The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

Sena tells the other ghosts his story. He grew up impoverished and was taught that his poverty was his own fault. He accuses ghosts like Dr. Ranee of being Bad Samaritans who want other ghosts to find the Light so they forget about their lives and nothing on Earth changes. Sena tells the assembled ghosts that he can teach them how to whisper so the humans can hear them, wreaking havoc and righting wrongs. 

The Mahakali shows up, this time as a large woman with a bear head. Devoured souls are screaming from inside of her. Sena attempts to reinspire his frightened crowd again by writing a series of “facts” about equality under the law and that Sri Lanka belongs to the Sinhalese. Dr. Ranee insists on giving Maali an Ear Check, but he has disappeared.

Maali goes back to the Mara tree to meditate and find his name in the wind. He finds it and tracks down Elsa, who is with Cassim and Ranchagoda. They’re in a car headed to Maali’s apartment, which is owned by DD and shared with Jaki. When Jaki opens the door, Elsa lies about her identity and introduces herself as a detective. The police and Elsa search through the bedrooms. In Maali’s bedroom, there is no box of photographs stashed under the bed, but he has framed a photograph he took of the Batticaloa massacre.

DD arrives home with his father, Stanley. Stanley demands to see their search warrant and finds it has not been signed. Elsa admits that she’s with CNTR. She accuses Maali of attempting to extort others with the photographs he stole from CNTR, which she claims is part of the investigation into his disappearance. DD’s father kicks them out of the apartment.

The narrative flashed back to the first time Elsa and Maali met, at a party at the Arts Centre. She approaches him with an offer to pay off all his gambling debts in exchange for his photographs, which would prove her organization’s accusations of massacre and pogroms in 1983. Maali admits that he has a box full of photographs under his bed. He goes on a tour with the army and Reuters and returns with more photographs for Elsa.

After his return, he meets Kugarajah for the first time. He is attracted to Kugarajah, who seems to be flirting with him and Elsa despite being introduced as Elsa’s cousin-brother. Elsa and Kugarajah have a new assignment for Maali: They want him to take pictures of a list of people, who they believe were complicit in killings of Tamil people. Maali finds it funny that they think they can get justice in Sri Lanka. They also want Maali to arrange a meeting between them and Colonel Gopallaswarmy, who is allegedly trying to split the LTTE apart by going against the Big Boss. CNTR has an orphanage and a clinic in an area run by the LTTE, so they need help from the LTTE for security.

Jaki and DD rush to Maali’s mother’s home. Stanley, the detectives, and Elsa arrive shortly afterward. Stanley encourages Amma not to let the police in because their warrant isn’t valid. They hear a crash coming from inside, and all rush in. Jaki and DD are scrambling through the box of photographs Maali has hidden under the cook’s bed. Elsa insists that the photographs legally belong to CNTR.

The narrative flashes back again. Maali helps organize parties at the Arts Centre despite the ongoing war. These parties provide respite for people who want to be themselves and bring down heteronormative and political walls. They host a séance where the souls of lost people are called out, including Dr. Ranee and Sena. Later that night, Maali, drunkenly tells Jaki, DD, and a friend called Clarantha about the box of photographs.

Jaki spreads the photographs out on the table for everyone to see. They are all appalled at the violence depicted in the pictures. Detectives Cassim and Ranchagoda hadn’t realized that Maali had evidence of identifiable death squads. Elsa wants the pictures because her organization can identify the perpetrators. Amma holds onto a letter from Maali’s father.

Suddenly, armed and uniformed men surround the house, led by Minister of Justice Cyril Wijeratne. Wijeratne has been associated with the 1983 death squads and massacres. Stanley had called him to complain about the unwarranted search of his son’s belongings, but now, Wijeratne sees that he is in one of the damning photographs. Wijeratne and his men take the box of photographs away with them. Maali, observing as a ghost, hopes to remember where he kept the negatives of the photographs.

Maali meets a demon on top of the Minister’s vehicle. The demon looks like a blob. He explains to Maali that he was once the bodyguard of Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike, better known as SWRD. SWRD was a Sri Lankan Prime Minister and a Sinhalese nationalist, known for bigotry and for installing left-wing reforms like labor laws and wage increases that solely favored the Sinhalese. The dead bodyguard declares that “Every civilization begins with a genocide. It is the rule of the universe” (139). Now, the dead bodyguard is a demon that protects Minister of Justice Cyril Wijeratne. Maali gets away from the demon.

Dr. Ranee appears with two other Helpers, Moses and He-Man. The Helpers lead Maali back to the lobby he woke up in. They force him into the Ear Check, where it is revealed that Maali was killed and had killed, loved incompletely, stole, and was robbed. Maali denies having killed anyone. They identify that he is 39 years old. Dr. Ranee gives him a lecture about unblocking his memory and paying his debts before finding his Light. Maali explains that exposing corruption and violence through his photographs is his last debt to pay. Dr. Ranee accuses Sena of working for the Mahakali, and states that after Maali’s seven moons are over, the Mahakali will devour him. Maali wants to speak to Sena but promises Dr. Ranee that he’ll be back before his seven moons are over.

As Maali searches for Sena, he ponders the dishonesty of politicians. He has heard of one honest politician, Cyril Wijeratne’s father, who was destroyed by the same people he helped support. His father’s failures taught Wijeratne how to be a successful politician through deceit and criminality. Wijeratne has survived several assassination attempts. He doesn’t know about the demon bodyguard protecting him; instead, he attributes his survival to the Crow Man.

Maali finds Sena and asks him to teach him to speak to the living. Maali wants to speak to Jaki and tell her where to find the negatives of his photographs. Sena brings Maali under a bridge, into the Crow Man’s cave inside of a wall. The cave is decorated with pictures of deities from different religions and Bruce Lee. Crow Man translates between the living and the spirit world, and people pay him to contact the ghosts of their loved ones. He has limited vision, but he can see and communicate with the ghosts. Crow Man is at first frustrated to see Sena, who hasn’t returned in a while and promised Crow Man an army. Sena introduces Maali, who requests that Crow Man meet with Jaki. Crow Man sends a summons to Jaki to meet him in the cave and has Maali identify an object of his that Jaki can bring.

Jaki receives the invitation from a boy who runs errands for the Crow Man. As Jaki searches Maali’s room for the address book she must bring with her, Maali watches and contemplates his life. A teddy bear reminds him of his father, whom he visited in Missouri while he was on his deathbed. His father had been writing him letters for years, but Amma hid them. After this visit, Maali called his father one more time to tell him off, and his father died from cardiac arrest while on the phone. Other family members forbade Maali from attending the funeral. Jaki puzzles over the Royal Flush (an Ace, a King, a Queen, and a Jack) that Maali wrote in the address book. Maali tries to warn Jaki not to call any of the phone numbers, but he can’t communicate with her.

Sena takes Maali away from Jaki and explains that ghost currency is varam, the prayers and lit candles people leave for you. The Crow Man uses varam to give skills to ghosts. Though the Sparrowboy, the errand boy, can’t see ghosts, he can sense their presence. He gives Maali his first assignment for Crow Man: Find Mr. Piyatilaka’s hidden gold. Maali and Sena find Piyatilaka haunting a mansion and watching as his daughter searches the house for his treasure. Piyatilaka refuses to let his children or these ghosts know where his treasure is; he insists he gave his gold to a mistress years ago. Maali points out that Piyatilaka’s collection of law books would be more valuable anyway, and Piyatilaka tries to attack Maali.