Wajood 1998

Malhar, born to a poor typist clerk, is a versatile character Nana Patekar who wins trophies in dramas but remains unseen by his father. While writing and directing plays in college, he meets Apoorva Madhuri Dixit, a wealthy young woman, and falls deeply in love. When she wins the Best Actress Award, she calls him up on stage and credits him for the work; Malhar reads this gesture as a real confession of love, and his world tilts on its axis.

Meanwhile, Apoorva and Nihal Mukul Dev Joshi fall for each other. Nihal’s father, a powerful bureaucrat, wants them to marry, which fuels Malhar’s suspicions that Apoorva’s heart truly belongs to someone else. A tragic turn comes when Nihal’s father dies in a confrontation that Malhar inadvertently becomes part of, sending Malhar to jail. The consequence is devastating: Nihal loses his status, Apoorva’s father ends their engagement with Nihal, and Malhar’s dreams of a shared future crumble into a long stretch of imprisonment.

Behind bars, Malhar’s thoughts turn to Apoorva—dreams of a life together, a child, and a home that never quite existed. He escapes and embraces a dangerous path, preying on the affluent while lining his pockets. An accomplice, Sofia Ramya Krishnan, joins him in these crimes; she becomes entangled in a dangerous love triangle as she falls for him, even as he remains true to Apoorva in his heart.

Nihal, now a police officer, tracks a mysterious “stranger murderer” while Apoorva, now a journalist, covers the story. The city’s Police Commissioner Shivaji Satham comes under pressure from political forces and public demand to bring the culprit to heel, forcing Nihal to act quickly—arrest Malhar within a day or face consequences himself. Malhar’s past kindness toward Nihal—saving him after a prior encounter—collides with Apoorva’s confession that she has always loved Nihal from the start.

As the tension builds, Malhar invites Apoorva to the old theater where they once rehearsed, asking her to witness the “One Last Play” he plans for his father. Sofia, realizing Malhar’s heart truly lies elsewhere, cannot bear the pain and takes her own life. Malhar watches the tragedy with quiet gravity, then returns to his father with a plan that will blur the lines between performance and reality.

In a dramatic turn, Malhar has his father type an apology that reads like a son’s eulogy, dressed in fine clothes and brought to a restaurant and then to the theater. On stage with Apoorva, he stages a vivid, almost lifelike play, using a prop gun that unsettles her. He pushes Apoorva to smile through fear, echoing a past moment where he had begged her to cry. Just as Nihal, tipped off by a hotel waiter, arrives, the tension erupts: he shoots Malhar to protect Apoorva, leaving her shattered and terrified.

A fatal misstep reveals itself when Nihal steps on a loose gun on the stage, and the truth is laid bare. Malhar dies with a smile on his lips, a final lesson for Apoorva. His father reappears on stage, accepting that his son was a remarkable actor, and coaxing him to wake and join him beyond the curtain.

The film closes on a somber note: Apoorva and Nihal sit together on the theater stairs, crying and seeking solace in each other’s arms, while a silhouette—Malhar’s head resting on his father’s lap—lingers over the closed curtain, a haunting reminder of a life lived as art and a love that could not be.