Age of Vice

Once he receives the picture of his sister Hema, Ajay knows that he will have to kill Karan. Ajay wishes he could say no to people, starting with Sunny when Sunny asked him to get into the Mercedes and take the fall. However, the reality is his sister is all he has—“he must kill Karan and save her” (382). Ajay’s plan is that he will offer to buy Prem from Sikander.

Ajay takes Prem to Karan, hiding a razor under his own tongue. After dropping Prem off, he pretends to leave, but reenters the bathroom where Karan and Prem are making love. Ajay slits Karan’s throat with the razor, killing him instantly. A screaming Prem takes the razor from Karan’s throat and slits his own wrists. Ajay ignores Prem and walks out.

Sunny is in Lucknow, the state capital of UP, to finalize the papers for the land his father has acquired for him. The land is in Greater Noida, a huge UP suburb bordering Delhi, part of the larger Delhi region. The farmers to whom the land belonged have been bought off. Dinesh, the young politician, is helping Sunny complete the transfer. Dinesh takes Sunny out for lunch at a dhaba in the countryside and reveals that like Sunny, Dinesh too is sick of his father’s control and old-fashioned corruption. Dinesh suggests that Bunty has betrayed Sunny in the worst way, which Sunny refuses to believe. Dinesh notes that Sunny looks the worse for wear since Neda went away.

According to Dinesh, the arrangement between their fathers this: Bunty Wadia would help Ram Singh gain political power, and Ram Singh would help the Wadias grow rich through the liquor trade. However, Bunty Wadia grew greedy, quietly stealing subsidized medical drugs designated for the poor through his truck routes, and acquiring the land of slumdwellers and farmers. With a shortage of subsidized medicines in public hospitals, the poor have no choice but to go to private hospitals, such as the ones Wadia plans to build in his real estate projects, situated on the very lands he has acquired unfairly. Sooner or later, the poor will learn the truth. Dinesh advises Sunny against the Greater Noida land deal, as it will lead to “political suicide” for both the Singhs and the Wadias. Sunny dismisses Dinesh.

This chapter is structured as two newspaper reports by Dean H. Saldanha, Neda’s ex-boss at The Post. In one piece, Dean shows how the farmers of Machya village, which falls on path of a proposed eight-lane express highway between Delhi and Agra, agreed to sell their lands in the name of development. The highway is to be built by Wadia Infratech. However, when 400 more villages are notified for the construction of a large megacity called “Tech City” a few months later, the farmers sense something amiss. When they learn that Tech City is being built by a real estate firm called “Shunya Futures,” whose CEO is none other than Sunny Wadia, Bunty Wadia’s son, the farmers band across caste lines to protest a planned conspiracy.

In the second piece, Dean reports a dramatic turn of events in the mass protest against the Shunya Futures project. In full view of TV cameras, Dinesh Singh has joined protesting famers in their barricade. Dinesh sends a message to his father and party not to alienate the very people who voted them in power. His father must not forget that the people can as easily take that power away.

Eli has been Sunny’s chauffeur and bodyguard around the clock since Ajay went to prison. The day the newspaper report about Dinesh Singh’s dramatic turnaround is published, Sunny asks Eli to drive him out of Delhi to Dinesh’s country villa to confront the politician. When they reach the villa, Dinesh comes out to greet Sunny. Sunny asks Eli to wait outside.

Eli reflects on his boss as he waits for him. Eli is torn between contempt and pity for Sunny, whose life after the departure of Ajay and Neda is steeped in pointless excess. Sunny appears on the scene and asks Eli to drive them away. As Eli starts the car, Dinesh hands Sunny an envelope. Sunny opens it. Eli can make out the documents in the envelope are an X-ray film and photos taken from a distance. Just then a masked man steps out from behind a parked truck, brandishing a gun.

Eli has been Sunny’s chauffeur and bodyguard around the clock since Ajay went to prison. The day the newspaper report about Dinesh Singh’s dramatic turnaround is published, Sunny asks Eli to drive him out of Delhi to Dinesh’s country villa to confront the politician. When they reach the villa, Dinesh comes out to greet Sunny. Sunny asks Eli to wait outside.

Eli reflects on his boss as he waits for him. Eli is torn between contempt and pity for Sunny, whose life after the departure of Ajay and Neda is steeped in pointless excess. Sunny appears on the scene and asks Eli to drive them away. As Eli starts the car, Dinesh hands Sunny an envelope. Sunny opens it. Eli can make out the documents in the envelope are an X-ray film and photos taken from a distance. Just then a masked man steps out from behind a parked truck, brandishing a gun.

A badly beaten Sunny drifts in and out of consciousness in a smelly warehouse somewhere in the country. He has been kidnapped. Eli’s fate is unknown. A ghoulish man Sunny dubs “the Incubus” hovers around him. The Incubus makes Sunny talk briefly to Bunty to show him Sunny is alive. The Incubus wants a ransom for Sunny. He leaves Sunny alone briefly with his associate, Manoj.

