The huge crowd watching was anxiously murmuring that Devi and the two young men who got into the well to save her were suffocating. But what struck V J Vasu (31), running a furniture shop a few yards away, was a scene from Maaluutty, a Malayalam film directed by Bharathan starring Jairam, Urvashi and Baby Shamilee, which was subsequently dubbed into Tamil as Singara Chittu.

With a flash of memory, Vasu instantly swung into action and dragged his 110 kg oxygen cylinder, which he usually uses for welding cupboard doors in his shop, near the well. He then used a tube to pump in all the gas deep into the well, allowing the trio clutching on to the bore well and who had fainted in the hot air deep down, get a fresh lease of life.

Instead of concern about the Rs 175 hespent on the oxygen cylinder, Vasu was overjoyed over how quick thinking and the flash of an image helped him turn the ``Vijayakanth starrer'' (he mistook Jairam for Vijayakanth) into real. ``I didn't know from where I got the strength to drag this heavy thing,'' he exclaims, pointing out to the solid cylinder. So timely was his help that even the firemen, who ultimately helped the three out, said it was only because of Vasu that their lives were saved.

It all began when Devi was playing hide and seek with her friends. She pushed a bicycle parked beside the open borewell situated beneath the stairway of a house. She sat on the wall enclosing the side of the well, but slipped and fell 30 feet down, head up --but clutching the pipes along her way down. This happened at around 7.30 pm.

When an old woman let out a shriek for help, nearly the whole street gathered around the small lane. However, it was two others G Sathyamoorthy (20) and Ethiraj (21) who slid down the pipes, attempting to rescue the girl. Asthe way down was narrow, the three didn't get much fresh air and were struggling to breathe.

Residents said that two fire engines arrived on the spot soon after the fire station was informed. They were unable to thrust a ladder into the narrow well. The fire control team, headed by Divisional Fire Officer Chennai (South) V Vijayakumar and Guindy Station Fire Officer David Pradhap Sing, battled for 45 minutes. They had to get a long rope from the residents and lift the near-unconscious trio, Fire Control officials said.

A doctor in a private hospital nearby, who treated one of the rescuers, G Sathiamoorthy, said he was brought in a semi-conscious state and breathless due to lack of oxygen.

Devi, who was discharged yesterday, was shell-shocked and speechless after the fall. She was not in a position to answer any question, even when her mother Vasantha and autodriver father Anguswamy prodded her to. The harried-looking parents profusely thanked the fire service for their prompt presence on the spot andthe others around who saved their daughter's life.