Latest / Breakdown Besties | Bollywood Screenwriting Podcast / E34: Immoral people make perfect spies - Mukhbir shows you why | Pilot Breakdown
Transcript
- Ananya: when you're in a show, you're not coming in for a goal to be achieved. Because the moment that happens, the show is over. Akshay: don't show me the visuals of war. Show me the visuals of the child clutching his toy running between the war. Ananya: when you're writing season 4, no one is coming back because, arey kya cliffhanger likha! I'm like, this Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: is my comfort character, bro. the thing about the five act structure is there are actually six things to it. Akshay: your character is morally grey full of contradictions, I can watch eight hours of this, Ananya: Even without Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: dialogue, you can follow the rules of storytelling to get the same emotional impact Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Breakdown Besties Podcast. I'm Ananya. And we are your breakdown besties. Combined, we have more than 16 years of experience in Bollywood writing for shows like Mismatched, Wedding.con, Ishq in the Air, Rana Naidu, Grahan and a host of others that have gotten stuck in development hell. But will hopefully see the light of day one day. With the Breakdown Besties podcast, our goal is to watch, analyse and break down some of your biggest and best Bollywood films And starting today, series as well to see what goes on in these films, in these pilot episodes that makes them these iconic movies and episodes that they are. We essentially pull back the curtain, look at all the guts and the gears underneath, see how they work and then take that and put that in our own writing so that we can write our own phenomenal Bollywood scripts as well. And today on the first pilot breakdown episode, we are going to be breaking down the 2022 series Mukhbir's pilot episode. Written by a host of writers. So, as series always are, because unlike films, these are sprawling. Films are contained, series need as many brains as you can get on them. So, that means we have Shivam Nair, created by, followed by Jayprad Desai, Karan Oberoi, Aseem Arora, Saurabh Swami, Arshad Sayed and Vaibhav Modi. So, let's dive in like we always do but unlike movies, we're not going to get into the logline of a show over here. Instead, we are going to talk about the job of a pilot. Because the job of your pilot is in some way, shape or form to be the logline for your show. Now, how does this work? When you think of a film, a film has a particular goal. It's one of the key elements we talk about when we talk about the log line. That your audience is coming in to watch them achieve that goal. But when you're in a show, you're not coming in for a goal to be achieved. Because the moment that happens, the show is over. So the pilot will essentially tell you what to expect from the series. It gives you a feeling that okay, if you keep watching, you're gonna get characters who behave like this, you're gonna get conflicts that come up and challenge characters like this. You're gonna get a world which feels like this. Akshay: Mm. Ananya: And that is what your pilot has to do. And it's also supposed to be a fully contained episode within itself. And in modern streaming especially, it has to resolve and then open up another chapter which is your cliffhanger. Which I have lots of opinions on as a device. Akshay: Yeah, yeah. Ananya: Because when you're writing season 4, no one is coming back because, arey kya cliffhanger likha! I'm like, this Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: is my comfort character, bro. I know what you're gonna Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: do, what you're gonna say, but you'll surprise me and I want to listen to you and see you. So, Akshay: Yeah, yeah. And Ananya: yeah. Akshay: and I think the good way to navigate this is that you need to have emotional investment enough for you t for your audience to come back. So cliffhanger is almost like a cheap gimmick that you tend Ananya: Exactly. Akshay: to do, but if you can take that out of your feedback and say, How can I make the scene more engaging and investing Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: so that your audience comes back, I think you will have navigated that better. Yeah. Ananya: Exactly. And of course now Netflix obviously tells us all the time, cliffhanger dallo, cliffhanger dallo. But even if it's not just Bollywood, I remember this happened. And I always give this example of the worst cliffhanger of my life. Like I stopped watching the show only after this because I felt so cheated. Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: There was this show, this German show called Dark, right? On Netflix, which was doing really well. That sci-fi show. And the whole thing is there's a separate timeline, time travel, something like that is going on. And in one of the episodes in the first season, like episode eight or something, I think something happens where the cliffhanger is that, now this whole thing didn't happen. Like the timelines didn't change. Everything was, and I was like, my God, what's gonna happen now? And then you go into the next episode and they're like, ha ha, fooled you, nothing's changed. Like, no, gimmick. Akshay: Yeah. That pisses me off, yeah. Fully pisses me off. You know another cheap Ananya: Yeah. Akshay: gimmick I hate, which is that somebody's coming to attack you and middle attack Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: they freeze frame and like stop. I'm like, what the hell? Like this your story is not complete there, you know? Ananya: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Akshay: I hate that. I hate that. Yeah. Ananya: Cool. So that is the job of a pilot, right? To set up what your series is going to feel like going forward and give you a sense of the flavor, the world, the texture. But how is this actually done? This is done through something anyone when you go for a pitch meeting will ask you. What is your story engine? What is going to generate one story after another story after another story. One conflict after another so that it doesn't end because for a series it shouldn't The potential needs to seem limitless or at least three seasons long. So you build something called a story engine. Now what is a story engine? It is when your world meets a character that has never entered that world before. The character is completely removed from it. So he is going from his known to the unknown. And that's why one thing after another after another is going to constantly go wrong. Until the character eventually learns the ways of the world or and the world is also affected by the character. And Akshay: Mm. Ananya: this leads to the evolution of both. And that also leads to more conflict because while they may learn from each other, they might not evolve in the same way. So your story engine It's a gift that does keep giving, essentially. So over here, if you have to look at these two elements, the world is the world of Pakistan, essentially. At least that's what your pilot sets up. You enter through the world of India at war. But then it's the story of a spy who goes into Pakistan. The world is the new world of Pakistan and the character is an Indian man. A man who is a spy and who has never been to Pakistan before, who has received one month of training and now has to battle all the elements of this new world. So this can just give you endless conflicts. You don't know, okay... when this will stop. can evolve, evolve, evolve until he is kicked out of Pakistan or he himself dies. Akshay: Yeah. And the fact that the you have constant thrill that he might get caught, somebody will trail Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: him, something will happen, he has to pass information, he passes wrong Ananya: Mm. Yeah. Akshay: information, he gets a new mission, the possibilities are endless. Yeah. Ananya: Yep, exactly and it's these endless possibilities which makes it a story engine. Great. Next we have our five act structure. So like in films, we follow the hero's journey because that is about becoming a specific person to achieve the specific goal. Over here, we design this structure episodically. Now, while the hero's journey is of course mappable through this episode as well. The reason we don't use it for every episode is because your character is not undergoing the kind of change, the magnitude of change that your character is undergoing in a movie. Over here, it happens bit by bit across the season. So if you had to map a hero's journey, I would say map it across the season to see how your character has evolved. Right? Akshay: Season. Ananya: But over here, we'll use the five-act structure. The reason we also use the five-act structure is because in the golden days of TV, when you had cable TV and your episodes were 40-45 minutes long, you also had ad breaks in the middle Akshay: Hmm. Ananya: and that took your episode length to one hour. And these five acts, the end of each act gave you the exact cutaway point for your commercial break. Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: That's why it was used and adapted very well for TV. And even today, we follow the underlying emotional journey of the five act structure, even though we don't cut away to ad breaks, though that is going away very soon. Now the thing about the five act structure is there are actually six things to it. Obviously. And the first thing is your teaser, your first segment. This is, if you know anything about content creation, it's your Instagram car hook. It's the thing which you make audiences watch first and they're like, my God, invested me to watch this whole episode. It can be suspense, intrigue, curiosity, drama, whatever it is where it has to pull them in. Over here in Mukbir's pilot, the hook is that you are in Pakistan. There is a beautiful valley. It is all peaceful. It's all silent until there is quaking earth and you think it's quaking earth only for it to be revealed that there are tanks destroying the valley. And you also kind of have this from a kid's