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.
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