Thaka Dhimi Thom Film Documentation by Hari Prasad

LAYOUT DESIGN JYOTHI MANN ILLUSTRATION ANIRBAN GHOSH PHOTOGRAPHS POORNIMA SUKUMAR DIKSHA GROVER HARI PRASAD UDAYAKUMAR DESIGN SUPPORT MIRA MALHOTRA SAISHRADDHA MALAGE AKASH HALANKAR ANUJ VIJAY GADRE PROOF READING ANOODHA KUNNATH

CONTENT ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

SYNOPSIS

STORY

SCREENPLAY

CHARACTERS

SCRIPT

TREATMENT

CASTING

CROWD-FUNDING

BUDGET

PRODUCTION DESIGN

EQUIPMENTS

CREDITS

THE SHOOT

POST PRODUCTION

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ACKNOWLEDGMENT This filmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s genesis that you are about to read through the next few pages, happened with something beyond passion, and I call it faith. Words would be scanty for the unconditional support extended by so many individuals. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of them. First and foremost, My parents and my brother for being strong pillars of unconditional support, love and encouragement throughout my journey. Sri Prakash - my uncle, who believed in all my dreams from the time he saw the speck of itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dust and supported me with a warm smile without a question of doubt. Mr. Shivakumar N - a wonderful father to my best friend - for the trust he had in me and supported my education loan, making my education here at NID, a possible one. Ajay Tiwari - my guide. For being extremely patient with me, being excited about the film along with me and his undying support to make this film happen. George K Antoney - Co- writer of the film, for believing in my idea and his unduly support to realize it into a film through his writing and actions. Farooq Mohammed - Cinematographer of the film, for his unconditional support, never-say-die attitude, his brilliant image-making skills, most of all - for the wonderful

friend that he has been.

being such a cool friend.

Anoop Satyan - Asst. Director of the film, for his energetic presence, his quick wit and an optimism. Most of all for the wonderful person that he is and good friend.

Ruben Dayal - the Music Recordist. His diligence and commitment falls short of words to be expressed. Extremely grateful for his kindness.

Diksha Grover - Production Assistant by designation but truly a wall of support with words of solace. A person on whom I could count on when things are not looking great. A hard worker, enthusiastic and an amazing team player. I know when she is around, things will be sorted out for sure.

Vishnu Prabhu, Anantha Padmanabhan, Ranjitha Rajeevan for supporting the film financially and their trust in me along with my dreams.

Poornima Sukumar - Production Designer. Give her the darkest corner on this earth, you can count on her to make it the most happening place. Extremely energetic and creative person who brought the world inside the film together without much being told. Jamie D Silva - the Location Sound Recordist. I call him the voice of the film. He managed to give the film its sound amidst all odds, without a complaint. Extremely diligent and dedicated. Santosh - the Music Director. Present at the hour of need. Gave the film its soul musically. For his patience to listen to my constant wants and changes. Sudhakar B & Tilak of Trajots VFX - for their promptness in helping me out with the Visual Effects part of the film. And Sudhakar for

Vijay S.Aiyar, Abhijith Revathi, Bhargav Ramakrishnan, Krupa, Sruthi Hariharan, Nanda, for being and doing more than what brilliant actors do and being awesome human beings. My mentor - Mr. Paresh Kamdar for his wise words of wisdom and the drive to do more. And for being one who I can run to,even after making a bad film. My teachers - Mr. Arun Gupta & Mr. S B Saxena for their kindness, support and knowledge through the years of NID and hopefully beyond. Anoodha Kunnath, Sandhya Ramanchandran, Anisha Crasto, Maniyarasan R, Deepika Thangavelu, Anirban Ghosh, Boopathy Srinivasan for being such great support and help through this journey of the project and the awesomest friends for life

INTRODUCTION It was another evening of connecting to some reel life through TV, after returning from NID. I realized our Indian television channels were flooded with reality shows, beyond the number of shows since my last television watching. Anything and everything was made into a reality show. There was unhealthy competition being celebrated everywhere. Well, even if I presumed the adults would grow their way out of it but what felt uneasy were the reality shows with children. The dramatic acts made to be done by the television channels to supposedly make it more ‘entertaining’ or to increase their TRPs. The show that intrigued me the most was the AIRTEL SUPER SINGER JUNIOR, a reality music show on a popular regional channel. The commercial whims and fancies of Television channels, have sucked out the innocence from a child’s learning. They are being forced to perform and excel sans mistakes. They are prompted to have cut-throat competition. The maturity of learning is stunted in such atmosphere and I am afraid that their perceptions towards their talent or art might land up being shallow. That’s when I thought, how different would it be for the youngsters who are very actively in search of quick fame and money with half-moulded knowledge. While they form one end of the story, there is a purist side toothe classical singers, who, from at wee age have been training. Despite, their talent & knowledge, not many have been able to make the mark they could have. This is not a prejudice. It is rather from the horse’s own mouth. Being a music lover and a rookie music producer, I was able to connect to both sides of the story. There struck the bolt of an idea - what happens when these two worlds meet? I thought, I had something very interesting in my hands. I decided to go ahead and write this story giving up the children’s story that I had been mulling over for a long time. I know it had to wait. Before, I set out to writing my film. I had to choose a treatment for my film. A language in which I can tell this story. In retrospect, most of my works are pretty serious in mood. I have to make people laugh, I thought. Nothing more can be as exciting like learning from a challenge. I had to overcome that

fear of writing a comedy. I would say, it’s easier to make them cry but to tickle the funny bone is rather a tough nut to crack. ‘Challenge Accepted!’ As Barney says from the sitcom ‘How I Met Your Mother’. Brewing some humor needed the right ingredients. I assigned myself the task of understanding the form of comedy and light hearted films from the basics. Brought up with Tamil films and then topped with world cinema, my choices of films were quite wide. After watching an array of comedy films. I mostly got influenced by classic Tamil comedy-drama films like Thillu Mullu, Server Sundaram, Michael Madana Kama Rajan, Mumbai Express, many such. It was interesting to see that most of the films gave birth to very interesting characters, which made the film more pleasurable to view. These characters in turn influence the basic plot and idea of the film greatly. After almost five failed attempts at arriving at a convincing plot for the film, I decided to give life to the characters in detail first, hoping to get inspired from them. This turned out to be quite fruitful. I stuck to this idea by instincts. After a many drafts of writing the story, I was too worn out to think of it objectively anymore, thats when George K Antoney - a fellow filmmaker / NIDian, stepped in to co-write the film. His tangential and fresh perspective helped in writing a film that was possible without losing it’s essence. It was quite tricky to stick to the line of “ Two classical singers who kidnap a Pop Singer by mistake” without getting too much into the genre of ‘Thriller’, ‘Suspense’ or anything too dark but still give the story its root of reality with a cover of fun. It was a conscious decision to make the film a situational comedy film that contains laughs at situations for the audience, not a laugh riot in Tamil. The characters are serious, but the humor is in their life - the situations they get into, their decisions, their reactions and their temperaments. Thaka Dhimi Thom laughed it’s way out of situations too, to get noticed.

SYNOPSIS The world always seemed mean to the !floundering classical singers- a coy ‘Ramanujam’ & an extrovert ‘Karna’. It surely worsened when he came, ‘Karthik’ - an arrogant finalist from a famous Music Reality show, a stubborn star born out of ‘“fifteen-minute-to-fame’. They hated the unworthy comparison to him. They hated his success out of nothingness. They hated him. They decide to hurt him. They decide to teach him a lesson. But their decision was a tipsy one. Little did they know, that their prey would land right into their laps, by chance. Ironically, they cursed lady luck favoring them. Because, now they did not know what to with Karthik. They plan to throw him back into the mean world but they are just too late, the damage has already been done. They have officially been termed kidnappers by their ever-enemy media and their trusted friend - the police. The TV ranting about a missing celebrity, a mother gaining publicity out of her lost son, and a city on red-alert. It seemed like a bigger mess than their lives. But they had to do it - send him back. In their venture to save their asses , begins their journey of self-discovery, acceptance and coexistence of their music, their lives and each other.

STORY “Ganesh Bar and Restaurant - Pure Non-Veg” read the jazzily blinking back-lit board of the famous hangout, where many low-income drunkards and shallow-pocketed youth land up. It seemed like any other dingy bar of Bangalore but surely the most liveliest one for some reason. Like every other bar in the city which is filled with a constant hum of conversations, updated playlist of sleazy songs played or the not very popular songs. People enter with a glum look on their faces but come out in the blissful state, called ‘being drunk’. And that was exactly the state KARNA (30) was and RAMANUJAM (31) was trying to get into. Ramanujam was sitting opposite Karna with his poonal rolled around his ear. He continued to stare at Karna who was gulping more and more whiskey in a badly kept plastic cup. Karna slams the plastic cup to the table and crushes it and looks at Ramanujam who was in turn looking at him baffled. The dreary ambiance of the bar is generally filled with random yelling, placing of orders loudly, clanks of bottles together and occasionally some fist fights between men. And of course the neglected sound of the sleazy songs from the television which is placed at a higher position to save it from the drunk people’s tantrums. The channel that the TV is playing at, has not been changed for year, when one fine day it gets disrupted by the boy who works in the bar. It shatters the mood of the regulars and everyone’s eye is fixed on the boy who felt cool about changing the channel. They looked as if they were suffocated with some CO2 or they might just kill the boy, at any moment. Meanwhile, a popular jingle of a music reality show plays on the television. They were distracted by a song that started on the television. Ramanujam and Karna who are witnessing this don’t react to any of the chaos till then. They turn their head when they hear the song. The song “Ilamai Idho Idho” is being sung by a stylish youngster - KARTHIK(25). Ramanujam and Karna look back at each other, irritated. Just then one of the drunkards in the bar go all in praise for his song and bet on Karthik’s win. Listening to this ruckus, Ramanujam gulps down his

shot of whiskey, which, he has been trying to do so for the past few hours. Ramanujam and Karna share a glance, angrily. Karna puts out a kitchen knife from his shoulder cloth bag on the table, and Ramanujam puts his rickety scooters key on the table as they continue sharing the glance. Next thing, they leave the bar in a jiffy. While doing so, Karna pulls off the fuse plunging the bar into darkness. Both set out on road in the cold night of Bangalore on the rickety old scooter of Ramanujam with its dying headlight barely giving light to see a little beyond their front wheel. Ramanujam starts to speed up on his dear ol’ scooter. They realized, anger is not the only thing needed, they needed fuel too. Karna curses Ramanujam for being such a miser in spending money. They are stranded on an almost deserted road. And being stranded while drunk is not a great idea, especially in Bangalore. Even their soul could get stolen. Just then they hear an auto blaring a popular kannada song. It zips past them and screeches to halt a little further away from them. The auto had this blue light from inside along with decorated pictures of Michael Shumacher, Upendra, Kartina Kaif, a hanging dice in the rear -view mirror, lot of gadgets and its holders and the inevitable auto-rickshaw quotes written on it. It pretty much looked like a cock pit of an aircraft. Out of which came this puny old man in a hurry to pee, who runs to the street wall. He did take a while to unzip with so many layers of woolens he was wearing to stay warm. Ramanujam and Karna walk towards him with no other choice left and stand at a distance giving him some privacy. But they had to yell out him as the music was louder than their voice. It was in vain, so they waited for him to turn around. They really wondered how long would it take for someone to finish peeing. Anyway, after a while when the auto driver turns around, he sees this silhouette of two men, one with a knife in his hand. The man faints. Ramanujam wonders what really happened. Now they were left with this blaring auto with no one to ride it. Karna asks

Ramanujam if he can drive it. The auto is on the move finally after umpteen attempts to start it. It jerks and cruises badly through the road with the blaring music. Ramanujam driving the auto and Karna sitting next to him in the front itself like a co-pilot, navigating him through the roads. They had to shout to talk , as they didn’t know how to turn the music off. And Ramanujam was constantly getting irritated with the kind of music that was being played saying it was tasteless. Karna looks at him unbelievingly, that he could only think of that at this time of chaos.

a glance for a split second confused. But it didn’t seem big, as Karthik got up on his own with a bruise on his face. He looks at the auto. Ramanujam and Karna are more shocked. Not because they hit him any more but he was their prey. Karthik walks towards them and asks them if they would take him to his house at a near by area. Ramanujam fumbles to answer and Karna smoothly and sarcastically agrees. Ramanujam and Karna look at each other and share a grin. Karthik is in praise of both of them and their hospitality. Next thing, Karthik is in the auto singing a Rajnikanth hit “Auto Karen”.

It’s the 14th shot of Vodka that was going down Karthik’s throat that night. The night still seemed young to him. He orders more in the bar counter, and he gets ruder by every shot. He pesters the DJ to play his song- his winning song “Ilamai Idho Idho” which he does comply to, as he had no choice to deny. Karthik thought he was the star of the night, which was partly untrue. Karthik walks through the crowd towards Jagan, as he ignores the wishes of the people who he was passing through. The egoist that he is, abuses Jagan of his incompetence to beat him to which Jagan just smiles in reply. Irritated, Karthik gets on to the table to give a speech of his mighty success, while everyone else in the party, including his competition Jagan who is the other finalist toast along. While he does so, he get a call from his mother, which he ignores. He falls off the table. He doesn’t let anyone come close to him to help him get up. He get another call from his mom, Karthik stumbles to get up and runs to the loo. He answers the call, as he is resting on the mirror and looking at himself in a drunk state. Suddenly he yells back to his mom that he does not need any cheap gimmick to win the show and is very much capable of winning with talent alone. He throws the phone in rage, breaking it. Looks back at the mirror hanging up on his mother’s call. Poses like a star, shakily. People stare at him as he walks out of the loo, and gets out of the pub. He walks backwards looking at the pub and crosses the road.

It was a hard slap on the drunk Karthik’s face by the drunk Karna. He falls drunk, as he hit him and throwing curses at him. Karthik couldn’t yell because he was gagged by a waste cloth and tied to a char in a pretty clean room but dimly lit with some light being thrown into their house from the near by street lamp. Drunk Ramanujam sits down in front of him, cursing him and asking Karthik about his worthiness. Each time, Karthik fails to answer, and makes noises in reply. Karna slaps him. Their torture continues till Karthik passes out and fails to answer but they don’t seem to realize that and continue to talk, till they pass out too.

Ramanujam and Karna still drunk, still maneuvering successfully, trying to figure out how to switch off the music and planning their kidnap of Karthik. During which they forget to look ahead. Suddenly, Ramanujam looks up. He panics. Karna slams the break. They hit Karthik. Ramanujam and Karna freeze in shock. The blaring music stops. They share

It felt like someone knocked at the door to Ramanujam, who realizes that he is not on a bed but his floor. The knocking seemed to grow louder. He realized it was early in the morning. There was the Suprabhartam that was playing in his Brahmin owner’s house downstairs everyday morning and the sound of kids singing from the music class which happens in a terrace of a house of their locality. Ramanujam opens his eyes to find everything blurry, extends his hand around on the floor searching for his spectacles. He opens the door to find no one except for the forever awake old man in his 80’s sitting at the door. Proved alive by his breathing supported by this oxygen mask and also finds his son, the owner generally called ‘mama’ standing at the parapet of terrace doing his ‘Surya Namaskaram’. He looks at Ramanujam and tells him in the prayer tune itself, that he would come later for his daily routine and continued with chanting his prayer. Ramanujam smiles and shuts the door and turns around for the shock of his life. Karthik tied to the chair, trying to free himself. He doesn’t know what to do, looks around for Karna lying on the floor in a weird position. He kicks him awake. Karna wakes up irritated, taking a sip from his ever-ready whis-

key to the same shock, even before he gulped the sip down his throat. The blame game began, Ramanujam accusing Karna of making him drink and Karna saying since Ramanujam didn’t drink he had to drink more to finish the liquor which they bought. Saying so he sips another from his little bottle. Karthik plays a mute spectator to this whole argument till the sudden halt when they decided to what to do with Karthik. Surprisingly Karthik found them scared rather than scary. Karna laughs at the situation and suggest that they should totally take advantage of the situation and teach Karthik a lesson. While he says so Ramanujam shows him the bruises of the act of last night which shuts up Karna. Ramanujam is scared and suggests they should hand him over to the cops which was obviously rubbished by Karna. So they decide to drop him off in a deserted place and flee. They blindfold Karthik and they bring him out to sneak him out of the house without getting caught in the preying eyes of his owners or the neighbors. Just when out of the door, the old man spots all the three and starts pointing his finger at them as he had no voice left at that age to say anything. His daughterin-law generally known as ‘matter mami’ as she was known for her gossipy and inquisitive nature, notices the old man and yells at him for being a burden on them sarcastically. Ramanujam and Karna notice that they were spotted and pull Karthik back into the house, hurriedly. She looks to find nobody except for Ramanujam and curses the old man even more. She inquires very curiously to Ramanujam if he knew that Karthik - the finalist of the super singer show is missing. She said it was in the papers. Ramanujam just gulps, acts as if he did not know anything and pretends to convey his condolences. Mami then prays for Karthik’s wellness and curses the old man again as she goes back inside while the old man continues to point his finger towards Ramanujam’s house. The door is shut behind Karthik. Karna ties him back to the chair which might also collapse at any moment. Ramanujam looks at both of them to announce it as their official kidnap as he read out the headlines from the newspaper. Karna takes the last drop of whiskey from his bottle making it empty. Karna gets up to leave while Ramanujam stops him while warning that he might lead anyone back home. He shrugs him off and bangs the door close when he leaves. Ramanujam hits the TV to set the channel right.

