THE SITCOM

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the sitcom

episode 7: "aakaali ekkuva, alochana thakkuva"

== cold open - "modati dosa" ==

5 panels engine: Muddamma's dosas

int. boys H.Q - day

[C.1] Noon. The dining table. Suraj and Kicha on either side

of it, plates ready, cutlery gripped, both leaning slightly

forward - two men waiting for Muddamma's dosas with the

focus of vultures.

[C.2] Muddamma at the stove, back to them. She peels the

first dosa off the tava, crosses, and sets it on Suraj's

plate - the natural order, oldest habit, no thought in it -

and turns straight back to the stove.

[C.3] The second her back is turned, Kicha's hand shoots

across the table, takes the entire dosa off Suraj's plate,

and folds the whole thing into his mouth in one motion.

Suraj watches it happen from eight inches away and cannot

process it fast enough to stop it.

[C.4] Muddamma returns with the second dosa - and, natural

order again, sets it down for Kicha, who is sitting there

with his cheeks full, sunglasses on, staring straight ahead

with zero expression, chewing very slowly.

She notices nothing. She goes back to the stove.

[C.5] wide. Suraj looking at an empty plate, then at Kicha's

full face, then at the second dosa now sitting in front of

Kicha - the whole injustice assembled in front of him - and

he starts to laugh, helplessly, at a man in sunglasses

giving nothing away with a mouthful of stolen dosa.

Kicha does not break. Kicha will never break.

narrator (V.O.)

aakaali ekkuva, alochana thakkuva

[1] Boys H.Q. 12 40 AM The wide, at night - inverter

light, one tube, the fan turning. Four people horizontal in

the specific way of people who have been horizontal for two

hours.

Behind them: the frame on the wall with Friday's film still

in it, and the calendar. Four weeks to the circle.

narrator (V.O.)

Nothing had happened all day. Nothing was

going to.

[2] Suraj on the floor, phone above his face. Kicha upside

down on the sofa. Anudeep at the table with a laptop closed

in front of him, doing nothing at all. Aishwarya on her own

rail, chin on her arms, doing nothing at a different

address.

[3] Nobody speaks for a full panel.

[4] And Suraj says the sentence that costs everybody three

hours.

suraj

Naaku biryani thinali anipisthundi.

[5] Nobody moves. But something changes in the room's air

pressure.

aishwarya

Ippudu okkati kuda open ledu.

suraj

Naaku telusu.

aishwarya

Appudu enduku cheppav?

suraj

Cheppanu. Anthe.

[6] Kicha's head comes up off the sofa, upside down,

sunglasses somehow still on.

kicha

…Shadab open untundi.

[7]

anudeep

Shadab ekkada?

kicha

Chala doorm.

anudeep

Entha door?

kicha

(beat) Adi important kaadu.

[8] wide. Four people looking at each other. Nobody has

agreed to anything. Everybody knows.

int./ext. the building - morning

[9] The stairwell at one in the morning. Four people going

down it, none of them dressed for anywhere.

aishwarya

Nenu radhu.

suraj

Sare.

[10] Next panel. She is on the stairs with them, jacket on.

aishwarya

Nenu radhu ani chepta unnanu.

kicha

Vinnamu.

ext. hyderahbaad / on the road - day

[11] The lane. The Honda Shine - and a second bike Kicha

has produced from somewhere, which he wheels out with the

confidence of a man who has not thought about tomorrow.

kicha

Adi nadi kaadu, kaani adi naadi.

[12] the pairing - and it is the wrong one, deliberately.

Suraj and Aishwarya on the Shine. Which leaves Anudeep and

Kicha, standing next to a bike, alone together for the

first time in the series.

[13] They ride. Empty flyover, sodium light, a city with

the sound turned down. The "nothing" page and it should be

allowed to breathe.

[14] ⭐ the man with the handi. And at the bottom of the

flyover, on the service road - one bandi, one bulb, one

steel handi, three plastic stools. A man in a lungi, alone,

ladling.

Steam coming off it. You can smell this panel.

[15] All four of them slow down. All four of them look. And

Suraj - Suraj, who wanted this at twelve forty in the

morning - waves it off.

suraj

Vaddu ra.

kicha

Enti vaddu?

suraj

Manam Shadab ki velthunnamu.