point of view initially. So Akshay: Hmm, hmm. Ananya: you are immediately invested and you're wondering, you're like, my God, what's going to happen next? What's going to lead to these tanks being here? What earth shattering consequences are going to be there? That is your hook. You've pulled the audience in and said, okay, we're going to come to this now. Hold your horses, watch. Right? That's when you bring in your opening credits. Now opening credits will roll. And then you get into Act 1. Act 1 is your world and your exposition. You see the world in which your current hero is, where they exist, where, what, who, why, when, the time period, all of that. And then you finally establish your main problem statement, which will be your conflict, either for this episode or for the whole show, Akshay: The whole series, yeah. Ananya: whole series. Yeah. This can usually come here or at the end of the episode. It depends because usually something, it's maybe you have an episodic conflict, but by the end it has snowballed into a conflict that will take over the rest of the series. So, but either or you, this is the point at which you can, we can draw equivalence to the call to action almost Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: and say that this is going to... Now at this point, we are going to understand where we are entering next. And over here in Mukbir, we see the old world, technically, as India, which is at the brink of war. It is 1965 and they are losing all their assets, their spies in Pakistan. You see that through a scene as well. And now it is going to be time for them to maybe actually go to war, but they're not equipped. So the prime minister tells RAW that you have to figure out how will you win this war without going to war. And that establishes your conflict, which is the series conflict, right? Akshay: Yeah. Yeah. And Your problem statement for the series that how do we achieve this? Yeah. Ananya: series. exactly. Then you have Act 2. Act 2 is now the exploration of this conflict. It is how are they going to win this war? In this Act 2, you see what are the various steps they take to build towards their goal? What are the problems they encounter in doing this? Over here, you can draw equivalence to test allies and enemies. So if you don't know what we're talking about, go watch any of our 30 film breakdown episodes, you will know Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: exactly what we're talking about. Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: And essentially you get a lay of your land, you see what's going on, you are able to figure out who'll be your ally, who will be your enemy and how you're going to try and solve this problem. So over here, they are going through the various jail records for some reason. And then Akshay: Mm. Mm. Ananya: they finally introduce you to the character of the spy, which is Kamraj. And they say that, okay, we are going to prep him. and we are going to send him to Pakistan in one month. Then you go into act three, which is your rising action. Akshay: Racing it. Mm-hmm. Ananya: Over here, you have done all the preparation, but now you're going to take your first step into actually making that all, all that preparation come into action. You're going to take some, do something that's risky. This can be compared to your approach to the innermost cave where you're going in to slay the dragon. Right? Akshay: Hmm. Ananya: Over here, is when Kamraj is now ready and he goes to Pakistan. This is very obviously exemplified in the scene where he's at the border and immediately there's tension. He's at the Pakistan border. He's like, okay, knives are not allowed. So immediately he has to take his knife out. He hides it in another woman's basket. Then he goes up to border control. They're looking at him. They're like, what work do you have here? What are you doing here? He's asked questions, given suspicious looks. They approach to the innermost cave until they're like, okay, fine. You can go. Wonderful. That's your Act 3. Then you have Act 4, which is your falling action. Falling action is now that you have had crossed Act 3, your rising action. You have to deal with the consequences now of everything you did in Act 3. This we can draw equivalence to the ordeal phase of Akshay: R T L Ananya: our hero's journey. So over here, you're like, okay, now what do I do? I did all that. Over here, because Kamraj had put a knife in a woman's basket. He had been spotted by someone in the Pakistan, part of Pakistan intelligence. Now, as Kamraj is in a bus, he sees this man on a bike chasing after them, giving him looks. He jumps out of the bus. The man follows him. There's an intense chase sequence. And it seems like Kamraj is almost going to lose. The man has, is almost killing him. They get into a scuffle, a fight. When you have act five, which is the resolution. Which is where everything that is going wrong finally is resolved. You tie it up with a bow on it and you show us that this storyline over here for this episode has come to an end. Akshay: Mm. Ananya: So over