a hospital. During all the debating, Ganga slips out and we hear a motor rev up
and zoom off. Ballu sends the others after her.
After an unspecified amount of time passes, Ballu hears someone coming into
the building. Ganga has returned, and has brought a doctor from town to look at
Ballu's leg. Ganga peeps in through some slats in the wall to see Ballu being
worked on. Each time he feels pain, he calls out for his mother. This intrigues
Ganga, but she leaves it for now and goes to sleep.
Shortly
thereafter, Ballu comes into her room and asks for the bottle of booze that's
under her bed. As he's "medicating" himself, he thanks her for doing what she
did, but tells her that he still won't let her go home. Ganga laughs it off and
brings up how Ballu was calling for his mom. Ballu asks what the big deal is,
and Ganga says that in times of pain and misery, people call out to those that
are the most dear to them. They have a surprisingly deep talk about faith and
family, and we learn a little more history on Ballu.
This background info is revealed in a series of cuts between Ram talking to
Arti and Ballu talking to Ganga. Here's the combined version, in past tense to
give it that Authentic Flashback Feel![tm]
Roshan
Mahanta had known of Ballu while he was very young. Ballu's father was a
respected lawyer in town. There was a case coming up against Roshan for inciting
violence and burning some buildings in which Ballu's dad was to represent the
prosecution. Roshan came to his home to persuade him to spare him some of the
grief that was likely to come out of the case. He brought over lots of treats
and goodies for the family, since this was during one of the holiday seasons.
Ballu's dad wasn't interested in the bribe, and sends Roshan out. However, young
Ballu took some of the treats that had been offered, and was hiding them behind
his back when they were packing everything up to send away. Roshan took this as
a sign of things to come, and gives us one of those menacing, "Ah.... I'll be
keeping an eye on you" kind of speeches. Eventually he and his cronies left the
house.
His dad was angry that Ballu accepted gifts from the gangsters, and gave him
a slap for it. Arti stepped in and told him to go easy on the kid, but dad
predicted that her blind love will spoil the boy and lead him to trouble (looks
like Dad was onto something, eh?). Ballu tells us (in the present) that the only
member of the family that had him pegged fairly correctly was his older sister,
who was a social worker. She asked if the stories are true that he went for a job
with Roshan, even though he'd served a jail sentence and was known to make young
men sell heroin and cocaine. Ballu told her that he knew all this but was going
to work for him anyway. He listed the reasons why, and it basically boiled down to "being good
and doing the right thing doesn't promise you'll be a success. At least this way
I know I'll make money and not have to live in poverty," or something along those lines.
