Beladingala Baale

Beladingala Baale
Directed by	Sunil Kumar Desai
Written by	Yandamoori Veerendranath
Starring	Anant Nag Suman Nagarkar
Release date	1995
Country	India
Language	Kannada

Beladingala Baale (Kannada: ಬೆಳದಿಂಗಳ ಬಾಲೆ, meaning Lady in the Moonlight) is a 1995 Kannada movie starring Anant Nag and Suman Nagarkar. It is based on a Telugu novel titled Vennelalo Aadapilla by Yandamoori Veerendranath which was translated into Kannada by Vamshi titled Beladingala Baale. It was later serialised in SUDHA, a Kannada weekly magazine. Both the Kannada and Telugu titles loosely translate to "lady in the moonlight."

Plot details

This is the love story of a chess player Revanth(Anant Nag). Revanth is the only grandmaster from India, and gains worldwide fame when he becomes the world champion by beating Polonski, the reigning world champion. The newspapers in India and Karnataka are filled with stories of his success. He returns back to Bangalore where he works as an Assistant Executive for Kanara Advertising service. Revanth is congratulated by all his colleagues including his boss and close friend James(Ramesh Bhat). Revanth is however disappointed because he even though he has won an international tournament, he has absolutely no fans, very limited press coverage and no sort of recognition from the society. As he is expressing his disappointment to James, he gets a call from a lady, who claims that she is his fan and has called him to congratulate him personally. However, she refuses to reveal her name, instead challenges Revanth to identify her within the next half an hour, with the only clue that her name starts with R. He takes up the challenge and comes up with lots of Indian names starting with R, but is not able to identify her. The lady disconnects the call as she gets offended by some of the names suggested by Revanth.

After a couple of days, Revanth gets her call again and apologizes for his behavior. He expresses his desire to meet her. She accepts to meet him only if he can find out the number where she is calling him from in the next two minutes. The clues to identify the number are, in the six digit phone number, the second digit is 2 more than the first digit, the third digit is 3 more than the second digit, the difference between the third digit and fourth digit is 8, the fifth digit is twice the fourth and the sixth digit is twice the fifth. Revanth solves this as 469124 and calls that number, but it goes to some beedi company. After 2 minutes the lady calls back and Revanth tells her his solution. She then explains that the correct solution is 358000. Revanth gets frustrated by his failure to identify her name as well as her number. He then tells her that probably her name is something really weird, that is why he could not identify it. She retorts that he should first find the meaning of his name and then comment on her name. Revanth then uses a kannada dictionary to find the meaning of his name. He gets disgusted on reading the meaning of his name. James suggests to Revanth that he should get the telephone company to tap his line and find out from where the lady is calling her. Revanth submits a false application to the telephone department, stating that he is being harassed by a female blackmailer and wants to find the location from where she is calling him. The next time when she calls him, he engages her in a talk just so that the telephone exchange gets enough time to identify her location. He asks her if she is psychotic, to which she replies that she is just naughty and not psychotic. She narrates a prose which goes as follows Munjane aaguva munnave(Before the morning dawn) Hallinantha belladingalalli(In the milky light) Parakarada neligeyannu melakke sekkisikondu(Preparing one self) Udayaraga haadutta rangoli haakuva bale, beladingala baale(a girl, who is singing and applying rangoli in the twilight hours, hence the name) Revanth is very inpressed by this poem and decides to call the unkown lady as Beladinagala Baale. She tells him that she is aware of his visit to the telephone exchange and that he is tapping the line. She tells him to find out from the exchange where she is and come and meet her within the next five minutes. He finds out that the number is from a nearby lodge and rushes there. He bluffs to the receptionist that he is a cop from the crime branch and has come here on a investigation, to which the receptionist gives him the number of a room where a single lady has moved in recently. Revanh rushes to that room, but is shocked to find a girl who has committed suicide by hanging herself. He is taken into custody by the police, but is released when the Commissioner of police himself orders his release. The lady then apologizes as she did not intend her game to take such an ugly turn. As promised she was waiting for him in the lodge for five minutes, she even saw him enter the lodge and inquire about her, had only he had looked around the lobby instead of running over to the room he would have found her.

The mysterious lady then puts forth a final challenge for Revanth. She gives him one month time to find out where she lives based on the clues she will supply to him. She also gives him a clue of her telephone number, the first and the last digit are 6 and the middle numbers are "I ate nothing for six hours". She also tells him that it is raining where she is calling him form and that in the next 5 minutes she will come to Windsor Manor bridge, if he can also make it in that time then he can meet her today itself. Revanth rushes there and finds an empty taxi. The taxi driver tells him that his passenger, a lady, got down in front a typing institute across the street. Revanth goes to that place but finds it empty except for a lone occupant. He is not able to help Revanth in any way. After a couple of days the lady calls him again and tells him that had he interrogated the taxi driver carefully, he would have been able to determine her address. At that time, Revanth is interrupted by Seethram, a novelist. He requests Revanth to donate the book which he is working to him. He also tries to bribe Revanth, to which Revanth humiliates him and kicks him out.

Based on the clues in a letter posted by the lady, Revanth determines that her actual name is Ramya. Revanth has an upcoming tournament against Polonski, who is visiting India. Howvere, before playing Polonski Revanth has to win against the local msater PrabhakarAvinash. On the day of the match, he is approached by Seetharam, who gives him a lemon telling that he has prayed for Revanth's success. Revanth accepts it and starts playing the match. During the middle of the Prabhakar starts getting uncomfortabe and alleges that Revanth is hypnotizing him. On searching Revanth they find the lemon given by Seetharam in his pocket. Revanth is the disqualified for using external forces to affect the game. He is utterly humiliated and everyone rejects him. The director of his company warns him that the company cannot take such negative publicity and that he should be more responsible in the future. Revanth unable to bear the humiliation decides to resign. While he is writing his resignation letter, the unknown lady calls him up and encourages him not to give up, but to fight against this allegation. She suggests that he should challenege Prabhakar and 6 other chess players into playing against him simulatanously, where he would play blindfolded. Revanth decides to try out her suggestion and challenges Prabhakar and 6 others to a blindfolded game. He successfully defeats each one of them, His tarnished image is cleared and he is hailed as a true chapion. He thanks the lady caller for helping him out when he thought that his career was over.

