Next life - Woody Allen

Just reading something about Woody Allen & came across some of his writings, of which I found the article 'Next life' to be quite thought provoking. Iam sharing it with you.

In my next life I want to live my life backwards.
You start out dead and get that out of the way.
Then you wake up in an old people’s home feeling better every day.
You get kicked out for being too healthy, go collect your pension, and then when
you start work, you get a gold watch and a party on your first day.
You work for 40 years until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement.
You party, drink alcohol, and are generally promiscuous, then you are ready for high school.
You then go to primary school, you become a kid, you play.
You have no responsibilities, you become a baby until you are born.
And then you spend your last 9 months floating in luxurious spa-like conditions with central heating and room service on tap, larger quarters every day and then Voila….
You finish off as an orgasm!
I rest my case.

What an idea Sirji!

Unnai Pol Oruvan - but where?

Atlast after 2 weeks of its release, I was able to catch up with UPO. But the josh was definitely missing this time for me, as I had read almost 10 reviews of the film already & had also understood that the movie is a commercial success. Also, I had seen the mind-blowing ‘Wednesday’ a year back & was little skeptical about this entire remake business. Still, it’s a Kamal haasan film & nothing could deter me from watching it in the theater.
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Critics say that a comparing a remake with an original is a blunder & you have watch it without any preset notions. Infact that’s the mindset I had, while entering the movie hall & I wanted to enjoy UPO as an original film. But my mind failed me there completely. ‘Wednesday’ was so impressive that every scene / character still stays intact in my mind & it was utterly impossible for me not to compare UPO with it. So in that context, UPO failed to connect with me the way its original did. Well.. the film is good, no 2 ways about it. But there were far too many glitches & it was surprising as I expected Kamal’s team to eliminate even the minor problems in the hindi version. Instead they got bigger here.
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If you want to copy an important document, then a good photo-copying machine is a must. However great the machine be, there is always going to be some loss of quality where compared to the original & that’s universal. A copy can never be better than the original; it can come closest at the most (Jeyam Raja comes to mind instantly). But when you try to copy an amazing document in an untested machine, then you are asking for disappointment. That untested machine for me is the director of the film, Chakri Toleti. How many times have we seen Kamal Haasan doing this mistake of not picking the right technician? I was stupefied last time when Kamal went to Himesh Reshamaiya for ‘Dasavatharam’ music, as Rahman would have been the right choice & would have elevated the movie to a different level. K.S.Ravikumar is also a bad choice for ‘Dasa’ as he could never give any movie a glossy look, that is so important for a magnum opus like it.
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Take Mahanadhi / Anbe Sivam / KurudhiPunal / Guna & many others; all fantastic films but there was something missing which stops us from calling them as ‘Classics’. That something would have been there, if Kamal had not ghost directed these movies & had entrusted them in some able hands. Not that Kamal’s skill is inferior to any (Virumaandi is a fitting proof), but he tends to go overboard always. Subtleness is not his forte & it would have made a lot of difference to his career as actor / creator, if only he had acquired that particular expertise as well. Its not too late even now.
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Even in UPO, the subtleness of Naseeruddin shah in the original was far more inspiring than the fierceness displayed by Kamal. But when a simple title like ‘Wednesday’ is changed to an heroic ‘ Unnai pol oruvan’, you know what to expect. An unnecessary gun with him, Kamal teaching the bomb squad person abt diffusing bombs, complicated / way too intellectual dialogues are all uncalled for.
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Having said all these things, UPO is path-breaking & could be possible only for the Ulaganayagan. His guts / enthusiasm / fire to do something different everytime is unparalleled in south Indian film history & it shows with his every move. Let me safely conclude by saying that UPO is a fantastic film, if you had not seen ‘Wednesday’ already.
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Ayudha Puja ! Howzzat...

