maanvi:final story.

old man(parthojeet chatterjee),

student interviewer(sunando sen),

caretaker(shyamramanujan ramamurthy aka shontu),

selfish nephew(anirban chatterjee),

college sweetheart(devamita dasgupta).

-----rough script thing.------

TITLE PAGE.

PAGE 1 : establishment of environment.

shots of old man in his house, in his room. its not very well-lit. there is light coming in from the window facing his bed and is falling on him.

1-top angle shot: there is an old wooden bed on which he is sitting. next to it is a small table, on which rests one cup and saucer, some medicine strips, a folded newspaper and a red and a blue marker next to it.

2-closeup of hand: he is on drips, the hand has a broken bread slice in it.

3-closeup of feet sliding into slippers.

4-shot from behind the man, full view of him, he is silhouetted against his window, he is walking towards it, towards the pigeons who are waiting to be fed.(he is able to walk. slowly, with a bent back.)

5-shot from front, mid-shot of man breaking the bread into smaller crumbs, and on the wall behind him are two things, one a picture of his leader with the political party's flag on it, and the other, a calendar, on which there is a date marked in bright red.

6-mid-close shot of the wall, showing half of the framed picture and full view of the calendar. the calendar has various things written on it for each date, plans and events and such, in blue ink, but only till the date that is marked in red. after that the boxes are clean. there is not even a scratch of ink on them.

7-mid closeup of hand- he picks up the blue marker.

8-close-up shot of calendar- he writes 'election result' in blue,broken handwriting in the box just before the date marked in red.

PAGE 2 : the interviewer is established in this page.

1-mid-shot of a tall-ish cabinet: a young-ish hand is seen reaching out to a sound recorder in the left of frame. rest of the frame is filled with stuff, with a framed photograph of a boy and an old man, the same old man who has been established on PAGE 1.

2-mid-long shot of the boy against the cabinet: he is standing, putting the recorder in his bag, and a notebook too, holding both in the same hand.

3-top angle mid-close shot of the boy: he is picking up a stack of papers titled with the name of a man, and 'rough script/plan' written under it.

4-long shot of his cluttered room: he is seen exiting the room.

5-long shot of a street: boy is seen walking through the market.

6-long, low-angle shot from behind the boy(boy is seen till the waist): he is looking up at an old house, with two windows, and pigeons perched on both windows.

7-close-up of boy's face: he has a faint smile on his face. he seems happy, almost proud.

8-same long shot, eye-level this time: he is seen inside the house right next to the old house. he is closing the gate. this house is much smaller as compared to the old house.

PAGE 3 : The Caretaker.

1-low-angle mid-long shot from a coffee table: on the table rests the sound recorder. the record button is pressed and a red blip is happening. across the table sits a man in his late 40s. he is balding, has a tired look on his face, and he looks like he was born with it. he is wearing a pale full-sleeves shirt and trousers. he is about to say something.

2-over-the-shoulder shot. from the interviewer's shoulder: the man asks the interviewer,"should i talk loudly? or is this fine?" the interviewer responds,"nahi, ye theek hai"(this is fine).

3-close-up of man's face: he begins talking, "i was taking care of everything he ever needed, for about 22years. i still remember the first day.." (goes to flashback)

4-photograph-like frame: both of them standing next to each other, caretaker as a young man, with a placard in his hand, that has his name on it. the old man is standing next to him, smiling, but puzzled, his eyes on the placard. [Narration:"..he asked me my name, when i finished saying it, he didn even bother pronouncing it.."]

5-photograph-like frame: both of them standing next to each other, old man handing young man a new placard, with a nickname on it. old man has a wide, proud smile on face. young man looks confused. [Narration:"..instead, he thought for two seconds, and gave me a nickname. and now im known in the whole locality by that very nickname."]

6-still in flashback, mid-long shot of both men sitting at an old table, with a chessboard between them, we can make out that the old man is winning: [Narration:"once he got the reports, and eventually got a little weak,chess became our ritual. and knowing his deep passion for politics and deep love for the party he worked for, he always chose the black pawns, and named them after his party. i was given the white ones, and some weak party's label.."]

7-close up of old man's hand, knocking off the white king with his black pawn:[Narration:"..and as we all know, a man of his intelligence was impossible to defeat! so i would end up losing badly.."]

8-over-the-shoulder shot from behind caretaker: old man has won and has that victory smile on his face, like he knew all along that he would win.[Narration:"..i would hate it then, but now, the thought of that smile is what keeps me happy."] (flashback ends)

9-closeup of caretaker's face: he is wiping a tear off his right eye, "..i longed to see that smile in the last few weeks, but he had lost interest, because of people like that damned nephew of his, (name here).."

PAGE 4 : The Nephew.

1-low-angle mid-long shot from a coffee table: on the table rests the sound recorder. the record button is pressed and a red blip is happening.

2-mid-long shot, POV of Interviewer: the nephew is a man in his 40s, and he looks like a cunning fellow, someone who doesnt have many friends, only 'associates'. he is wearing casual clothes, and is sitting with one leg on the chair. he is also smoking. he asks,"recording?" Interviewer says Yes.

