Summaries

Synopsis

Malaal is the story of Shiva (Meezaan Jaffery) and Astha (Sharmin Segal), two very different people from contrasting backgrounds who experience the innocence of love.

Shiva is a local Tapori and slum boy whose wild ways have caught the eye of local small-time politician Sawant (Sameer Dharmadhikari). During a local cricket match, Sawant, the Marathi fanatic politician in town, notices Shiva and recruits him into his party, so he and his friends are given the task of prohibiting migration from North India in order to protect Maharashtrian interests. Sawant wants Shiva to help him attack "outsiders" in Mumbai.

Shiva lives with his parents Vijaya (Chinmayee Surve) and Prabhakar (Anil Gawas) in a Chawl of Mumbai.His father Prabhakar is totally not supportive of his violent ways and his tendency to create ruckus in the Chawl. Shiva is a final year BA student.

Astha has recently moved to the Chawl with her family. It is implied that Astha's family was rich and is now suddenly without money. Umashankar lost a lot of money in faulty investments and hence the family's fortunes fell.Astha is being pursued for marriage by Aditya (Ishwak Singh), who is the son of Astha's father's colleague.Swati (Radha Sagar) is Astha's friend in the Chawl. Astha's parents are Umashankar (Sanjay Gurbaxani), Rajni (Sonal Jha) and brother Deepu. A Chawl boy named Babban (Chetan Chitnis) has a crush on Astha.

When Shiva finds that Astha is not from Mumbai, he threatens her landlord to evict them. He then tangles with Astha on a range of issues including donations for Ganpathi festival (Shiva was demanding Rs 1001 from each home, but Astha says that her family only has Rs 501), her night tuition classes on the terrace (Shiva uses the terrace to drink with his buddies, while Astha accuses Shiva of drinking liquor from the money collected in donations) and even Aditya's visits to the Chawl in his Mercedes.Astha finds that Shiva may be a goon but has a brilliant mind and is excellent with mathematics.

All this while, Shiva has constantly been earning the ire of his parents, who want him to do something. Astha begins tutoring Shiva's sister, and the radically opposite duo get attracted to each other, more so during the Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations.Astha is not intimidated and stands up to Shiva. Slowly, he falls in love with her & buys a locket for her. Shiva warns Babban to back off from Astha. But Astha rebukes him when he accidentally cops a feel and Astha thinks that he is being frisky without invitation. He gets roughed up by the public when he is mistakenly accused of trying to molest her, when the bus they were traveling on suddenly brakes and he is hurled towards her.

Shiva falls head over heels in love with Astha and tries confessing his feelings to her quite a few times.Shiva then sees Aditya cheating on Astha with another city girl. Soon the tension comes to a head between Aditya and Shiva. Shiva stops Aditya when he tries to forcefully kiss Astha.Aditya brings hired goons, whom Shiva dispatches brutally.

Slowly Astha finds Shiva charming and sees that he is giving her complete freedom, and also starts falling in love with him.Shiva doesn't dictate what Astha should or should not do and supports her in her ambitions to study and get a good life for herself. He won't even touch her without her permission. Astha agrees to go on a date with him. He gives up smoking and drinking when she insists.Shiva cares about what Astha thinks of him.

Astha's stance towards Shiva softens when she observes his restraint and realizes his intentions were honest. Later on, Shiva leaves Sawant's side and Astha relents and spends an entire day with him. He takes her to the Siddhivinayak Temple when Rajni and Umashankar are out of town. The two return earlier, only to find Astha with Shiva.

But Astha's parents object to her relationship with Shiva as he is nothing better than a goon. Angered, they try to separate Shiva from Astha, but he remains firm in his decision to wait for Astha, who promises to him that she will try talking to her parents if he tops his exams

But she ends up bailing him out instead when he is arrested for assaulting the exam officer who mistakenly accuses him of cheating during the exam.As Astha's parents force her to go out on a dinner date with Aditya on the same night this happens, Shiva feels disheartened seeing them together. However, Astha confesses to her diary that she loves Shiva the way he is and has a lot of expectations from him. She confronts Shiva the next evening as he is drinking with his friend and advises him to move on from the unfortunate episode in the exam hall.

Astha tries to get Shiva a job, but an uneducated Shiva is only considered for odd jobs, which he refuses to accept.

Astha inspires him with stories of people who became something after starting with nothing. Shiva accepts an office boy job at a brokerage. Shiva is reluctant because he has to work his way up from the bottom, but Astha persuades him and when the stock broker informs him of Astha's concern for him, he accepts. He quickly gets his way through, and settles well in his job, reconciling with his parents after giving them his first pay check.Astha helps him open a bank account.

Astha's parents get her forcefully engaged to Aditya. That night Shiva gets drunk and creates ruckus in the Chawl. Next morning Astha's parents and her move away from the Chawl. Shiva tracks her down, but Astha tells him that while she loves him, she loves her own family more. She has to accept their choice.

The next day she tells her mother that she is going to meet Shiva. Her mom doesn't stop her. Astha has sex with Shiva and tells him that she will always love him but has to marry Aditya for the sake of her family.

While they are walking away, Astha realizes she forgot the keys to her friend's house, and starts walking back as she tells Shiva to wait, when she is suddenly hit by a truck. He tries to save her, but is hit by a car. News reaches both families, and Shiva survives, but upon recovery, he is shocked beyond words to find Astha dead, and his guilt of not having to spend the last moments peacefully with her gets the better of him and makes him mentally unstable. Meanwhile, Rajni visits Shiva's house and leaves him Astha's diary, in which she wrote about the love she had for him.

Emotionally shattered, Shiva closes the diary, and the scene shifts to present day, where he has just finished reading the diary again, having become a successful trader (And owner of Brokerage firm Astha Wealth Management), and imagines Astha standing by his side, even as he imagines talking to her, being mentally unstable till date.