here Kamraj is rescued by his handler and his handler kills this Pakistani intelligence guy and Kamraj realizes that my god this world is not going to be easy. I am going to have to constantly face all these conflicts coming in here. So this is the function of the, we see the story engine in action over here in act three, four and five. So Akshay: Hmm. Hmm. Yeah. Ananya: this is your five act structure. Shall we go into scenes and sequences next? Akshay: Let's do it. Ananya: One of the first sequences I want to talk about is the rule of three. The rule of three is essentially when you have a mini arc established in three different scenes, it is employing the three act structure to tell a mini story within your story. In terms of a series, it can also be called a B plot. Akshay: Hm. Ananya: so let's examine it from the lens of a B plot actually, right? Akshay: Mm. Ananya: So a B plot in a series, you have an A plot, B plot and a C plot. Your A plot is your central track. This involves your main character and every action that they are going to do, the goal they have to achieve, the problems they're going to face. Then you have B or C characters. These are characters who are not, I'd say unimportant, not secondary, but are clearly not your main characters. And they have their own storylines going in too. Their storylines are usually shorter because they're not your protagonist. for this episode at least your protagonist can change episodically as well. All Akshay: Episode wise. Yeah. Ananya: right. Yeah. So, but within this they have a shorter story line. They take less real estate on screen and whatever happens with them, the resolution of their plot will usually tie into the A plot. So your C plot may tie into the B or A plot or your B plot may tie into your A plot. That's how it Akshay: He plot. Mm. Ananya: functions. Over here we have a B-ish plot of Kamraj's old man friend. Is that his Akshay: Hm. Ananya: uncle, his grandfather, his friend? We don't know. His name is David, right? You see Akshay: No. Huh. Neighbor Sarma. Ananya: that David Sharma. He is his partner in crime. So the three main scenes over here are A. When you have the raw agents talking and trying to figure out how do we build assets now in Pakistan? How do we get a spy there? You see them going through jail records. It's a passing moment. You don't know what they're talking about. Okay, it's set up there and they're like, jail record kyu dekha hai? It's like, tera kaam kar types. Then you have a scene where Kamraj is introduced in real time, in the present day. And you see him at the jail talking to David. And they're very jovial, they're funny, they're hunky-dory. And then you have the scene where the raw agent goes to, one of the raw workers, goes to recruit Kamraj. He says that, look, you've been doing small-time jobs for us, but you need to go to Pakistan now. And Kamraj is hesitant. He doesn't want to exactly. And then they say, but didn't David go to jail because of you? Akshay: Hm. Ananya: What if we get him out? And there because of the way you've established Kamraj, you immediately know that, okay, he's taken the deal, like he has gotten David out of jail. So this is your B plot. Because this B plot ties into Kamraj's A plot of then Akshay: Hm. Ananya: becoming a spy and going in. I want to talk about the technique of contrast. This is a technique where you go in with one emotion and because that emotion has been set up so strongly, then you go to the opposite emotion and that lands with impact. So if Akshay: Hmm. Ananya: you just land with one emotion, it won't shake your audience. Asar nahi padega. So Akshay: Hmm. Hmm. Ananya: this is in the opening scene of the show. You open Akshay: Hmm. Ananya: to this beautiful valley. It's Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: Pakistan, you see green fields, snow-capped mountains. It's pleasant, it's peaceful. And then you have the earthquake. As a little boy, again, a great symbol of peace is putting together a pile of rocks. A pile of rocks starts shaking. So over there, you're like, my God, is there an earthquake? Is he going to be safe? And then you reveal that, OK, it's not the earthquake. it is tanks going through the valley which is shaking Akshay: Hmm. Ananya: everything. The tanks only land because it was so peaceful before that. And Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: within this scene, I also want to point out to the beginning middle end because it's while it's a very short scene, you have the beginning of peace, the middle of where you think it's the earthquake and then the end, which is the twist that they were actually tanks. So Even without Akshay: Hmm. Yeah. Ananya: dialogue, without doing too much, you can follow the rules of storytelling to get the same emotional impact or do what needs to be done. How Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: economically can you do it? How well can you do it? Akshay: How visually you can do it, right? Like without dialogue, without anything. Yeah. Ananya: For sure, definitely. Akshay: While while we're on the same