SCENE 9. INT/EXT/PHALKE STUDIO GODHRA/FULL MOON NIGHT/1896 - Revision history

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SCENE 9 / IN / EX / PHALKE STUDIO /GODHRA

FULL MOON NIGHT / 1896

Phalke and Kamala are asleep.

Suddenly, the silence is broken by a sound.

Phalke awakes. The noise seems to be coming from the upper floor. He picks up the

lantern and makes his way up the stairs. He comes to a closed door, and pushes it. It

creaks open slowly, and in the light of his lamp he sees that his books have vanished.

In the lamp’s light, a rat looks up at him mockingly, wiping its whiskers, burping after his

feast of books.

Tiny fragments of paper with letters on them are caught up in a whirlwind. The tiny

shards fuse together into a whole book, and fly out the window.

Phalke is mesmerized.

SCENE 10 / IN/EX / SPACE STUDIO FROM PHALKE FOOTAGE

DAY / 1917

Phalke dips his fountain pen into an ink pot with a picture of a swan on it.

He releases the tank and the pen sucks up the black ink.

Phalke sits with his pen poised over the paper, thinks for a while, and then starts writing.

PHALKE

I had already taken the advance for the books from some British customers, and they

wanted their deliveries, but the books had vanished. Why would anybody steal the books,

and who would believe me when I said that a rat had devoured them?

So to be on safe side I went to the police

SCENE 11 / IN / POLICE STATION / GODHRA

DAY / 1896

A lion-like policeman with a red beard seems unsympathetic to Phalke’s plight

POLICEMAN

We have checked every literate person. We can’t trace your so-called stolen books. And

we can’t raid the English.

By the way, do you recognize these photos?

PHALKE

I took them.

POLICE MAN

These boys went missing shortly after, and your photographs helped us to trace them.

Here is your prize money.

There is a murmur, like that of angry bees, from behind him.

He turns and sees that a crowd is gathering.

At the front of the hissing crowd stand the missing boys, staring at him like zombies with

their blind, white, pupil-less eyes.

POLICE MAN (CONT’D)

But these people think that you’re a sorcerer, Mr. Kelpha, and that your camera is the evil

eye.

By the way, what does Kelpha mean, Mr. Phalke?

PHALKE

It is the negative of my own name

Phalke walks out without a backward glance. The crowd watches him go, their eyes

boring into his receding back.

SCENE 12 / IN/EX / PHOTO STUDIO / GODHRA

DAY / 1896

Kamala is unpacking the glass bottles of developing chemicals that her husband had

ordered, waiting for him to come home.

Someone raps on the door.

KAMALA

Who is it?

PHALKE

Open up. It’s me

Kamala unbolts the door from inside.

Phalke enters and sits. She brings in water, and helps him wash his feet and face.

KAMALA

Did they find the thief?

PHALKE

No, instead, they turned on me.

KAMALA

Why?

Phalke sits to eat. She serves him.

PHALKE

Some boys had run away from home. My photographs helped in tracing them.

KAMALA

Then your magic came in handy, after all

PHALKE

You don’t understand.

They are accusing me of having unnatural powers

They went looking for the actual places of the back drops against which I had

photographed the boys, and found them still frozen in the same pose in which I had

snapped them, as though under a spell.... you are right, let’s go from here. Start packing.

KAMALA

Don’t be disheartened. Here’s a letter for you, from Nadkarni in Bombay, and a parcel.

Kamala finishes unpacking the parcel, examining the bottles of hypo, silver nitrate,

potassium nitrate, instruction booklets, addresses, Kodak labels, and Eastman’s face on

other products.

Phalke reads the letter.

LETTER

Your post cards are selling like crackers, especially the sexy poses of the white women.

Rail shail bhool jao. Sapere ki photo dekh kar been baj gai. Tumhare sher aur panditji ka

kissa shandar tha. Tum kya mujhe itna bevakoof samajhte ho?

