Mridula fumed, feeling sidelined, before clearing her throat loudly.
“Oh yes! Ranjini, this is Mridula, an actress and a long-time acquaintance. Mridula, meet my wife, Ranjini.”
Acquaintance! He had dared to call her just an acquaintance! Fiery colour bloomed on Mridula’s face, making her thick make up appear garish as she tried to smile at Chandrakanth’s bride who appeared as gorgeous as a newly minted gold coin; only, it turned into a grimace and was caught perfectly on camera.
“Hello! We’ve met.” Ranjini nodded like the royal princess she appeared to be, not bothering to smile at their unwanted guest.
“Oh yes, we did. I almost didn’t recognise your wife just now, CK. Just goes to show how easily well-designed clothes and a few pints of make-up can transform a sparrow into a peacock.” Mridula’s laugh was hollow as she enjoyed her own joke that sounded loud in the ringing silence that ensued in the aftermath of her spiteful words, an outright insult not just to Ranjini, but to the superstar himself.
Chandrakanth’s hand tightened on his wife’s shoulder as he stared the small-time actress down, not bothering to reply.
But his wife didn’t bother to keep quiet. “But it looks like no amount of primping can stop a bitch from showing her true colours.” Though Ranjini’s voice was soft, at least a couple of hundred people must have heard her.
Mridula swore vociferously in Tamil, her language straight out of the gutter, from where she had risen.
Chandrakanth turned to look at Vivek who was already on his way from behind the stage. With Sridhar’s help, Vivek escorted Mridula out of the ballroom within the next few minutes, and hopefully out of the superstar and his wife’s lives.
Only it seemed that Vivek had set his hopes too high, too soon.
16
The party had gone flat for Ranjini from that moment. It wasn’t as if Mridula’s insult had bothered her. Then again, Ranjini’s words had been equally cutting—tit for tat. But what really disturbed her were the thoughts that ate into her. Mridula obviously believed that she had some kind of hold over Chandrakanth. Otherwise, would she have dared to insult the man’s wife so blatantly, in the hearing of so many people?
There won’t be much in the mainstream news for sure since Chandrakanth wielded a lot of clout as Kollywood’s reigning superstar. But the gossip columns, yellow journals, wouldn’t think twice before printing the story, adding spice to it, as much as they pleased.
What had given Mridula the guts? Ranjini wasn’t to know that Mridula had downed three large pegs of Old Monk rum before leaving her home that evening and that, combined with plain, old jealousy was what had given her the daring to speak the words she had.
Was there something more than what her husband had told her? They had been lovers and had parted by mutual consent is what Ranjini had understood. If that were the case, there was no cause for Mridula to have behaved the way she had. Was there something more to it that Chandrakanth hadn’t realised? Or maybe something that he wasn’t ready to share with his new wife?
The affair had been way before Chandrakanth had even met Ranjini and hence should be none of her business. But today, Mridula had made it Ranjini’s business by treating her disrespectfully. People in the Tamil film industry treated Chandrakanth like a demigod. How could a small-time actress doing bit parts have the audacity to incur his wrath?
People came and went, congratulating them. Ranjini smiled and said all the right things obviously since no one seemed to notice that not everything was right in her world.
But the sensitive Scorpio, who was always attuned to his surroundings, and now especially to his wife’s emotions, sensed that she was more disturbed than the situation warranted. While there was not much he could do in the presence of so many people, Chandrakanth held Ranjini’s hand for most of the time, or touched her at every opportunity, letting her know that he was there for her. Ranjini had correctly called Mridula a bitch, since that was what the woman was. And she had deserved to be told that so openly too. After all, it was Mridula who had insulted Ranjini first.
Then why was his wife upset? One spoke, the other replied. It was over, wasn’t it? Chandrakanth surreptitiously looked at his watch and sighed softly. It was barely ten. The party promised to go on till at least midnight.
They had cut a 10 kg, five-tiered cake and drank champagne from flutes, as people toasted the bride and groom. A few of the guests had begun to leave, having eaten from the elaborate dinner buffet, though there were other late comers as actors and technicians were arriving after completing their shooting schedules.
Vivek caught Chandrakanth’s desperate gaze and read it correctly, subtly getting everyone off the dais. He took Varshini’s help to escort Ranjini’s parents, Maragadham, her sons, their wives and kids and a few other relatives who hovered around.
“We need a break,” said Chandrakanth to the photographer who immediately set up his tripod on the dais to take close up shots of the couple. Chandrakanth’s piercing gaze, more than his words, made the man run for his life.
With a hand under her elbow, Chandrakanth gently pushed Ranjini on her chair before sitting next to her.
“Ranju!” He held her hand firmly in his, though she did her best to pull it away.
Ranjini refused to look up at him, striving hard to remove her hand from his, though careful enough to ensure that their guests couldn’t see what was actually happening.
“Listen to me, Ranju.” His hand was on her chin now, tilting her face to his. When she still didn’t respond, Chandrakanth said, “Would you rather I kiss you in front of everyone? I don’t have a problem.” His words got him exactly the response he was seeking.