sequence, what it also reminds me of this not technique, but what always good writing does is specificity. Which is that, Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: it's I think I I might be like quoting this wrong, but Steven Spielberg once said that don't show me the visuals of war. Show me the visuals of the child clutching his toy running between the war. Ananya: Yeah. Akshay: what it does is that it makes this grand event something so personal. And like Ananya: Yeah. Akshay: you said earlier, because of the point of view of the child, you have immediate emotional investment. So Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: I think this scene really achieves that that you are almost scared for this child's life because you see the tanks coming just at him. so Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: you preempt this is a danger everybody will have, not just this child. Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: so I really like that about the scene. Yeah. Ananya: Definitely. And what I also liked about the earthquake misdirection, where Akshay: Hm. Ananya: misdirection is when you set it up as one thing, but it's actually another thing, but both are logically grounded. So yes, it could have been an earthquake, but also tanks are heavy. When they go about it, it shakes when they go about land. Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: So the misdirection lands here is the symbolism. And the symbolism over here is that this is whatever's happening now is going to be as bad as an earthquake, if not worse. Akshay: Mm-hmm. Ananya: is going to take as many lives, it is going to be as destructive. So I think the symbolism was wonderfully done there as well. Akshay: Yeah, very cool. Yeah. Ananya: I want to talk about the technique of a gift. And when you're writing a show or movie like this set in another world, it is your duty to bestow your audience with gifts. What is a gift? Look, people are investing time in watching your show, in watching your film, whatever it is. And the least we can do as writers who've done bharpur research when writing a show that is so dependent on the world is share that with your audience so that Akshay: Mm-hmm. Ananya: they can go and meet their friend and hey, you know about this one cool thing? yeah, Akshay: Mm. Ananya: I watched this, what I took away from it. Or they won't even tell Akshay: Mm. Ananya: them that I watched this and I took away from this. I know this fun fact, right? Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: And over here, a gift is given to the audience right up top in one of the earlier sequences after the opening credits, when one of the spies or supposed spies of India is sitting and doing a crossword. And Akshay: Hm. Ananya: then that crossword is actually revealed as a way of passing information to India. Now you as a person who is presumably not a spy doesn't really know how information Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: is sent across borders, right? Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: But now... because you've seen this, you're like, crossword puzzles are the way this is done. This could be done. And you feel so much smarter, right? Akshay: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Ananya: That is a good. Akshay: there used to be the show on Pogo channel called Cumbala Ananya: Aww. Akshay: Investigation Agency. It was like the Ananya: Huh? Akshay: it was like the Famous Five, five kids going about and solving small crimes and murder mystery things. And they use the same thing where they used to transmit information with crossword puzzles. Ananya: Hahaha! Akshay: I can't tell you... one very great movie was ruined for me. Because I had already Ananya: Bye. Akshay: seen the TV version of it. Which was that you know that movie Prestige? Where it's Ananya: Hmm hmm. Akshay: it's the twin thing, no? He goes from one glass and comes to the other, and you think, How did he do the magic? And it was twins. Ananya: Huh. Akshay: I saw Prestige very late in my life, so I did not know this. But I was like, What's the big deal? Because I had seen it in an episode of CID. I was like, huh, what's the big deal? CID did the same thing and they're like, aap chronology samjho. Ananya: Next, I want to talk about a technique called a red herring. And you had spoken about this in Bhool Bhulaiyya. Akshay: Layer. Ananya: A red herring is essentially someone you have planted as a screenwriter within the scene to deflect all the blame, especially when you're doing a movie like, who's the culprit? You're trying to find someone Akshay: Hmm. Ananya: who's responsible for this. Like in Bhool Bhulaiyya they're trying to find the ghost. And over there, you keep thinking it's Amisha Patel's character. But it's actually Vidya Balan. Over here, they have used this technique in the scene where the ISI officer is questioning the vegetable vendor and a Akshay: Hm. Ananya: university professor about who is the spy over here. And Akshay: Hmm. Ananya: the ISI officer immediately targets the professor because