He flips to the news channel announcing Karthik’s missing. Ramanujam and Karthik are watching as the channel starts showing his performances as a tribute to his success and his celebrity status. Ramanujam starts pointing out his errors in his singing in points one after the other. He taunts at his singing and his fame. Karthik who was watching the news too, tries to say something but he could just mumble with the cloth tied around his mouth. Ramanujam was irritated by this constant nagging noise. Very carefully walks towards him as Karthik follows his movements. He requests him not to yell when he cuts open the cloth. Karthik agrees. Snap goes the cloth and the next thing, Karthik yells the loudest he can. The nadaswaram in the wedding plays the famous “Endharo Mahanu Bhavulu” keerthana. The wedding is bubbling with activity and people. The piping hot food being served in the dining area and more of it being cooked in the kitchen. Kitchen filled with yelling of instructions, orders and curses. Amidst which Karna takes his gulp of whiskey and switches on the tape recorder playing a Carnatic raga. While mixes the huge cauldron of curry that he is cooking. When a another co-worker informs about a call that he has received at the office phone. The manager, Mr. Manjunath Gowda, of the wedding hall handed over the phone to Karna with a promise that he will sing at his daughter’s wedding. Karna agrees hesitantly just to get the phone. He was excited to hear about an opportunity but for a chorus singing. He requests a lead chance and starts singing to showcase his musical prowess not letting the person on the other side of the phone say more. Triloka Murthy, a famous music director hangs up his iPhone and places it very carefully on the table. So soft that he thought it might really hurt the phone. He looks at Ramanujam who was sitting in front of him inquisitively, waiting to hear what he has to say. Mr. Triloka clears his throat and sips his glass of water as he says that Ramanujam’s way of singing is very old school and he needs to gear up for the new-age talent. He needs to show being updated. He compares and refers to Karthik which intimidates Ramanujam and also saddens him. Ramanujam feels that he wanted to leave the place right then but his desperation for an opportunity kept him glued listening to Mr. Triloka. He promised Ramanujam for an opportunity soon and signed off. Ramanujam while

leaving, sees the office boy glued to the television watching the show. Karthik is shook to consciousness. Ramanujam and Karna stand in front of him waiting to gain consciousness. Karna hits on Ramanujam head for hitting Karna with a rod, which was actually kept to kill rats in the house. A stroke of sunlight was blinding Karthik as he finally managed to get conscious and open his eyes. This was the first time, Karthik has a proper look at the place where he was abducted into, the not-so-dusty house with clothes hanging from lines inside the house, a wooden cupboard with pictures of old classical singers and gurus, an old harmonium, tapes lying around, an old gramophone, evidently one corner fill of alcohol bottles collected over months and a few buckets amidst the partition-less room to save water from the dipping roof. With not much energy left and hungry, Karthik asks them for a glass of water. Which they feed him with. He with a hurry to ask with water in his mouth, he asks them, what do they really want? Ramanujam and Karthik really don’t say anything. Karthik offers them money. He tells them that how big a star he is and they are in a big soup. That they will get both of them even before they think. Ramanujam gets worried and scared. He sits down while Karna is pacing up and down as Karthik goes on. In a rage, Karna suddenly in a rage threaten to kill him, which Karthik laughs it off. Ramanujam sits quietly listening to them while Karthik tells them why they can’t. Suddenly, Ramanujam gets, slaps him and yells at him to stop singing. Yells at him because he is a joke. Even Karna is taken aback by his sudden move. Karthik yells in return when the power goes off. The lights on the stage comes on. Jagan gives his VOTE REQUEST shot while the comparer takes a over the show, moving into asking feedback of Jagan’s performance. To whom, the judges were giving their feedback very dramatically. Karthik was watching this from the green room, who was going next. He was practicing his song by singing it to himself, but he is still missing the nuance of the raag. It was a difficult round themed - Old World Classics. He was not getting it right. He was scared. He was not confident, while suddenly his mom in the show talking praising Jagan’s performance, how every person in that show was like her children and wishes good for all. It was followed by a loud applause continuing to announce

Karthik’s introduction and request to come in. He is tensed. As he walks through the green room corridor he shares a glance with Jagan who passes by with a sneer on his face. The next thing he knows, he is standing on the stage starting to sing his song. The clip of his pre-final show was shown, interfered by the News Reporter reporting Karthik’s mysterious disappearance, his last found road and the auto being discovered and also debating whether its a kidnap or a run- away. The new reporter now directs it to his mother who cries about her missing son and wanting him back. She blames on television that Jagan might be involved with her son’s kidnap as he was his competition. She talks about how they can have all the money but return his son safe. Ramanujam , and Karthik are watching this news as Karna ties up Karthik again tighter. Ramanujam looks poignantly, at Karthik who is staring at the television with not much reaction except for the pain of being tied. Karna notices Ramanujam looking at Karthik. They decide to drop him as per the plan that night and they had to get this auto from one of Ramanujam’s friend. Suddenly there is a knock at the door. Ramanujam and Karna scared wondering who it is. Then, there is this hush of the mama (house owner) to open the door. Ramanujam pushes Karthik to a dark corner behind the clothes line and Karna runs to the door to get it. He open it exactly enough to see him and nothing beyond. Mama was at their house for his usual sneak drink routine hiding from his wife. But this time he was not let in which pissed him off. They try to keep him from entry but still manages to push through to enter. They fumble around him to avoid his get a glance at the dark corner. Then Karna tells him that he has a surprise for him and steals him away to the terrace with the whiskey. While leaving he signals Ramanujam to get the auto. Ramanujam unties Karthik, looks at him with not much expression. Karthik surprised by his action still is seated on the chair. Ramanujam leaves with not much noise while even walking down the stairs. He didn’t want to wake up the old man. Ramanujam drives the auto in the night. He was getting ready to go visit another music director. She sips his routine hot water with honey, chants a mantra. There was a knock at the door. He opens

it in a jiffy to find his father. He turns around not facing him. His father throws an envelope at the harmonium kept in the room and tells him that its his monthly expense, again. Ramanujam sad but in anger asks him to leave with the money. Actually suggests to take all the money he has given which is still new in the same packets. His father makes fun of Ramanujamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stubbornness and intimidates him being another loser lost following his dreams. And he sarcastically promises to take care of him when he gives up. Ramanujam yells at his dad to leave. The soured relation still leaves a bad patch in his memory.

the kid who tells him that he wanted to become a super singer and accepts him into his music class on the same terrace. Karna gets his usual phone call. Gets his usual request. This time he accepts to sing chorus.

Karthik gets up and walks through their room to find an old harmonium. When he opens it, he stumbles upon a lot of tapes of music which he plays it. He finds work written by them. Lyric papers. Recommendation letters, pictures of famous musicians as he continues to listen to their audition tapes in the background. He sits back on the chair reading the songs and listening to them. Ramanujam reaches the room. Karna signals that mama has passed out. They open the door to find Karthik missing. They freak out. They donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know which direction to run for him. They scared that they are doomed. Ramanujam feels guilty about trusting him. Karna blames him. It was almost going to be morning in a couple of hours. They run around in the lanes of the locality. They find no one. The sun rises. They almost give up and come back home. The suprabharatam is begun to play in the house beneath. They search everywhere. They run to the terrace. They stop to find him with a bunch of children who were supposed to be singing chatting up with him and showing their fondness. Ramanujam and Karna in the front seat of the auto. Karthik in the back. They stop of at a deserted place. They ask him to get off and walk without looking back. Karthik gets off. Slaps Ramanujam. Very arrogantly, He tells them what losers they are with the knowledge they have. He tells them that they are not even opportunists like him; he tells them about what they have lost on and they can never ever beat him in life. He will continue to win. He will continue ruling the fame. Ramanujam and Karna look at him as he walks off. A few months later. Karthik sits at his desk, near a window at a music school while Ramanujam smiles at

SCREENPLAY ACT 1 Film starts with the introduction of Karna, he is singing classical music at a roof top restaurant and its dinner time. We see that not many are keen in listening to him sing… they are busy talking and having fun. One of them quickly acts as if he remembers something and asks for the waiter to turn the TV on. As soon as the TV is on we see ‘super singer’ happening and the comparer calling someone named karthik on stage. CUT TO Ramanujam is stranded in the road with a young lady who is in a Burqa as his TVS 50 broke down. He is desperately trying to repair his vehicle but he is unable to do so. He is repairing it with his helmet on. The lady is getting irritated, worried and tensed. Ramanujam asks her to calm and reminds her that no one can identify her in the burqa. In return she says that she will be late to reach home and there by miss “super singer”. CUT TO In the restaurant the same people who were talking while Karna was singing are now listening to Karthik very keenly and even applauding in between. Karna gets irritated and starts raising his voice and keeps hitting high notes till one of them asks for him to stop singing. Karna gets very angry and he literally storms his way out of the place taking with him his ‘shruti peti’ . CUT TO Street … young lady in burqa stops an auto and leaves Ramanujam behind. Ramanujam pushes his TVS 50 alone along the street. CUT TO Karna enters the lift. Few floors below a young man (11th std sorts) enters the lift. He has the similar hair

style of karthik and is also wearing similar wrist band and probably even a T shirt that says “Karthik U ROCK” (improvise) … He has a ‘diet coke’ in his hand and as he enters he says ‘yo man’ (low voice)… Karna: what have you done with your hair? Boy: karthik fan dude!... Vote for him Karna: mandayilla kothu porotta pota mathiri irruku. This gives rise to a conflict… and Karna gets soo angry that he squeezes the can of coke onto the boys T shirt and then he starts laughing… The boy is boiling with anger and just then the lift reaches the ground floor and the lift opens … Karna turns to see a gang of similar looking boys all ‘Karthik supporters’ staring at him from outside the lift. The boy looks at his gang Boy : machaan! CUT TO Local bar – Ramanujam sips on his drink and licks the achar of his finger, then we see Karna (one black eye) bottoms up a drink. They both bitch about their lives and for everything they suffer they start blaming ‘karthik’ … and in a drunk state both decide that the only way to be at peace is if they don’t let Karthik win Super Singer and for that to happen he has to be kidnapped. CUT TO The auto that they hired accidentally hits a boy who was just running across the road at night. Ram and karna get down to see that it is someone who looks like Karthik but only we(viewers) know that it is Karthik. Auto wala just flees that place out of fear leaving Ram and karna alone with an unconscious boy. Karthik gains consciousness and Karna realizes that it is karthik. Karthik also seems drunk. Then we see a montage sequence of both Karna and Ram having fun at the expense of Karthik being ragged. He is

made to strip … he is made to bray like a donkey … etc … Karna and Ram are drunk and having a lot of fun. CUT TO MORNING Karna wakes up with a smile to find ram still sleeping next to him on the floor in their house. He wakes Ram up and casually says of the exciting dream that he had last night … He says that he dreamt of torturing karthik … Ram looks surprised and says that he also saw a very similar dream… They both discuss the dream with lot of excitement and anxiety till they see a boy walk about in their house in an underwear rubbing eyes … he shouts ‘amma coffee’ … “AMMMAA COFFEEE” .. suddenly he stops and barely opens his eyes to see the space.. he realizes something strange. He turns and looks at Ram and Karna … all the three stare an anxious and nervous exchange of glances … and in a moment … Karthik and ram shout like girls as Karna rushes and holds karthik and covers his mouth with his hand. They struggle physically … Then we see karthik tied to something with his mouth stuffed with cloth and wrapped with tape. CUT TO ACT 2 Karna and Ram wonder how all this happened … revealing the confusion that they are in … but they still don’t understand how and why was Karthik alone on the road that night. They want to ask Karthik that but they can’t open Karthik’s mouth. Karna is excited and he feels like he has just found gold while Ram is very nervous and filled with fears of being caught. He also fears the curse from god for such a deed. Karthik quickly writes down on a paper that he will not shout. CUT TO Only Karthik hands and legs are tied but now his

mouth his open… Ram questions him as to why and how he was on the street drunk but karthik refuses to answer. Karthik asks them why they have kidnapped him and what is their motive … he starts speculating that if their motive is money .. he can pay them from the price money that he will win after winning super singer. This irritates Karna and he starts mocking karthik… he sarcastically comments on karthik looks, singing and attitude! … This pricks Karthik ego but he does not respond … as he looks around the room karthik finds a pamphlet – a Ad that reads … “CLASSICAL MAESTROS … FOR YOUR PERSONAL CELEBRATION … CALL Ramanujam – 9937868938, Karna -9169788236) (something like this in Tamil) … Karthik finds it very funny and starts laughing “Ada paavigala .. u guys are bloody singers … Haaiiyyoo … Andha Birthday .. anniversary ku ellam oru peti um harmonium vechu saaa paa saaa nu paduvangalae (exaggerated mimicry) .. andha type thaana” … CONFLICT JUGAL BANDI SCENE Karthik is in the verge of breaking down, Ram is slowly feeling sorry for karthik and Karna is mercyless … just then someone Knocks on the door. The three hear the door knock, there is silence … Karthik sad look slowly morphs into a smile but before he could fully form the smile Karna warns him to keep quite or he would destroy the locket. Ram gets tensed … Karna stuffs Karthik’s mouth and ties him as Ram peeps through and finds a cop standing outside the door. Ram runs in panicked .. he is not able to talk out of nervousness … finally he says … police police … Karthik starts to mumble through his stuffed mouth… Karna threatens karthik again and then looks for a place to hide him… but their house is too small to hide him effectively and hence they just make him crouch and cover him with a bed sheet. Ram opens the door and tries his best to keep the cop outside. He seemed to have come to hire them for a function in the jail on republic day. Cop insists that he will come in and have a discussion about the function and their role for that. Ram reluctantly lets him in and we see Karna sitting on the crouched karthik

covered with a bedsheet. He does not even stand to greet the cop. This kinda irritates the cop. Ram quickly grabs a chair for the cop and stands next to Karna. Cop now starts taking their case as he thinks of himself as a good singer because he won 3rd prize in singing in 5th std. So he goes to the level of taking audition of Karna and Ram before he can fix them for the function. At one point as Ram starts singing for the cop, Karthik pinches ram’s legs and he goes to a false voice and quickly gets back. This happens through out a stanza . Karna realizes what is happening and quickly distracts the cop by asking him to look back and slaps karthik butt. Karthik gives a mumbled cry which the cop hears and Ram quickly morphs his song into the mumbled cry and gets back to finishing the stanza. The cop gets a call… he attends and tells to someone on the phone that he has just met 2 jokers and he says that he can sing better than them and make the function a better one. And then the cop talks about the missing case of ‘karthik’ … he says over phone that he is relieved that that silly boy was kidnapped and that he had to get 2 TVs so that he could watch cricket while his family watched super singer…. The cop just leaves without even acknowledging ram or Karna. Karna closes the door as the cop leaves and turns around furious and brimming with anger. He charges to hit Karthik as Ram holds him from behind and controls him. CUT TO

Ram: this is getting dirtier than what we thought! Karna: only option is to kill him! Ram giggles and looks at Karna …Karna is not smiling. Ram: what you can’t be serious. CUT TO Karthik in the Kitchen .. he goes through a carton box and finds a lot of unpaid bills. Realizes the condition that ram and Karna are in. CUT TO Karna: we don’t have any other option… we will take him out of the city and kill him… Ram: no no no … we are not like that … I know we have done lot of bad things but this … Karna : bad thing ??? this would be a contribution to music … the music gods will bless us. Karna just starts walking… Karna : just need to figure out a way to get him out. And just then something catches Karna’s eyes… it’s a burqa put for drying in the neighbour’s terrace. Karna asks ram to stay in the room and keep an eye on Karthik. CUT TO Ram with karthik in the room. And karthik asks for his phone and when Ram says that they never found any phone, Karthik explains that he wants to tell his mother that everything is fine as she would get really worried after seeing all the news.

Ram: what are we going to do with him?

Just then Karna enters the room with the Burqa Karna says “who said you are fine?... We are going to take you to a warehouse outside the City.. And then demand for a ransom … if your family doesn’t pay … we will cut your vocal box (sangu in tamil) and parcel it home.

Both look at Karthik

ACT 3

Karna: he is like an infection in our throat … cant swallow it nor can we spit it out. If we let him go .. he will identify us to the police and we can’t have him here for a long time… n we cannot even take him out like this.. How did we get him into the house in the first place?

We see Karna and ram take Karthik out in a burqa. This scene has a lot of slap stick comedy as Karthik’s mouth is taped and his face is covered and his hand is tied from behind inside the burqa. Situations like the following happen…

Karna and Ram stand and whisper to each other as Karthik is made to sit in the kitchen

1)Karthik tries to escape and ram chases him from one side and Karna from the other side. Ram gets him first and grabs him with his arms … as they struggle … Ram’s girl friend spots this from a distance .. she sees ram grabbing a burqa clad person. Ram notices and does not realize initially … he hands over Karthik to Karna and runs behind the girl, but she leaves in an auto. 2)Later when Karthik, Karna and ram are in an auto Karthik says that he wants to pee and he mumbles through the burqa. He makes them stop the auto and get out… There is a moment where everyone are lost in translation.. Finally out of desperation karthik points towards the toilet with his leg. It looks very weird and funny to everyone in the street watching them. 3) Karthik as soon as his hands get free … starts to run away from the toilet and goes into the near by government hospital. Karna and Ram chase him but he is way ahead. As he is running he is removing his burqa and the strap over. Karna: seri ram ivana kootitu po.. (ram … take him” Ram walks with karthik and karthik walks into the ladies loo … Ram is caught in the act and has an awkward moment … he is not able to enter nor leave Karthik.. He stops karthik and pulls him back. Then he forces karthik into the gents room and few men standing around start shouting at ram. So ram is forced to leave karthik alone into the ladies loo. But now karthik does not move. Ram: now what? Karthik looks down at his crotch and then looks at ram again. CUT TO Ram and karthik are standing behind the toilet and Ram is opening karthik hands. Ram struggles so he lifts the burqa goes under it and starts removing knot. Few street kids are watching them and it looks very naughty. Karthik goes to the toilet and when he comes out he has managed to remove the tape over his mouth but has come out in a burqa. He walks towards Karna and ram. Then he says “I could have removed my

burqa and just run out crying for help … but I dint do that.” Karna and Ram look at each other Karthik : “ I just want one thing … I want to see my mother who is now in this very general hospital.. Even if it is from a distance” Ram: “ but you said in the show that your mother is back in the village” Karthik : “she is not well and I dint want the world to know that… please trust me.” CUT TO Karthik looks at his mother from outside and Ram is with him … an old lady is lying down and she looks weak. Karna walks towards her and has a conversation with her. After a brief interaction with her Karna comes out… walks towards Ram and Karthik .. looks at Karthik and then looks at Ram. Karna: ok lets go ! .. Karna starts walking and both Karthik and Ram follow him. Karna stops, looks back and then says .. Karna: “ (looking at Karthik) you stay back .. we are going … naanga idha kudichitu panna oru periya thappa nenachukirom” They walk off as karthik watches both of them walking away. FADE OUT We see a news telecast “Super singer contestant reappears after 24 hrs … he claims he was with 2 dear friends who helped his mother… who is currently in the GH being treated for a cancer… lets talk to Karthik” Reporter1: Karthik please explain (chaos) many reporters asking many questions. Karthik “My mother is doing better …” Reporter 2“is it true that you dint want sympathy votes and that’s why you kept the news of your mother from the public.” Karthik does not answer that question… Reporter1: “do you regret not having won the super singer title?” Karthik : I won something greater that day … I met

2 friends… Reporter 3:” there was news that you were kidnapped. Is that true?” Karthik smiles looks at the camera and winks CUT TO Ram and Karna are sitting in the bar and looking at the TV displays showing karthik’s interview and they laugh… CHEERS!