Ranjini lifted her heavy eyelids to blast her husband with her fiery black gaze, her temper increasing all the more when she eyed his smiling face, his molten chocolate eyes roving over her features.
“Did I tell you how lovely you look? I have a good mind to order a wardrobe full of clothes from Urvashi. What do you think?”
“Why? Do you think that the clothes that I have are shabby?”
“Oops!” There was regret on Chandrakanth’s face. “You know I didn’t mean it like that. Why are you twisting my compliment?”
“Maybe because that’s not what I want to hear from you just now? Not after that woman, your ex, told me that the clothes have transformed me from a sparrow to a peacock.” Ranjini continued to glare at him.
“Ouch! My bad! I think I’m going to kiss you as that seems to be the only way to make you stop feeling angry with me.” He bent closer to her as if to do exactly that, his eyes narrowing with purpose.
Ranjini moved back, her head tilted away from him. “Don’t! Making love isn’t the answer to everything.”
Chandrakanth sighed, letting go of her hand and sitting back in his chair. “I know. But you can’t deny that it helps.”
“How could you let Mridula insult me like that?”
His head snapped towards Ranjini. “What?! What do you mean by saying I let her insult you? I had nothing to do with it. And she wasn’t insulting just you, but me as well. But you gave her a perfect reply. Did you expect me to say something too? If I had said something, anything at all, the shit would have hit the fan and I’d have been quoted and misquoted in all the newspapers and TV channels, blowing the incident out of proportion. I don’t think we want that to happen.”
Ranjini wrinkled her nose at him, refusing to be pacified even though she could understand his view point.
“Come on, sweetheart, you gave her as good as you got. Can’t we just leave it at that?” Chandrakanth’s voice was anything but pleading as he uttered those words. Well, it wasn’t his fault that Mridula had behaved badly. It was the way she was.
The ‘sweetheart’ did it, the endearment melting Ranjini’s heart that was falling in love with her husband anyway. She gave him a soft smile that turned into a grin before she winked at him. “I dare you to kiss me, right here, right now.”
Fire lit at the
back of his coffee coloured eyes, making them glow brighter than ever, his lips tilting up in a smile as he placed a hand at the back of her neck to pull her closer, pressing his mouth to hers, taking his time as he savoured her taste. There was absolute silence for a few seconds as the crowd absorbed what was actually happening before all came together as one, cheering them on. Cameras flashed, capturing the moment for eternity.
Maragadham, Kanthimathi and Krithika, who had stationed themselves close to the dais when they had sensed that there might be trouble in paradise, looked at one another with a sense of deep disappointment.
“Venkangetta kazhudha,” Maragadham insisted, her voice feral with temper and disapproval. Shameless donkey was what Chandrakanth’s aunt had called his wife. But then, wasn’t it all Ranjini’s fault? A man did what he did. But shouldn’t a woman have better sense than to behave so wantonly in public?
“Just look at her,” growled Kanthimathi right back, her eyes on the kissing couple. “It looks as if she isn’t ready to let him go even if he wanted to. See, see.”
“You see for yourself,” snarled Maragadham. “I might just puke.”
Krithika stared at Chandrakanth and Ranjini with glazed eyes, on the verge of drooling as she fanned herself with her hand. “Whatever you both say, they are a hot couple.” She realised her mistake when the other two women turned around to glare at her. Krithika shrugged. “Well, Murali’s never kissed me like that even once...” Her voice trailed off at her mother-in-law’s forbidding expression.
When the couple on the dais finally sat back on their chairs, director Murugesan called out, “Speech, speech.”
The whole crowd took up the chant, calling out to the superstar to give a speech. Vivek immediately took a wireless mike up to Chandrakanth who got up from his chair to raise a hand. The crowd immediately went quiet.
“Hello my relatives, friends and well-wishers, first of all, I am so happy to see you all here. Thank you so much for coming.” His gaze encompassed everyone in the room, not missing even one person. Sensing their curiosity, he said, “I know you are all keen to know the reason why I got married in a hurry to my beautiful wife, Ranjini...”
“Hear, hear!” Claps resounded, making Chandrakanth pause, a wide smile on his face.
“Well, it looks like you all already know the answer to that...”
The crowd roared again, clapping and chanting Chandrakanth’s name. He waited for a couple of minutes before raising his hand once again. “Well, Ranjini is an engineer and she hails from Kotagiri. She is the one who has set up my website and has been running my social media accounts since the past two years. I met her for the first time a couple of weeks ago. And as they say, the rest is history. I knew she was the ‘one’,” he drew quotation marks in the air, “the moment I set eyes on her. Believe me, I had the devil’s own time persuading her to marry me. When she finally agreed, I was on top of cloud nine. And then...” he paused, looking around at everyone and fixing his steady gaze on the trio of women standing closest to the stage before continuing, “I thought it best to make her mine before she had a chance to change her mind.”
The crowd guffawed and hooted, impressed even more by Chandrakanth then they usually were. After they quieted down, Chandrakanth said, “And now, I would like my dear wife, Ranjini, to say a few words.”