Bechari Kamala bhabhi tumhari kalpana shakti ke samne, bechari. Thhad thada rahi hogi.

Tumhare chemicals aur film bhej raha hoon.

Ravi Varma ka Nal Damayanti dekha, ek videshi painting ki nakal hai. Khud milaker

dekh lo. Farq sirf itna hai vahan kapde utarti hai, yahan hum unhe kapde pehnate hain.

Vah raja saheb sach kaha, hindusthani nakal ka vaner shresht hai aur akbaar padhte ho ki

nahin? Tumhare raja sahib ke preyasi angoothi chaat kar chali gayi. Raja sahab ne inn

dinon painting chhod rakhi hai.

Phalke and Kamala compare the two versions of the Nal painting.

SCENE 13 / IN /EX / DARK ROOM / PHOTO STUDIO / GODHRA

NIGHT / 1896

Reading the instructions by candlelight, Phalke mixes photo chemicals in the tray.

One by one the photos emerge, ghost-like.

Sometimes, a photograph from the camera indica comes alive, and talks to him.

Phalke listens, head buried beneath a large black cloth, bent over the camera on a tripod.

He wipes his hands, comes out and shuts the door behind him, waiting for the prints to

dry.

Outside, Kamala is asleep, dreaming like a fairy.

He looks at her, a smile flickers on her face.

After a moment of absolute silence, he hears a sound from the direction of the dark room.

He goes to the door and stands there, listening.

Then, through a crack in the door, he peeps inside.

A little rat is licking the melted wax of the burning candle.

Then, like an acrobat, the rat jumps and lands with his feet on the rim of the hypo tray.

He starts drinking the chemicals of the tray, guzzling greedily to his heart’s content.

Phalke waits, holding his breath, watching.....his eyes curious.

After drinking a stomach full of hypo, the rat somersaults and lands on the table facing

the door.

Then he starts breathing in and out like in a yogic exercise.

Then Phalke sees something strange.

With every breath the rat takes, golden whiskers, like slender needles, begin to sprout

beneath his nose.

When he breathes out, the delicate needles of gold splinter and scatter across the table

top.

Then the rat notices Phalke watching him through the door. He stops, and runs away,

crashing into the candle which stands like a lamp post on the landscape of the table top.

The rat rights himself and skitters away.

Phalke enters the room, and touches the needles of golden hair. He smiles.

SCENE 14 / IN / EX / MARKET / GOLDSMITH’S SHOP / DAY

Phalke makes his way through a marketplace crowded with artisans and craftsmen

displaying their wares – silver ware, paintings, colorful wooden toys for children, and

wall hangings of embroidered cloth.

Finally, Phalke finds what he is looking for - a goldsmith’s shop.

Phalke takes out a cloth pouch from inside his shirt and empties it onto the glass topped

counter.

The rat’s golden whiskers tinkle delicately as they land.

The goldsmith lights a flame and fires the slender golden threads to check for purity.

The whiskers are pure gold.

The smith gathers all of them, and weighs them on a pair of tiny scales.

Then, the goldsmith pays Phalke, and he leaves.

SCENE 15 / IN / PHALKE PHOTO STUDIO / NIGHT

Phalke peeps into the darkroom through the gap in the door.

The rat is drinking from the tray of chemicals again.

He breathes in, and whiskers begin to sprout beneath his nose.

The tip of a single whisker begins to turn to liquid gold that drips onto the table top.

The molten metal swirls and fuses to form the shape of Ganapati.

It is a wonderful likeness of the elephant-headed god.

Phalke opens the door, and the rat scuttles away.

Wonder-struck, Phalke enters the room, picks up the sculpture and looks at it closely.

Phalke looks around, searching for the rat.

PHALKE

My lord, you seem to be the living embodiment of the divine sculptor himself

Suddenly, there is a noise from outside.

Frightened, the rat scampers up Phalke’s back and perches on his shoulder.

The knocking on the door becomes more aggressive, and in a flash, the rat disappears

inside Phalke’s coat.

