The Satanic Verses

bring along, where to assemble, what to carry in the way of food, drink and first-aid equipment – they relaxed, drank down the cheap, dark rum, and chattered inconsequentially, and that was when Salahuddin heard, for the first time, the rumours about the odd behaviour of the film star Gibreel Farishta that had started circulating in the city, and felt his old life prick him like a hidden thorn; – heard the past, like a distant trumpet, ringing in his ears.

    The Gibreel Farishta who returned to Bombay from London to pick up the threads of his film career was not, by general consensus, the old, irresistible Gibreel. ‘Guy seems hell-bent on a suicide course,’ George Miranda, who knew all the filmi gossip, declared. ‘Who knows why? They say because he was unlucky in love he’s gone a little wild.’ Salahuddin kept his mouth shut, but felt his face heating up. Allie Cone had refused to have Gibreel back after the fires of Brickhall. In the matter of forgiveness, Salahuddin reflected, nobody had thought to consult the entirely innocent and greatly injured Alleluia;
once again, we made her life peripheral to our own. No wonder she’s still hopping mad
. Gibreel had told Salahuddin, in a finaland somewhat strained telephone call, that he was returning to Bombay ‘in the hope that I never have to see her, or you, or this damn cold city, again in what remains of my life’. And now here he was, by all accounts, shipwrecking himself again, and on home ground, too. ‘He’s making some weird movies,’ George went on. ‘And this time he’s had to put in his own cash. After the two flops, producers have been pulling out fast. So if this one goes down, he’s broke, done for,
funtoosh
.’ Gibreel had embarked on a modern-dress remake of the Ramayana story in which the heroes and heroines had become corrupt and evil instead of pure and free from sin. Here was a lecherous, drunken Rama and a flighty Sita; while Ravana, the demon-king, was depicted as an upright and honest man. ‘Gibreel is playing Ravana,’ George explained in fascinated horror. ‘Looks like he’s trying deliberately to set up a final confrontation with religious sectarians, knowing he can’t win, that he’ll be broken into bits.’ Several members of the cast had already walked off the production, and given lurid interviews accusing Gibreel of ‘blasphemy’, ‘satanism’ and other misdemeanours. His most recent mistress, Pimple Billimoria, was seen on the cover of
Ciné-Blitz
, saying: ‘It was like kissing the Devil.’ Gibreel’s old problem of sulphurous halitosis had evidently returned with a vengeance.
    His erratic behaviour had been causing tongues to wag even more than his choice of subjects to film. ‘Some days he’s sweetness and light,’ George said. ‘On others, he comes to work like lord god almighty and actually insists that people get down and kneel. Personally I don’t believe the film will be finished unless and until he sorts out his mental health which, I genuinely feel, is affected. First the illness, then the plane crash, then the unhappy love affair: you can understand the guy’s problems.’ And there were worse rumours: his tax affairs were under investigation; police officers had visited him to ask questions about the death of Rekha Merchant, and Rekha’s husband, the ball-bearings king, had threatened to ‘break every bone in the bastard’s body’, so that for a few days Gibreel had to be accompanied by bodyguards when he used the Everest Vilas lifts; and worst of all were the suggestions of his nocturnal visits to the city’s red-light district where, it was hinted,he had frequented certain Foras Road establishments until the dadas threw him out because the women were getting hurt. ‘They say some of them were very badly damaged,’ George said. ‘That big hush-money had to be paid. I don’t know. People say any damn thing. That Pimple of course jumped right on the bandwagon.
The Man that Hates Women
. She’s making herself a femme fatale star out of all this. But there is something badly wrong with Farishta. You know the fellow, I hear,’ George finished, looking at Salahuddin; who blushed.
    ‘Not very well. Just because of the plane crash and so on.’ He was in turmoil. It seemed Gibreel had not managed to escape from his inner demons. He, Salahuddin, had believed – naively, it now turned out – that the events of the Brickhall fire, when Gibreel saved his life, had in some way cleansed