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Tanu Manu Dhana!

They hit off in a reality show!

She, a singer who rose to the top of the charts like a bubble in a boiling pot, but had soon found her notes
going awry in the man-eat-man world that she had gotten into.

He, a rank commoner whose only claim to fame was a series of YouTube speeches that he had belted out
during the elections.

She had got into the show as a celebrity, notwithstanding how her glitter had waned over the years.

He had taken the show’s much trumpeted ‘common man’ gate to get in.

She’s beautiful.

He’s rustic.

She’s a talkative girl who had gotten into a shell lately, given her string of failures.

He, a charmer; someone who could charm you into believing in his put-on innocence!

In a crowd of 18 mutual strangers who are locked up in a house to be tested for their resilience, tact, and
talent, these two kick up the first storm in the house with their tantrums; he, with his “we are not
celebrities, that’s why you treat us like rats” line of feigned ‘inferiority complex’, and she, with her genuine
longing for recognition as a celebrity.

The fight that splits the house down the middle, eventually brings the two warring souls – Tanmaya and
Manohara, Tanu-Manu - together. She confides her deepest feelings and darkest secrets in him, while he
shows care and compassion. To him, it was a game; he had to win it at any cost, even if it meant taking a
celebrity for a ride. To her, it was a genuine attempt at redemption; she wanted to tell the world what
she had gone through, and found in him a medium that she could trust.

Their love story becomes state headlines. It’s a foregone conclusion that they would marry the moment
they finish the show and come out. The show’s host, a superstar himself, lets go of no opportunity to talk
about their ‘chemistry’ and ‘physics’.

But, not too long after the show’s hangover has receded, the singing star, Tanu, is arrested on charges of
murder!

This is where the story begins!

The story actually opens with a scene of an unrepenting murderer being taken to the court. She is handed
a week-long police custody.

Inspector Mahantesh, a snoopy officer who would leave no stone unturned to get to the bottom of a
crime story, begins the probe. First up, he is astounded by the fact that there’s just no remorse on the
face of the killer. She is cold. She is unforthcoming. She’s just point-blank in her acceptance of her act of
crime. “Yes I killed him. You don’t need the details” is her one-line refrain at every attempt of
interrogation. “I don’t need a lawyer, will argue in person,” she tells the inspector when he proposes her
defense.
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But he wants the details. He needs it to build his case, all right; but he also wants to know what went
wrong with someone who had the world at her feet not too long ago. What could that be?

A piece of WhatsApp message gets him going. It had been culled out of Tanu’s seized phone. “You Cheat!
Won’t spare you” screams the message at him. It was from her, to Yugandhar, another contestant in
House Arrest!

Yugandhar is a star reborn after the show. He didn’t win the show, but won back his fans and reclaimed
his lost status as a star journalist. A tabloid journalist, of course. He, like Tanu, was on the wane when he
got into the show, but soon made the world realise why he was a star in the first place, with his talent and
tantrums alike. He was always at loggerheads with Tanu, who was his Choco-pie for a short-time long ago,
before the sweetness had soured. Destiny had brought them together in the show again. Even as Tanu
was seen to be getting closer and closer to Manohar, Yugandhar is raging within. Or so it appears. But is
he, really?

As soon as they came out of the show, suddenly, by sheer chance, Tanu discovers that Yugandhar and
Manohar were, in fact, friends even before House Arrest had happened! They were partners-in-crime but
had chosen to keep their friendship a secret in order for Manohar to run Yugandhar's dark-world deals of
blackmailing the High-and-Mighty with his sting operations. To the world at large, Manohar was just a
flash-in-the-pan YouTube star, but few knew he was Yugandhar’s stealthy Man Friday! Much younger,
much meaner! He would do the dangerous sting operations, Yugandhar would do the rest, with the might
of his tabloid. Deal done, all happy!

Did they take Tanu for a ride in the show? If yes, why?

This is where the story takes some sharp twists and turns to unravel the murky world of showbiz and
journalism, and the triangular love between Tanu, Manohar, and Yugandhar’s neglected wife, Yashaswini!