Finding a tear in the lining, he wriggles frantically inside, scurrying into the small of

Phalke’s back.

The sensation causes Phalke to twist this way and that.

The knocking intensifies further; Phalke blows out the candle and goes out.

Petrified, Kamala is standing in the center of the room.

Three government officials have pushed their way into the house.

When Phalke comes out, Kamala takes shelter behind his back, as the officials begin to

up-end the contents of the room with their batons.

Out of the corner of her eye, Kamala notices a wriggling movement inside her husband’s

coat.

PHALKE

Is everything okay?

One of the officials, who seems to be a doctor, begins to examine Phalke. Then he turns

to Kamala. Phalke steps between them.

PHALKE (CONT'D)

Who are you?

OFFICIAL

We’re checking for plague. Do you have rats here? There’s a reward for every captured

rat.

The outlined shape on Phalke’s back begins to tremble.

PHALKE

No, there are no rats here, and nor is anybody ill

OFFICIAL

I’m sorry, but we’re just doing our duty. Watch out, we’re living in bad times

The officials leave.

Phalke re-enters the darkroom and picks up the statue of Ganapati.

Kamala sees it, and is astounded.

PHALKE

This is for you, to keep you safe when I am gone

SCENE 16 / EX / HILL VIEW OF THE GOLD CITY / GODHRA

EVENING / 1896

Sitting on Phalke’s shoulder, the rat is giving a discourse on the science of miracles.

At the foot of the hill, a golden city glitters. Phalke listens like a devotee.

RAT

Anybody can perform miracles who understands that the reality of the world is light. A

realized soul can restructure atoms of light in any shape. The tangible appearance of the

light atoms depends upon the desire and will power of he who conjures it, like long-dead

people appearing in his dream. I have clearly seen the absolute one-ness of the light

behind the painful multiplicity of the illusory world

A faint howling and screaming reaches us from the golden city below.

Slowly, a cloud of vultures start appearing in sky, swooping down towards the city

SCENE 17 / EX / TOWN SQUARE / GODHRA / DAY

A man hangs upside down in the view finder.

A hand outside the camera’s black cloth cover tells him to stay steady.

Inside the camera the man is upside down. Phalke snaps the shutter.

The lens opens like an eye and the plate moves upward.

The man in the frame feels dizzy, and falls down as if he has been flung aside.

He is dead.

Two men enter the frame and pull away the body.

Phalke emerges from beneath the black camera cloth and looks out.

The photographed man is being dragged away. The next man has taken his place.

People are being indexed and classified through their thumb prints, face measurement,

and recordings of voices for the Great India Project.

Suddenly, in a split second, a kite dives down towards the camera, lifts it up with its

claws, and flies away.

Phalke, balancing against the force of attack, looks up. He runs to follow the kite.

@@ Line 714: / Line 714: @@
 thing to look at and handle. It has a great Emerald hanging from it.
 [[
 SCENE 27 / EX / FLORA FOUNTAIN / BOMBAY / NIGHT / FLASHBACK]]

@@ Line 600: / Line 600: @@
 Utter darkness descends.
-[[SCENE 24 /IN /EX / TRAIN / DAY]]
+[[SCENE 23 / IN / EX / PHALKE’S SPACE STUDIO / NIGHT]]
 SCENE 24 / IN / EX / TRAIN / DAY

←Older revision		Revision as of 09:45, 25 June 2009
Line 599:		Line 599:

