SCENE 5, EXT/ TEMPLE TOWN/ NIGHT/ 1895
SCENE 5 / EXT TEMPLE TOWN / NIGHT - 1895
A horse cart drives through the narrow lanes of a temple town bathed in silver moonlight.
The town is deserted.
The horse cart comes to a stop outside a ruined four-story haveli
SCENE 6 / INT /PANDITJI’S HAVELI / NIGHT
Phalke stops to feed the horse before he enters the house.
He searches inside the labyrinthine house.
The light of his lamp falls on wall frescoes dating to the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries.
PHALKE
'Panditji! Panditji!'
Shastriji is busy making gold in the darkness of his underground alchemical laboratory.
Suddenly a small bubble comes to the surface of one of the boiling liquids and explodes.
It bursts into Shastriji's face, turning it black with soot.
Green smoke begins to fill the room.
Dhundiraj bursts into laughter on seeing Shastriji's face.
PANDITJI:
Have we been introduced? What can I do for you?
Phalke takes out a small purse from inside his clothes, removes five rupees and places the
money at the other man's feet.
PANDITJI: (CONT'D)
What is the meaning of this?
PHALKE
I wish to speak to you.
PANDITJI:
You must be joking. Why would I spill my guts for five bucks?
PHALKE
This is but a token of my esteem.
After I have told you my problem, I will shower you with gold coins.
PANDITJI:
Gold coins! Real gold coins!
It is true I desire gold, but only that which I can make with my own hands.
Wisps of smoke of many colors escape from the mouths of the alchemist's crucibles.
Panditji checked one of the brass utensils, but there was no gold yet.
Flinging the vessel away in a rage, he wipes his hands.
PANDITJI: (CONT'D)
All right, let's talk.
God, it's hot!
PHALKE
I hear you have a whole library of Sanskrit books and manuscripts?
PANDITJI:
I used to, but I fed them to the white ants.
They were everywhere, curse them!
Instead of letting them eat away my wooden doors, I fed them on those thankless, useless
books.
How hot it is!
Sit, sit.
PHALKE:
A foreigner has arrived from abroad.
He has a book.
I've seen with my own eyes that he took out a small bottle from his pocket and dropped
just two drops onto a large bowl of copper.
Then he told his servant to wash the bowl.
The bowl began to sparkle when it had been washed.
Then he said, 'The English government buys all this gold from me. I have a fortune in
savings abroad.
But I need at least fifty gold coins before I can leave here.’
So I said, 'Why don't you sell the bowl you just made? It'll fetch you a good sum.'
He said, 'No. The Resident made me swear on the Bible that I would sell my gold only to
the British government.'
So I said, 'So sell it to the British government.'
The foreigner replied, 'I make the gold here, then they write to the laath Saab in Calcutta.
Then the laath Saab writes to the head of the company in England, who sends the money.'
But this poor chap gets nothing, because he's known as a drunk.
So the company sends his salary to his wife.
He's hoping that someone will buy his book on alchemy for fifty gold coins, because he
remembers all the formulas by heart.
PANDITJI:
Such a book is possible only in Arabic.
PHALKE:
You're absolutely right.
PHALKE: (CONT'D)
These Western empires might conquer and loot us, but they'll never crack the Arabic
language.
PHALKE
Actually, this foreigner's father is of the English race, but his mother is Arabic.
In spite of being a Christian, he brought his son up like a devout Muslim.
I suspect he got this book from his mother.
PANDITJI (leans towards Dhundiraj):
Have you seen this book?
PHALKE
With my own two eyes.
For just fifty gold coins, we can buy it from the old drunk.
PANDITJI
He's a fool to sell such a priceless book.
PHALKE
He's ready to sell it because he remembers it by heart.
PANDITJI
But how will I get hold of fifty gold coins? Where will I live if I sell the house?
PHALKE
I'll give you fifty gold coins for all your books.
Panditji breaks out in a sweat.
Thoughtfully, he heads towards another room.
He opens a door, picks up a lit oil lamp, and enters within, followed by Dhundiraj and a
small mouse.
There are about 3,000 or 4,000 books inside.
The books turn to dust at the merest touch.