Even before getting into the show, Manohar had felt the advances from his friend’s wife – who’s from his
village - but had refrained from taking advantage of the situation. During the show, Yashaswini had
followed the much-hyped affair between Manu and Tanu with rage, even as Yugandhar boldly admitted
to his broken affair with Tanu on the show. She’s a wounded and disgruntled tigress by the time the show
is over. Parting ways with Yugandhar was a foregone conclusion: she was, after all, his third wife and
parting for him had become a habit! But what would she do with herself, and her love?

The hype around the love affair between Tanu and Manu had led the world to believe that they would
marry sooner than later. All the post-show press meets were agog with questions about their future
together. They had smiled gorgeously, posed cozily, and dodged deceptively!

It was a marriage that the world waited for, but never happened! Never happened because Tanu
discovered who Manu was.

Manohar, mysteriously, goes missing soon after, leaving Tanu depressed and distraught. It also coincides
with Yugandhar’s divorce, which becomes a public spectacle, what with Yashaswini accusing him of
treachery, blackmail, and even attempt to murder!

Tanu’s career takes a plunge, and she becomes even more vulnerable. It was a double blow for her: The
revelation that Yugandhar and Manohar were partners in crime, and the sudden disappearance of Manu.
Why did Manu cheat? And where did he go?
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She wanted answers, but there were none forthcoming. Even as depression is getting the better of her,
Yashaswini enters her life. She wants revenge against Yugandhar, and who else but Tanu to side with? Of
course Tanu had stolen Manu from her, but Manu’s disappearance had made it all ignorable. The target
now is Yugandhar. But Yugandhar is back to being a star while the two scorned-women were a nobody.

How and where do they go from there?

Mahantesh’s probe goes on revealing one shocking twist after another and lands at one point, most
shockingly than anything else, at his doorstep!

It was during a lockdown owing to Covid19, much before House Arrest happened, that Mahantesh’s father
Umesh, a widower, had gotten stuck in a village where he owned a farm. With nowhere to go, he had to
make do with whatever he had; help came in the form of the neighbor, Jayamma. An elderly woman
whose husband had run away long-long-ago-so-long-ago-that-nobody-knew-how-long-ago! Of course, he
had contributed a son and a daughter to her life before running away. She, with utmost care and concern,
took care of Umesh when he was helpless and had fallen ill during the lockdown. She was living with just
her daughter, an eligible bride-to-be. Her son was in Bangalore, pursuing a career in journalism, but
making do with YouTube shows.

The lockdown, as it turned out, was a blessing in disguise for Umesh who had been a lonely man for
decades and now felt he had a family. The bonding, which was strengthened by his magnanimity when he
lent his farm and a part of the farmhouse for quarantining the immigrants who had returned from
elsewhere, and also took care of all their needs. The villagers were unwilling to let them in, but Umesh
had stood steadfast. Thus indebted to him was a driver who had once worked with Tanu and was running
his own cab before Corona struck.

Come House Arrest, and Umesh sees Jayamma’s son Manohar making waves with his glib. He had heard
about him from Jayamma and her daughter, but didn’t know he was so good. But as he followed the man
closely in the show, he could sense a strange sense of familiarity. He had heard that voice before! But
where? Where? As the show nears the end, one episode where Manu is dressed up as a bearded Swamiji,
gives it away! Yes, Umesh had ‘seen’ him, too! And, in the same get up!

Umesh’s rage knows no bounds now. He knows he has to somehow expose Manu, but bonding with
Jaymma and her daughter meant that he can’t do it in public. He didn’t want to devastate the two loving
souls. How else, then? And suddenly it occurs to him that he knows how to reach Tanu. Her former driver!

As soon as the show is over, Umesh reaches out to Tanu and tells her what Manu had done to his loving
friend, who had been constrained to commit suicide following a fabricated sting operation done on him
by Manu. That’s how Tanu learns for the first time about Manu’s nefarious activities and his proximity to
Yugandhar.

But she’s baffled as much as anyone else, when Manu goes missing. Did Yugandhar kill him? But why
would he? Afterall, they had together plotted to take her for a ride in the show. Could Yashaswini be
behind it? Or, is it Umesh himself? Whom did Tanu kill, by the way? Or, did she kill at all?

The threads open up enormous possibilities to keep the mystery – and the show – going!

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