	Utter darkness descends.		Utter darkness descends.
		+
		+	[[SCENE 24 /IN /EX / TRAIN / DAY]]
		+
		+	SCENE 24 / IN / EX / TRAIN / DAY
		+
		+	Wheels piston forward in a regular motion, striking sparks from the rails.
		+
		+	Coals are fed into a golden fire in an enormous stove.
		+
		+	Smoke and golden embers spew out of vents into the clear air above.
		+
		+	A train makes its way across the land.
		+
		+	Phalke and Kamal are sitting in a sea of despairing human faces.
		+
		+	SCENE 25 / IN / EX / VT STATION / BOMBAY / DAY
		+
		+	The VT station terminus yawns like a giant cave.
		+
		+	The train chugs into the darkness, as though entering into the camera obscura again.
		+
		+	The train comes to a halt, and people begin to disembark in a rush.
		+
		+	They are met on the platform outside the compartment doors by a medical team who
		+
		+	begin to check the travelers one by one.
		+
		+	Depending on their findings, people are separated into two groups and led away.
		+
		+	Phalke and Kamala are checked.
		+
		+	As he walks away after his examination, he looks behind him for Kamala and sees her
		+
		+	being led away in the opposite direction, her head turned to him in a final glance for help.
		+
		+	He makes a movement towards her, but she disappears into the crowd before his very
		+
		+	eyes.
		+
		+	It begins to rain.
		+
		+	The crowds melt away, and Phalke is left alone in a deserted Victoria station, stupefied
		+
		+	by the carvings of gargoyles, lizards, lions, tigers, flora and fauna, like some fantastic
		+
		+	fairyland.
		+
		+	Streams of water pour out of the mouths of mythical monsters, frothing at the jaws.
		+
		+	Phalke sits shaking, shivering with cold, leaning against carvings of rats in the wall.
		+
		+	SCENE 26 / EX / FORT / BOMBAY / NIGHT
		+
		+	Coarse white cloth fills the frame. A hand enters and lifts the cloth to reveal the face of a
		+
		+	young woman.
		+
		+	The hand covers the dead face and moves to the next shroud.
		+
		+	Making his way through grounds littered with shrouds, Phalke roams from camp to camp,
		+
		+	looking for his wife’s corpse.
		+
		+	His mouth is parched; his brain throbs with a rapid pulse - he touches his own wrist (for
		+
		+	he dare not ask counsel of any man lest he be deserted), and feels his frightened blood go
		+
		+	galloping out of his heart. There is nothing but the fatal swelling left to make his
		+
		+	conviction complete; immediately, he has an odd feel under the arm - no pain, but a little
		+
		+	straining of the skin; he touches the gland, and finds the skin sane and sound but under
		+
		+	the cuticle there lies a small lump like a pistol-bullet, that moves as he pushes it.
		+
		+	He looks around.
		+
		+	The shops are deserted, he has pierced deep into the native quarter and is threading
		+
		+	through its narrow dim lanes.
		+
		+	He has to go carefully, for men are stretched asleep all about and there is hardly room to
		+
		+	drive between them.
		+
		+	And every now and then a swarm of rats scampers across past the horses' feet in the
		+
		+	vague light.
		+
		+	White plaster of Paris statues of Ganapati stand sentinel at street corners.
		+
		+	The forbears of the rats that are carrying the plague from house to house are in Bombay
		+
		+	now. The shops are but sheds, little booths open to the street; and the goods have been
		+
		+	removed, and on the counters families are sleeping, usually with an oil lamp present.
		+
		+	But at last he turns a corner and sees a great glare of light ahead.
		+
		+	It is the home of a bride, wrapped in a perfect conflagration of illuminations, - mainly
		+
		+	gas-work designs, gotten up especially for the occasion.
		+
		+	Within is an abundance of Brilliancy - flames, costumes, colors, decorations, mirrors - it
		+
		+	is another Aladdin show.
		+
		+	The bride is a trim and comely little thing, dressed as we would dress a boy. She moves
		+
		+	about very much at her ease, and stops and talks with the guests and allows her wedding
		+
		+	jewelry to be examined. It is very fine, particularly a rope of great diamonds, a lovely
		+
		+	thing to look at and handle. It has a great Emerald hanging from it.
		+	[[
		+	SCENE 27 / EX / FLORA FOUNTAIN / BOMBAY / NIGHT / FLASHBACK]]
		+
		+