(leaves rustling)
(caws)
(thunder strikes)
My name is Amrutha.
An investigative journalist.
In every story that is ever told in this world,
the concepts of truth and lies exist like mere shadows that linger.
I didn't come to this mansion in search of truth or lies.
I came to uncover a hidden secret.
But that secret is now about to fade away as I'm dying.
(suspenseful music intensifies)
(opening music)
-(vehicles honking) -(news channel music)
Many government officials have made it a habit
to treat government assets as their own.
The newest person to join that list is Kalidas.
Kalidas, who works in the archaeology department, stole a valuable object.
The police are looking for him everywhere.
The archaeology department head, Suryaprakash,
has refused to talk to the press.
Don't take any photographs and videos.
I can't talk about him, okay?
-Sir, sir! -(camera shutters clicking)
Kalidas' family is staying away from the media, which raises suspicion.
Where is Kalidas? And what happened to him?
Is he dead or alive? Who knows?
(nurse) Goodness! We try so hard to help the patients recover.
But all you do is watch the breaking news!
(hospital machine whirring)
(heart monitor beeping)
Where is Amrutha?
-(keys clacking) -(suspenseful music)
(music softens)
(keys clacking)
(journalists) Madam! Madam!
(woman 1) Ms. Amrutha, any idea which country your dad, Kalidas, fled to?
What's your share in this theft?
(man 1) What's the value of the artefact your father stole?
(woman 2) Any comment on the news of your family connected to terrorists?
(man 2) To divert attention from your dad,
we heard you staged your mother's hospital drama.
What's your comment on that?
How do you exist in society as the daughter of a traitor, without shame?
Kalidas is not a traitor!
I'm not the daughter of a traitor.
I'm the daughter of a righteous man.
And I will prove it!
(journalists clamour)
(intense music)
(inaudible dialogue)
(machine whirrs and beeps)
-(suspenseful music) -(inaudible dialogue)
(sad music)
-(heart monitor beeping) -(oxygen machine whirring)
(Doctor) Amrutha.
How's Amma's condition now, Doctor?
We're doing our level best, Amrutha.
But aunty is not responding to the treatment.
No treatment will work on her until she stops worrying.
It's better to discharge her and take her home.
I can understand, Doctor.
If I must bring back my mother to this reality,
I must find out the truth about my father.
That's...
the only solution to my mother's sadness.
Thank you.
(man) Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
I know, sir.
I'm already looking into it.
Sure, sir. Thank you, sir.
Tell me.
Sir, my father was here on the 12th of this month.
He never came home after that.
There has been no communication until now.
Yes, dear.
Your father left the office on the 12th of this month,
but he never came back to the office after that.
We've had no communication with him either.
To be precise,
we have no information about where he fled to.
What do you mean he fled, sir?
What is the need for my father to do that?
Not need, but greed.
Since the day of our last excavation,
your father, the great Kalidas,
went missing.
I don't know what valuable item he found that day
or where he ran away with it.
(scoffs)
It's not right of you to speak this way
without giving him the benefit of the doubt.
According to the information I got from your department,
my father's last visit was to the abandoned mansion.
(sinister music)
The abandoned mansion.
Who told you that?
How's the archaeology department connected to the abandoned mansion?
What was your father's motive for going to such a place?
Don't fall for lies random people tell you and go there
because whoever went there has never returned.
Thank you, sir.
(policeman) The abandoned mansion?
(foreboding music)
TRUTH ALONE TRIUMPHS
My heart skipped a beat for a moment.
I'm still alive because I have a strong body.
By the way,
by Professor Kalidas,
you mean the guy who stole something from the archaeology department?
Yes, sir.
(guffaws)
Nice.
We're looking everywhere for your father.
And you are saying that he went directly to the ghost mansion?
If you think your father really went there,
we don't have to look for him anymore.
Why not?
Because that's not just a regular building.
Anyone who knows about that mansion never goes there.
If someone does go there,
I've never heard about them returning from there.
Sir, you are a policeman. How can you say something like this?
Lady, if I step into that mansion, listening to your sentimental rant,
my children will come here tomorrow to file a case for their missing dad.
Tell me. Do my children deserve that?
Please leave, dear. I have lots of work to do.
-(stutters) Sir-- -Hey, you!
Miss.
I know where that mansion is.
Towards the north of the city.
(menacing music)
On top of a tall mountain.
(eagle screeches)
Basically, a six-storied hell.
-(leaves rustle) -(ominous whispers)
If you see it or go near it,
death will follow you.