[16] wide, from behind the cart. Two bikes accelerating

away from a man with a full handi at one in the morning.

narrator (V.O.)

That was the whole story. The rest is just

the part where they found out.

[17] shadab. Shutters down. A chain. A padlock the size of

a fist.

[18] Four people standing in front of it in total silence.

[19]

suraj

Nuvvu open untundi annav.

kicha

Nenu untundi anna. Undi ani analedu.

[20] Aishwarya, already back on the bike, entirely

unsurprised:

aishwarya

Randi. Intiki.

suraj

Vaddu.

aishwarya

Suraj.

suraj

(and here it is) Aa bandi.

[21] Four heads turn. The realisation arrives in all of

them simultaneously and it is the happiest anybody will be

all night.

kicha

Aa bandi!

suraj

aa bandi ra-

[22] the ride back. Genuinely thrilling, played completely

straight - two bikes going the wrong way down a service

road at half past one with four people who have never

wanted anything more.

[23] ⭐ spine beat. Kicha riding one-handed, phone up in the

other, filming the road, filming Suraj on the other bike,

filming nothing.

The footage will be a blur and a wind roar and completely

unusable. He keeps every second of it.

[24] And Anudeep, on the back, over the noise, because

there is nothing else to do:

kicha

Nuvvu naatho maatladavu ra.

anudeep

Nenu andaritho maatladatanu.

kicha

Andaritho ne. Naatho kaadu.

Anudeep has no answer to that, because it is true, and

Kicha does not press it. He just drives.

[25] The service road. The bulb.

[26] The man is packing up. The handi is on the ground. The

lid is off.

[27] Suraj is off the bike before it has stopped.

suraj

Anna- anna, rendu-

[28] The man does not look up. He says one word and keeps

packing.

cart man

Ayipoyindi.

[29] Four people standing in front of an empty handi they

were sitting next to, on a bike, forty minutes ago.

[30] Nobody blames Suraj out loud. Everybody looks at him.

It is much worse.

[31]

suraj

…cheppandi ra.

aishwarya

Emi cheppamu?

suraj

Emaina cheppandi. Ee la choodakandi.

[32] And Kicha - who has ruined this evening once already

and has learned nothing - puts a hand up.

kicha

Naaku oka ice cream parlour telusu.

[33]

anudeep

Manam biryani kosam vachhamu.

kicha

Adi open untundi ra.

aishwarya

Nuvvu Shadab gurinchi kuda ade annav.

kicha

Adi vere matter.

[34] They go. Because it is two in the morning and there is

no longer any such thing as a bad idea.

[35] The ride. Nobody talking. Aishwarya's face on the back

of the Shine, staring into the middle distance, doing the

arithmetic on her own life.

[36] They arrive.

[37] wide. A shuttered ice cream parlour. A rolled grille.

A padlock. A dead neon sign.

[38] Nobody says anything for one full panel.

[39]

aishwarya

Kicha.

kicha

Cheppaku.

aishwarya

Nenu emi analedu.

kicha

Nuvvu almost annav.

int./ext. shamshabaad airport - night

[40] 2 40 AM Four people sitting on the kerb outside a

shut ice cream parlour. Morale is a memory.

[41] Suraj finds a folded newspaper somebody has left on

the kerb and reads it because there is nothing else to do.

[42] Close on his face. It changes.

[43] He turns the paper around and holds it up. We do not

read it. We only see three other faces going the same way

his did.

[44] Small inset: a corner of a page. A grainy photograph

of a stretch of road. A headline we can see the shape of

and not the words.

kicha

(instantly professional, instantly wrong) Adi

maa channel story ra. Nenu cover chesanu.

suraj

nuvvu cover chesava?

[45] the panic, full flower. Everyone reacts in character

and none of them the same way.

Suraj, on his feet, holding the paper at arm's length like

it is wet:

suraj

Idi ee road ra. Manam ippude ee road meeda

vachhamu.

[46] Aishwarya, immediately, ruthlessly practical:

aishwarya

Enni gantalaki ani rasadu? Adi ee stretch aa,

aa pakka stretch aa?

kicha

(consulting his own memory of his own

article) …ee stretch.

aishwarya

Sare. Manam ippudu kurchuni unnamu ee stretch

meeda.