Meanwhile James tells Revanth that he is getting married to Sulochana(Suman Nagarkar), the telephone operator who helped them out while tapping his phone. Revanth tells Ramya over the phone that he is happy for James and expresses a desire to meet Ramya. She tells him to decode her address fast as the deadline is only 4 days away. She also tells him to reply to her letters, she will personally come and collect it from his office. The conditions are that he should be standing in front of his car while she is in the office. Revanth agrees and runs to James asking him to spy for Ramya near the reception. Revanth then writes his reply to Ramya's letter and when he goes to drop it near the reception he finds a note from Ramya telling hi not to leave the letter at the reception but tp drop it near the water cooler. Revanth realises that Ramya is in the office. He goes to the water cooler and finds that there is another note from Ramya there asking him to drop the letter on the terrace. On the terrace he finds another note from Ramya. Disappointed that he could not meet Ramya, Revanth heads back to his office, where the attendent tells him that there had been a lady in his office. Revanth rushes in and finds his dustbin empty. He realises that Ramya wanted not a reply from him, but wanted to understand his thought process while replying to her and so she has taken all the letters he had discarded while creating his reply for her.

The number of days Revanth has to locate Ramya are dwindling and he has no clue how to go about it. James suggest taking external help and he hires Professor Hucchuraya, an old, eccentric professor who claims that he is a genius. While explaining to him his problem, Revanth receives a call from Ramya, Prof. Hucchuraya intercepts the call and asks her to give him a clue about her house telephone number. She says that her house telephone number is in the solution os the equation tan()/sqrt(1 + tan^2(theta)), for theta equal to the angle between the extended arm and body of Dr. Ambedkar's statue near townhall, Bangalore. Revanth and James find out the angle to be 87 degress and on solving the equation Prof. Hucchuraya says that Ramya's house number is 637436. Revanth then tells him that it is impossible for that to be her number, it can be any other number, but not that, because that is his home number. At their marriage reception, Sulochana asks Revanth what sort of a man James is. To which Revanth replies that it is upto her to make him realise that the world as well as himself are both proper. That night, James asks Sulochana rude questions, insulting her. She then makes a shocking revelation that she is Revanth's secret telephone lover. James gets extremely disturbed by her revelation. On witnessing his disturbance, Sulochana explains that she lied to James. She is not Beladingala Bale and she just wanted to see how true is James's love. As he was completely disturbed she realised that he loves her wholeheartedly and did not marry her just for a physical relation.

There are only a couple of days left for Revanth to decode Ramya's address and he gets frustrated by his failure. He also has an upcoming match against Polonski on the same day when the deadline put forth by Ramya expires. He has to go to Delhi for the match. Ramya calls him and tells him that he can meet her right waya as she is giving a party to her friends at Ashoka hotel and if he can arrive there in 5 minutes he can catch her. Revanth goes to Ashoka hptel and finds out the room where Ramya is giving a party to her friends. He walks into the room occupied by 6 women and asks which one of them is Ramya. The women ridicule him by first claiming that each one is Ramya and then each one denying that she is Ramya. Then Revanth finds out that Ramya is actually hiding in the bathroom. The women forbid Revanth from going into the bathroom. Revath then hangs around in the corridor. A watchman comes and takes Revanth to meet the receptionist. The receptionist berates Revanth for harassing women as they have complained against him. He gets angry and shouts at the receptioninst to get those women down there or else he will slam a defamation case against the hotel. The receptionist gets tense and takes Revanth to the room where the six women are. The women sya that Revanth was not the one who harassed them. By this time Revanth has realised that Ramya has left the place. He then calls up James and aksks him to come to the hotel with 5 of his friends on bikes. James arrives there with 5 of his friends and Revanth asks them to follow the 6 women individually as he is confidenty that one of them will go to meet Ramya. Revanth's plan backfires as his friends themselves get caught by the women while foloowing them. He has to leave for his match to Delhi and he heads to the airport.

Whie playing against Polonski. Revanth is costantly disturbed as he has only a few hours before which he has to decipher Ramya's address. He suddenly realises from the clues given by her that her house is in JP Nagar Bangalore. Polonski wins the match, but Revanth exclaims,"Ypu have won this match, but I have wont he match of my life.". He then calls James and tells him to search for posh houses in JP Naga which are named Ramya. He also calles Sulochana and asks her to find the phone number of her house in JP Nagar. He tells her to search for those number swhich have been out of order. From this he finds her number as 6137336. As he rushes out of Bangalore airport, he is met by Ramya's father. Revanth explains to him that there are still couple of minutes for the deadline to expire and he has identified the address and phone number so he has won the bet. Ramya's father asks him to accompany him. On the way he tells Revanth that Ramya is no more, she has succumbed to a rare disease. Revanth gets a letter from Ramya explaining that she knew that she was going to die on this day. Had he been able to find her address before, she would have had the pleasure of meeting him before her death. Revanth is devastated when he sees her dead body. He then turns around and walks away without even looking at her. On being asked, he tells James that she was in his imagination and he wants to keep her alive in his imagination, so he will not see her dead body. He then walks away and the film ends.

External links

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