Mahendra Singh Dhoni with his wife Sakshi outside the airport. Text: Karo Christine Kumar; pictures by: Pradip Sanyal and Anindya Shankar Ray

Mr and Mrs MSD breezed in and out of town on Thursday in DND (do-not-disturb) mode.

If Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s marriage to Calcuttan Sakshi Singh Rawat in Dehra Dun was a hush-hush affair, Captain Cool was no less secretive about his first visit to his wife’s hometown since their wedding last Sunday.

From 9.05am, when the newlyweds landed at the airport, till 6.30pm, when they left for Chennai, Dhoni and Sakshi kept fans, photographers and reporters guessing with their now-you-see-us-now-you-don’t tactics, including travelling in different cars to different destinations.

No, the couple didn’t go anywhere near Sakshi’s parents’ New Alipore house. They didn’t drop by at Sourav Ganguly’s Behala residence either to wish Dhoni’s first captain a happy birthday. Bollywood “friend” Bipasha Basu’s south Calcutta house was also not on the itinerary.

So why did Dhoni and Sakshi, who had checked into the presidential suite at ITC The Sonar, come to the city for the day?

According to one of Dhoni’s close friends in the city, the hurricane trip had a legal angle to it. “He came to meet the lawyer fighting his case against a sports management company that used to manage his endorsements,” said the friend.

Dhoni has dragged city-based Gameplan to court for allegedly defaulting on a payout of Rs 8.18 crore in endorsement fees. The Team India captain has also filed a criminal suit against Gameplan in Ranchi, prompting the company to move Jharkhand High Court to quash the case.

“With both cases due to be heard on July 16, Dhoni and Gameplan have been advised to work on an out-of-court settlement. He wanted to discuss the cases with his lawyer before leaving for Sri Lanka for the three-Test series,” the friend said.

A source close to senior advocate Anindya Mitra, who has been handling Dhoni’s case, said the lawyer’s family learnt about MSD’s decision to visit their 7B Mandeville Gardens home only on Wednesday afternoon.

“But it was nothing but a courtesy call,” the source insisted.

In true Bengali tradition, Calcutta’s newest celebrity jamai (son-in-law) carried sandesh from Girish Chandra Dey and Nakur Chandra Nandy for the Mitra family. The Mitras served prawn, which Dhoni declined, but he did bite into the singara and the chicken envelope before happily posing for pictures, a family member said.

Before visiting the Mitras, Dhoni had spent almost two hours alone in the presidential suite with wife Sakshi and then left the hotel separately in a black Audi around 2.40pm. Sources said he had biryani from Shiraz for lunch in his suite before resting for a while.

The security staff at the hotel were apparently told that Dhoni would check out “on the dot at 4pm”, though speculation continued in the lobby about where he would be going and where Sakshi had gone till the moment he emerged from his suite.

Dressed in denims and a T-shirt, Dhoni ran down the side gate of the Bypass hotel (near the parking space inside the hotel compound) and quickly got into the white Honda CRV waiting there to take him to 7B Mandeville Gardens.

Sakshi arrived at the Mitra residence along with a friend around 5pm. With the entrance to the building blocked by the Honda CRV, Sakshi’s friend rolled down the Audi window to tell a policeman that they had no choice but to step out outside the gate.

By then, fans had taken over the pavement and even the road, obstructing traffic. Students of ITI College across the Mitra residence almost toppled over each other on the corridors of the building, some even climbing the boundary wall for a glimpse of Mrs MSD.

“Ki shundor dekhte (How beautiful she is)!” gushed a woman. “I am a big fan of Dhoni. Has he come with her (Sakshi)?” asked Shruti, a girl in the crowd.

Shouts of “Bhabi” and “Boudi” rent the air as Sakshi, the mehndi still fresh on her hands, made her way into the building in a red sleeveless kurti with mirror work on the neck.

The crowd waited — and was finally rewarded — when Dhoni emerged at 5.15pm with a smile and a wave. Cellphone cameras went click-click as MSD quickly got into the CRV, after the ladies.