3-long shot, both are sitting facing each other, coffee table between them, the nephew starts with a question, almost like a derogatory remark,"So how come someone like YOU is doing something like THIS for someone like HIM?" Interviewer replies,"i studied under him when he was teaching in (whatever college). he had been a source of inspiration for many. i just decided to DO something about it. he was important to me."

4-mid-shot of nephew, again Interviewer's POV: he is holding the ashtray in his right hand, and while ashing his cig, he says,"funny.he never mentioned that part of his life, you know. when i used to go meet him.."(goes to flashback)

5-mid-close shot, old man is standing in the foreground on frame right, in the background on frame left is the nephew, lesser light on him: the old man is looking down.[Narration:"..he didn talk much. i think he had lost interest. plus he was never really social. politics was his family. i think he hated all the rest.."]

6-old man's POV shot, sort of low angle, nephew is standing in front of him with papers in his hands, showing them like playing cards, there are three, labelled Plan A, Plan B, Plan C. he has a 'am-i-smart-or-what-!' smile on his face.[Narration:"..i had these plans, i wanted to give him a better life, or whatever was left of it, you know. i wanted him to get out of that old dump of a house, build something new there, you know, but he just wouldnt.." Interviewer interrupts,"he never talked about family?"]

7-nephew's POV shot, mid-close shot, old man is seen in front of a cupboard, half-done closing it, inside there are framed photos of him with what looks like people from family, son etc.[Narration:"no, no! he almost never did. just everytime he asked about my kids, and why i didn get them along.."](flashback ends)

8-mid-close shot of nephew leaning forward, to stub his cig into the ashtray, which is now on the table. Interviewer says,"pretty odd. he never spoke about family to his own family members!" Nephew repies,"yeah. but i guess when you lose a wife and a child pretty early on in life, you tend to get alienated from the concept..oh but he did mention this woman he used to know..not his wife though.."

PAGE 5 : The Woman.

1-low-angle mid-long shot from a coffee table: on the table rests the sound recorder. the record button is pressed and a red blip is happening.

2-mid-long shot, POV of interviewer: the woman is sitting on a sofa chair, she looks really old, but seems happy. she is from a rich background too. she starts,"im quite surprised you found me, especially in context to him. im not surprised that to his family i almost dont exist.you see, we were college sweethearts.." she says, smiling. (goes to flashback)

3-Polaroid picture-type frame: photo of a guy and a girl dressed in 60s type clothing, girl is kissing the guy on the cheek and the guy has taken the photo in what looks like a college classroom,[Narration:"..we were the very typical 60s indian couple, the guy-giving-girl-a-rose-everyday-type.."]

4-Polaroid picture frame: shot of a college rally, him leading it: [Narration:"..in college he was the hero of politics, he was the motivator of all those petty revolts, which now seem so irrelevant, you know.."]

5-Polaroid picture frame: shot in a hospital, he is on the bed, on drips, but smiling. she seems to have taken the picture. [Narration:"..this once, he was in the hospital, after an accident, we were young and so full of life, and that time reality hit me i think.."]

6-same shot, but old man is on the bed in his house, they're both old and she is sitting next to each other, the same way, its just a flashback, not a polaroid one. [Narration:"..and now when i think of it, im not unhappy with it. we spoke a week back, and he was the same politics freak, you know, and so looking forward to the election results.."](flashback ends)

7-close-up of interviewer: he asks,"so it mustve been quite a mental blow, 5years of such intense feelings and then nothing?"

8-close-up of woman: she says,"i never really regretted not being the wife, you know. i guess he never understood that though..also because i was the one who decided to walk away from it at the end.."

PAGE 6 : Conclusion:

1-overhead shot of interviewer, writing something at his desk.

2-closeup of hand, showing whats written: 'such a heavy politics background to all of it. he was so into it. what happened about the election results?'

3- interviewer's over-the-shoulder shot: the caretaker is sitting in front of him. he says,"his party won the elections, as expected. he was happy. very happy. the guy he wanted as leader was now the leader."

4-shot of old man, over his shoulder: he is looking out of the window, leaning out, the street is full of his party flags, his one fist is raised with victory.

5-mid-close shot of him lying on his bed: he is smiling, looking up. its an overhead shot.[Narration:"..one thing that none of us wouldve expected was how it turned out after that.."]

6-camera zooms out: this time the man is smiling, but his eyes are close, he's asleep. [Narration:"..the old man slept peacefully. he knew that was it..but the next day, the new government stole his house from him

..as part of a new development scheme..the party leader, his leader ordered it.."]

7-close-up of interviewer's hand: he has pressed the stop button on the recorder.

8-long, low-angle shot from behind the boy(boy is seen till the waist): he is looking up at an old house, with two windows, and pigeons perched on both windows. this time we see a notice stuck to the gate.

9-close-up of the notice: it says," Government Property. Trespassers will be severely prosecuted."

PAGE 7:

(concluding artwork)

(credits and acknowledgements)

-end-

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