Their titles are in gold leaf lettering and they are filled with colorful illustrations.
Phalke picks up the oil lamp.
Every book he has ever heard of is here.
PHALKE
How much for the lot?
PANDITJI
They're not worth toilet paper. I hate the sight of them. Your gods and goddesses, your
myriad religions - I hate all the religions of the world.
All I want to do is make gold with my own hands just once.
PHALKE
Are fifty gold coins acceptable to you?
PANDITJI
No. It's got to be either fifty-one or one hundred and one.
I want an auspicious amount.
Take it or go away.
Panditji comes out of the room and bolts the door behind him.
Phalke takes out his money and counts it.
Then he loads the books into the cart outside and comes inside again.
Panditji is making a green paste out of some herbs.
Phalke is holding a photo gun in his hands.
PANDITJI: (CONT'D)
Sir, are you a hunter too?
PHALKE
No Panditji, this is a gun to take pictures only - flying birds, running horses...
PANDITJI:
Stop, I think you can help me.
I have one herb that can turn a man into a tiger and another that can turn tigers into men.
I want you to photograph me as I metamorphose into a tiger.
So stay ready and shoot me.
I also want to see what happens to me.
Then give me this other herb.
PHALKE
But suppose you eat me?
PANDITJI:
After I turn into a tiger, how will I know that it's a photo gun?
It's an experiment, a service to science.
Here, don't be afraid.
Panditji gives one packet to Phalke and swallows the other.
He begins to turn into a tiger at the end of Phalke’s gun.
He roars and jumps onto Phalke.
Phalke clutches his gun and flees for his life.
SCENE 7 / EX / IN PHALKE’S PHOTO STUDIO / GODHRA /
DARKROOM / DAY
In the photo developer Panditji is morphing into a lion.
We hear the sounds of drum beating as if encircling a hunt.
Then, Kamala, bursts open the dark room door and rushes to Phalke. She is screaming,
sobbing, hysterical.
Bright daylight streams into the room and the half-man half-lion in the developing
photograph turns black.
PHALKE
What happened?
KAMALA
(Sobbing)
A rat...I saw a rat
PHALKE
So?
Phalke sees his photograph turning black, right under his nose. He is furious, shaking
with rage.
PHALKE (CONT’D)
O hell! I’m ruined. How will I prove it now? This was the only proof. How will I
convince the Anthropological Society? Do you know you have destroyed historical
proof? Can’t you knock?
Phalke tears up the photo paper in a rage, storms out and stands outside the door.
She follows him meekly, full of guilt.
PHALKE (CONT’D)
I want you to leave today. Go to my place. Go to your father’s.
KAMALA
Can’t we go to Trimbak?
PHALKE
What will I do there? Katha kirtan like my father?
KAMALA
You can paint.
PHALKE
I am a loser there. The only thing I can paint is back drops for the theatre
KAMALA
We can live in Bombay. We have relatives there, so much theatre there
PHALKE
No. My future is here
SCENE 8 / IN PHALKE’S PHOTO STUDIO / GODHRA /
BEDROOM / NIGHT
Phalke and Kamala are sitting on the bed.
Kamala begins to tell him a story.
KAMALA
There was once a wood cutter, whose beard grew when he slept and covered the entire
town
with darkness. That’s how there would be night in the town. When his wife woke up and
tied
her hair with the sweep of a hand, there would be light in the village.
In the darkness, children would write the dreams of this town, but they were only one line
dreams, as the darkness would eat up all the ink as soon as one line was written, to
become
even darker.
then the woodcutter made two wooden boxes. In one box he filled up all the darkness.
The
other didnt have a door so it couldnt be opened; the darkness could not enter this box and
hence it remained lit.
dipping their pens in the dark box, the children and the dreams of the town began to
grow.
when the king heard of this box, he wanted to control a box, which made the dreams of
his
kingdom.
So the woodcutter opened the lit box for the children. but now everyone could see the
dreams
written with light. the entire town dreamed the same dream. the king's dream could also
be
seen by his subjects. for the people who kept asking, is it any surprise then, that the king
lost all his power?
All they could see was some entangled bunch of hair, which had come floating in the
river
and was lying on its banks.