He looked down at her, a challenging brow touching his hairline, shutting the mike switch as he asked, “Are you up to it?”
Ranjini rolled her eyes at her husband, grinning from ear to ear. “He asks me if I can swim after throwing me at the deep end.” She took the mike from Chandrakanth and stood up. “I hope you don’t regret this.” The last few words were a whisper in his ear.
Chandrakanth shook his head, his coffee eyes brimming with pride when he said, “I know I won’t.”
Ranjini turned to the crowd. “Hello everyone,” She looked at them all, a soft smile on her face. “Chandrakanth has been the superstar of Tamil Nadu since five years. Show me one single woman my age who wouldn’t give her life to be his wife...”
Pandemonium broke out as each man, woman and child got up from their seats to clap hard till their hands ached.
When silence reigned, Ranjini continued with her speech. “Two years back, when CK’s PA, Vivek sir, brought me the website project, I jumped at the chance. I got to upload all news and pictures of the superstar before the public got to read and see them. I am sure you can understand my thrill. It had been my dream to meet the superstar in person from then on. The opportunity came only a few weeks ago. My heart almost stopped with the excitement.” She turned to give her husband a fleeting glance, one that spoke volumes. “My dream of meeting the legend face-to-face was going to come true. When I did, he was way more impressive than what he appeared to be on the silver screen, way too big for a young woman from a small hill station. Chandrakanth is a phenomenon and I couldn’t see him as an ordinary man. I buried my dream deep within me, knowing it was too improbable, until he proposed marriage during our second meeting...”
This time, Ranjini gave up and sat down on her chair as the crowd refused to be calmed down. People kept cheering on for a long time before Vivek asked loudly, “And then?”
“Aren’t you surprised that my heart didn’t stop right then and I am still alive?” Ranjini grinned at everyone.
The crowd had fallen in love Mrs. Chandrakanth by now, almost as much as the superstar. Parvathi surreptitiously wiped her eyes with a handkerchief, enthralled by her daughter’s words.
Late night TV channels kept showing the famous lip-lock again and yet again, garnering humongous TRPs while all the newspapers carried various angles of the same picture with their own versions of the love story of the century, as one daily called it.
It was 2 am when Ranjini and Chandrakanth cuddled together on their huge bed in the Chola suite. “That went off really well, didn’t it?” asked Ranjini, a lazy finger tracing the shape of the Scorpio tattoo on his chest.
“Hmm...” Chandrakanth nuzzled her neck, rubbing his rough cheek against her sensitive skin. “I liked your speech. It was just like you, in-depth while being totally naughty. So, did your heart really burst with excitement when I proposed marriage?” He sunk his teeth into her earlobe.
Ranjini’s laughter was shaky as she felt torn between teasing him and totally aroused by his lips and teeth playing havoc with her body. “Is that what I said? I’m sure you misunderstood. I...”
He shut her up effectively, in the best way he knew.
17
Chandrakanth and Ranjini checked into a Studio suite at Hotel Sitara in Ramoji Film City. They had travelled from Chennai to Hyderabad by his private jet, along with Vivek. All three of them had worked throughout the journey that took them just a few minutes over an hour, stopping only for a coffee break.
A car waited to pick them up and drop them at their hotel. Vivek was put up in a Premium room on the second floor while the superstar’s suite was on the seventh.
“Shooting begins on Monday. So we have three days to explore the film city.”
Ranjini squealed with delight when she heard Chandrakanth’s words, jumping into his waiting arms. “I thought you were going to be busy from today itself.” It was only Friday and barely noon.
He hugged her close, saying “I want to spend some time with you, just the two of us,” and was rewarded with a kiss for his efforts.
They had lunch at Galaxy Restaurant before stepping out on foot to explore the place. Barely a few minutes later, a small crowd gathered around Chandrakanth, totally excited to find the Kollywood superstar walking down the street. They handed over pieces of notepaper and handkerchiefs for him to autograph on and it was a while before the couple could move on.
“Sorry about that.” CK grimaced as he whispered for Ranjini’s ears alone.
She shook her head. “Don’t be. You have earned every bit of their adulation.” She hugged his arm, proud of her husband.
Chandrakanth pulled out a pair of g
lares and wore them before removing a scarf from his pocket—he always came prepared and had only forgotten this since he had been concentrating on his wife—and tied it like a bandana around his head. “Works?” he asked his wife, stopping to look down at her.
Ranjini looked him up and down. As disguises went, this one was fool proof. He was in knee-length cotton shorts in navy blue teamed with an emerald green collared tee. With his glares and dark blue bandana, he looked good enough to eat. “Let me see,” she said, an index finger on her chin as if she had to think hard, “You look sexier than ever. But then, you could be just anybody.”
“I’ll show you sexy,” he growled, colour running up his cheeks, hugging her close to his side as they walked forward. “We’ll do the bus tour that takes us around a part of the city. There’s a guide to point out the sights to us. It’s for an hour. We can walk around after that if you’d like.”
Scorpio Superstar (Written in the Stars Book 1) Page 12