Mini
cautiously looks around, and rises to her feet. Every noise she makes is
amplified tenfold by the echo of the deserted theater. Moments later, the film
stops playing and Mini is left in relative darkness. Finally remembering she has
feet, she begins to quickly scoot down her row of seats to the aisle. She bursts
through the door into the lobby, but finds that it too is completely devoid of
people.
Mini begins to panic and races to the large windows overlooking the parking area. Again, no people. A few abandoned cars are scattered about, but there's not a soul to be seen. Mini races downstairs to the main entrance of the building, but discovers that she's locked inside. Frantic pounding on the glass and shouting produces little in the way of results, but something catches her eye.
She looks over to the manager's office, and sees someone sitting in the revolving chair. This person has their back to us, so we can't see who it is. Encouraged and somewhat relieved by the sight of another person, Mini heads over to speak to them. She tiptoes to the door and opens it, allowing it to close behind her with a loud slam. The figure in the chair still doesn't move. Mini summons up her courage and turns the chair around. She sees the person sitting in the chair is ... herself. The seated Mini gives the standing Mini a bit of a glare, before Mini snaps back to her seat in the theater, surrounded by an audience full of laughing, cheerful people. Mini is shocked and confused by what was apparently all in her imagination. She tries to get back into the spirit of things and compose herself, but she doesn't quite make it to the giggling stage she was at previously.
A
jump cut to the house shows Narayan heading out to do the daily errands. On his
way, he stops to ask another servant heading to town where to get some
groceries, and she says she'll take him there. They make some small talk, and we
learn that this is the servant for Rashmi's house. It's also at this time that
we clarify how all of the Sharmas are related. At some point, Shalini and Sharma
had two daughters, Mini and her sister. The sister and her husband were killed
in an accident, and Bunty is their son.
Speaking of Bunty, let's see what's going on inside. In the garden, Shalini is busying herself by trimming some plants and generally neatening things up. Bunty comes outside and asks where one of his toys has been hidden. Shalini tells him that it's in one of the cupboards that is in the basement, but she's too busy now to go and get it for him. Bunty adamantly demands that his toy be brought to him, but Shalini doesn't concede to his demands and tells him he's just going to have to wait.
Bunty
gives Shalini what I am assuming was meant to be a dirty look, but it comes
across as a drunken kid who has forgotten his lines. Another shot from the
Mystery Window Next Door shows him waddling off into the house to get his toy
himself. As you may recall, the lights don't work in the basement, and it's all
spooky and whatever down there. We'll see how things play out there in a moment.
Out in front of the house, an autorickshaw (my favorite!) pulls up to the gate of the house and the girls squabble over who gets to pay the fare (each wants to pay for the other, so it's a nice squabbling). Rashmi invites Mini to come over to her house. She got a CD player for her birthday, and wants to play Michael Jackson's "Bad" album for her. For some strange reason, this is really exciting, and causes Mini to exclaim, "Bad! It's soooo good!" They scamper off to the house to rock out to early 90's pop sensations.
Inside the house, we get a lingering shot of the door, followed by the greatest character introduction shot I've seen in a very long time. (Of note, you can also hear that repetitive mechanical sound I was talking about earlier at the beginning and ending of this shot.) Apparently we're about to talk to Grandma! Rashmi introduces her grandmother to Mini, and explains that Mini and her family have just moved in next door. Grandma looks worried about this, almost as if she knows some horrible, hidden secret. She asks just to make sure she heard her correctly that it is next door Rashmi's referring to. Rashmi rolls her eyes and takes Mini away to her room.
Once
inside the bedroom, Mini says that she couldn't help but notice the odd reaction
that Grandma had about the bungalow she now lives in. Rashmi dismisses these
worries by saying that Grandma is known for her melodramatic reactions to
everyday events. Suddenly Rashmi freezes in place, then slowly turns her head to
face Mini. In a slow, broken manner of speaking, she asks Mini if she's returned
from college. Mini looks very confused and more than a little alarmed, but
Rashmi cracks a grin and gives Mini a little "gotcha!" gesture. Mini is relieved
and begins swatting at Rashmi for playing a trick on her. As promised, Michael
Jackson begins blaring from the stereo and the girls begin dancing around and
fighting with pillows.
We mercifully cut from this embarrassing moment to a much more grave one. Bunty has reached the basement steps, and come Hell or high water, he's going to get his doll from the cupboard.