CHARACTERS After many drafts of writing the story of my film with certain characters etched out during it’s go, I realized that they needed more detailing, their lives needed their own history, they needed traits, habits, morals, hatred, love, everything that conjured a human into a person rather a personality. I set out to write the stories of my characters, individually. Alongside, got them sketched by a friend Delwyn Remedios.

CHARACTER NAME: KARNA SHASTRI A cook by profession and alcoholic by habit. He has been trying to break into the Music Industry for almost more than a decade. He lives by his own principles, has no rules per say and is a moral blasphemy. Ambitious that he is, he wouldn’t settle for anything lesser than the lead. An orphaned kid he was, bought up by his foster father who was a cook too. He learnt music by ear as his father played Carnatic Music while cooking. Believed it transferred the positive vibes into the food. His favorite\audience to whom he performs more regularly is the prostitute he visitsLeela. She is his audience and his anger management system. Because, his house mate friend Ramanujam cannot really take his extremism. Karna being an extrovert and hasty decision maker. One such action lands him in a soup. KIDNAP. Age: 30 years Distinguishing Features: Wheat Brown Skin, Unkempt Hair, Badly combined clothes. Hair: Receding Hairline Eyes: Black Height: AVERAGE INDIAN MALE Key Character Traits: Passionate about carnatic music and can talk for hours about it - Slurs while talking once in a while because of his alcohol - Wears a red thread on his hand (spiritual anger management by his late Foster father). For Karna it his memoir - Alcoholic (drinks only whiskey, strictly) - Hasty Habits/Vices: Alcoholic (drinks only whiskey, strictly), carries his quarter bottle of whiskey all the time - Visits Leela, the prostitute -Doesn’t pay high respect to the opposite gender - Carnatic music while cooking (follows his foster father) - Hasty - Wannabe Dare-devilish Pure Non-vegetarian

Personality: Well Built - Rough - Single - Braveheart upfront, but a coward - Kind hearted - Short-tempered - Optimist

Education: 12th Grade - Failed - Bad conduct report - Excellent Classical Singer \ Trained by ear - A cook by Profession. Profession: Caters weddings, birthday parties and such functions. - Freelance singing with Ramanujam at Parties, Hotels, Bars, Function but later had to discontinue as his interested turned out to be MUSIC and COOKING. His foster father loved and always listened to Carnatic Music loudly while cooking and drinking. He believed the positive vibes of the music adds taste to the food. So eventually, when Karna started assisting his foster father with his cooking, he learnt music by ear and cooking by taste. He grew into a fine singer and imitated his foster father in everything including being an alcoholic and hasty extrovert. He never married after his foster father passed away but had the habit of sexual escapades with Leela, a prostitute. His ambition was to become a lead playback singer and nothing short of it. Family Background: He was too young to remember how his parents looked. All he remembers is being stranded at a wedding hall eating jalebi, waiting for his parents to return to pick him up. He was picked up by cook of the same wedding and was brought up. He went to school till his twelfth standard Likes: Carnatic Music - Whiskey - Leela, the prostitute Cooking - Praises Dislikes: Tasteless New Age Music - Talent shows - Being the Second fiddle - Girls - KARTHIK

POPULAR CELEBRITY REFERENCE

CHARACTER SKETCH OF KARNA SHASTRY

CHARACTER NAME: RAMANUJAM IYENGAR A very coy, shy Brahmin, who is a trained Carnatic Singer from his childhood. He works at a Garment store for his livelihood but has been trying to get an opportunity as a singer for almost 11-12 years. This pursual of passion has him being thrown out of the house by this parents. He started living along with his friend, Karna. Two prominent things that he loved the most, his passion MUSIC, Divya- his almost love. At an age where his peer were settling, he had to prove his mettle before its too late he loses his dream and his love. Things never came easy for him, while has been watch the young stars on reality show being shown in such pompous manner. He never felt jealous but frustrated. Being a very disciplined, neatly groomed, good boy, he never even thought that his world would turn topsy turvy after that night, when a couple of gulp of alcohol runs down his throat. Frustration being built up for all this time lands him into committing a crime he would have not dreamt of in his dreams. KIDNAP. Age: 28-30 Distinguishing Features: Bespectacled, Fair, Neatly groomed, Dressed in Shirts all the time Hair: Neat combed. Good boy look. Eyes: Black Height: Average Indian Male Weight: On the plumpier side Key Character Traits: Fair - Bespectacled - Calm & Composed - Pessimist/ Scared - Planner/ flopper - Speaks in Brahmnical Tamil - God-fearing Family Background: Born to a orthodox, educated Iyer couple, residing in their ancestral home ever since and so did his parents. He led a middle class life all his life, where every penny spent was accounted for. He was not too good with his education, but managed to get through his under-graduation of B.Sc. This did not earn him great name among his peers, his vicinity not even with his own parents. His parents gave up on him academically and they take care of him as a duty or more likely like a burden. There is one thing he is brilliant at: MUSIC. He was a trained carnatic singer, who has been under training since his childhood. He

CHARACTER SKETCH OF RAMANUJAM IYENGAR

dreamt to become a singer some day. This dream of his was looked down upon as he was always compared to his great uncle who dreamt the same, just to die in vain. Jumbo, which they call him with ‘love’ wishes to get to his dream someday, atleast to prove himself worthy. He got a TVS 50 for himself with his own money (only claim to achievement) which he earns by working in a Garment store in the women section. Habits/Vices: No bad habits - Practices Sandhyavandhanam - Riyaaz everyday morning - Pure Vegeterian Education: - B. Sc Micro-Biology - Works in a Garment Store, for living - Brilliant Formally Trained Classical Singer - Freelance singing with Ramanujam at Parties, Hotels, Bars, Function Personality: - Jittery - Over cautious - Almost teetotaler - Pessimist - Dreamer Dislikes: - KARTHIK - NEW GENERATION - Alcohol Comparison - Reality shows Likes: Carnatic Music - Loves ‘Divya Monappa’ - Girlfriend who is a Coorgi/ Bangalore Girl - Sharing his knowledge of Music, his only try to show off

POPULAR CELEBRITY REFERENCE

CHARACTER NAME: KARTHIK SEBASTIAN A ‘Fifteen-minute-to-fame’ CELEBRITY - a SINGER, from a popular Music Reality Show called ‘Airgo Super Singer’ in a popular television channel. He became the name of many households. Has a huge fan follow amidst the young and the old. He was performer who people didn’t want to miss. He managed to get to the semi-finals of the show and he has a day to go before he enters the finals. He was celebrated. His fame gets to his head and turns out to be an arrogant-snobbish artist. His vulnerability of limited knowledge of music, is hidden by his attitude, his cover of being a star. He knows his weakness and tries all his best to hide it under his carpet of fame. Just before he thinks he is going to make it through as the winner, the unthinkable happens. He is kidnapped. Age: 24-26 Distinguishing Features: His hairstyle Hair: Justin Beiber Style, Floppy Eyes: black/brown Height: Average Indian Young Male Weight: Fit enough Key Character Traits: Charming - Arrogant - Tackily stylish - Flaunt Family Background: Born into a regular middle class christian-hindu family in Bangalore. Studied in an all-boys school. Brought up in a middle class scenario of controlled finances, controlled fun life. His college education, was in a co-ed, he turned out be a charmer with his bathroom singing skills. And was famous amidst the students esp. the girls but was equally hated for his attitude. His wannabe attitude gave way to a lot of tacky choice from his clothes he wears to the simples of things he does. It’s his voice that builds bridges for him everywhere. He turns out to be the voiceof-the-household after he reaches the finals in the music show. His father was a government employee who earned enough just to take care of the basics. A simple man with simple needs and nothing beyond which the boon and the bane of the family. His mom taught in primary school. Unfortunately for her, the past of hers of leaving home as he had to marry a Christian, didn’t let her sleep in peace. She comes

from a poor family. She dreamt to be a star someday but she had to succumb to marriage because of situations and give up all her dreams. She still regrets for not having fought for her right to do something she likes. This past of her has made her into a cynical and selfish person even when it comes to her own people. She partly fulfills her dream by sending his son to the reality show and making sure he is all rigged to win. Education: MCA student - SUPER SINGER STAR - Celebrity Personality: Street Smart - Charmer - Over- Confident - Arrogant - Performer - Insecure - Manipulator Likes: Fame - Music - Girls - Flaunt Dislikes: Criticism - Parents

POPULAR CELEBRITY REFERENCE

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS NANDINI RAO - RAMANUJAM’S LOVE An independent Middle class woman. Stern. Doesn’t like mush. Irritable. Short-tempered. Brave. Confident. CHARACTER SKETCH OF KARTHIK SEBASTIAN

ROHINI - A SHOW COMPEROR Giggly. Slightly flirtatious. Self obsessed. Fashionable. NANDJUNDAPPA - THE COP Plump. Dumb. Narcissistic. Egoistic. YO BOY Frail. Thin. Dark. Wanna-be. Karthik-look alike.

SCRIPT TITLE CREDITS BEGIN AND IS PLAYED ON ON BLACK. (An carnatic song ’Theliyaledhu Rama’ is played with simple instrumentation and shruti box.)

Dei, indha polapukku nee....pichhai edukklaam... He feels it was directed towards him. The waiter trying to communicate with ramanujam who has just completed the song.

INT. KARNA’S INTRODUCTION. ROSE TERRACE RESTAURANT. LATE EVENING.

WAITER Edhavadhu pudhu padal yeduthu vidunga ... elaarukkum bore adikkudhu paarungo.

The classical Tamil song fades into the scene. The board reads ’ROSE TERRACE TOP RESTAURANT - VEG & NON-VEG’. It’s a dim, pink-orange lit with Chinese lantern, terrace top restaurant with men, family busy in conversations or laughing or fighting or Eating their food. Waiters cruising through tables serving. An ignored television running on mute on a channel that no one is bothered about playing a serial and an advertisement in a series. Traffic sound seeping in from the roads. Amidst all this crowd in the restaurant, in a negligible corner stood and performed, a singer - KARNA (30) accompanied by his hired band of men who play the tabla and tanpura. Lost in his world of singing, with closed eyes. Karna concludes the song, with great passion and pride, he was singing and he opens his eye expecting people to be applauding in awe. He finds everyone busy in their tables, literally ignoring his presence. He also over hears from a nearest table with a family of four. LADY (MOTHER) (to her little daughter) Ammu, adhellam saaptu mudi. Illana naa andha padra uncle kitta pudichi kuduthuduvaen... Another table: YOUNG BOY (to the waiter) palaya soru sapidaradha irundhaal naan inga yaen varanum... (gives the plate of rice to the waiter) poi vera konduvanga ... sapadum seri dho antha paadravarum seri ...mattom! Another table: GIRL ON A PHONE (with her boyfriend sitting opposite to him)

KARNA Neenga konchom muditu pongo. Karna disappointed, looks away and gestures his accompaniment to get ready for the next song while they nod in reply and share a glance at eachother. He announces the next song in a low voice in the mic as he already knows no one cares. KARNA Ready..1...1..2...3..4.. EXT. RAMANUJAM SCOOTER BREAKS DOWN. MAIN ROAD. NIGHT. A not-so-busy road in Bangalore almost the ring road. A almost dying headlight, an TVS 50. A moped halted in th side of the road, which is being repaired cautiously by a bespectacled RAMANUJAM (32) wearing a round skull helmet. A little further from his standing is a lady in a burqa [NANDINI (26)]. , NANDINI Ippove 8:30 achu ... innum evalavu neram aaghum? In a wide shot we see RAMANUJAM and NANDINI stranded in a lonely street .. the street is probably little outside the city and hence not all that crowded at 8:30pm. Then we see RAMANUJAM looks around and at the skies ... we can see the its silent, beautiful with just the sound of

RAMANUJAM - NANDINI . Nandini (romantically)...Indha yedom nalla irruku illa? .... (pause) Silenta ... a vehicle passes by breaking the silence... and as Just then the vehicle passes NANDINI quickly puts back her burqa covering her face. NANDINI Ethana nallaikki dhan ippadiyae... RAMANUJAM enna ma? NANDINI indha burqa...(mumbles) RAMANUJAM Ippo aathuku poi enna panna pora? NANDINI ((irritated murmurs to herself)) Yedho panna poren. A bike passes by the street and NANDINI again covers her face... RAMANUJAM Haiyyo yaen padhata padura ennaliyae unna andha burqa-la kandupudika mudiyaadhunaa paathukoyen...(Pause - show reactions) namma Jodi yepadi irrukkunu theriyuma ...”Mellathirandhathu kadhavu” Mohan-um Amala mathiri... illa?? NANDINI Andha Amala mathiri naanum sethae poirukalam (murmurs in kannada) RAMANUJAM Enna nandini sonna? NANDINI gives him a stare NANDINI Haiyyoo ... innaeram aarambichirukkum.... (she looks at her watch and it shows 8.35 pm) innikku emotional round vera.... KARNA’S REACTION TO THE PROGRAM. RESTAURANT. LATE EVENING.

Just when Karna is beginning his singing. One customer asks the waiter to increase the volume too while Karna continues to sing. CUSTOMER 3 Waiter...8.30 aachu...star singer veikamudiyuma? Karna notices the TV’s channel change to the program. The volume is being increased. Annoyed Karna, puts his hand into his pocket to remove the quarter bottle of whiskey and takes a gulp down quickly. He starts singing “Marivere” - shanmukha priya raagam cautiously, with the TV sings the Jingle of the show as he looks at the TV simultaneously. INT. AIRGO STAR SINGER PROGRAM INTRO. TELEVISION SCREEN. We see the TV and the Reality Music Show called AIRGO STAR SINGER is playing and the volume increases gradually from the TV. KARNA looks up at the TV annoyed. We pull back to see the whole crowd is diverted towards the TV and are staring at it. A giggly- female comperor of the show facing the camera. She is lit in a spot light with light from the show board saying “AIRGO STAR SINGER - SEASON 3” from behind. FEMALE COMPEROR Hello. Namaskaram. Vandanam. Suswagatham. (giggles) Welcome to Saemiya Masala Star Singer. Indhiya-vin super kuralukkaana thaedal. I am your beautiful host of the evening (giggles) Rohini. ( OS dialogue as we see few more faces turn towards the TV in anticipation (lady .. youngster .. etc ) Neengaal aruvamaga edhipaarthukondirukkum naerum vandhuvittadhu. Indhavaarthin...hmmmm... yummm (she smacks her lips in taste)(almost orgasmic expression) rusiayaana...Saemiya Masala STAR SINGER -SEMI FINAL ROUND (giggles). Ungal munn, mudhaalaga vara pogum contestant, ungal chella paiyyan...KARTHIK (echoes) (she gives a flying kiss to the audience..giggles)... (Show the reaction of the people in the restaurant on the above line also) The comperor finishes saying. We cut to Karthik

appearing with a hood closing. He opens his hood. There is a loud applause. He seems happy to hear the cheer. KARTHICK starts to sing “mumdhinam parthaenae” from Vaaranam Aayiram ... peple cheer and applaud as he starts ... we listen to the fisrt few lines ...KARNA’s song is disturbing the crowd as he continues singing his carnatic song. One man calls for the waiter ... gestures something to him and we see this through KARNA’s POV. Both the waiter and the man look at KARNA. INT. KARNA LEAVES ANGRILY. ROSE TERRACE RESTAURANT. LATE EVENING. Sound of a famous tamil song is being sung Karthik, from the television, in the ignored ambiance of another song being sung by Karna from his corner with his accompaniment. The talkative customers are all silent. Staring at the TV with great interest even the waiters. While one customer is staring without a blink. Another, shaking his head with his eyes closed, in trance. While a few of them are applauding and words of praises are thrown into the air. The waiters walks to Karna and looks at him constantly. Karna notices the waiter. WAITER Setha moodraela unga harmoniya pettiya...(sniggers) He does not see anyone listening to him. Everyone’s attention is glued to the television. Annoyed KARNA takes a high pitch to counter the waiter ... The crowd from the restaurant look at KARNA annoyed ... Next we see the plug pulled off. Next thing we see, his mic is plugged off the sound of voice goes off. He finds a waiter has pulled it off and is holding it. Karna looks at the TV, notices the show’s volume being increased. He looks at the customers at the table all back to staring at the TV. He gulps down all the whiskey from his bottle, and picks up his shruti box to storm out of the hotel. Karthik’s singing is loud and clear now. EXT. RAMANUJAM SCOOTER BREAKS DOWN. MAIN ROAD. NIGHT.

Ramanujam with his helmet still on and spectacles slipping on his nose is kicking his moped to start which is failing to start. He is trying very hard and is still not starting. He looks at Nandini who is in a burqa is irritated waiting for the moped to start. Amidst which Ramanujam is trying to be all romanctic with her by smiling at her which is irritating Nandini even more. An auto rickshaw passes by, she signals the auto to stop. She looks at Ramanujam busy starting the moped and continuing to grin at her. She gets into the auto and leaves throwing the burqa back at Ramanujam. Ramanujam who is kick starting the moped just looks at the auto leave. It’s almost a lonely road lit with street lamps. Ramanujam is walking alone pushing the moped. INT. KARNA GETS INTO A FIGHT. ELEVATOR OF THE RESTAURANT. LATE EVENING. Karna waits for the lift, while the waiter comes behind him to give him the money. WAITER Indhaya...nee iluthu paadinadhukku..(sarcastically smiling)(sniggers)Ivalo kudukarudhe jaasti...seri kalambu.. Karna looks at him. Grabs the money from his. KARNA Kaludhaikki theiryuma karpoora vasanai. WAITER Adhedhaan naanum kaekaraen, Kazhudhaikku theiryuma karpoora vasanai...(laughs and walks for singing ’Mundhinam Parthaney) Karna waits for the lift to shut door automatically as the sounds fade off, as Karthik’s song ends and his code is his being announced. The elevator starts to move down. Karthik reaches for his bottle, finds it empty. The elevator halts at one of the floors. The door opens. A teenager enters the lift, with mohawked hair, wrist band, flipping a mobile phone in one hand, a coke can in the other hand, baggy trousers, wearing a T-shirt that read ’STOLE THE SOUL- KARTHIK’with a caricature of a guy

singing in a mic, cooly sipping he enters, he looks at Karna.

squeezes it down on his tshirt and starts laughing villainously)

TEENAGER IN THE LIFT Yo man! wassup bro...

