Gaslight

Gaslight begin the story with a fisherman finding the dead body of a girl with red streaks in her hair. As he raises the alarm, we cut to a girl with red streaks in her hair inside a train – MISHA. She is travelling back to her hometown in Udaipur after ages, in hopes of reconnecting with her estranged father, RAVI. As her car draws closer and closer to her destination, Misha doesn’t know what to expect. It’s been fifteen long and painful years. Her idyllic growing up years snatched away by the broken marriage of her parents, and the fact that she squarely blamed her father for her mother passing away.

Misha finds herself to be a total stranger to her own house. Everything’s the same and yet nothing really is. The place where she grew up is now the abode of RUKMINI, her stepmother. Even as Rukmini dials up the warmth in-order to make Misha feel at home, Misha never really does. She puts it down to her lack of familiarity with Rukmini. Her father is also absent, away on a business trip; even though he himself called her home to make things right. Misha finds this strange. Rukmini takes her to Ravi’s study and shows her an old home video of Misha and Ravi together in her childhood to make her feel better. But it only makes her feel worse.

Later that night, events turn even more mysterious when she experiences a haunting by a spectre that looks like her father. A greyhound attacks her as KAPIL, the estate manager, calms the dog down in the nick of time. She falls down unconscious.

When she wakes up to their family doctor DR. SULTAN treating her, Misha’s claims of seeing her father’s ghost are met with quizzical expressions. Kapil and Rukmini’s doubts are only confirmed when they find no trace of her father Ravi anywhere. Dr. Sultan says these hallucinations might be the after-effects of years of drug abuse; and that there is nothing to worry about.

The next morning, at the greyhound race, she is introduced to RANA and Inspector ASHOK TANVAR. She notices the closeness between Rukmini and Rana, and the coldness between Rana and Inspector Ashok.

As she is about to go to bed, she sees her father’s ghost again. This time; it leads her to Ravi’s study, where the same home video of her as a child is playing. To her horror, the screen is suddenly filled with frantic texts that say “HELP ME!”. Rukmini comes to her aid, but Misha’s had enough. She wants to go to the police station the first thing next morning.

When they go to the police station, Inspector Tanvar rubbishes her concerns; stating that Ravi had a reputation to disappear without a trace, only to be found later with some woman in a dinghy hotel. He tells her that her father will be back soon, but Misha is not satisfied.