Ayudha Puja. One of the few meaningful festivals that I feel should be celebrated whole-heartedly. It’s a thanks giving day for all machineries / objects that has made our life comfortable & which have been the source of income for us. Iam quite fond of this festival & we celebrated it quite well at our office this year (as always). Gifts, Sweets, Fruits, Flowers, Decorations, Snacks, Group photographs, the entire office was lively thru’ out the second half of the day. Everyone had a good time & left with a happy frame of mind.
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Do any other communities in the world dedicate a day to say ‘Thanks’ to machineries / utilities? I don’t think so. Maybe the greek does.. The wisdom of our ancient sages is mind-boggling & it’s a pity that not many efforts are being made to learn or decipher other hidden treasures of our ancestors, in terms of knowledge. I have always felt that our culture has not got its due credit, due to poor marketing & more so due to poor funding by the govt. Yes! Our archaeological dept is literally non-existent & even if it is burrowing some holes at some parts of our country, one such department is not enough to dig out our history & decipher the invaluable information hidden with it.
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Have we ever come across a marvel like ‘Thirukural’ in any language in the world? Is it possible for anyone to even attempt something like that? But why is it not popular or even known outside Tamilnadu? Iam sure that this book alone can get us all enormous face value, if it becomes well known.
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How about our temples & other monuments? Is there any equivalent for them in terms of architecture & artistry all across? It is unthinkable how those guys were able to raise such huge structures without any technological support. But do we realize their value?
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How about astrology / palmistry / vaastu / Naadi joshyam? Whatever they believe in the west like the Tarot / Sun signs are all stupid. Ours is not fool proof either, but is much superior. Dont believe me? Ask Cheiro or Linda Goodman themselves..
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How abt the great philosophies that we have donated to the world? How abt meditation & the yoga? How abt Maths? How abt astronomy? How abt medicines without side-effects? How abt trading? How abt kindness? How abt family bonding?
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By the way, where am I going? I started with something in mind & have reached somewhere else now. That’s lack of aim & focus. Anyway, since it has come to this, let me say that we have not done enough to understand the worldly wisdom that’s beneath us. We are allowing it to rot off; the treasures that can save this degenerating earth & bring some sense back to the mankind.
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So, be proud that you were born in this holy land & do not compromise on your culture / values, wherever you are.
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Happy Ayudha puja & Vijaya dasami.!
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Some block & a stop-gap arrangement

I have been going thru a terrible thing called writers(!!) block & am not able to write anything cohesively. Maybe Iam lacking the concentration or should have lost the interest (hope its just a temporary thing). Infact, I had started to write abt a couple of things, but just could not phrase more than few sentences. Lets see how long it lasts.
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So, I have decided to write out some simple things till I get my skill (or whatever it is) back.
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Heard that “Unnai pol oruvan” is rocking & am seeing the accolades pouring from all quarters for the entire team. Its been 10 days since it has released & I have not seen it yet. Kind of first time for me, that I have not seen a Kamal Haasan film for such a long time since its release. Has this got anything to do with my marriage? My busy schedule? My reducing admiration for Kamal Hassan? Don’t know the real reason. But would definitely be watching it by next week.
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The last movie that we saw was ‘Kanthasamy’, one of the lousiest film that I have seen off-late. It’s a pure waste of time / money & in all the departments the movie sucked big time. I liked Shriya though, the only consolation in that insufferable film.
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I have become a big addict of tv recently, especially the English movie channels & the sitcoms. Iam waking up early everyday to catch a movie & have been watching another film during the nights. In between I watch sitcoms like ‘Friends’, ‘Seinfeld’, ’How I met your mother’ & a lot others. To be honest, Iam not watching them for the fun part or to pass time, but Iam observing them; its almost like an exercise to me now to build my abilities in that direction. Iam trying to gather as much of knowledge as possible within the limited means that I have. Maybe I should start to write abt the movies / sitcoms that I see, so that the screenplay gets registered in my mind atleast. Lets see.
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But my new schedule has not gone down well with my wife & she is visibly unhappy. She expresses it often, but she understands the passion I have for that profession. She may not be all that encouraging when it comes to this particular dream of mine, but she would not stand in the way. Mainly because she knows that she cannot stop me from chasing my dreams & also because she wants me to be happy.
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Protecting my dreams & going after them are the most important things for me & that’s what has kept me going all thru the terrible phase & even now.
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Is anyone listening?