TEENAGER IN THE LIFT Vendaaa...

Karna moves back as the teenager presses the button for the ground floor. The elevator door shuts. Karna stares at the teenager and his t-shirt. He get irritated to see more of Karthik. KARNA (arrogantly) Boss...unnoda mair..(halts) mudiyoda enna pannirukkae.... TEENAGER IN THE (with a fake accent) You don’t know...my gawd! .innum theiryala... Karthik dude Karthik..Fan boss! Vote pannu...don’t forget yo! KARNA Dei..(getting pissed)...Avannae oru dubanks.. The teen is take aback and looks at Karna in wary. TEENAGER IN THE LIFT Dude...appadi paesadha man...you will get jacked, bugger! KARNA (gets hold of the teens hair) Andha dubanks Manda maela kothhu parota pota.. neengalum parota pottu thireeveengala....ennada idhu...huh? ennada idhu....(holding his hair and shaking his head) TEENAGER IN THE LIFT (Karna holding his hair..twisted from behind) Karthik rocks man... over-a insult panrae ... The teenager fights loose, falls back to the corner of the lift and is looking at Karna when... KARNA Adhu enna unnoda satta maela...’STOLE-u the SOUL-u’...wotha....innikku irrukidi abhishegam...oothuda... TEENAGER IN THE LIFT enna...what? KARNA Andha pepsi-ya oothuda....(he

The teen is trying to fight it off when the elevator reaches the ground floor. The door opens. Karna who was laughing villainously., suddenly freezes. He is shocked to see more such teenagers dressed similarly with the same t-shirt standing out waiting for the lift like a Hip-hop gang. The teenage fan boys are looking at Karna holding the Teenager in the lift’s tshirt. The looked in rage. Karna lets go of the teenager’s tshirt. The teenager in the Lift starts laughing. He goes and joins them while everyone is staring down on Karna. TEENAGER IN THE LIFT Macchan...(laughs effeminically, teasing) Karna is looking at them. Next thing we see, the lift door shuts close. INT. GREEN ROOM. NIGHT. Rohini is seated at the dressing mirror inside the green room. She is removing her makeup. Just then Karthik barges into the room while on the phone. Rohini looks up. KARTHIK Ofcourse baby....ha ha ha...I know...I know....i am the star..ofcourse...ha ha ha.. don metion it...mmmuuaaahhhh.....ok listen...I gotta go... Rohini just looks at him through the mirror throughout the conversation. KARTHICK (cuts the call). Turns around to see Rohini. KARTHIK (cuts the call) Oh!...ingadhaa irrukiyaa....eppadi irrukae? Rohini opens the desk. Pulls out a bundle of money. Turns around. ROHINI Indha...idhukkudhaana vandhae... Karthik takes the money bundle from her.

KARTHIK Thank you, sweetheart... ofcourse, naa contest jeicha, odanae thiruppi thandhiraen..

RAMANUJAM Kaaram?...mozhaga?....vera enna?

ROHINI innum edhukku vaenummnu sollavae illayae.... Karthik phone starts ringing again. He looks at Rohini. Rohini looking at him. Karthik leaves.

KARNA dei Iyerae...

KARTHIK (outside the door) Hello....amount kadachidichu...vandhudraen... Rohini stares into mirror. INT. RAMANUJAM & KARNA MEET. LOCAL GANESH BAR. NIGHT. “Ganesh Bar and Restaurant - Pure Non-Veg” read the jazzily blinking back-lit board of the famous hangout, where many low-income drunkards and shallow-pocketed youth land up. It seemed like any other dingy bar of bangalore. The hummy ambiance of the bar which is generally filled with random yelling, placing of orders loudly, clanks of bottles together and occasionally some fist fights between men. And ofcourse the neglected sound of the sleaze songs from the Television which is placed at a higher position to save it from the drunk people’s tantrums. Ramanujam is sitting at a table with his sacred thread pulled over his ear. He coyly gulps the whiskey from his glass continously... gives a jolt of a shiver in reaction, hating the liqour and looks forward to find Karna doing a bottoms up of whiskey, angrily not just from one glass but one after the other....slams the glass down on the table and looks at Ramanujam. Karna has a black eye (as if someone punched him and his hair flustered like he was roughened up). The angry Karna looks slightly busy in licking in some pickle from the almost empty little packet. KARNA (sad, drunk and sluthering with words) Naan kaekaraen...Ennada korachal...aa? RAMANUJAM (still trying to get the last from the packet) Uppu konjam kammiya irrukku?....(Pauses) Karna just looks at him in disbelief of the answer he gave. Karna sees Karna staring at him.

RAMANUJAM (still busy with packet) ....illai illai....andha maanga-va innum konjam kaaya pottirrundha nalla irrukkum... KARNA (angry) Nammala dhan avan kaaya podaporaan... KARNA (he black eyes starts to hurt...then he suddenly remembers the seriousness...reacts angrily mix with whining) Enna paathu...harmoniya petti-nnu sollitaanda andha kamnaati...silku leela kooda appadi enna paathu sonnadhilla da.... just looks at him. KARNA Adhukk (chokes)..umaela andha parota mandayanga...(gulps down another shot)...(his eye hurts KARNA (he reacts and looks at Ramanujam) RAMANUJAM (sadly) (pause) ....Nandini!..sollama sollittu pona...(puts his head down on the table) Karna looks at Ramanujam, as fills some whiskey into his glass. KARNA (blabbers drunk and low) Thonda thenju ponadhudhan miccham...modhalla veetlandhu thorathi vittaanga...ippo avalum poita... vandiyum pochu... RAMANUJAM Ippo... oorgavum theendhu pochu...(looks at the empty packet of pickel...passes the another filled glass to Ramanujam).... (as he gulps his glass down) ellam avanaala dhan....sandaala..Karthik...yaara avan? KARNA Naanum adhaedhaan kaekaraen... Avan jatti pota vayasula...naa mutti potu senjikittu

irrundhaen... Ramanujam anyone heard him and tells a prayer to himself. Gulps another shot down. RAMANUJAM Abhistoo... KARNA hey....saadhagam..saadhagam... RAMANUJAM hmmm..rightu... KARNA Avanaladhanda...veetu vadagaikku kooda kaasu illai... edhachu pannunda.... KARNA (stands up in fury and shouts with a fork in his hand) BANGALORE-la ENGIRINDHALUM.... THOOKRONDA AVANA.... Immediately Ramanujam hushes him down and pulls him down under the table...as he sits a glass breaks but falling of the table. When a server boy comes and the bill. SERVER BOY annavarae nimm bill-u... Ramanujam slides the bill to Karna. Karna trying to make the last drop of whiskey drip into his mouth looks at Ramanujam side eyed. The boy is looking at both of them not acting enough to pay the bill. Ramanujam and Karna share a glance. EXT. PAYING THE BILL. OUTSIDE THE BAR. NIGHT. The server boy is wearing Ramanujamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s helmet and imitating the scooter sound sitting on it. Ramanujam gives the key to the boy. EXT. THE ACCIDENT. ROAD. LATE NIGHT. Sparsely populated roads. Music starts thumping. It comes from an blue lit auto rickshaw. Gives a very

fast feel. Ramanujam and Karna are in it sitting in it. They share a glance at eachother blankly with loud music next to their ears. The auto moves very slowly. Karna moves forward and asks the auto driver who is shaking his head to the music. KARNA (drunk. screaming at top of his voice because of the music inside the auto) hello..sir..enna panrom....naanga innikkae ponummnu irrukom...yov! fast-aa poya..gongaangao (screams at him)... Karna gets hold of the auto man neck from behind. The auto man gets pulled back, he accelerates in fear. The auto starts to speed...race through the road. Ramanujam and Karna watch as the auto rushes through the lane. They are screaming him to go faster and faster....just when a teenage aged boy crosses the road backwards, without looking at the direction of the auto. They all look at eachother and screaaammmmmmm...Karna and Ramanujam close their eyes...the automan jams the break...they hit a man crossing the road...the auto screeches to halt. Ramanujam and Karna open their eyes slowly, still inside the auto. They see the automan running away. They get out of the auto and walk towards the front of the auto to see the injured guy. The guy is none other than Karthik. Ramanujam and Karna are shocked. They start to see if anyone saw the accident. The roads seemed empty. Karna starts laughing villainously and Ramanujam still shocked...The bumper rod of the auto falls down. Karthik comes to conciousness, he looks at Ramanujam and Karna. His sight is blurry. KARTHIK oh! oh!...hello angels...haiyyo angels-avadhu koncham azhaga padachirukalam...paravala take me to the sky...naandhan adutha star... Saying this Karthik drops down saying this again. Ramanujam and Karna bend down to lift him. Karthikâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mobile phone and bundle of money falls off while they lift him but its left behind without being noticed.

INT. DRUNK RAGGING SESSION. RAMANUJAM & KARNA’S HOUSE. LATE NIGHT. Karthik is dropped into a chair by Ramanujam and Karna.The only bulb in the room comes on which almost acts like a spotlight which lights pretty much only the center space of the room while the corners of the room plunge into darkness vignetting the room. Karna looks at Ramanujam with glee. Both of them clap their hands in choruse, like the old kings court. KARNA & RAMANUJAM yaar angae... Karna goes near his face. Pulls his hair and rotates it around while he does that... KARNA Parota mandaya...nee enna periya thyagaraja bhagavadarrnnu naenappa da... They make him bend like a donkey and they ride on him. Making sound of riding a horse and a donkey. JUMP CUT Foreground: Karna pulls out a bottle out of the shelf. He gulps down a shot of whiskey while Ramanujam in the background is about to throw the TV on him....but falls back because he is not able to carry the weight of the TV beyond his shoulder.... Karthik is danglin drunk while all this is happening and giving out only sounds. JUMP CUT Foreground: Ramanujam and Karna are sitting in down sharing whiskey and getting more drunk. While Karthik is crashed on a chair. They look back at him...and start laughing... JUMP CUT They put him on a chair with only his boxers and tshirt on. Karthik is almost passing out...They immitate the judges of the reality show leaning back on their own walls.

RAMANUJAM (drunk and sluthering) ada..ada..ada...evalo kaevalam paadreenga....neenga enna naenakareenga KARNA naa enna solla...(he gets up from the floor and mocks the standing ovation by clapping slowly, falls down and passes out) Karthik does not react. His head hung backwards on the chair. RAMANUJAM Endhiraa....(tries getting up but falls back to the wall)....enga ippo naa solra.....(passes out) INT. RAMANUJAM, KARNA & KARTHIK WAKE UP. RAMANUJAM’S & KARNA’S HOUSE. MORNING. DAY. A patch of light falls in though the only gap of the shutter. It’s one space photo studio which is a made-do house which comprises of the kitchen, the rolled mattress’, and yes, one other little room called the bathroom. There are no furniture as such except for a old chair. There are instruments like a tanpura placed in the corner with an old tape recorder, many cassettes fallen here and there. Clothing line running through the center of the room with clothes hanging from it. Poster of old gurus like thyagaraja stuck on the wall. Old wooden cupboard. Trunks with things in it. The place looks battered with after the drunk session with papers lying here and there. A toppled television set...empty bottle of whiskey...Karna on the floor and Ramanujam a little away from him... Karthik on the chair. All of them sleeping away. KARNA wakes up with the phone ringing... he answers it sleepy. Hello.o... HOUSE OWNER ON PHONE MR KARNA ... naethu nightu neenga 10 masam vadagha tharuveenganu soleetu ... aalayae kaanum? KARNA Hello...yaaru?

HOUSE OWNER ON PHONE dei...kaepa da..ungalukku veedu kuduthanae...enna sollanum.. KARNA Ada thu ... indha dubakuru photo studio ve housenu solrayae vekama illa... mavanae yaaru da nee....yenga house owner kita pudichu kudithiruvaen... Vei da phone. Contd... HOUSE OWNER ON PHONE hello...hello..... Karna hangs up the phone. Goes back to sleep.

Seri..Seri..(quickly)...iyerwaalae.(Ramanujam gives him a stare)..kaalai kanavu vandha palikumma? RAMANUJAM (putting on his spectacles) Enna...he he...adhae kanavaa?....nee paadinda paatukku....Ilayaraja sir unna katti pudichu muttham kuduthaala....patthu varshama idhe kanavudhan vandhundrikku... (he feels his hangover) Yabba...inimae thanniyae adikkapidaadhu...en kabalam grr-ungudhu...(shakes his head in denial) aah...ippo ennoda kanava kaelu...(smiling) KARNA (interrupts) Karthik namma kaila maati...namma maangu maangunu potu mukkiton...(sniggers)...jatti oda thorathunom...

Just then Ramanujam wakes up. RAMANUJAM Yaaru...phone-la?

While he was saying this, Ramanujam is gives an experssion of surprise and stares at him. Karna looks at him.

KARNA Vera yaaru....

KARNA enna....

RAMANUJAM oh..seri seri...

RAMANUJAM TV thooki podra maadhri vandhirukumae...(Karna looks at him surprised)...ennoda kanava nee paatha maadhriyae sollindrikeeyae...behind them we see Karthik walks sloppily in his boxers still sleeping... Both of them stare at eachother and burst into laughter.

KARNA Cha oru nalla kanavu...keduthutaan kadangaara..ippo thookam pochu... Karna gets up irritated and walks outside. He opens the shutter with all the might and the noise. Ramanujam is woken up by this...and follows Karna. EXT. THE SAME DREAM DISCUSSION. RAMANUJAM & KARNAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S HOUSE. EARLY MORNING. DAY. Karna stretches himself while Ramanujam wiping his spectacles and yawning... joins him outside and they are looking into the sun. KARNA (looking ahead into the sun) Iyerwal.. RAMANUJAM enna appadi koopudhaatheynnu ethanavaati solla....naa Iyer illai Iyengar... KARNA

Karthik waking up to things around him finds it a bit weird. Just when Karthik comes to the door and finds two men. Ramanujam and Karnaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s laughter cut off in shock when they hear... KARTHIK (rubbing his eye clear) Hello...boss..yaaru pa neenga... Ramanujam and Karna turn around in shock and look at Karthik. Karthik looks at them in doubt. They exchange glances nervously. All of them scream at a time. Karna pounces on Karthik. Ramanujam by late reaction does the same. The shutter is shut closed.

INT. WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED. RAMANUJAM & KARNA’S HOUSE. MORNING. DAY. Karthik’s mouth is gagged and is turned flopside. Karna is sitting over him holding his hand. Ramanujam walking around them franctically. Karthik is moaning and is trying to let go lose from Karna’s clutches. Karthik jolts to get free and Karna hold his hand tightly and laughs when Karthik couldn’t get free. KARNA Eppidra nee inga vandhae..(jolts karthik) RAMANUJAM (mumbling, worried and tensed) ellamae ippo pochu....perumaale...valkaila periya maedai maela eranum..eranunnu kaetta...adhukka thooku maedai maela illaya..enna sodhana idhu... KARNA Iyer-ae...summa polambadheeru...ippo enna pannalaam ivanoda... enakkundhan kojam light-a bayamadhaan irrukku.. aana naa illai..steadya (scared)....ivan eppadi vandha ingae...(looking at Ramanujam and tightening his grip over Karthik) RAMANUJAM Elu-naatu seni-nnu sonnadhu seriya pochu...eppadi ivan vandhu inga maatna...avaladhaan inimae...(he hears an factory siren)...vandhutaa... aiyooo police vandhutaa....maatno... KARNA Iyerae...edhukku bayandhi sagareer...adhu factory sangu...modhaella...ivan eppadi inga vandhannu sollum.. Karthik looks at them without moaning for a couple of seconds. RAMANUJAM (flustered by the question) ah..huh...enna..enna kaetaan...nee dhaane da avana katti potirrukkae...ennakku eppadi theriyum(Karna looks at him angrily)..avanayae kaelu... KARNA Kaekararilla...

KARTHIK gnnn...gnnn...gnnnnn....(moaning with his mouth gagged) KARNA aanalum..wotha...ivalo koluppuirrukakoodadhu da unakku... RAMANUJAM Ippodhikki ellam paper-layum indha sandala kaanapodha patti elidhiruppa...valakaila police station mattum dhan baaki irrndhadhu..ivan punyathala adhayum seyya porom.... Karthik gives him a look. Suddenly, Karna starts laughing. Ramanujam is shocked to see his reaction. RAMANUJAM Voi..edhukku sirikara voi..inga enakku... KARNA (interrupting) ha ha ha...illai...ha ha ha...ivan..ha ha ha... RAMANUJAM sirichuttu sollu illai sollittu siri voi Karthik is looking from the corner of his is sitting on him. KARNA (subsiding his laughter) Ellam edathayum vittutuu...indha bengaloor maa nagarithillae ellan vandiya vittu..,namm vandi kadeela vandhu saaganunnu irrundhanae...adha naenachaadhan..ennakku sirippu sirruppa varudhu....ellam nalladhukkunnu solluvanga...inga seriya pochu... ha ha ha ha....Ivanaa....(hold him tight again) RAMANUJAM Unakku sirippu varudha...nammala andha paerumal.. kandippa dhandipaar voi...onnu pannalaam..avana nammale poi veetla vittutu vandhudalaam..onnumae nadakaadha maadhri..(Karna looks at Ramanujam irritated by the suggestion)...illana nijamavae namma kadathana maadhri ayidum.... An idea strikes to Karna who then looks at Ramanujam, looks at Karthik and looks back at Ramanujam calmly with a big smile on his face. Ramanujam reads Karna’s expression.