[47] Anudeep, catastrophising in ascending order of

unlikeliness:

anudeep

Naaku visa interview undi.

kicha

Daaniki deenki sambandham enti?!

anudeep

Naaku teliyadu ra. Naaku ippudu anni

sambandham la ne anipisthunnayi.

[48] ⭐ And Suraj rounds on Kicha, and it is the funniest

line in the episode and also completely true:

suraj

Nuvvu unna prathi chota oka deyyam katha

untundi ra!

suraj

Manam unde illu ki peru enti? Deyyam Illu.

Evaru pettaru? nuvvu.

kicha

Adi naaku pedda compliment ra.

suraj

adi compliment kaadu.

[49] Decision, unanimous, unspoken, instantaneous.

Everybody is on a bike within four seconds.

[50] They ride. Fast. Nobody looking left.

[51] And two hundred metres in -

S.F.X: baam - fsssshhhhh

ext. hyderahbaad / on the road - morning

[52] Kicha's back tyre, gone. The bike wobbling to a halt

in the middle of an empty road at three in the morning,

with two men on it and nowhere to be.

kicha

…ade cheppanu kada.

anudeep

Nuvvu emi cheppaledu.

[53] They push it. All four of them, in a line, down an

empty road, at three in the morning.

[54] They push it for a long time. Give this two panels and

no dialogue.

[55] And then, by unanimous silent agreement, they stop

pushing it.

Suraj puts the stand down. Aishwarya is already walking.

Nobody discusses it.

[56] ⭐ the reveal. wide, from behind, as the four of them

walk away from a bike parked on the side of an empty road.

And the panel finally shows us the number plate, and the

sticker on the tank, and a keyring hanging from the

ignition with a small enamel charm on it that is not

remotely Kicha's taste.

anudeep

…Kicha. Idi evari bandi?

kicha

(not turning round, walking faster) Adi…

Pinky di.

Beat.

suraj

pinky di aa?

kicha

Daaniki ee roju off. Adi adagadu.

aishwarya

Adi repu adugutundi ra.

kicha

Appudu repu problem.

int./ext. the building - day

[57] The stairwell, up. Everyone dead on their feet.

int. boys H.Q - day

[58] The flat door. Light under it.

[59] Anudeep opens it.

[60] wide. The table. Jay, awake because he is always

awake, off the night shift - sitting in front of a very

large open biryani container, eating unhurriedly.

And on the container, in large friendly letters: shadab.

[61] Nobody speaks for a full panel. Four people in a

doorway at half past three in the morning looking at a box.

[62]

suraj

…adi moosi undi.

jay

Swiggy chesanu.

suraj

adi moosi undi ra. Manam akkade unnamu. Chain

undi.

[63] Jay takes a bite. Chews. Swallows. And delivers it

entirely without malice, which is what makes it

unsurvivable.

jay

Munde shutter moostaru. Venuka door teruchi

ne untadi.

jay

Delivery vaallu venuka nunchi ne

teesukuntaru.

Beat.

jay

Meeru venakki vellara?

[64] wide, still. Four people in a doorway, four hands

going to four faces at the same moment, in perfect silence.

And then somebody sits down, and then everybody sits down,

and one container is opened out in the middle of five

people with five spoons that do not match - Aishwarya

inside the flat, at the table, and nobody has ever remarked

on that and nobody ever will.

On the table beside them: Kicha's phone, face down, red

light off, not filming this.

narrator (V.O.)

Two shut shutters, one empty handi, one

abandoned motorcycle and a ghost story.

narrator (V.O.)

It had been on that table since eleven, and

it had been open the whole time, around the

back.

end of episode 7

fade out.

== end gag - "keera" ==

4 panels after the episode engine: cucumber slices after

spicy biryani

[G.1] Twenty minutes later. Three of them flat on their

backs on the floor in a row.

[G.2]

suraj

Naa kallu mandutunnayi ra.

kicha

Kallu ela mandutayi - nuvvu notitho thinnav.

suraj

Mandutunnayi ante mandutunnayi.

[G.3] Muddamma's hand comes into frame and places two

cucumber slices, one on each of Suraj's closed eyes, with

no comment whatsoever.

It is 4:30 in the morning. Nobody asks why she is here.

[G.4] wide. All three on their backs in a row, each with two

cucumber slices over their eyes. Nobody speaking. The fan

turning above them. Muddamma walks through frame with a

bucket and does not look down.

You have reached the end of the text.