My Script - Kamalhaasan screnwriting workshop

This is the script that I had given to Anjum on the 3rd day of the workshop & he liked it. Remember the premise was discussed the previous day by Mr.Hariharan & it was like this " an elderly person working under a young lady boss catches her red-handed for doing some malpractice in the job ". Thats it & nothing else. There are various possibilities for developing a script / characterisations based on this premise & I chose this.

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It will be a little raw & might lack finesse, but remember that I conceived it & typed it within 7-8 hours straight. Your feedback is welcome.

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So near, Yet…..

Characters

· Ragavan – 58 yr old person, working in a private finance company as Accts manager - About to retire in 2 weeks – Family man with a fat / uninteresting wife, 2 sons, 2 daughter-in-laws & a couple of Grand children - 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.

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.

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Scene 1
Office. Day. 5pm

Ranjani summons Ragavan into her room & reprimands him for doing some mistake in his job. He comes out cursing her & leaves for the day.

Scene 2
Roadside. A book vendor shop. Evening. 7pm.

Ragavan is glancing at various magazines & from the corner of his eyes scans all the porn magazines kept in the side. There are people around him buying magazines & at that time when no one is there in the shop, he picks a couple of those books, stuffs inside the bag, pays & rushes off.

Scene 3.
Ragavan’s house. Night. 8.30pm

Dinner. Entire family present. They chat abt his retirement day, which is 2 weeks away & abt his after retirement life. His sons & d-i-l’s are hinting at the retirement money, but ragavan does not talk abt it.

Scene 4.
Ragavan’s bedroom. Night. 10pm

His wife is sleeping in the bed, while Ragavan slowly gets up, take the 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.

Scene 5.
Office. Day. 11am

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 6.
Office.11.30am

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 7.
Office. 12 noon

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 8.
Office. Ragavan’s seat. 3pm

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 9.
Office. Ranjani’s room. 3.15pm

Ragavan enters slowly. He looks a mess himself. Ranjani looks a lot composed now. He was abt to open his mouth to aplogise, 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.

Scene 10.
Office. Ragavan’s place. 4pm.

He is ecstatic. He cannot believe his luck. He calls his house to inform that due to auditing he will come late that night. He takes permission & leaves the office early by 4pm.

Scene 11.
Textile shop. 5pm

Ragavan is buying a flimsy nightie. He calls Ranjani & asks her abt her favourite colour. She is angry to know abt his purchase & slams the phone down. He smiles.

Scene 12.
Ranjani’s house. 7pm.

Ragavan rings the bell. Ranjani opens & he enters happily. He is a little shy, but nonetheless happy. She is still expressionless. He sits in the couch, asks her for a drink, asks her to sit besides him. She is angry & shouts. He smiles & gives her the parcel. She opens it to find the flimsy nightie & gets agitated. Refuses to wear it & asks him to finish things & leave immediately. He doesn’t budge, compels her, even threatens her. She relents, takes the cloth angrily & goes into a room.
She comes out wearing that.(we don’t show that, but just the door opening & Ragavan’s expressions). He is dumbfounded. He goes wild & could not control himself. He gets up slowly & walks towards her like a zombie. He goes near her & she is looking away, still expressionless. He smiles, then laughs, slowly lifts his hand to touch her. She closes her eyes.
Bam! A noise & Ragavan is in the floor catching his chest & convulsing. HEART ATTACK!

Scene 13.
Hospital. 11am.

Ragavan is lying with a lot of tubes attached, monitor, this & that. He is partially paralysed as well & his face is a little distorted, especially the mouth. He is unconscious. His wife is sitting near him with a sad face. Her mobile rings & she goes out of the room to talk. She explains to the person on the other end that Ragavan had gone to his boss’s house to handover some important file & he got a heart attack there suddenly. Heavy work load, pressure etc.

Scene 14.
Hospital room. Next day. 11am

Ragavan is awake, still with all those attachments. Ranjani enters. He looks at her with pleading eyes with a lot of guilt. She assures his wife abt his recovery, his insurance policy etc. As his wife gets another call in her mobile, she goes out.
Ragavan & Ranjani are alone in the room now. He avoids her eye contact. She comes near him & bends over near his face. Now he looks at her & with tears in his eyes, says “ Sorry” slowly with a distorted mouth. She hushes him & asks him to forget it. He asks her abt the audit & she says that it is over. He looks at her enquiringly & she says that she got rid of her assurance statement. He signals “how?” & she sits down in her chair with a sigh. She slowly lifts her head, looks at him & says “The auditor covered everything. He was quite young & he did not suffer a heart attack while doing so”.
Ragavan is shocked. His mouth opens in astonishment. His wife is about to enter. Now Ranjani gets up, comes near him & whispers in his ears “ But Ragavan, I wish it had been you, instead of the auditor. I had always liked you”. She turns & leaves. Ragavan is completely shocked.

Scene 15.
Hospital corridor. 11.30am.

There is a flurry of activity. Nurses running & Ragavan is brought out of his ward room in the stretcher & they push him along the corridor into the critical care room. Ragavan is still gasping with his mouth open & salivating profusely. His wife, sons & daughter-in-law’s are running behind the stretcher wondering aloud “What has gone wrong suddenly?”.
As the stretcher enters the critical care room, the door closes with his family crying outside. Ragavan is still gasping, the spikes in the monitor attached to his chest going berserk (up & down). The scene slowly fades off…

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