RAMANUJAM Vendam Karna..irrukara prachanai porum....adhu edho kudi bodhayila olarunom... Karthik starts to say something but moaning again. KARNA Iyerae...ithanaala ivanaaladhanae namma kashta patton...avanum konjam erangi varatum....ulagame ivan paatukkudhaan aadudhunnu naenakiraan...kaetaela (teasingly)... RAMANUJAM aana..solradha kaelu... Karthik interrupts with his moan again. KARNA (irritated by Karthikâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s moaning) Ennannu solli tholayenda...

traela... We see them tying hard knots of the leg and hand. Karthik is made to sit on the chair with just his boxers on, with his hand and leg tied. We see bruises on his face from the previous nights ragging session. Karthik takes a look at Ramanujam and Karna clearly for the first time, as they put him on a chair. They remove the cloth from his mouth slowly. Karthik lets out a small scream in pain. Ramanujam and Karna stand towering in front of him and he is looking UP at them. KARNA (sarcastically) Aduthu varuvadhu, Indriya thalaippu cheidhi. Mr. Karthik Sebastian...engira Super singer padagar kadatha pattullar...(mocking a new reading)...namma varungala super singerai police valai veesi kandupudikka muyarchi seigiraaragal...ippoludhu avara thangal veetin phone numberai tharuvaar...(sarcastically)he..he..

Karthik moans again... KARNA enna ma..sonnen...(realising he is tied up)...oh!...aana kattha maatiyae...Katthinaalum... unnoda TV program maadhri..kaetu kai thatta yaarum illai...gup-chup-nnu irrundha unakku nalladhu..illana mavanae.. inikki unakku danda naka dhan....sollitaen... RAMANUJAM (mumbles to himself looking around and turning his head) aama..yaarum illai...moonu maasam vadaga baaki... avaru mattum varuvaaru... KARNA Iyerae....chattha... KARTHIK gnnn...gnnn.....(nods in head in agreement) Ramanujam peeping out of the shutter... KARNA Iyerae avanoda kaala kattu.... RAMANUJAM naa maaten pa...neerae kaatum... KARNA jaila kanjiyum kariyumdhaan....potthindu kaala kat-

Karthik does not answer he looks at them. Ramanujam looks at Karthik and feels a little bad. Karna hits on Karthikâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s head. Ramanujam seeing his head drop. RAMANUJAM (suddenly ) aiyaiyooo...konnutiyaa? (keeps his finger near his nose to check for breathing)...yabba..innum uyir irrukku....(phew!) Karna shakes Karthik to bring his head up. Karthik looks at both of them. KARNA Avanukke enna...aiyush getti... (mimicing female voice - mothers voice and using his hand as a phone) Hello..hello...enna? aama naa Karthik-oda amma dhan paesaren...yen magana onnum pannadheenga... ungalukku enna vaenumo naa thandhuraen...avana vittudunga....beep....beep...beep.... Achacho line cut-aiduthae...ha ha ha ha (he laughs villainously) Endaa kanna unakku madhippae illai... che che che... RAMANUJAM Karnaa..phone panralavukku kaasu

vechirukiya?....aanalum idhu konjam overda...(Karna gives him a side glance and asks him to shut up by expression and continues sniggering) Karthik doesn’t like it. He just stares at Karna in anger, who is still sniggering. Karthik is still quiet, doesnt say anything except for trying hard to get out of the knots. Ramanujam looks at Karna and looks at Karthik a little more compassionately. KARTHIK (suddenly to the both of them) Yenna yen da....(Karna and Ramanujam stare)... yaenga pudichu vechirukkeenga....Unggalukku enna vaenum?....kaasa, porula... (he remembers something) kaasu ... aae yenkitta irrundha kaasu yenga?(he searches for it around and looks at Ramanujam and Karna) Mariadhaya adha koduthutu yenna vitirunga ...naan yaar kitayum onnum solla mataen... and Karna look at him blankly. KARNA idha paarra...Kaekaravan kaenayana irrundha...muttaikku munnadi kozhi vandhadhunnu solluviyae... RAMANUJAM (goes close to Karna and says hushingly) voi...muttai munnadi kozhidhan vandhadhu voi... KARNA (hushingly replies) muttai...firstu RAMANUJAM (a little loudly) Kozhidhan... KARNA (irritated) Iyerae...biryani kulla kai vitta modhala varudhu... muttaya kozhiya? Karthik watches this argument ping-pong, gets irritated. KARTHIK HELLO (shouts)....(softens)Naa yaarunnu theriyun-llai...ippodhikki police ungala nai vecchu mopampudichikittu irrupaanga...(fakes consideration)aana don worry..naa kaati kudakamaaten..naa oru pakka star, oru gentleman..(says with an atti-

tude)...enna vitta neenga thappicheenga... Listening and catches hold of Karthik’s hair, while Ramanujam tries to stop him. KARNA (in anger hold Karthik’s hair) wotha...ennada idhu...maangai chappi pota mathiri oru mudi....jingu-chak jingu-chak oru sattai... RAMANUJAM (amidst this trying to pull him off Karthik) Karna..vittudu..idhu namakku thevaillai... Karthik yelps in pain by each pull. KARNA (continues...) Iyerae...neerae sollum....ivan paadradhellam oru paataa?...(looks at Karthik)korangu maadhri edho paatundra paerla katthuvae..adha patthu dubanks kaetu kaithattuvaanga...nee idhu...nee ippadi..appadinnu...(pauses) (frees himself of Karthik) NEE? engalukku kaasu tharuviya... Meanwhile, we hear a sound of a vehicle arriving. Ramanujam hurries to the door to check if anyones come and goes near the window to have a check on the otherside, while doing so, he glances pass some clothes drying on the opposite house’s terrace/balcony. RAMANUJAM Yabba....namma hitler mama varala innum....bhagavanthan avara innum yengayo nikka vechirrukaaru(gestures praying god and heaves a sigh of relief)... Karna angrily walks across the room trying to find his bottle of whiskey which is empty. So he goes near the bottle trash and starts collecting the drops of whiskey, one by one in to a single bottle as he did that... KARNA (still irritated and angry) mudiyala...ivanaa... Karthik is angry at the way he was treated. But he sits quiet in the chair. He looks around the house to find the house in quite a mess, with a broken television, papers with something written on it lying around, a clothes line running in the middle of the

house with undergarments hanging on them, an almost empty kitchen with very few vessels in it. At one corner he finds an old tape recorder with many cassettes and books lying around. They seemed quite old. In another, he finds a poster on an old cupboard and pamphlets in gawdy colors pased on the wall, which read: “CLASSICAL MAESTROS ... FOR YOUR PERSONAL CELEBRATION ... CALL Ramanujam - 9937868938, Karna -9169788236)(write in Tamil)...when he Karthik saw this, he just couldn’t help but burst into laughter all of a sudden.

Ramanujam and Karna stand around Karthik now Ramanujam looks at Karthik.

KARTHIK ha ha ha ha...boss (teasingly)...neengaelan...ha ha...indha koil bajanaiylayum, kalayanthillayun...harmoniya petti vecchikittu (mimicking a goat’s vocie)..saa...paaa...saaa... nnnu....pathukkum muppadhukkum illuthu illuthu paadravangalaa neenga....ha ha ha ha...chance-e-illai...

They chorusly end it.

Karna who looking out of the shutter suddenly stops. They share a glance at eachother. Both of them look at Karthik. Karthik looks at them. There is an awkward silence. INT. THE JUGALBANDI. RAMANUJAM & KARNA’S HOUSE. AFTERNOON. The shruti petti is switched on. Karna sips a drink of whiskey from the collected whiskey bottle. Ramanujam starts singing an alaap of ____________ raagam intensely. He looks at Karthik. Karna sniggers. RAMANUJAM (to Karna) Idhu endha Sa. Pa. Sa. sollu? (angrily) RAMANUJAM (cont’d) Idhu...Hamsadhwarni raagam. (whats this sa. pa. sa. tell me?....Whats this raagam? Sings here...) Just when, Karna starts singing a Keerthanai KARNA Sir ungalukku idhu therinjirukanumae...ha ha ha (Sir..I am sure you must be knowing this too right, the master that you are... ha ha ha ha)

RAMANUJAM Ippo idha sollu... (tell me this now) Ramanujam sings another raagam They are engrossed into their singing. Karthik watches them singing back to back. (Camera round trolly)(mute vocal)(bgm)

KARNA & RAMANUJAM Idhu.raagam. And they look quite happy about it. Karthik looks at them. Ramanujam and Karna look at eachother.They look at Karthik. There is silence except for some water drops. Karthik starts singing a film song Sa Re Ga Me from Boys. Ramanujam and Karna look at eachother. When Karthik is about to hit a very high note in the song, he chokes, starts again and tries to hit the note he fails again. While trying he sees Karna wearing his chain. Karthik looks at the Chain and recognises it to be his. He looks at his neck and doesn’t find it there. KARTHIK Adhu ennadhu...kuduthudu... looks at Karna having the chain in his hand. KARNA First paadi mudi...neenga periya vidhwana kombanaachae... KARTHIK Adhu...enga amma oda...romba mukayamanadhu... kuduthudu.... KARNA allo...eduthaeyae oru swarathae...adhu enna raagannu theiryuma... KARTHIK (remaining silent not knowing the answer)

...adhu kuduthudu.... looks at Karna and then looks at Karthik pleading. RAMANUJAM Karna...Kuduthaenda...paavanda... KARNA (he looks at him swiftly and smiling) Paavama?...he he he....Iyerae...ini namma vaadagai baaki theendadhu (sings it in a tune)(shifts the chain from one hand to the other) KARTHIK (tears welling up his eye and angry) Unga vadaga kodukarudhukku yennoda kaasu than kedachadha? Ramanujma looks at Karthik pleading. He feels bad for him a little. He pulls Karna aside to the corner of the house. RAMANUJAM Avan kaasa thirippi kuduthuduvom... the phone rings again. Karna answers. KARNA Hello..House owner sir. HOUSE OWNER ON PHONE Yabba..ippo enna mariyaadha pongudhu... KARNA Enna sir neenga vera ... pathu maasom vadaga tharalaamnu thaan vandhukittu irrundhom... Karna cuts the call and grins villainously at Ramanujam. KARNA Enna iyera...pakkam maareetangalo...avana paatha paavama irrukka...Nandini-ya naenuchukko...ellam thaana poyidum RAMANUJAM adhillada..edho avanga amma-dhu edho solraan... KARNA Indha amma sentiment enkitta nadakaadhu... INT. NANJUNDAPPA COMES IN. RAMANUJAM & KARNAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S HOUSE. DAY.

Ramanujam helplessly looks at Karthik while Karna is still fiddling with the chain and sips into his last few drops of whiskey from the bottle. Karthik looks at Karna with teary eyes. Just when there is a huge knock at the shutter. Ramanujam looks at the shutter terrified. Karna looks at the shutter. Karthik slowly starts smiling. There is another knock at the shutter again, when Karthik is about to scream, Karna holds his mouth and dangles the chain in front of him. Signals to go see who it is. KARNA (to Karthik) ...idha thiripiyum unnakka kaedaikaadhu solliten... Ramanujam bends down at the gap of the shutter, looking back at Karna, doubtlfully whether he has to open the door or not.. He sees a brown leather shoe. KARNA (still bending and looks back at Karna) Indha kaala..naa idhukku munnaadi naa paathadhe illaiye... He slowly opens the shutter up a little more, in the gap he sees a pot bellied, plump man NANJUNDAPPA (45) standing looking at him in a white Shirt, Khakhi Pants, Black Formal Shoes from a low angle. Ramanujam is scared and is not able to speak properly. Starts getting nervous and stammers. He opens the is. door just enough for the face to fit to see who it. RAMANUJAM (stammering) er..rr...sollunga sir yaaru vaenum...inga yaarumae illai sir... NANJUNDAPPA (speaks in kannada looking at a piece of paper in his hand (address)) POLICE...Neen yaaro...illi.... RAMANUJAM (interrupting) PO...Po...po......POLICE-a (shouts with an expression such that Karna can hear inside)....Kannada gothilla sir... NANJUNDAPPA huh? yaava baashe...tamil-aa? Neenu yaaru?...modhillu shutter thagiyo....

Unng...Ungalukku theiryuma sir? As he asks this he tries to enter the house while Ramanujam is holding the shutter still quarter open. RAMANUJAM Hello sir, my name is Ramanujam Iyer, B.Sc Microbiology.

NANJUNDAPPA Enakku ellam theiryum...theiryaamaya vandhirrukaen...ippo dhaan sikkuneenga... Neenga...

NANJUNDAPPA Oh..needhan Ramanujamma....unna patthi kaelvipatten...ulla vechu paesalaama....illai...

RAMANUJAM (interrupts...still stammering) Sir..sir..naanga onnum pannala sir..

RAMANUJAM Naanga onnum pannala sir...

KARNA (wobbling slightly) Irru iyerae...sir edho sollavaraaru...

The shutter is open. Nanjundappa force himself inside. Ramanujam is scared that they are going to be caught. Nandjundappa scans around the house to find things in a mess and suddenly spots Karna sitting on a table covered in a bedsheet with his legs folded. Karna does not even stand up to greet him. Ramanujam looks around and does not find Karthik. He tries to search for him behind Nanjundappa. KARNA Hello sir...vankkam..eppadi irrukeenga...okarunga.. (he points to that chair where Karthik was tied) Nandjundappa shows a little irritation over Karna’s behavior. Ramanujam still wonders where he is. He looks at Karna. Karna looks back at him and points downward by his eye movement. Ramanujam finds out that Karthik is covered in the cloth and Karna is sitting on him. Karthik’s mouth is gagged with a cloth. Ramanujam immediately gets a chair for the cop and Nanjundappa sits on it facing these two. Ramanujam and Karna look at Nandjundappa silently. Nanjundappa looks at them for sometime as he looks around. NANJUNDAPPA hmmmm....so neenga rendu paerum dhaan andha paadravangala....ellarum thedittur irrundhaanga Ramanujam, Karna look at eacother and look back at Nanjundappa. RAMANUJAM

NANJUNDAPPA Theriyum...(pauses) Karna and Ramanujam stare at him, while he takes some supari and rubbing it in his palm. Karthik is listening to the conversation under the bedsheet. He moves...Karna moves and almost falls off...That movement cause Nanjundappa to take notice of Karna...in a jiffy... NANJUNDAPPA Nee yen dance aadra? KARNA Illai..palaya stool sir...konjam loosu...evala tight pannalum....hmmmmh..hummmm(says’its useless’ in sound) NANJUNDAPPA Neenga paaduveengannu kaelvi pattaen...(pauses)aanaalum...enna aemaatha mudiyaadhu...naa anjavudhu classliyae...paatu competitionla first-u.... Ramanujam look and they stop immediately. RAMANUJAM sir..adhukkum iddhukkum enna sambandham... NANJUNDAPPA Irrukkae....adutha vaarum...enga saahibru retire aaraaru...vandhu paadreengala... KARNA (still slightly shaking sitting on Karthik) ooooo...neenga padradhae patthidhan paesneegala.... RAMANUJAM (sweating and wiping it off wit his

shirt) NANJUNDAPPA Nee...(he looks at Karna)...edhavudhu paadi kaami... Karna still wobbling starts singing _____________ old song. Nanjundappa still rubbing his palm with a supari closes his eye in concentration. Karthik sees Karna foot near the end of the bedsheet opening. He pinches him on the foot. This suddenly gives Karna a jump and he goes intoa n extreme off note. just when Ramanujam distracts bhavam (pointing his hand at the roof) Nanjundappa startled by this, RAMANUJAM ada..ada..ada..enna bhaavam. Nanjundappa looks at the roof when Karna kicks Karthik and sits straight. Karna’s swaram drops when Ramanujam picks that song in that pitch and completes the stanza.Nanjundappa stares at them. Ramanujam and Karna (stillwobbling)stare at Nanjundappa with a smile on their face. NANJUNDAPPA hmmm...ellam palaya paatavae irrukku..pudhusa latesta--a oru paatu theiryaadha? Nanjundappa looks at them and gives up. He is about to get up when Ramanujam starts singing _____________ (which Karthik had sung in the previous scene)....Karthik listens to it from underneath. Nandjundappa’s phone starts ringing. As he looks at them answers the call, gets up from the chair, walks towards the door. NANJUNDAPPA (turns around away from the both) allooo...naa appovae sonnen..naa paadraeennu... naa anjavudhuliyae..paatu competition la 1st vandhavaen...ippo rendu loose-u dhaan vandhu paadanoonnu irrundha..unga thala ezhuthu...naa solradha kaelunga..naanae padraen...(sings a line) paathiya.. idhu sindhu bhairavi....

In the background they are holding Karthik down and hitting him. There is a small tiffle. NANJUNDAPPA (as he turns around) (They settle back sitting on Karthik) Aaamayaa...kaelvipaaten...andha paiyaan Karthik...edho periya super singer-aamae...kaanapoittaana..engayaadhu suicide geeside pannikka poyirupaan.....aan onnu....oru tholla olinjadhu po.... avanaaal nimmadhiya oru cricket match paaka mudeelaya...veetla eppo paathalum...noyyu noyyunnu super singer podu podunnu.... As he says it he turns back and leaves the house without even bother to address Ramanujam and still wobbling Karna. Ramanujam walks behind him, makes sure he leaves and shuts the door and just sits down. Karna gets up and pushes karthik from that position. INT. DECISION TO TAKE HIM OUT. RAMANUJAM & KARNA’S HOUSE. DAY. Karna is standing near the window. Ramanujam is sitting leaning agains the wall. Karthik is put in the wooden cupboard with his hand and foot talking amongst themselves in a lower tone RAMANUJAM (dejected and lost) Karna..enna panna porom...edhavuchu... Karna is quiet with no reply. RAMANUJAM (whining now) Ivana mulungavum mudiyaama, thuppavum mudiyaama..enna kattiyo...ivana eppadiyaachu ingirundhu thorathanum...illana..ennoda kaccheri jailla dhan nadakkum... Karna is quiet. Ramanujam is silent when... KARNA oru vali dhan irrukku...nammala innoru saakadakulla thalradhukkulla...avana namma kuli kulla thallanum....potu thallidalaam... Ramanujam looks at Karna. is kind of shocked to hear this.

