Mushroom

• Suspense

A quaint guest house nestled in the hills, almost idyllic. The house owner, Yamini, is attractive, but withdrawn. She runs the guest house with some old timers, who seem to know a lot about the newly renovated guest house. The guest house welcomes a newly married vibrant young couple, Palash and Pratyusha, visiting the hills for their honeymoon. The couple seem to revel in the solitude that the woods and the hills offer. Palash, in his mid-thirties, seems almost professorial, and a successful psychiatrist. But the young bride is full of zest for life, almost impatient to cherish everything that life has to offer. Then out of nowhere, the all too Utopian setting is disrupted. Palash is murdered. A shattered whiskey bottle, and the young bride is in a catatonic shock. The local inspector, Amoljot Adhikari, who is in charge of the case on behalf of the local police department, is convinced it was an open and shut case, but all is not what it seems, as per a very senior police officer, Binod Ranjan Mukherjee, who visits the murder site the next morning. BRM was acquainted with the victim, and he is determined to help the local police to solve the case. BRM is reserved and terse, does not seem to suffer fools, and he shows a sense of quick efficiency about him. Pratyusha doesn't speak much since the event, and is suspiciously silent, with tears in her eyes. BRM is able to unravel untold secrets about Yamini and the staff. He also gets hold of the local youth, Indrajit, who is flirtatious by nature and attracted towards Pratyusha; he seemed to be hanging around the house during the murder, which makes him a suspect. BRM brings order to the chaos and is expeditious. Yamini, who was also in love with Palash, neither confesses, nor refuses the charge when accused by BRM. Before Yamini could get formally arrested, she commits suicide the next morning. All this, while the solitude and the mystery of the setting cast a spell of surreal melancholy all around. The case is solved, and we get to know the killer. BRM offers to drive the young bride Pratyusha back to the city...many disturbing facts get revealed...there are layers to the story that explodes into a fascinating climax of this psychological thriller.