Have you ever been captured by monsters? Have you ever been put in a prison for no fault of yours? If no, then you will never be able to understand my feelings. Not just my feelings, hundreds of others like me as well. But still I will tell you my experience, but I don’t expect much sympathy from you. The reason? You will know finally.
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We live in a filthy place packed with different creatures of different kinds & filled with filth, of course. But we get accustomed to the way of life here & infact start to enjoy it after a while. By the way, it’s not just us people who live here, but it’s swarmed with many monstrous creatures. These monsters are literally monstrous in size, about 20-30 times the size of us & exerted complete power over us. These monsters were kind of supreme authorities & we have to obey their orders or face dire consequences. But they never did us any real harm & were quite friendly with us. We were co-existing peacefully & we were having a lot of fun going about our business.
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But I understood that alls not well with our lives, when I lost my mother suddenly one day. Lost in the sense, she vanished just like that one fine day. So is the case with my aunty, niece etc & we were completely bewildered with such vanishing acts. Where did they go? When will they come back? No one knows. Another weird thing is that we keep losing only the women from the group, while the men are left untouched. But despite all these concerns, I was living happily only. But everything changed within a few minutes one day, when the monsters decided to capture us & end our freedom. Then we were transported to some other place in a lousy vehicle & were locked inside a prison. If it was a shock to become a captive suddenly, then it was totally unbearable to be put in a prison with hundreds of others. And they had locked us all in such a tiny space with a terrible odour. I didn’t see any of my friends though; maybe they have been taken to a different prison.
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We were brought here to this place on a dark night & it’s almost 2 days now that we are in this prison. We see different monsters at different times thru the holes in the prison, but they are not doing anything to us. They are giving us decent food & water, but nobody here has the heart to eat well. With our legs tied together, we were not able to move much & the feet became numb after the first day itself. I did not understand why our legs were tied as we were inside a secured prison anyway. I tried to communicate with a few guys around me, but no one is in the mood to talk. They were all constantly shouting for help, crying & begging for mercy.
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I was also in a state of shock & did not like to talk to anyone much. But I was not making much noise, it is against my character, you see. I spotted a wise guy on the 2nd day & tried to chat with him. He was not talking much, but he mentioned something like death, end of life etc. I did not believe him, as it would serve no purpose for the monsters to kill us. They were friendly guys & we were contributing to their life in a small possible way. Why would they kill us? This is some kind of a game for them. I tried to convince myself, but the sudden disappearance of my mom, aunty etc kept coming to my mind.
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On the 3rd day morning, we came to understand our destiny. There was a lot of activity around us & we were just watching the monsters from inside the prison. We had lost most of our energy & had almost surrendered to our fate. After a while, the prison door opened from the top & a monster leaned into it trying to capture us with his enormous hands. Every one of us screamed & ran for cover, but with such little space we could not do much. The monster caught a girl nearby his hand & that poor girl almost died of heart-attack instantly. Her scream was so piercing that I could not hear much for the next 5 seconds. The monster left with the poor girl, but came back again without her. He repeated the exercise & caught another fat lady, who also yelped loudly. The process was repeated continuously for about 7-8 times & I noticed an intriguing thing during this practice. The monster was interested only in the fat & healthy ones, while he rejected many of the frail looking ones. I don’t know why, but this exercise kind of disturbed me.
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Now as we were all continuously shouting & pleading, the hand came inside the prison again. As I was running to another corner of the prison, it caught me by my neck. Yes! I ran out of luck & got caught at last. I did not want to shout like others, but the pain of his hard grip on my neck was too much to remain silent. I yelled & tried to free myself, kicking & struggling. But his grip was too hard & I could not do much. He carried me inside a big room & threw me in a dirty corner. I fell on a sack pile & it took me a while to understand the surroundings. While I did finally, it turned out to be the most shocking moment of my life.
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There was blood all around & the body parts of my fellow people were scattered everywhere. Hands on a side, legs in a corner, few chopped heads with the girls’ eyes wide open & staring ahead. I could not even shout & I understood the gross reality. They are murdering us mercilessly. Not just killing us, but are dismembering us & peeling our skin off us. The wise guy was right at last. But why? What have we done to them? I don’t understand it. We obeyed them all through our lives & gave them a lot. We were not protesting or plotting anything against them & for that matter, we were no match to their size & strength. So, why should they kill us?
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I wondered aloud, while the monster leans down to pick me up again. Here I go... Good bye earth... Thanks for feeding me for the last 2 months or so… Hope I would be joining my mom, aunt & niece. My last wish would be to die quickly without much suffering, I pray silently. The monster holds me upside down in one hand & picks up a big sharp object in his other hand. I close my eyes & think about my life so far. It is not much to write about & it’s been a very ordinary life. But what more can one expect from the life of a tame hen like me? Is it hen or should we call ourselves chicken? I don’t know. The monster is still holding me in his hand & is seen to be chanting some kind of words again & again. Why would he do that? I don’t understand.
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But I find it funny now, that these monsters call themselves ‘human-beings’ & label us as ‘animals’. What a joke? Whatever, it is just …… Something sharp touched my neck then & I felt an excruciating pain immediately all over my body. It was my last minute wish that I get killed without much suffering, but our God failed us there too. The monster did not slit my throat cleanly & so I did not die for a long time. I was bleeding profusely & my body was convulsing incessantly. The pain was too much to bear, but I could not shout anymore. Slowly & very slowly my body stopped its struggle, things started to fade off & then I felt nothing. Absolutely nothing…