RAMANUJAM ha ha ha ha...kindal adikara naeram illai da idhu..enna pannalaamnu...(he stops looking at Karna who is not smiling) Illai....pauses...jokeu dhaane...(he doesnt see a reactioN)..illai Karna...panna thappukkae ethana varushammnu enna mudiyaadhu...idhukku maela idhu vaeraya... INT. KARTHIK FINDS UNPAID BILLS. RAMANUJAM’S & KARTHIK’S HOUSE. DAY. Foot tied Karthik is sitting with his hand also tied. He looks at Ramanujam and Karna talk something. He tries to remove the knot. When he vigoursouly tries to do so, a box of bills fall on his head from top of the cuboard next to which he was sitting. He shakes it off him, he looks at the bills of electricity, water not being paid. He looks at them worried about how to take him out. He looks at the unpaid bills. He looks at notes of songs fallen down along with the bills. KARTHIK (shouts) Dei..neenga oru billum kaataliyaa... INT. DECISION TO TAKE HIM OUT. RAMANUJAM & KARNA’S HOUSE. DAY. They hear Karthik shout... KARNA Paathiya...thimiraa....Idhu thappunnu yaaru sonna... namma panna pora saeva...isai uzhagathukkae panna pora maha sevai... RAMANUJAM Ennakku ennamo periya thappu pannaraamaadhri theriyaradhu.... KARNA Kavalapadadheer..saakshaath andha saraswathiyae vandhu nammala aasirwaadham pannuvaa...Modhalla ivana ingaerundhi eppadi... EXT. KARTHIK IS TAKEN OUT. BUSY ROAD. EARLY EVENING. Karna and Ramanujam are holding this burqa clad

Karthik, and walking up the road. They are looking straight ahead without looking at people. KARNA Iyerae...yaarum paakadheer...straightaa nadango... KARTHIK (mmmm..mmmm...moaning with his mouth tied.) All the three are walking swift and straight, when suddenly Karthik starts to run. Ramanujam runs to get him from one side. Karna runs to get him from the other side. Karthik starts to run fast and he runs straight from where he started. At one point Ramanujam collides with Karthik. Ramanujam gets hold of Karthik while he is struggling to let go and run. Ramanujam is holding him with all his might by wrapping himself around Karthik in a burqa clad dress. Just when Nandini passes by in an auto where she finds Ramanujam hugging tight this burqa clad person. She gets really mad and stares are them as she passes by. Ramanujam notices that its Nandini in the auto, she gives a disgusted expression and even spits in disgust. Ramanujam feels like shit. Just when Karthik reaches them. Ramanujam just pushes Karthik to Karna and runs behind the auto but it never stops it just leaves. He just stops breathing heavily after all the running. EXT. KARTHIK WANTS TO GO TO THE LOO. IN THE AUTO. EARLY EVENING. We see Ramanujam driving the auto, Karna to the right and Karthik in the burqa sitting in the center. Karthik suddenly starts shaking. Ramanujam (through rear at him. KARNA Dei...aatadadha...sanga aruthuduvaen....mavanae... RAMANUJAM ennadha vaenum solli tholyaen sandaala....bramhagatthi.... view) Karthik is still making sounds with his despeately tries to get off the auto. Ramanujam and Karna hold him back inside the auto.The auto passes by a public toilet. He starts making louder noises. The auto stops. Karthik starts making noise.

RAMANUJAM Enna vaenum...sollaaenda... KARNA enna...onnuthae sollu... Karthik on the word ’onnu’...he stars making the noise again.... KARNA sollu?....enna...?? Onnu...? Karthik again makes public toilet. They the loo. Ramanujam and Karna side again and walk the noise and points his leg towards the all look at the toilet and realise it hold the burqa clad Karthik on either him to the loo. KARNA Iyerae..neyae kootittu po... Ramanujam stares at Karna and pulls Karthik along with him.They enter the loo. They see the ’GENTS’ board and see the ’LADIES’ board. They naturally enter GENTS loo. There are already some men present in the loo who look at this weirdly as Ramanujam with a person in Burqa holding him tightly...everyone are giving him stares....He again goes back to the LADIES loo. Before they enter... Karthik stops. RAMANUJAM Ippo ennada sandaala... Karthik mumbles with his mouth and points towards his crotch with his face. Ramanujam tries to untie his hand and fails. He looks around and goes under the burqa and comes out as fast as he can. We hear some giggling sounds .. we see kids looking at RAMA under the burqa .. it looks weird... RAMA gets out of the burqa to see some children giggle at them. Karthik in Burqa goes into the loo. Ramanujam and Karna wait outside the loo Finally a burqa clad person comes out. RAMA and KARNA follow him discreetly. KARNA yay...nillu...odaadha... RAMANUJAM

Ada paavi ... ippo kathuna namma sethom. KARNA Nillu nu solraen illa ... He grabs revealed that it was someother lady... she slaps him) the hand and the person lifts the burqa and it is Just then we hear a whistle sound ... Karna and Ramanujam see another burqa clad person outside the loo. This time its karthik ... Karthik looks at them and then starts running. RAMA and KARNA chase him ... he runs and makes them follow him to the hospital. He rnus till he reaches a particular ward ... and he is looking at someone inside. RAMA and KARNA also reach there... RAMANUJAM Yaen da ambi... nee pesama olimpics ku poi kabbadi adalam... (looks at KARNA) yevalavu sematha odran. KARNA Aama rumba mukiyom ...(looks at Karthik) yaen?? Nee venumna sathom pottu yengala mativiturukalam... Yaen?? RAMANUJAM Oh .. aama illa ... (innocent) KARTHICK Ulla irukiradhu yen amma ... innaikku avanga operation ... konchom kaasu kammi ... adhuku daan naan kasu kadan yeduthuttu vandhaen ... ippodhikkki operation nadandhirukanum.... ippo elaam unga kaile thaan irruku. We see KARNA and RAMANUJAM ... they are suddenly looking at KARTHIK as a different person. CUT TO Karthik is waiting still in the burqa outside the ward. Karna is inside talking to an old lady on the bed. Ramanujam is leaning on the other wall. They look at each other. They look at Karna talking to that lady in between from outside. They cant a hear a word of conversation. Karna comes out of the ward. Walks

up in the corridor and passes them walking without saying a word. Ramanujam and Karthik look at him pass by. KARNA Iyerae....polaama... (and he throws that chain back to Karthik) Nalla paadu...shraddhayoda paadu...idhu thevai illai unnakku.... Kaasu cash counter le keteeraen.

RESTAURANT. NIGHT. Ramanujam and Karna are sitting at the same table in the bar and watching television where Karthik’s interview is being telecasted. They watch the news. They look at eachother. Clink their glass and have a shot of whiskey. BLACK: A MONTH LATER INT. FINAL SONG. POLICE STATION. DAY.

Ramanujam who has begun to walk. Karthik sees them walk away. The phone of KARNA rings again... It flashes “house owner” KARNA cuts the call sighs and walks away.

The retirement program organised by Nanjundappa at the Police Station. A bunch of boring officers are sitting in chairs in front of them one guy in a big garland on his neck.

TELEVISION CHANNEL. NEWS. VFX. “Super singer contestant reappears after 24 hrs ... he claims he was with 2 dear friends who helped his mother... who is currently in the GH being treated for a cancer... lets talk to Karthik” A bunch of reporters are mobbing Karthik in front of the hospital.

Karna, Karthik & Ramnujam Perform a special song (1 min). Background is their band name ’THAKA DHIMI THOM’ banner hanging. INT. FINAL SONG. CONTINUES Their music video is being shot by Ramanujam. - THE END -

REPORTER 1 Please explain...how come you emerge out of a hospital after missing for 24 hrs? KARTHIK My mother is doing great... REPORTER 2 Is it true that you dint want sympathy votes and that’s why you kept the news of your mother from the public? Karthik does not reply to this question... REPORTER 1 Any regrets of missing to win the title of SUPER SINGER? how do you feel... KARTHIK yes..bad but...unmai..enna naa..... REPORTER 3 There were rumors that you were kidnapped? is it true? Karthik does not reply but smiles in answer. INT. FINAL CHEERS. GANESH BAR &

ALTERNATE ENDING Ramanujam lets go of Karthik in a lame situationl like Nandini’s accidental meet with him when he is holding Karthik in a burqa. After which, Karna and Ramanujam are worried if he is going to give out their names spoiling their life and career but surprisingly Karthik does not do either. He decides to start learning. Ramanujam and Karna are left worried while Karthik walks englightened. The song in the end of the film brings everyone together/

TREATMENT Generally, a comedy film’s visual treatment takes a backseat as more emphasis is given to the right timing, getting the humor across leading to general wide two-shots where the actors enact the play. In this film, a conscious decision was made to follow the other way, where we use angles and distortion as the language. The cinematographer and me decided to certain kind of image making using only two kinds of lenses i.e. Canon 24-70mm / ƒ2.4 and a Canon 50mm / ƒ1.8, this way we have a certain visual consistency. Though we had to hurry up a lot during shoots, the film’s visual have been maintained as consistent as possible. Making them look like they belong to a family of visuals.

WRITING The film needed to be humorous obviously, being a situational comedy film. The situations in the film were written to be serious with the characters amidst them, where the audience needed to feel the pulse of the humor. I guess, that how life is, where our stories sometimes, are funny to the person who you narrate it to. The moments chosen are as mundane asi in one’s daily life in the beginning and moves into a more eccentric and comical space as it closes towards the high point of the story and goes back to it’s real space in consequence to the situation. If you do take notice, the film does have moments, rather phases that are serious too. Penning down the character’s backstory helped a lot in writing their present scenarios, their moments, and their fall. Hence helping to write their character graphs more precisely through the length of the film. Their traits and vices helped to decide the way, the story / screenplay could be taken. The things that needs to be considered and kept in mind at all points of time in the film. The process of writing down a rough screenplay helped to watch the graph of the story along with the emotional graphs of the characters. Here in this film, it was important for the characters to go through

a journey along with a physical journey of the plot which has nothing in connection to their usual life. One’s life comes in close quarters with unpredictable topsy-turvy of life, the unusual wishes being granted, the unwanted person being met, basically Murphy’s law coming to play at it’s best. I guess, that helped to write a certain strand of this story.

SHOT TAKING Cinematography was like the pen with which the film was being written in visually. The language was decided before the shoot in certain aspects with respect to the camera movements, the color tones, the possible angles based on the location, the shot division and the mood. Most of the comedy films do their acts in a master wide shot and with sparse cut aways or cutins. To bring the grimness of their mundane life as it gets crazier, the camera is handheld with a constant breath as it follows. Even the close ups are shot with a wide-angled lense to get the slight distortion adding that quirk factor. We managed to source a glide-cam ( a steady-cam device for smaller cameras) to shoot the running sequences of the film and also, a DIY Should rig was made by the DOP - Mohd. Farooq for more stable framing, as DSLR as known to give shivers while doing hand-held. At each high point of the scene, the camera moves in close to the face of the character(s) who is in trouble or the victim, giving it a distortion, signifying trouble. The film always stays on these three characters primarily to feel their building up chemistry, moving towards the end. With respect to lighting, we decided to shoot in a tone called ‘CINESTYLE‘ to maintain a low contrast visual quality so that it can be boosted later in the post-production based on the requirement. We tried to bounce of as much as natural light as possible but unfortunately most of the locations were quite underlit so we had to match the Lights to the particular space to achieve the envisioned imagery. We hired alternate light equipments like CFL bulbs, Chinese Lanterns, Bulbs as the professional light came at a much more expensive deal where as this worked out

COSTUMES Set in the urban cityscape of Bangalore, in the current time period. It was indeed a challenge to find something peculiarly, for them . The appearence of the character plays a very important role, it is that which would start creating the bond with the audience. The clothing and accessories narrates a certain part of the character which goes unsaid. The color tone of the costumes chosen were in the tints and shades of Brown, Black and Blue. Nothing of high contrast or shimmering dark shade. Ramanujam: Black thick-rimmed spectacles, Loose Checked Brown-orange-red Shirt, Brown trousers with black sandals. Karna: A simple off-brownish Kaadhi kurta with a grey trouser. Karthik: Something dark in color, tackily fashionable, printed Black T-shirt, Justin Beiber hairstyle, and a goatie. The feeling of familiarity, is the emotion that I wanted to evoke from the audience.

COLOR TONE Set in a urban space like Bangalore, there is a subdued dryness in oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life here. Though the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life is pretty entertaining, there are pockets that are still trying to meet their daily needs not in just terms of finances but also in terms of their dreams. So, the we chose not to go for heavy contrats or high colors but try to keep it at a pastel palette. With respect to Ramanujam and Karna, their world is tinges of brown to depict the monotony of their life where the jazz of Karthik is shown through his show. He is in dressed in dark tones, so that visually he would never match the ambiance of Ramanujam and Karnaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s house where is kept after being kidnapped. Basically the idea of the film is conveyed here. The film does not have an stylized color tone rather maintained at a natural tone.

LOCATION The film is a ONE DAY STORY. Begins on night and ends the next. The color tone and texture of the film is quite grungy and moody. Hence, the important locations of the films were chosen with this in mind. The film’s unravels through seven locations such as: Ramanujam and Karna’s House - Photo Studio The most important location of the film. Since, Majority of the film happens inside the house of Ramanujam and Karna, the look and feel of the location was very important. It translates their lifestyle and situation. Along with the grim mood of their lives and the quirk factor to the film. Their house is old run down photo studio. The house acts a metaphor to a lost or a lingering art. The classic photo studios are replaced with more swanky studio with digital technology. It draws a parallel to the situation of Classical Music v/s Light Film Music. The color tone was exactly the way it was visualise, brown, stained walls, peeling paints, red-oxide floors and it had a shutter but not a door. The production designer Poornima Sukumar, managed to prop it up with simple worn-out furniture purchased from the wood junkyards giving it the lost-in-time feel.

show the under belly of the city rather than the posh areas, since the film demanded a treatment as such. Hence the chase sequences were set in such an area. When I show a little more developed area, wanted it to be simple and clutterless so that there can be more focus on the play of the scene rather than the beauty of the place. Blue Lit Auto The essence of Bangalore lives in the mood of the auto rickshaws. The very sound of the ricketiness of its engine along with the unrecognizable song from the subwoofer, it totally gives a jist of the city. Hence, I was particular on getting a blue lit auto with loud music ON. It is to romanticize one aspect of Bangalore’s night life. An auto rickshaw always interested me because it carries a thousand of people without questions asked, at various moments of their life from sadness to joy, from birth to death, from being a saviour to a spoiler as well.

Ganesh Bar and Restaurant I have always be intrigued by the way these dingy bars looked. Their choices of the color of the tubelights, they brought in a certain texture to the visual. It always looked that every drunkard in a bar had a story to tell. And luckily for me, the bar I chose to shoot in had a perfect feel to what I have been looking for. The characters were purposely made to be seated next to a toilet of the bar to bring out the ambiance of the place that they visited to share their grievances. The Super Singer Show - a green screen studio One of the most challenging alternative to a set GREEN SCREEN. Since, we couldn’t possible put a large show set, we set a simple green screen studio to replicate the studio set and the background was later added in VFX. Roads and Lanes I was sure, that when I wanted to show the lanes, streets or the roads of the city. I wanted to try to

CASTING You must thank your stars, if you get your casting right. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s called magic, after a lot of effort that you manage to assemble actors who look and act like you want them to, rather how the characters want them to. Needed to be stern on getting the casting right because they convey a lot about the characters which are beyond dialogues and scenes. They act as the emotional connect to the audience with their physical connect. They give the characters their individuality with which each identifies the other as a person. Being in a cosmopolitan city like Bangalore where art, music and theater are quite active, to source out actors would not have been a tough task. But it turned the other way round, because of certain demands of the characters themselves. Since, the film is in Tamil, it was important for the all the characters to know the language, especially a good dialect of Tamil. Bangalore has almost half itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s population - Tamilians but they have the most adultered dialect of Tamil which is a mix of Kannada or Telugu. And I being a Tamil film lover and a filmmaker, I was quite staunch about getting the dialect right no matter however long it takes to find the actor out. Though the supporting characters like the waiter, the police were given a leeway with respect to the dialect of Tamil and also making them speak in Kannada, as they formed the ambiance of the city. I knew that the city buzzed with lot of aspiring and enthusiastic actors. I decided to audition actors for each character. It was very important for them to qualify for it with respect to the physical appearance, language to be known, mouldable, sense of improvisation, love music - singing would be a bonus or a bathroom singer at the least and understanding of good comic timing. And yes most of it all, I wanted people who had stint in acting. I was not ready to take a risk in having non-actors as the script demanded actors in control . And I must tell you, my search went on till the three days before the shoot. I called out for actors by posting a POSTER of CALLING ACTORS on the social network Facebook and many of its pages relevant to actors, films,

theatre & music. And the magic of sharing, spread the word of the casting call far and wide beyond Bangalore, I must say. Surprisingly, a lot of profiles of interested people started flowing into my inbox from Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Kerala and many more places. An email with the necessary information was drafted as a reply to them. The audition date at time was decided. Then, a friend Arvind Kamath, who was an indie-filmmaker himself, agreed to lend me his studio as the audition space for two days. The number of entries got filtered to half the number on the day of the audition. I was glad that there was an automatic filter that happened, as I believed in Indie Cinema, especially student film, being committed & crazily enthusiastic is the a very key factor that we must look in the actor. Because, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s purely made for passion. Each person who applied was replied with a response e-mail that contained, 1. The audition brief, 2. Preparation brief, 3. part of script to be rehearsed- character wise, 4. The time and place of audition. I had a very eventful time at the auditions directing so many actors as they came by auditioning for the roles. The most popular one was Karthik, though I was surprised why many did not opt for Ramanujam and Karna, whose character had a extraordinary graph too. Nevertheless, I did zero down on actors who never came for the official auditions. I am so glad I met them otherwise. As I mentioned earlier, I was very keen on getting the physical attributes right and also them knowing the difficulties that they might have to come across while the shoot. Even with so many precautions taken, couple of my actors did not turn up for the shoot. But thank god, I found better replacements, No Regrets! In the end, most of the actors who were finalized were from Bangalore and one from Chennai.