Manoj tells Sunny his reason for participating in Sunny’s abduction. Manoj is one of the farmers whose land was acquired in Machya. Though his family received eight crore rupees for the land, the money made their lives worse. Once the fields were gone, the men of the village had nothing to do but spend money. Manoj’s brother bought a Lamborghini, but it was unsuitable for the village’s narrow lanes. The Lamborghini’s engine caught fire and the car burnt down. Manoj’s brother went to the car showroom in Delhi and asked for a refund. When the dealer refused, the brother shot him dead and was sent to jail. When Manoj recently met his brother in jail, he told him the way to get their money back was to team up with the Incubus, an inmate due for release, and kidnap the man behind Shunya real estate.

At this point Sunny recalls his meeting with Dinesh. Dinesh had once again suggested he and Sunny team up against their respective fathers. As proof of Bunty’s betrayal, Dinesh gave Sunny an envelope. The envelope, which Sunny opens in his car, contains an image of a sonogram of his and Neda’s child, and photos of Neda and Chandra at the clinic where the pregnancy was terminated. Meanwhile, the Incubus returns and sends Manoj off to get the first installment of the ransom. The Incubus gags Sunny so that Sunny can listen to his story quietly.

The Incubus tells his story:

His name is Sunil Rastogi. He belongs to a lower middle-class family in Bulandshahar, close to the Delhi-UP border. Rastogi is pulled into a life of crime after his older brother is shot dead in a highway robbery. The cops refuse to take him to the hospital, even though he is still alive. Rastogi’s mother passes away from grief. Rastogi’s opportunistic uncle, who lives in the house next door, seizes his family’s land and animals, as well as the widow of Rastogi’s older brother. At 19, Rastogi is filled with rage, which he directs against women, terrorizing them. When he attempts to abduct an upper-class woman runner, he is picked up by the police. Subsequently, the local Superintendent of Police Sukanya Sarkar recruits Rastogi as a mole. She wants Rastogi to gather intel on the Chaddi-Baniyan gang, a notorious group of robbers and murderers who have recently resurfaced in their area.

The dreaded Chaddi-Baniyan gang is named so because they strip to their underwear while committing their crimes. Their modus operandi is to coat themselves with black engine grease so they are physically difficult to catch. The gang accosts wedding parties on lonely highways, raping the women, killing the men, and departing with the looted car, cash, and jewelry.

Sukanya Sarkar assigns Rastogi the task of infiltrating and reporting on the gang in a month. When finding intel on the gang proves tough, Rastogi convinces his gang of petty thieves to commit a copycat crime. Rastogi tells the SP that this crime is the handiwork of the Chaddi-Baniyan gang; moreover, he knows how to ambush them. Rastogi coaxes his group to act against another party of wedding guests; unknown to the gang, these are cops in disguise. The gang is killed in a police shootout, and the cops declare the Chaddi-Baniyan group decimated. However, later Rastogi calls the SP from an unknown location and tells her he had created the gang to make her happy. She asks him to never call her again.

Rastogi moves from one criminal gang to the next. He gains a reputation as being the one who got away, the man with a gift for cheating death. He often takes on different aliases to carry out hits, sometimes using the same modus operandi as the Chaddi-Baniyan gang. One day, he is told a very powerful mafioso from Eastern UP wants to meet him. The man goes by the name “Himmatgiri.” After meeting Himmatgiri, Rastogi visits his village in Bulandshahr, where he learns their ancestral lands have been acquired by Sunny’s real estate firm. Rastogi’s uncle frames him for a robbery. Rastogi lands in jail, where he meets Manoj’s older brother, Sonu. One day, Sonu and Rastogi watch Sunny Wadia on the TV. Rastogi is transfixed by Sunny’s face. Sony tells Rastogi he wants revenge on Sunny for looting his land. Sonu and Rastogi hatch a plan to kidnap Sunny for a ransom. However, there is another reason Rastogi has chosen to target Sunny.

When Rastogi met the tall, imposing man called Himmatgiri, he fell under his thrall. Meeting Himmatgiri gave Rastogi a new purpose. With an emerald ring flashing at his throat, Himmatgiri tells Rastogi that Rastogi is a vessel who has come to him for a reason. Rastogi’s destiny is clear. From here, he must go west to his birthplace. Thereon, fate will carry him to a place where a face will arrest his imagination. Rastogi must find that face and deliver to him first the message of pain, then the story of his own life, and finally, spare him, because the face belongs to Himmatgiri’s son. It was destined that Rastogi be transfixed by Sunny’s face, meet him, and cause him pain. It is also destined Rastogi will not kill Sunny. Rastogi concludes his story as a joyous Manoj arrives with the money. Rastogi slashes Manoj’s throat until he bleeds to death. He leaves with the bag of cash. Sunny is rescued thereafter.