Nobody who stepped into it has come back out alive.
Be careful.
(ghostly operatic singing)
(caws)
(crow screeches)
(eerie music)
(dry leaves crunching)
(camera beeps, clicks)
-(gasps) -(distant screams)
(crow caws)
(caws)
-(wind whooshing) -(chimes clinking)
(caws)
(creaks)
Who's there?
Er...
I'm an investigative journalist.
I'm here to write an article about the mansion.
Be seated.
Do you live here?
Yes.
I'm the watchman.
Why is there a watchman for an abandoned mansion?
People even guard graveyards where locals are scared to enter.
It's not because there's anything there worth stealing.
It is just to make sure nobody gets stuck there unknowingly.
(clicks tongue)
I, too, do the same for this mansion that's filled with dark stories.
The storykeeper.
But, being a woman, you've come to such a place all by yourself?
What do you want to know, dear?
Just like the Bermuda Triangle,
people who've come here have disappeared
under mysterious circumstances.
That's the rumour circulating outside.
People should know the truth, shouldn't they?
By the way, they are just made-up stories, right?
You've come here to find that out.
If you go in and come out safely, they are made-up stories.
If you don't...
you will become just another story.
What happened to your eye?
This one?
I was poked by a thorn while I was in the bushes the other day.
What are you looking at?
I can feel a presence, though there's no one around.
Thinking you saw something that you didn't,
believing you heard something that you didn't,
such misconceptions are common in survival mode.
But that misconception is the first step towards fear.
Are you a writer?
-Why? -Well,
I thought so because you speak like a writer.
You can speak like a writer even if you hear a writer's words.
There was a writer in room number 504 earlier.
What do you mean by was?
You must listen to his story to know.
(foreboding music)
(typewriter clacks)
(typewriter lever loosens)
"He's so angry that he wants to strangle all the mischievous kids."
Class teacher!
If I have a couple of pegs...
(sighs) Why just a couple?
I'll go for multiple.
(paper scrunches)
Hmm!
Inky, Pinky, Ponky!
♪ A chill in my belly ♪
Not enough.
♪ Chills ♪
(announcer) Sahithi Academy's best writer award goes to
-Chaturvedi! -Chaturvedi!
(clapping)
Cheers!
(takes a long sniff)
(electric sparks)
(eerie silence)
(gasps) Om Namah Shivay!
(mobile phone ringing)
DEMON
(Chaturvedi) Why is this demon calling me now?
(nervously laughs) Tell me, darling.
Where did you go without us?
In search of prashanthatha--
Prashanthi? Who is that?
Not Prashanthi! I said "prashanthatha."
It means "peace" in English.
You mean you won't find prashanthatha with your wife at home?
I mean the peace you mentioned in English.
This demonic woman's sense of humour is...
-What are you mumbling? -Oh, absolutely nothing!
I got a suitable flat for the horror novel I'm writing.
Our lives will be sorted once I write it.
We can live in peace.
-Peace again? -(baby crying over phone)
Stop nagging me and take care of his cries.
It's so annoying!
I'm not making your son cry.
He's crying for you.
He's yearning for you.
A three-month-old baby is crying for me?
-Hang up the call! -(typewriter clacking)
-(wife) Hello! -(Chaturvedi) What is this?
Why are you quiet? Hello!
-I'm talking to you! -(clacking continues)
(ominous music)
"There are kids in 404.
-"Beware." -(flickering, buzzing)
(shrieks in fear)
(gasps)
(child whispers) ♪ Twinkle, twinkle Little star ♪
♪ How I wonder what you are ♪
♪ Up above the world so high ♪
♪ Like a diamond in the sky... ♪ (trails off)
-(eerie static) -(typewriter dings)
(foreboding music)
(typewriter clacking)
(music intensifies)
(Chaturvedi screams)
-(bottles clinking) -(bell rings)
-(Chaturvedi) Excuse me. -What do you want?
Headache... Sorry. I have a severe headache.
Please give me a tablet.
Since when have you had this headache?
Since last night.
Do you have a cold or body pains along with this headache?
Not yet.
Just a headache.
All over your head or just a portion?
I'm being tolerant because you look beautiful.
-(door opens) -Please give me a tablet.
-My head is about to explode! -(man) Excuse me.
Hello.
Can you give me the items on this list quickly?
Quickly? She asked me a dozen questions just for a single tablet.
You might have to wait till the evening since this is a list.
Come on. Get in line.
Give me that tablet, dear.
We don't have them.