he's solving the puzzle and his leg is on, his foot is on a crate and in that crate is some fruit and in that fruit there's another crossword puzzle like... paper and then he pulls it out and he's like there's a pattern in is not ordinary crossword puzzle and because this man was solving a crossword puzzle you think it's him at fault and he shoots him in the foot but Akshay: Hmm. Hmm. Ananya: then you find out that it was actually the vendor and not Akshay: Hm. Ananya: this man solving the crossword puzzle and Akshay: Mm. Ananya: now he shoots him in the head and finding out that it was this vegetable vendor only lands because you Akshay: Mm. Ananya: first made this red herring character take the hit where everyone is blaming them. Akshay: Hmm. one of the techniques I want to talk about is creating misunderstanding but between your characters. so your one set of characters will think, information A is going to happen now and this is what is gonna happen in the scene. But you reveal later whatever they perceived that information was, that was wrong. So here Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: what ends up happening is that when the two raw officers, they were like driving and they suddenly brake the main guy, our Kamraj, hero's bikes bike crashes into the car and his tyre comes loose. He says, I'm gonna keep my tire in your car's boot and I'll take it from you after my interview. At first they're apprehensive, they're like okay, you're running late, we'll drop you. Then when they are in high pressure meeting, they get a call. This guy has come, he's taking the tire. And he's like, ha ha leja, leja, leja. And you don't think about it. But the next thing when you come out and he sees he's taken the car's tire, not his original scooter tire. So, and this creates a sort of curiosity. What the hell just happened? Who was this guy? Like, who sort of like conned us? Now, this only Ananya: Yeah. Hmm. Akshay: happened because you Created a misunderstanding in the scene that you perceived Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: your one set of characters thinking, when he says tire, it means his tire, but actually it's my tire. So because you were able to do that, you created an engaging scene and you Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: gave like a great introduction to your character. So I think this is a great technique to sort of keep you on your feet also, like it's not boring. Ananya: Yeah. And in series, it's really important especially, right? Because one conflict needs to lead to the next, need to lead to the next. Akshay: Yeah, yeah, Ananya: Then I wanted to talk about one visual foreshadowing, which was a very quick moment. But when he's in the bus, when Kamraj is in this bus and he decides to leave, he asks the bus driver to stop. There is one shot of a man whose face is covered and only the eyes are visible. And Akshay: Hmm. Hmm. Ananya: it could have been a gratuitous shot, unnecessary, just getting reactions. But later on, when Kamraj is about to be killed by this ISI agent or whatever Pakistani intelligence dude, he is rescued by the same dude who was on the bus and it turns out that he was his handler. So Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: this man whose face they took a shot of was actually keeping an eye on him. So again, Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: very precise visual foreshadowing there. It wasn't just Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: a shot of reaction on the bus. Akshay: Yeah. I also thought that was a great mislead because you think that there is this guy on the road following in a bike and Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: you also have focused the guy in the bus. So you're like, what's happening? Like is he also dangerous? If this guy is dangerous, is he also dangerous? So you sort of Ananya: Hmm. Yeah. Akshay: think he just doesn't have one enemy right now, he has two enemies. Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: So now if he's like, ki so when he gets off the bus, you're like Chalo, ek banda toh bus me reh gaya. So at least he's escaped him a little bit. And now he comes Ananya: Huh, huh. Yeah. Akshay: out and the whole chase happens, and then you see, the guy in the bus was actually his handler and protecting him, really. So that Ananya: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Akshay: also really adds to the whole mislead, foreshadowing, and the thrill of it essentially. Like this is a thriller, right? Ananya: Yeah. Akshay: You create these elements so that your engagement never drops. Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: we've spoken about this technique before, which is tension piling. Especially for a series, you need to craft sequences that always keep on building in tension. So I wanna talk about the scene where he reaches Pakistan border. For the first time. Now, anyway, first the first tension is that setting itself, right? he Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: is a man, Indian man, coming in as a regular Pakistani guy who has taken on the identity of somebody else. He has a fake passport. There are guns everywhere. So you know the setting is already tension filled. After that, he sees that a one policeman. One security check guy hits another older man. Do you think that anyone will be allowed into Pakistan? So you again create more tension that he didn't even spare this old man here. he was so brutal with him immediately. So you Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: get a lay of the land. Now the third tension you keep increasing is that he sees that knives/weapons aren't allowed. So he does this thing of he sneakily puts in the knife in some other woman's pocket or her bag. So again, tension keeps increasing. Now, when he comes to the security guy with shows his passport, you see this officer taking notice of this passport and going in the background and showing this to some other officer. So again, Ananya: Mm. Akshay: the tension has gone very high because you're like, what just happened? Like, do they know something? Are they the people who are going to support him to enter? Are they like his enemies? Now because but you kept increasing the tension, what's gonna happen, what's gonna happen, what's gonna happen. Now you're curious to know actually what will happen, going ahead. Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: So in series Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: you can use this to keep building conflict and to keep stretching them for as long as you can. Ananya: Hmm. Cool! Let's go to the genre tropes of a spy thriller. Now, one of the genre tropes I want to talk about is the training sequence. A training sequence and we've spoken about this in Raazi as well is when you see the character being trained so that when they go into this new world, you know that, okay, they have the skills to do something. It does two things. One, it establishes them as superhuman. That okay they have all these skills, they have the ability to do this, they are better than us and B, it also shows us what skills they have so that when it comes time to use those skills, the skills can fail them. It is the Akshay: Mm. Ananya: equivalent of a planning sequence where okay this is the plan, this is the plan, this is the plan but then things don't go according to plan. So the skills fail them. Now over here, they haven't shown us a typical training sequence. They have shown you the sequence that Okay, we have one month, get him trained and you have the line also, okay, isko Pakistan bhejna hai Haridwar nahi, like how do we train him in one month? But then they don't show it to you. And I thought about this. I'm like, why would you not show a training sequence? It's so important as a spy. But the thing is, his training is not any special physical attribute. It Akshay: Mm. Ananya: is his wit. It is his ability to hustle. That is what's going to save him from all these situations. And when establishing Kamraj's character, they have already shown you his ability to hustle with the tire example you just gave. So that is Akshay: Hmm. Hmm. Yeah. Ananya: why you don't have a training sequence here because it has already been shown to you. And Akshay: Mm. Ananya: that leads me to my next genre trope, which is the unique spy. Each spy has to have a quality which you and I as normal humans don't possess. Or we could possess, but is... which would make you a good spy or a different spy Akshay: Hmm. Ananya: in Raazi, the fact that Alia Bhatt is a woman, that is her special quality because Akshay: Hmm. Yeah. Ananya: no one's going to suspect her, they'll think she's innocent, all of that. Over here, it is Kamraj's hustle again. It Akshay: Mm. Ananya: is the fact that he's quick, he's street smart, he knows how to play the game. That is his unique quality which makes him the unique spy. Let's go into character next. Akshay: Yeah. They have tried to create an ensemble piece here, right? you have so many characters who come, you have the prime minister, you have one raw agent, you have the assistant to that agent, you have somebody approving and telling them we need more assets, which is the Adil Hussain's character. Again, this older man, David Sharma. So many plethora of characters. Now, how do you distinguish them properly? Now, what they have tried, I think, in a lot of scenes, at least try to give some sort of a quirk or some a different thing from a character you wouldn't expect. So for example, Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: when a prime when the Prime Minister enters his office, the first thing he does is open the curtain. That Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: let the light come in. Again, such a small quick moment, but it just makes the character real, that you don't make a Ananya: Hmm Akshay: cardboard cutout of a president like he's sitting strong. And he's just giving Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: order. And that very same scene, you see, that while the meeting is going on, his food comes and he says, sorry, I have to take my medicines, I'm gonna