The film being of comedy genre, the actors had a lot to bring into the table. Their sense of comic timing, their openess for modifications and improvisations. I must tell you, the search was a fruitful one, and I must really take this opportunity to thank my actors for breathing life into the characters. After a series of auditions and workshops, the following actors were chosen:

ABHIJITH REVATHI as Karthik Sebastian

VIJAY S.AIYAR as Karna Shastry

BHARGAV RAMAKRISHNAN as Ramanujam Iyengar

KRUPA SELVANARAYANAN as Nandini rao

MUTHU RAJ as Yo Boy in the lift

NANDA GOPALAN as Nanjundappa - the cop

NAVEEN KUMAR J as Waiter

CROWD-FUNDING I have read about a lot of films that called themselves ‘zero budget films’ and when I started making my films, I realized it was a myth. There is always a cost involved in making a film, directly or indirectly. Film making is an art that never comes for free. I guess, it helps us value a lot of things when it comes for free, there on. The ball park estimate for my film budget, totaled to Rs. 1 Lakh. The cost being so large, for an independent film, especially for a student film, it surely was something to be considered at the beginning itself and carefully thought off. The production determines a lot about of the feel of the film. And it did need support of some handsome funding, though I did not set to make an expensive film. I realized that the savings that I had made for my film was not enough and I needed more. The quest for more funding began and also for support. I made a list of people who could support me with their talents for no cost, purely on good will and they were undoubtedly my friends who came to my rescue, my batch mates and juniors from my discipline FVC, NID. Then the list of things I would require which has cost involved. The second drafts budgeting closed down at Rs. 70,000, which seemed fair enough. First thing that would come to my mind or rather any filmmaker, would be find a producer. Then arises a question, why would someone want to fund another persons dream when there is no commercial value or returns. The argument from their side as money-makers seemed fair enough. The whole film industry in our country runs with keeping in mind the returns in makes to the producers. So, why would they agree to fund a student who is still learning. Why would they risk it? A fair question with answers unknown to me. I can ask them to fund me, reasoning my unconditional passion but that is not enough. They needed a

bigger promise of returns which none can promise. It purely a gamble. Film making at such times seems like a game of chess where we are the pawns to me moved in sacrifice for the bigger blow. The blow of funds did come much earlier in my career as a filmmaker, I guess helping us in being smarter rather than greedy. You learn to make a film with the limited resources, I think that is one of the biggest learning’s I have had at NID. Now rose a question, from where do I begin to collect my funds. I promised my self that I would collect funds by fair mean only, where the contributor shall donate only with the faith in me, my film, that I deserve that few rupees and it had to be with the belief that I would do something good out of it. Tried never to get it out of pity or the kindness to support. Thank my stars, that I never did get to it. The route I chose to do that, was CROWD-FUNDING. A concept that existed from a very long time in the history of cinema. Mostly popular in the west and it took a while to reach our country. Many recent films, namely ‘I AM’ by Onir which won the National Award for the best film, were made with the help of funding contributed by common people who come by to support the project. This culture of crowd-funding began in the 80s with Shyam benegal’s feature film to the one that I mentioned before. It seemed like a interesting approach, where we return entertainment in the form of a film, - an entertaining movie, rather from their little contribution to support another’s passion. I thought I must give it a try too. So with the help of another filmmaker Rabi Kisku who had managed to gather some funding for his recent film making venture though a similar method, I formulated a presentation too. It goes as follows:

The presentation was mailed to all the people I know who would possibly support me atleast read the email. Hoping it would convince them enough to support me. I timed this attempt a maximum of a month and I decided I would stop it after that. To my surprise, I managed to rake almost 50% of the funding from people I knew at close terms to some acquaintances. Though a successful crowd-funding formula convinces a stranger too. But in my case, it never happened. Then, I thought, after CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME. By the end of a month, I had managed to collect Rs. 45,000 from different people. Along with my savings which I had earned by working in a lot of independent projects such as - Promotion Films for Sony Music - Production Designer for a feature film - Software Hardware Kya Yaaron - Directed an ad film - Mustafa Gold Mart - Promotion film for Bandish Projekt I had managed a total budget of Rs. 70, 000 in total after all this. I thought, I can flag off the project more confidently now with a financial foundation. With the intervention of new age technology like digital cameras, Internet for showcase. I always belonged to the school of thought what wanted to get films directly to the audience with the help of new media like Internet. It has been a constant quest in my past before NID and now, after making my second film, I want to try it once again to promote the film as much as I can on the social media and reach it to the audience. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important that the film gets its due and all the contributors are confident in supporting more films in the future with a positive response to a film made via CROWD-FUNDING method.

BUDGET STAGE PRE PRODUCTION

ACTORS & TECHNICIANS

PRODUCTION

POST PRODUCTION

GRAND TOTAL

ITEM

COST (IN Rs.)

Recce

1000

Audition

500

Script Prints

500

Cast & Crew Travel

4000

Actors

Cinematographer

Production Designer

Music Director

Location Sound Recordist

12000

Camera

7000

Lenses

3200

Lights

15000

Rigs

500

Stationary

1000

Location

3000

Production Design

14000

Production

5000

Electricity

800

Costumes

3500

Hard Disk - 2TB

6340

iMac

80000

Sound Recording Studio

3000

Editing

Sound Design

Sound Mixing

Music Mixing

20000

Final Dump

500

183840 59

PRODUCTION DESIGN The production design of the film was done by an art graduate Poornima Sukumar who had her charm into making a the most boring corner of the world as interesting as she caen, who was assisted by Diksha Grover. We sat and decide the tone of the film, and all the properties were chosen based on that. She matched the wavelength of the thought process of the film with a lot of ease. They got most of the work done like magic. Ready to run, ready to fix and ready to make magic was their motto. From the art direction, to the logistic of the properties for the next

scene, food, water, anything and everything. They were the backbone of the shoot without whom the shoot would not have been a possibility who were the strong pillars through the six day shoot. Out of all our locations, the only location that needed being filled with properties - Ramanujam and Karnaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s house. Other than this, there were many lists of smaller properties which were a key property in my scenes which ready to be used at the of need at ease.

EQUIPMENTS CAMERA: CANON - 5D MARK II

have found it a little harder to stand-out.

Being a part of the digital revolution in cinema, I chose to shoot the film on a Canon 5D Mark II, which shoots at a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels - considered the complete high resolution. Good enough to be projected on to a big screen in theatres.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION

Choosing the right equipment to shoot is as important as any other stage in the process of film making. In this age of digital revolution the choices available for film makers in terms of the technology is plenty. And hence one has to judiciously choose the right technology required to aide the style of the film. One had to consider the location, style, treatment and budget while choosing the camera. In my case the budget allowed me to go for any camera in the range of 3000 Rs - 4000 Rs per day. And i wanted to shoot my film on some format that would give me a good projection quality. Anything less than a HDV format was not even in consideration. Later when other factors were considered, like the location and the treatment. I realized that there was a need of a camera that could give a good shallow depth of field. And the restricted space demanded the use of a smaller camera and thats when i thought of experimenting by shooting the entire film with a DSLR. The options were simple- it was either going to be a canon 5D or a 7D. Canon’s X0D series was, for many years, essentially the default choice for keen enthusiasts, professionals and aspiring-professionals who wanted top-level image quality and functionality without the bulk (or price) of a pro-level camera such as the 1D series. The 10D, 20D and 30D were hugely successful an popular cameras and you didn’t have to spend long shooting with them to understand why. However, like every other sector of the DSLR market, there are some very competitive rivals, in terms of both price and features. Cameras such as Sony’s A700 and Nikon’s D200 and 300 have meant the most recent X0D EOSs have been held to higher standards and

The 5D Mark II was the first DSLR to feature 1080p video recording. The Canon PowerShot SX 1 IS followed with full HD in a bridge digital camera soon after.[8] The 16:9 aspect ratio portion of the sensor used in video mode is equivalent in sensitive area to a VistaVision 8/35 frame. This large sensor allows videos to be recorded with very shallow depth of field for a “film look”. The 21 megapixel sensor is downsampled to HD resolution by only using every third line and 4:2:0 chroma subsampling,[9] leading to concern about Moiré patterns in recorded video.

Movie clips can be up to 4 GB in size, approximately 12 minutes of 16:9 HD (1920x1080) or 24 minutes of 4:3 SD (640x480) footage (depending on scene complexity). These limits stem from the 4 GB maximum file size supported by the FAT32 filesystem format used on Compact Flash cards. The camera also imposes a hard maximum clip length of 29 minutes 59 seconds if the 4 GB limit has not already been reached.Video clips are recorded as Quicktime MOV files with H.264/MPEG-4 (Base Profile @ L5) compressed video and uncompressed PCM audio at 48 kHz. HD bitrate is approximately 38 Megabits per second (4.8 Mbyte/s) and SD bitrate is approximately 17 Megabits per second (2.2 Mbyte/s). Although the internal microphone is mono, stereo audio is supported through the audio input jack. When recording for

long periods, especially in warmer climates, increased video noise may occur due to CMOS overheating. The EOS 5D Mark II is capable of video recording in low-light situations and it is sold for a relatively low price, compared with professional video cameras. For the first eighteen months of its release, the camera only had a 30 frame per second (30p) video mode. On 15 March 2010, Canon released a firmware upgrade to add a 25p mode for PAL format compatibility and a 24p mode for compatibility with motion picture film cameras.[14] The firmware update also modified the 30p mode to record 29.97 frame/s and the new 24p mode actually records 23.976 frame/s to have frame rates compatible with NTSC. Lastly, the update added manual control of the audio record levels and an official way to disable the Automatic Gain Control.

ASPECT RATIO The film was shot on a cinemascope aspect ratio of 2.35:1. 2.35:1: 35 mm anamorphic prior to 1970, used by CinemaScope (“’Scope”) and early Panavision. The anamorphic standard has subtly changed so that modern anamorphic productions are actually 2.39,[1] but often referred to as 2.35 anyway, due to old convention. (Note that anamorphic refers to the compression of the image on film to maximize an area slightly taller than standard 4-perf Academy aperture, but presents the widest of aspect ratios.) All Indian Bollywood films released after 1972 are shot in this standard for theatrical exhibition.

This aspect ratio let us discover interesting compositions as it had a controlled space. So, what we chose

to show and what not, had to be decided very preciesly before the shot or the take. And made the film look more film-like. DSLR Cinematography has its own pros and cons when it comes to image making. ThThere is a technological flaw with respect to DSLRswhen it comes to fast movements, flashes of light or any sudden rise or fall of information. It does not register information or detail as smoothly like as an analog camera. So, the movements were to be thought of carefully keeping in the constraints of a DSLR. Hence, all the hand held shots were shot using rigs compulsorily. The slight movement of the camera gave the film its visual language.

LIGHTS The film was shot entirely on alternate light equipments instead of the regular high-powered lights like the Multi-10s, Kinoflos, Solar and 5Ks. The alternate light equipment being 15 Zero WATT bulbs, 10 CFL Bulbs, 4 100W bulbs, Chinese Lanterns. And this surely added to the spirit of independent cinema, where a film is made with smarter resources rather than the expensive ones. When I set out to hire light for the film, it came as a shock to me that, I had to pay more to the light men than the lights themselves. I mean, ofcourse it fair to pay but I unfortunately could not afford it. And ofcourse, they wouldn’t leave such heavy lights in the mercy of us filmmakers. So, I had to figure out an

alternate method of lighting. But one thing was clear, that we will do the lightmen job ourselves.

Luckily, I found a studio called Zebra Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. In Bangalore who had some DIY light equipments like a 4 CFL bulb holders, 2 CFL bulb holders, 15 Zero Watt bulb holders, boom rods. They were ready to give it to me without an assistant, savinga lot of time and money. So with the help of gelatin papers of color, green, yellow, red, we achieved the look and feel of the film with respect to the lighting. The lights were quite handy and easy to handle. We carried it in the back of the car to all the locations. The only regret was that we could not light the ROADS scenes. Well, they require huger lights with higher intensity, which obviously could not be achieved with these little CFL lights but never the less we managed to shoot it with the available street lights. I must say, it did work quite well with the film.

to which was connected were two lapel mics which were hidden into the costumes of the actors while the BOOM MIC recorded the ambiance and the over head sound.

SOUND RECORDING

SHOULDER RIG

As you have read before, the sound of the film is sync sound. I had a Location Sound Recordist - Jamie Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Silva hired for the entire shoot. He was a mini-human studio himself with all the equipments rigged on him smartly. He carried a ZOOM H4N recorder

DSLRS might be great visual producers because of its complex yet simple to use technology but they tag along with a lot of problems which are negligible

but still are annoying when you are keen on making good visuals. The digital technology works on data/information being transferred to a data card at a certain speed, so when they speed is not good enough the images get affected as they are not able to capture the image at the speed the user is especially when the camera is being hand-held. It even registers the small hand vibration as a heavy shiver. To avoid this, the DOP made a shoulder rig out of PVC pipes and fixed a mount on to it to fix the camera in. It worked like a charm I must say.

CREDITS Guide Ajay Tiwari Directed by Hari Prasad U Story & Screenplay George K Antoney Hari Prasad Udayakumar Assistant Director Anoop Satyan Cinematographer Farooq Mohammed Production Design Poornima Sukumar Production Assistant Diksha Grover Produced by Udayakumar M R Sri Prakash Anantha Padmanabhan Soumya Lakshmi Hari Prasad U Co-Produced by Vishnu Prabhu Ranjitha Rajeevan Diksha Grover Editing & Sound Hari Prasad U Sound Recordist Jamie D Silva Music Santosh

Singers Anand Arun Nair Gangadharan Santosh Karthik Nagaraj

Poojitha Prasad Vishwesh Shiva Prasad

Cinema Angadi, Bangalore

Recording Assitance Sandhya Ramanchandran

Special Thanks Paresh Kamdar Shiva Kumar N

Lyrics Meera Desikan

Illustration Delwyn Remedios

Mridungam Bharadwaj Sheshadri

Scene Poster Design Boopathy Srinivasan

Violin Karthik Nagaraj

Subtitles Hari Prasad U

Anand Ms. Manonmani Bharath M C Arvind Kamath Rabi Kisku Siddhanth Sundar Poojitha Prasad Abhijith Revathy Shrikar Marur

Music Recordist Ruben Dayal - Marshalz Studio, Bangalore

Location Courtesy Mr. Anthony - Show Green Screen - Zebra Entertainment Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore

Music Recorded at Marshalz Studio, Bangalore Music Mix Engineer Jaya Deva

Mr. Raja - Bar - Ganesh Bar & Restaurant, Bangalore

Sound Mixing Jamie D Silva

Ms. Renuka - Phile -Rooftop Restaurant Up Beat, Bangalore

Additional Sound Samples Vishwesh Shiva Prasad

Mr. Kiran - Ramanujam & Karnaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Home - Photo studio, Bangalore

VFX & Title Design TRAJOTS VFX Sudhakar Bhaskaran Hari Prasad U

Mr. Srivatsava Rajulu and BBMP - Road Scenes - Frazer Town, Bangalore

Patch Shoot Assistance Anoodha Kunnath Shrikar Marur Chandan

Equipments Zebra Entertainment Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore Toehold.in, Bangalore

Anoodha Kunnath Anisha Crasto Maniyarasan Rajendran Rajiv Rajaram Tilak Boopathy Srinivasan Aditya Gowtham Srivatasava Rajulu Sharada Devi Hari Hara Srikanth Joyeetha Guha K, C, Aswitha Sriee My Batch mates My Classmates My Friends & My Parents

THE SHOOT it was now or never I lay down on the couch of my drawing room, reading the script for one last time before I look into the eyes of the big day. With no signs of sleep or rest, nervous and filled with tension, I was just hoping that the things will go smoothly as per plan, which if ever happens it surely would be called a miracle. I had my own set of misfortunes as the 6 shoot days passed on. The cast and crew were ready. Everyone arrived in Bangalore a couple of days early to settle down and get into the groove. They had travelled from different parts of the country. It sure was such a pleasure to see so many having faith in my dream and wishing to see it come true. The film had to happen for them atleast, for their hard work and dedication if not for my selfish passion to make a film. And I always believed in this ‘It’s all about the first SHOT’. Yet again, it proves to be right and eventful. We had 7 locations with a five day shoot schedule. The planning was made in such a way that it was not hectic or burdening, with enough free time and space keeping in mind the schedule of the actors, logistics, permitted time limit in places like the bar and the roof top restaurant. While the places like the Green-screen studio was charged on an hourly basis. So, there was cost involved at every step but it had to be smartly handled to avoid unnecessary expenses. We also went around collecting equipments from all the places of hire, the camera, the rigs, the lights and the stationaries, to prepare them for the shoot, as we were shooting on an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. We then tried the camera mounted on a DIY Shoulder Rig which did work like a charm and also visited all the locations with my crew to decide our plan of action with regards to lighting the space, the production execution and also the play of the scene. In terms of directing the actors, I rehearsed with the actors for sometime, a few days before the day of the shoot though I wished I had time to conduct a workshop to break the ice between the actors. As a comedy film, it was very important for my actors to have

chemistry. Nevertheless, I instructed them to know their lines and parts well enough before the shoot, as I mentioned that it won’t be easy to be explaining things to them on the location at the time of the take. And, even with respect to the dialogues, I gave them the freedom of not mugging the dialogues but to get similar lines with their improvisation. This way, it would keep things more interesting and challenging for the actors too. The film was being shot on ‘Sync-sound’ as I did not want to dub the film in the post, as I thought the timing, the tone, pitch of the humor in their vocal cannot be recreated. Hence the whole cast and crew were briefed on this. Shooting sync sound needs a lot more discipline than the usual shooting as you cannot call actions to the actor once the take is on. Jamie my sound recordist did a wonderful job of the sound, which you wil notice as you watch the film. The call time was 7 am on the day one, when I wake up to find my assistant director Anoop Satyan, suggesting some changes to the script. It tore my confidence to pieces but I did listen to him with all my ears. They made sense, the change was incorporated immediately. We had to rush as we were already in a delay of an hour which is bad sign for a beginning. Anyways, delays followed suite for the whole shoot schedule of 6 days. We began the day 1 of the shoot with the GREEN SCREEN studio to shoot the show part of the film, moving to a GREEN ROOM which was the improvised script part, moving on to the most crucial shoot for the first day, THE RESTAURANT SCENE where we had arranged for 20-30 extras for the crowd, the set up for the performance stage and yes, having a permission only till the time, crowd starts flowing in. We were there much ahead in time, and well, no brownie points for guessing what happens next, Murphy’s law comes into act. None of the crowd turns up, the production materials don’t reach the location and I had to call off this scene for that day and this is how the Day 6 was born out of the five day shoot schedule. Nevertheless, we shot the LIFT SCENE as per the plan. In a way, it was

