The crowd started gathering outside the Colaba police station a little past noon, a happy, celebratory mob of office goers, gawping students, staid housewives and the plain lukkha. The media, comprising print and television journalists, the latter accompanied by cameramen bristling with importance and lenses, added to the drama. They were allowed inside the police station compound, the others were held at bay outside the gates by harassed policemen. It didn’t matter that they were waiting for a man accused of breaking someone’s nose in a brawl. They were waiting for Saif Ali Khan, film star.
As the crowd began to get restless, increasing in numbers and spilling out on to the road, the police got even more harassed. Senior inspector Vinod Sawant and Assistant Commissioner Iqbal Shaikh tried to clear up the resulting traffic snarl. It got darker and darker and there was no sign of the star of the show. But the mood stayed upbeat. The crowd got bigger. As the news spread that others, who were with Saif during the brawl, were to be arrested too, the crowd got even more worked up. They expected to see Kareena Kapoor!
Finally Saif arrived, smuggled into the police station from the back. The disgruntled gawpers began to disperse. At the side of the police station, a shop selling televisions was showing Saif coming into custody on a loop, again and again. Everyone ran there to watch. Then they went home.