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My script - Version 1.5

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This is actually the second version of the story, which I had written on the 5th day of the workshop. Anjum liked this too, but he mentioned that the 1st script was much better.

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Manipulation

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Characters

· Ragavan – 45 yr old person, working in a private finance company as Accts manager – Family man with a fat / uninteresting wife, 2 sons in college, Honest, pious, Hard working, but has one weakness: porn magazines – He is sexually deprived & these magazines keeps him going – He buys them from a road side vendor secretly & reads them after dinner in the pretext of working officially or reading something else.

· Ranjani – 40 yr old attractive woman, working in the same company as GM(finance) – Divorcee with no children – Lives alone – Good mannered, Strict & well dressed decent lady.

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Situation

Ranjani has offered a loan to her family friend(a big amount) with a personal guarantee, but the guy vanishes after taking the loan. Only Ragavan knows abt the personal assurance of her & he has that particular file. An external audit team is visiting the company in 2 days & Ranjani wants that Guarantee form to be removed from the file, so that it would look like another default case.

Stake

She is expecting a promotion & a transfer to Mumbai, her beloved city. This scam might spoil everything, including her career.



Scene 1

Office. Day. 5pm

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Ranjani summons Ragavan into her room & reprimands him for doing some mistake in his job. He tries to defend himself & Ranjani gets upset. She takes a file from the drawer, tosses it on the table & asks Ragavan to open it. Ragavan hesitantly opens it to find a ‘porn book’ in between the sheets. It is his book & by mistake he had delivered the file without removing it, it seems. He is shocked, tries to accuse the attender, but Ranjani knows for sure. She throws the book in the dustbin & warns Ragavan severely.

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Ragavan comes out of Ranjani’s cabin cursing her. He wonders aloud abt the file reaching Ranjani without his knowledge & blames his absent-mindedness for that. He is ashamed & leaves for the day.

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Scene 2.

Ragavan’s house. Night. 8.30pm

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Dinner. Entire family present. His sons are talking about the current cricket team etc, but Ragavan is not listening. He is still thinking abt the incident at the office. His wife is amused with his lack of concentration.

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Scene 3.

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Ragavan’s bedroom. Night. 10pm

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His wife is sleeping in the bed, while Ragavan slowly gets up, take the porn books from the bag, keep it inside a file, sits in a chair away from the sleeping wife & starts to read. His face is a myriad of expressions - pleasure, pain, anguish, relief etc. He looks longingly at some of the pictures of models dressed in flimsy clothes.

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Scene 4.

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Office. Day. 11am

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Ragavan is summoned into Ranjani’s room & this time she looks ill & worried. She slowly brings out the subject (loan, her personal guarantee etc) & the external auditing. She wants Ragavan to help her by removing her guarantee form from the file. Ragavan refuses. She pleads & begs & tells him that she will do anything for him to do that. He stares at her for a while & asks “anything?”. She nods helplessly. He grins slowly & tells her that he will get back to her shortly. He leaves the room & she looks beaten.

Scene 5.

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Office.11.30am
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Ragavan in his seat. Checks on that particular file. Sees the assurance form, smiles, puts it back in the locker, locks it & pockets the key. Thinking abt the issue & the various possible outcomes. He is certainly aroused now & wants to use this opportunity. He is scared but still formulates a plan. He gets up. Sits down. Dilemma. Finally he makes up his mind, gets up & walks into her room.

Scene 6.

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Office. 12 noon
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Ragavan is very uncomfortable. But gradually tells her the favour that he wants. He wants a sexual favour. She is shocked. He tries to justify. Talks abt his wife, the sexual deprivation etc. She asks him to leave the room. He looks defeated & leaves the room.