good that we had this scene postponed as we had enough time to get this scene done well. Being the first day of the shoot, the actors were still in their cold shoes and this scene did help us break the wall of discomfort. We called of the day by around 8pm and headed back home for a quick sleep as the most crucial location was planned for the following three days, the HOUSE SEQUENCE where the majority of the film is set in. My production designer Poornima Sukumar, reached the location - an old run down photo studio located by the main road, by around 8 am to prepare the location for that days shoot. While, that was happening, we shifted all our equipments and rigs there just to realise that there was no electricity to run any of the lights. It came as quite a blow as we had a lot of shooting to do and we were already running late. With no time to spare, we ran to a UPS vendor who denied to put it up after seeing the place it had to be installed in. The diesel generators made a lot of noise and we couldn’t get that as we were shooting sync sound. A silence generator was way to expensive. Finally, came to our rescues were the line of shops located next door to this place, who gave us power from their store. It was really kind of them and they save the day. Though by the time they save us, we were at 4pm, we had lost almost the whole day. Still, we began our shoot, and try to recreate day light with the little lights we had. Managed it quite smarly I must say, thanks to my cinematographer Farooq Mohammed and the rest of my crew. We packed this day up quite late around 1 am with a call time of 6am the next day. I did take an oath before my crew arrived, rather before making my shoot that, I woudn’t drain out my crew at any cost as their health, energy and the enthusiasm is what is going to make this film come true. Again, the film being a light subject, it was important to keep the mood so. I was sure it would reflect into the film. Thank god, I never did tire anyone out to death. The third day at the Photo studio location went on quite well, except for some issues created by the owner of the place for taking power from the nearby stores. We convinced him an umpteen number of times that day. Next big problem, was that the location being situated next to the main road. The sound recordist

had a tough time managing the sound though I must say, it turned out pretty well. No complaints. Just when we thought we had solved most of the problems, the actor who promised to act as the COP did not turn up for the shoot with a constant reminders and pleading. Withing nothing less than cursing him, I started hunting for a new actor for that role, it was crucial. Towards the evening, we did find one person who would have turned out to be a disaster, if I had casted him. We gave up on him after a few takes. I decided to do the shot with a better actor the next day, so I had piled up another whole scene for the next day. Postponing was the last thing that I wanted but looks like it was the larger good. One of the most challenging scenes was the Jugalbandi scene where the actors have to mimic to a Carnatic Vocal that had been pre-recorded. It was quite a challenge to get someone who does not know Carnatic Music to almost lip sync without an error. After umpteen number of takes, we did manage something decent enough to convey the point, though I still feel it could have been much more convincing. As per schedule, the fourth day was dedicated to all outdoor scenes which included THE LOO SCENE, THE RUNNING SCENE, RAMANUJAM’S INTRO, THE ACCIDENT SCENE, THE FINAL ESCAPE & THE BAR SCENE. This had to go by schedule as we had to get back to the plan before it went out of control, all haywire. We began the day with the BAR SCENE at around 10 am, the shooting there was quite fun and interesting with a few drunkards staring away at us. We enjoyed lighting the space up, as the place itself carried a lot of character. The actors who played Ramanujam and Karna were quite excited about doing the drunk scene in such a dingy bar. After completing the shoot by noon, with almost 15 bottles of coke being faked as alcohol, we walked out hoping to complete the rest on time. As ever, we were racing with time. Next, on list was the LOO SCENE which was also set in prime area. The actual plan was to go in the afternoon and finish it discreetly but now by the time we landed, we were the center of action. Nevertheless, we continued to shoot. The scenes goes this way: Ramanujam and Karna take a tied up Karthik who is dressed up in a burqa to the loo. Now that he is tied, Ramanujam has to get under his burqa to untie the

knot, and let him do his pee job”. This while being looked at as an outside can look quite offensive as a standalone event but as a flow in the film, it has the comic value to it. Here is when, guerrilla film making gets into trouble. One of the co-loo users found this whole event offensive and start posing a threat to have us being thrashed up. While, I was trying to convince him of the story, my DOP continued to shoot. When, I successfully convinced the man, another passerby stopped by to watch the same and got offended similarly. But he took it to the next level of calling more people through his phone, when I sensed danger. I ordered the cast and crew to evacuate the space at the earliest. Being a Bangalorean, it has quite a possibility of being blown out of proportions leading to a communal riot. So, we scooted from the location with an incomplete scene to avoid any more further complications while the strangers continued gathering people to get us thrashed. By the will of the super power, we made it out of the place in one piece and alive. I directed the entire cast and crew to my uncles road located in a secluded road where there is barely and traffic. My mind was blocked with nothing but the imagination of the whole above incident turning really ugly and bad. I must confess, I was quite petrified. We had three more scenes: THE ACCIDENT SCENE, RAMANUJAM’S INTRO & THE FINAL RUN left for the day and we are only done with one completely while the other is stuck half way . So, we as a team decided to make it happen in the same road right in front of my uncles house. The right of the road was the stage to Ramanujam’s Intro Scene while the road left side acted as the stage to the FINAL RUN and ACCIDENT scene. Oh yes! the center of the road also gave way to the Second COP MEET scene. We exploited the location as much as we could, and went onto shoot till almost 1 am, once again. Though the day had been stressful, filled with misfortunes, it surely was one of the most satisfying days of the shoot. Yes! the other good thing about having my uncle’s house right there was that we were fed well with constant supply of snacks and beverages.

flows, it was quite a challenge. Added to the scenes of the film, we had to shoot the SONG SEQUENCE too. Now, when we thought there was no problem, one of my actor had to head back to Chennai that same very night and he had to leave early. So here we had a deadline. The day begins smoothly, we were finishing up. We were reaching a road block with the COP SCENE coming up next and we were still to find an actor. Thats when NANDA comes to our rescue and surprised us with his fabulous screen presence and acting prowess. And yes! thanks to my assistant director to have spent some special time alone with him teaching him the dialogues and the way it needs to modulated. With some complicated scene play with song and slapstick, it was quite a challenge, which was successfully pulled off. Following this was the FUN chase sequence, which had some effortless crowd control. While rest of the crew was busy holding back the common people from entering the frame, the DOP, the actors and me were busy running taking the shots from all possible angles. We had to finish this by sunset and also take the bridge shots to the LOO SCENE which we had left incomplete. One of the most fastest progressed day in the entire schedule where shot the most where we completed the entire house sequence by 7 pm, starting with the song which went on till 10 pm. We lit up the same space a little different from the way it was looking throughout the film. The end of Day 5 completed 95% of the entire shooting script, while we shot all the over flowed scenes such as the restaurant scene the next day in full swing completing the film successfully on Day 6. Three months later from the last day of the shoot, I shot the PATCH SCENES of News reporting in one of the evenings with the help of a few friends in Bangalore. Now, I had enough to narrate a story and I thought the rest of the story shall take it’s shape on the edit table.

We were back to the photo studio location once again, with just one day’s permission available from the owner. So we had to be precise about our scenes and what we wanted to shoot. With so many over-

POST PRODUCTION EDITING & SOUND DESIGN 55 mins 10 sec and 14 frames, read the time code from the first cut of Thaka Dhimi Thom’s timeline on the edit table. I knew that I could happily cut away a little more. I returned to the edit of Thaka Dhimi Thom after a long break as I had to set out to assists my batch mates, Farooq Mohammed and Anoop Satyan, to make their diploma films. The time spent away from my footage, helped me understand the content that I had shot more objectively rather than being emotional and connected. Being practical is what I’d call it. After which, I mercilessly chopped of another 10 mins and then followed it by another 5 min. The film started looking crisper. Editing a comedy film has another requirement, ‘Sense of TIMING’. Since, the film was shot unlike a regular comedy film, it was necessary to achieve that timing between characters through the cuts, wherein its easier to achieve the same with a wide shot. There was a conscious effort made to not make the editing very stylish or slick but rather keep it in pace with the scene, the overall narrative and the humor of the scene. The graph of the characters’ growth along with the building up of the situation and the over all narrative was of keen importance while editing. One might just notice a lot of cuts which are medium or close shots and barely few wide shots. Honestly, I am sucker for closeup more than wide shots, as I wanted the audience to be with the characters throughout the film. I always believed in experience along with powerful content. Sound design goes hand-in-hand from the time of writing the script to the final editing table. Since the film’s visual language is a grungy treatment, I thought the sound scape of the film , could also possibly depict the same. The sound helped rooting the film to a certain locale, a certain world they possibly live in. I realized over a lot of projects that dubbing deters

the feel of the dialogue emoted during the shoot. There are many instances in the film during which sound is used as a comic element or to progress the narrative of the film. Sync sound embeds all the foleys into the audio very naturally helping the sound seem real and believable. When dubbing is used, there is a ‘cleanness’ to the sound, which is quite difficult to tamper with it and make it belong to the scene. This way it saves time and effort, while the concentration can be focused more towards creating the sound scape beyond the basic sound.

SOUND EDITING & MIXING Since the sync sound files were separately recorded on a ZOOM H4N Recorder using Senheisser Lapels for the characters and a RODE BOOM mic for the overhead sounding. The vocals had to be matched to the camera sound as per the shots. With the help of a software called ‘PLURALEYES’, the audio was matched comparatively easier than a manual sync and much more precisely as the software analyses the audio of the camera to the sound files giving out the actual synced sound file in a brand new timeline in FCP. The whole process of syncing can get quite monotonous. It took me four days to complete syncing the sound. After which, I layered the other sounds and ambiance as per the script. This is where my Sound Recordist comes in. He picked up each scene’s sound file and worked on it at a higher detail. Since the film was shot in different locations, where the audio levels vary from place to place. They had to be equalized so that they sound uniform, equalizing them at the same level. It took three complete days to edit and mix the final sound of Thaka Dhimi Thom.

MUSIC PRODUCTION 73

PRE-PRODUCING MUSIC Music plays a very integral part of the film. Other than being a film driven largely by humor, it’s partly a musical too. The music production for the film has been quite intense in terms of producing it. The film’s music is produced and composed by a friend called Santosh who came in as a savior, after another person gave up even before the start. I think it surely was for the better of the film. Santosh has been a very dedicated music director for the film and its music. The film has two parts with respect to its production of music:. 1. Before the shoot, all the Keerthanas, Alaaps & the final song had to be decided and recorded. These tracks had to be done before the shoot. They were sent to actors prior to practice. They were used for the actors to lip sync to in the BEGINNING SCENE, JUGALBANDI SCENE, COP SCENE and the FINAL SONG. Most of the Keerthanas are of Sri Thyagaraja Swami, as I am an admirer of all his songs. With the help of Anand, a young singer, I pre-recorded the tracks for the shoot very roughly on Garageband in my laptop which is one of the biggest errors that I had made, which I realized during the post production of music. The lesson learnt is that it is very important to record a final track in terms of songs/music if it is being used in the frame of the film cause, it leads to a lot of sync issues at the latter part of post production. For example, Anand’s alaaps were never on a beat, hence we found it very difficult to match it when we recorded the final track with two classical singers Gangadhar and Arun G S, the voices of Ramanujam and Karna, respectively. Thanks to patience of my sound recordist, singers, and the music director, with a lot of permutation and combinations, trials and retrials, we matched the original vocals which in-turn almost matched the visuals. Now, that I had set out to make an out right entertainer, what is a film without a song, I thought. Being brought up with films that have 16 songs in them, I decided to have atleast one and I must add that it is

not easy to compose a song nor shoot for it. It was just a couple of days away from the shoot and the song was not yet final. With the help of Anand, I chose a ‘Thillana’ on which I wanted to base the song on and create a fusion. After Anand, patiently sung a few ragams so that I can choose from them, I zeroed down on BRINDAVANI THILLANA by Sri Balamurali Krishna, which supposedly was composed to elate the audience at the end of each of his concerts. Bingo! It was exactly what I was looking for. I knew that I wanted to have a ‘Carnatic Classical Fusion’ as my climax song, as it also forms the conclusion of the film denoting more like a meet of two worlds, the classical music meets the film music. I expressed the same to Santosh, my music director who was excited to work on it. We sat together and decided that we would fuse it with Reggae. It was an absolute blessing to have composed, especially a fusion song, which was quite liked by a lot of people who heard the song. It was more like a long time dream come true. Now, I can probably say that my film has a song and be a proud owner of it. All the recordings took place at my friend Ruben Dayals Music Studio called Marshalz Music located in Bangalore. Thanks to a lot of people who helped me find kind hearted souls who were ready to share their talents for free like the singers and the instrument players. The BEGINNING SCENE has a live performance happening in the frame, so we need to record live Violin and Mridungam. A person named Bharadwajan played the Mridungam while Karthik Nagaraj played the Violin. Ruben Dayal stood by me and recorded till he dropped dead. BACKGROUND SCORING

Minimal background scores v/s expressive background scores. I chose the latter. We decided to have an instrument to represent each character. Ramanujam was assigned a Blue Harp, also known as a Mouth Organ, for Karna we decided to express him through an Electric Tremolo Guitar. The film having so many instances of pure Carnatic songs, the background score having no hints of classical, helped it stand out as it helped accentuate the mood of the scene. We decided on not going for full length themes but rather work with just a note or two to highlight the emotion except for two scenes, JUGALBANDI and CHASE scene, where the score is at full swing.

made alone. It has so much of sacrifices, contribution and love from others as well. It’s all their energies that have manifested into an experience.

We even explored through a lot of genres to come to a conclusion. We decided to stay a little connected to the old work in terms of our sounding and also root the whole music to the region of south by using instruments such as the Ghatam, Morsing, Mridungam and Tavil but also fusing it with some adapted western instruments like the Clarinet, some String Section and Drums.

The TV scene in the climax had some basic compositing to be done where we had to insert the shot news report. It had to be embedded within the television. It was quite a lot of fun creating an old broken down television effect out of nothing.

VFX & TITLING This is not a very VFX heavy film as such. It was used to create the ‘super singer’ show ambiance, wherein we had shot the characters in front of a Green Screen. A Background of the show was designed and a LED screen effect was done in Adobe Aftereffects, making it look close to the real television show.

The film’s titling is done in a retro-technicolor style. It was a conscious decision to attain that look. I chose colors with reference to a lot of old Tamil and Hindi

The whole score of the film is digitally programmed using VSTs and Sound samples in Logic Studio Pro using a MIDI Controller - OXYGEN 49, one of my best investments in my lifetime so far. My previous short film had me donning the hat of a music director. Things are different when you are your own master, while at this project, I already had too much on my plate. Hence, I decided to have another composer do the music for my film. It was interesting to figure out ways to convey your visuals in terms of sounds to him so that he can feel the way you did while visualizing the film. And to my good luck, he got it spot on, giving me some really impressive work with grateful dedication. Mastering is important because it helps in making the sounding sound similar in all mediums of output like from a laptop speaker to high range speaker in an auditorium. Without having a budget for final mix and mastering,Santosh, the music director offered to do it for free. I am ever grateful to him and others who have offered unconditional support.

films along with the fonts. I also found a tutorial on line Thaka Dhimi Thom’s Titles are a homage to all the classical comedy films and comedians in the South of India to whose humor I laughed my lungs out until one day I grew up to find it even more amusingly funny. The films of Singeetham Srinivas Rao, Visu, S V Shekar, had simple subjects with brilliant humor. Their film titles were styled in similar styles. These films and filmakers continue to inspire me now and will never fail to do so in the future.

Yet and again, I felt that a film never can never be

CONCLUSION When I see a person reacting to a frame of my film, the pleasure derived is priceless. I call this cinema a magical experience and people call this magic cinema. From the genesis of the idea almost an year ago, from the day I am writing these words to see the story coming to life after going through a line up of rigorous processes and stages. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s surely an enriching moment and phase of your life. Where your learning is beyond the experience. The words from my first jury panel at NID still ring in my head saying â&#x20AC;&#x153; You play too safe, you need to push the wallsâ&#x20AC;?. Ever since, I have been on a constant effort to break past my comfort and fears. My first film was a thriller drama set in one night where I struggled to write the lighter moments. In the next film, I chose my biggest fear in writing - making people laugh. Everyone warned me that it would be a tough genre to handle but the risk had to be taken and the lesson had to be learnt. The selfish love for music too played a role. I had to blend them both and tell a story that is entertaining but not preachy or slapstick. And today, here I am with a situational comedy film in my hand. The learning curve has been immense. I would like to repeat, as the film unravels in front of so many people from now on, it will carry along with it the stories of passion, hard work and dedication of many individuals who were a part of this. The support has been simply astonishing and the sacrifices, heart melting. Everyone has pushed their boundaries and comfort zones to bring in quality. The pain cannot be explained and the dedication cannot be applauded enough. This film surely would not have been possible without so many people who stood by me like strong, tall pillars of support. As I complete this film, I already have an urge to tell another story. I guess this never-ending urge to tell a story will keep me going now and forever. For the love of cinema - Thaka Dhimi Thom.

BIBLIOGRAPHY BOOK REFERNCES CINEMA OF LONLINESS - ROBERT KOLKER SUBCONCIOUS TECHNIQUES TO CONQUER WRITER’S BLOCK - MARISA D’VARI 5C’S OF CINEMATOGRAPHY - JOSEPH V. MASCELLI HOW TO READ A FILM - JAMES MONACO

FILM REFERNCES THILLU MULLU (TAMIL) - K BALACHANDAR MICHAEL MADANA KAMARAJAN -(TAMIL) - SINGEETHAM SRINIVAS RAO SALANGAI OLI (TELUGU AND TAMIL) - K VISHWANATH MUMBAI EXPRESS (TAMIL) - SINGEETHAM SRINIVAS RAO PANCHATHANTHIRAM (TAMIL) - K S RAVIKUMAR DELHI BELLY (HINDI) - ABHINAY DEO