eat here. Again, Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: small moments, but you I remember this now. I remember this prime minister. Ananya: Yeah. Akshay: Now it's only because they gave these two, three additional moments to him that I could realize that, he's not your typical guy, he's he's different from the rest of them. Ananya: Hmm. Yeah. Akshay: A similar thing they have done with the guy who comes chasing after him on the bike, which is that I think he's putting drops in his ears in the Ananya: Yeah. Akshay: previous scene. So again, like an interesting introduction, which is that what is this guy up to? Like what just happened, but Ananya: Hmm. Hmm. Akshay: you still now know him like a little bit. Like you've visually Ananya: Yeah. Akshay: shown that this guy was different. Ananya: Absolutely, absolutely and especially now that you're saying this what comes to mind is Kahani where Akshay: Hmm. Ananya: you had this whole plethora of male characters who were indistinguishable. If they had just given them some quirk like this such Akshay: Yeah, yeah. Ananya: that they became slightly memorable so you know who your Bajpai was, you knew who your other person was, it would have stuck with your head, you would have had a distinguishing factor there. Akshay: Yeah. Yeah. Ananya: I also want to talk about Kamraj's character over here, Akshay: Hmm. Ananya: where initially he reminded me bit of Munna Bhai's character in terms of creating Akshay: Mm. Ananya: a contradiction within them. Like Munna Bhai is a goon with a heart of gold, right? Two seemingly opposite traits and that's what makes human beings unique, right? And that's what you want to bring in your character because they light up your screen. So over Akshay: Mm. Ananya: here, you have this guy who is essentially a hustler. He has hustled and he has taken the tyre away. But he's also a good guy because jabhi usko tyre kaam nahi aaya, wo lotaane aageya. He's Akshay: Ta Ananya: just like, I don't need it, to ye wapas le lo. Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: But his philosophy as a character is very well explained and I think this is something very important to do especially when you're writing a show and season Akshay: Hm. Ananya: of a show is tracking your character's philosophy. What do they believe about life? Akshay: Mm. Ananya: Because that is something that will change over the course of your series. And Akshay: Mm. Ananya: over here, his philosophy is don't hurt other people on purpose, right? Akshay: Hmm. Ananya: But you see that it is on that on purpose is the keyword because there's that girl who he's living with who's clearly in love with him. Akshay: Mm. Ananya: And they're like, why you leading her on? And he's like, bro, she's leading herself on. She wants to love me, I'm letting her love me. He is not hurting her on purpose. She decided to love on him and he is taking advantage of that. So that way he's very pragmatic as well. If he can take advantage of your current situation, he will also do it. Of course, this is a very Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: arguable point that by leading someone on you are hurting them, all of that, but I'm not getting into the emotional complexity Akshay: That's separate, huh? Yeah. Ananya: of it. Yeah. So I really liked the way they've mapped his philosophy across this episode and I can't wait to rewatch it to now look at it through this lens like the whole season Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: and see whether this philosophy is something that changes. Akshay: And even when that moment comes when you realize that this guy who is his crime partner is in jail, but because of him. He frees him and goes to Ananya: Yeah, it frees Akshay: Pakistan for him. So the fact Ananya: and Vidyata, exactly. Akshay: that your character is so morally grey and so Ananya: Hmm, great. Akshay: full of contradictions, like you're Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: investing yourself that, I can watch eight hours of this, maybe, you know? Ananya: Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, they're not predictable but while not being predictable their actions are grounded in emotional logic. Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: So that's what makes a character watchable and realistic. Akshay: Hm, yeah. Ananya: Perfect! And that is all I have on this episode of Mukhbir on the pilot. Akshay: Yeah, same here. Ananya: Great! So guys, you know the drill. Like, share, subscribe, comment, leave any questions, recommendations. If there's anything else about series that we haven't considered, like leave it down there in the comments for us too and we'll break that down for you. We are primarily series writers. Those are our credits. So sometimes you think about things a little more instinctually, instinctively. Akshay: Hm. Ananya: So maybe we haven't found the words for them yet, but if you spot something, if you need help with something... Let us know and we will see you next week on another episode of the Breakdown Besties podcast. Bye.