Scene 7.

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Office. Ragavan’s seat. 3pm
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He is squirming in his seat. He is sweating. Keeps looking at Ranjani’s room door. Gulps down water. Totally uneasy. He tries to get up, when the intercom buzzes. He picks up.

Scene 8.

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Office. Ranjani’s room. 3.15pm

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Ragavan enters slowly. He looks a mess himself. Ranjani looks a lot composed now. He was abt to open his mouth to apologise, when she speaks “Where & When?”. He is shocked. Realises her decision & is Jubilant. She is expressionless, stone faced. She asks him for assurance abt the file & he promises to remove the form the next day morning first thing. The auditing is in 2 days & she wants things to be done asap. They agree to meet at her house (she lives alone) by 7pm that same day itself & he can leave by 9pm after finishing his business. She pleads him to maintain secrecy, admonishes him for his ruthless demand. He is remorse yet happy. He just could not believe his luck.

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Scene 9.

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Office. Ragavan’s place. 4pm.

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He is ecstatic. He cannot believe his luck. He takes permission & leaves the office early by 4pm.

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Scene 10.

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Ragavan’s house. 6pm.
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Ragavan is standing in front of the mirror combing his hair. He is wearing a nice T-shirt & is clean shaven & fresh. When his grand-son enquires about this, Ragavan says that he is going to a function in a colleague’s house. His wife is lying on the bed. She is not well & has fever/head-ache. Ragavan asks her to take rest & she nods with her eyes closed. He looks at her face, hesitates momentarily, but leaves eventually.

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Scene 11.

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Ranjani’s house. 7pm.
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Ragavan rings the bell. Ranjani opens & he enters. He is a little shy & uncomfortable. She is still expressionless. He sits in the couch, asks her for water. He is visibly nervous. She looks indifferent, but not angry anymore. He stands up hesitantly & she leads him to her bedroom. The door closes behind them.

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Scene 12.

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Ranjani’s house. 9pm.
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The bedroom door opens. Ragavan comes out of it slowly. He looks a little ruffled. He pauses by the door, looks back, hesitates & leaves the house.

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Scene 13.

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Ragavan’s house. 9pm
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Ragavan comes out of the bathroom after taking a bath. His wife brings a glass of milk to him. She looks very tired. She walks past him slowly & lies on the bed. She coughs mildly, covers herself with a blanket & turns away from him. He sits on the bed looking straight ahead without any expression.(He is guilty). He closes his eyes slowly & immediately hears a slap sound. He opens his eyes in shock.


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Scene 14.

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Next day. Office. 10.00am.
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Ragavan comes to his seat & sits down. He is quite dull. He settles down, opens the draw, searches for that particular file & finds it missing. He is shocked & tries to search more carefully. His colleague Raju approaches him & enquires abt his restlessness. Ragavan tells him abt the missing file, for which Raju remarks that Ranjani could have taken it with her when she was found searching something in Ragavan’s closet the previous day. When Ragavan says that the key is with him, Raju chuckles & mentions that Ranjani has a bunch of duplicate keys for all the lockers in the finance department. Ragavan is surprised & he expresses doubt abt it. Raju continues by saying that even during the previous week, when Ragavan was absent on a day, Ranjani had opened his draw to refer to an important file. Infact he mentions that she took off some file away with her.

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Ragavan realizes that she could had taken the file with the porn book all by herself. Ragavan is completely shocked. He could not digest the news. He gets up slowly & walks towards the washroom.

Scene 16.

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Office. Washroom.
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Ragavan is standing in front of the washbasin mirror & is staring at it. He bents down to splash water from the tap onto his face. As he wipes his face with hand-kerchief, he notices something at the corner near the wash basin. A spider spinning a web meticulously.

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He stares at it for a while. Turns back slowly, walks out of the washroom. The door closes…

My script - version 2

I just wanted to try the same premise from a different angle, having takem my friend Girish's suggestion into consideration. I changed the characterisations slightly & treated the screenplay differently. In the process, I learnt 2 important lessons abt script-writing (which I will share later after seeing a feedback).

The new version of my story goes like this -

(Yet to be titled)

Main characters

· Ragavan – 52 yr old person, working in a private finance company as Accts manager – Very hard working, loyal, sincere, honest etc – Family man with an ailing wife, 1 daughter who was recently married to a U.S based s/w engineer, 1 son – who has scored very poor marks in his +2 board exams.