Go to the surgical shop nearby.
Thank you.
You're lucky.
How much?
-Eighty-six. -Eighty-six.
Eighty-six.
Eighty-six!
Change!
(eerie music)
Typewriter.
Where is it?
It was right here.
I just saw it.
In the drawer? It's not here.
Where? Is it on the floor?
I just saw...
(children laughing)
(door creaks loudly)
I never opened this.
(thunder rumbles)
(door creaks)
A kid's shoe.
-But only one? -(music intensifies)
-(typewriter thuds) -(gasps in fear)
Typewriter...
-(giggling) -Hey!
-(children giggle) -Hey, who is it?
Who are you?
Hey, who...
(thunder strikes)
-Hello! -(children laughing)
(typewriter clacking)
(thunder rumbles)
"Tonight is your last night." (gasps)
"Last night?"
I wanted to get rid of my kid and write my story in peace.
-(elevator) Please close the door. -Then there's this!
Kids' mischief is intolerable even in apartments!
I struggle to find peace even in a place of worship.
I'd have never come here had I known about the kids here.
404. (raps on the door)
Hello.
Anybody there?
Come outside! (rings bell)
Come out!
You!
Hello?
All the lights are off.
Are they saving electricity?
Hey!
Where could they be hiding?
There's no other way. I'll deal with you.
Let me teach you a lesson.
Is this...
(tense music)
One shoe is in my house.
Another one is here.
So, in this house...
The kids are in this house.
These guys!
You little devils!
I know you're all inside!
Will you come out respectfully, or should I break your door and come in?
Hello?
-Hello! -Hello?
What's your problem?
Yeah, a problem. That's why I'm calling them out.
Will you come out or not?
-Hello! -Can you please be silent?
Shouldn't others live in this apartment?
S-Sorry.
Another little nuisance is ready to enter this world.
-(lady shuts door) -Careful, dear.
I know how to bring you out.
I'll deal with it.
(gasps)
These many kids in one flat?
Didn't your parents ever see the sun?
How can one raise these many kids?
Goodness!
(foreboding music)
You're not children! You're all devils!
Your parents are to be blamed, not you.
They give birth like pigs and let them run around without disciplining them.
Should your neighbours suffer for your ten minutes of pleasure?
Shouldn't you have some discipline?
Same thing, day and night--
(shrieks)
Who are you?
You look like a half-burnt corpse!
(in Sanskrit) "Weapons cannot shred the soul,
"nor can fire burn it."
(in Telugu) "The soul cannot be shattered by weapons,
"nor can it be burnt by fire."
"Water cannot wet it, nor can the wind dry it."
Is that all? I know verses from the Bhagavad Gita as well!
Is this a new way of begging?
Move it!
♪ Twinkle, twinkle... ♪
My blasted fate! What a drag!
(eerie music)
(children laughing)
The soul is eternal!
(music intensifies)
(hisses and chuckles)
(laughs menacingly)
(distinct whispers)
(whispers persist)
(thunder strikes)
I threw them out. How did they get here?
(windchimes ringing)
(thunderclaps continue)
(knocking on door)
Who could it be at this hour?
(whispers)
(banging on door persists)
(whispers persist)
(sinister music intensifies)
(gasps and grunts)
A shoe?
The shoe that I threw away...
How did it get here?
(gasps)
(ominous music)
(children growling)
Leave me alone!
(music reaches crescendo)
(loud breathing)
(child) Twinkle, twinkle Little star ♪
(both) ♪ How I wonder What you are ♪
(child) ♪ Up above the world So high ♪
♪ Like a diamond in the sky... ♪
(children laugh)
There was no trace of him left after that.
By the time I went there,
he became one with the children.
Nobody saw him after that.
(tuts)
He entered the mansion to write a story.
But he became the story.
Just because he's missing
doesn't mean he's dead.
Chaturvedi, a famous novel writer.
But all his stories were against families.
Some of us get annoyed by dogs, cats or lizards.
Likewise, he was annoyed by kids and their mischiefs.
Maybe that hatred turned into fear.
This is called paedophobia.
Wait, but you said you're a reporter.
I read it in a science magazine.
But do you still believe in ghosts and spirits?
Nobody believes in something until they have experienced it first-hand.
Once they have,
forget belief, they won't even trust their own shadow.
I didn't learn this from a science textbook.
I have learned it from experience.
(thunder rumbles)
It's getting dark.
It's not safe for you to be here.
You can come tomorrow if you want.
Get going.
(eerie music)
(thunder strikes)