· Ranjani – 40 yr old attractive woman, working in the same company as GM(finance) – Divorcee with no children (or) maybe she has a family in Mumbai– Lives alone – Good mannered, Strict & well dressed decent lady.

Situation
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Ranjani has offered a loan to her family friend(a big amount) with a personal guarantee, but the guy vanishes after taking the loan. Only Ragavan knows abt the personal assurance of her & he has that particular file. An external audit team / M.D are visiting the company in 2 days & Ranjani wants that Guarantee form to be removed from the file, so that it would look like another default case.

Stake

Ranjani - She is expecting a promotion & a transfer to Mumbai, her beloved city. This scam might spoil everything, including her career.

Ragavan – His son’s desired education.



Scene 1

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Ragavan’s house. 7am.

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Ragavan is completing his puja (Gayathri jabam), a daily ritual. His wife hints about their son Vishnu’s desire to go to engineering college. Ragavan sneers at her, accuses his son for his poor results & wants him to forget all those desires. His wife talks about payment quota & he gets even angrier. He points out that they went overboard recently to get their daughter married to a U.S guy. Apart from the bypass surgery expenses (for his wife), so much of unpaid loans, his ineligibility to acquire new loans, his less salary etc. His wife keeps quite. Their son Vishnu is lying on the bed & listening to it all with teary eyes.
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Scene 2
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Office. Day. 11am

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Ranjani summons Ragavan into her room & reminds him about their MD Mr.Kothari’s visit & the external audit. While talking abt the formalities, she brings the case of her personal assurance (looks like, she had already discussed this with him earlier itself). Ragavan doesn’t budge. He says he cannot become her accomplice in this scandal & requests her to face the consequences. She pleads him, but he is unrelenting.
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As a last resort, she mentions that she had come across his loan application by chance & she states that he do not have a slightest chance of getting it sanctioned, as he had already taken a lot of loans earlier. But she is willing to help him by recommending it & getting it done for him, all for a small favour from him. He looks into her eyes, nods his head in negative & leaves the room.

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Scene 3

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Ragavan’s house. Dinner table. 8pm.

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All 3 of them are having their dinner. There is a strained silence in the room. Their son Vishnu slowly mentions that his close friend’s father has paid 5 lacs to a pvt engineering college & has got a seat for his friend. He looks at his father with pleading eyes. Ragavan continues to munch without responding. After a while, he asks Vishnu if he had submitted the application for the B.Sc maths seat in Vivekananda College. Vishnu gets up from the table without eating & leaves. His wife looks down & Ragavan continues to eat.

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Scene 4.

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Office. 3pm. Ranjani’s room.

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Ranjani & Ragavan are discussing abt the audit & she brings out her point again. Ragavan is stubborn. Ranjani asks him if he is expecting any other favours from her & looks at him inquisitively. He glares at her & says that he has immense respect for her & warns her not to provoke him any further. She looks defeated, apologises & pleads him again. He gets up & leaves her room.

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Scene 5.

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Office. Ragavan’s place.

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Ragavan opens his closet & takes out the file. He looks at her personal assurance form, stares at it for a while & puts the file back in there. His colleague comes near him & tries to chat with him, some other office gossip. Ragavan is not interested, continues with his work.

Scene 6.

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Ragavan’s house. Night. 9pm

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He enters the house from office & explains to his wife that due to the next day’s auditing, there was a lot of work at office. His wife tells him that their son had not eaten from yesterday & is refusing to come out of his room. Ragavan says that Fasting is good for health & goes into his room.

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Scene 7.

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Ragavan’s bedroom. 10pm.

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Ragavan is flipping thru a magazine, lying on his bed. His wife enters the room & he enquires if Vishnu had eaten anything. She nods her head saying ‘no’. He looks unperturbed & continues with the magazine. His mobile rings & it shows ‘Ranjani Madam’ in its display. He picks it, listens to it for a while & says calmly ‘ Please don’t try to cover a mistake with another’. Then without continuing, he says ‘Good night’ & cuts the line. His wife is watching him with confusion.

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Scene 8.

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Ragavan’s house. Morning. 7am.

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Ragavan is doing his puja. (the puja room is a part of the kitchen). His wife brings his mobile & calls/disturbs him hesitantly. He looks at her angrily & she informs that it has been ringing for more than 15 minutes & she felt that it could be important. He takes the phone from her angrily. It is Ranjani on the other end. She apologises first for the early morning call & then informs him that she had withdrawn all her personal savings of Rs.3.5 lacs the previous day & would be bringing it to the office. All he had to do was to destroy the paper & she would give the money to him, either as a gift or as a loan according to his wish. She pleads him again & requests him not to let her & her career down. She cuts the line.

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Ragavan keeps the mobile down & tries to continue with the jabam. But he stutters & the flow is not there. His wife glances sideways to acknowledge his lack of concentration.

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Scene 9.

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Ragavan’s house. 8.30am

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Ragavan is about to leave. He enquires about Vishnu & his wife says that he has already left. She says that Vishnu has gone to a new/unknown Engineering college in the outskirts, which could be offering the seats for a very cheap price. He wanted to enquire & if the payment is high there too, then he would be going to Vivekanada college from there directly to submit his application. Ragavan takes his bag & leaves.

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Scene 10.

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Office. 11am.

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Ragavan comes out of the toilet. He washes his face in the wash-basin, opens the washroom & comes out into the office. He walks towards his place & the intercom buzzes. He picks it up & listens. His MD is on the other end. Mr.Kothari says that the auditing team has arrived at the office & asks Ragavan to hand-over all the files to them & co-operate with them. Ragavan says ‘OK Sir’ very respectfully & keeps the receiver down.

Scene 11.

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Office.

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One person from the audit team approaches Ragavan & asks for the files / other documents. Ragavan gives the closet keys to him & asks him to help himself. The person opens the closet & starts to take all the files / documents outside.

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The intercom buzzes again & Kothari asks Ragavan to come to his cabin.

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Scene 12.
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Office. MD room.
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Ragavan enters the room & he finds his MD Kothari behind the table in his seat. Ranjani is sitting opposite to him & both of them are looking grim. Ragavan is asked to sit.

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Kothari just stares at Ragavan for a while & suddenly he lets out a broad smile. He extends his hand out to Ragavan to congratulate & Ragavan is confused. Kothari starts to talk – The entire episode of Ranjani’s scandal is a drama / setup. As Ranjani wanted to get transferred to Mumbai immediately, they were looking for a good prospect to replace her here at the Chennai office & Ranjani had referred Ragavan’s name. Before he gave Ragavan the responsibility, Mr.Kothari wanted to get totally convinced of his integrity/honesty. (Kothari apologises to Ragavan for suspecting him, but mentions that it is a standard procedure in this company right from its inception by his Grandfather during the early 20’s. He knows that this approach is quite unrefined, but mentions that this method has worked always for them. After all, Crores of rupees are at stake & one dishonest person with the sanctioning abilities can destroy everything, he says).
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Kothari mentions that Ragavan would be promoted as DGM & would get a house / car / allowance / pay hike etc.

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Ranjani is happy too & congratulates Ragavan. Ragavan is stunned & is speechless.

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The attender brings in the file, places it on the table & leaves. Kothari & Ranjani exchange smiles & Kothari tells Ragavan that the whole file is a manufactured one. He laughs about the entire process & jokes about it. He asks Ranjani if she remembers the plot that they had used on her before selecting her. She laughs & says ‘How can I forget?’. Mr.Kothari casually opens the file & start to browse, even while talking & laughing. He gets serious slowly, his expression changes & browses the file again. Ranjani looks at him in confusion & Kothari looks at Ragavan. Ragavan is sweating profusely & looking down now. THE PERSONAL ASSURANCE FORM IS MISSING.

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Ranjani takes the file & leafs thru it hurriedly. She asks Ragavan abt the missing document & he does not speak. Kothari is in a state of shock & he too asks Ragavan abt it. Ragavan is still not talking. As a background score, we let the toilet flushing sound play (He has flushed it. Infact we can even show a paper ball being flushed in the toilet, watched by Ragavan as an intercut scene OR just the flushing sound).

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All 3 characters are silent now. The camera zooms out to the side top angle very slowly & capture 3/4th of the room with 3 people in the middle, standing / sitting across the table. The file is in the middle of the table with papers flapping. There is just the whirring noise from the a/c in the entire scene. Fade out…..

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