Latest / Breakdown Besties | Bollywood Screenwriting Podcast / E17: Black Breakdown
Transcript
- Ananya: Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Breakdown Besties podcast. I'm Ananya. Akshay: I'm Akshay. Ananya: And together, we are your breakdown besties. Combined, we have 14 years of experience writing for shows like Mismatched, Wedding.con, Ishq in the Air, Rana Naidu, Inside Edge, Grahan, for platforms like Amazon, Netflix and Disney Plus, along with a host of other shows which we've written but have gotten stuck in various stages of development hell. But will hopefully see the light of day one day. Our goal with the Breakdown Besties podcast is to give you a film school classroom experience where we do exactly what they do in film schools or we think they do because we really haven't been. But what we think they do or what we've heard is done is basically you sit, you watch a film. If you can, you read the scripts, you dissect the techniques, you see what works, you see what can be improved. Akshay: You Ananya: and you emulate, imitate and improve on those techniques in your own writing. So over here, we're doing those with the best Bollywood film scripts and films. And we hope that you can take those techniques and make your own films as iconic as these Bollywood ones. And today, the film that we are going to be breaking down is a 2005 Well, I don't know if you can call it a classic, but certainly a very good film, which left a mark, definitely impressionable, which I think when I came out of the theatre, like as a child, I remember being very scarred by this film. Right? Akshay: Yeah, left a mark. sure hence my parents did not take me only to this but my parents are very weird they didn't take me for Black but they took me for Kaal and Bhoot which was so weird Ananya: Was Bhoot like a seriously funny film or a seriously horror film or was it like funny horror? Akshay: It was aseriously horror film. Urmila Matondkar was excellent in the movie. Ananya: Yeah. Okay, we must bring it to the pod. Akshay: Yeah Ananya: written by Bhavani Iyer, Prakash Kapadia ⁓ and Sanjay Leela Bhansali. this is the third Bhavani Iyer film that we are doing. ⁓ Akshay: Yeah, After Lootera and Raazi. Yeah. ⁓ Ananya: Wow! This really goes to show that I mean you can have a consistently good body of work, right? Akshay: Yeah, exactly. And across multiple decades. Yeah. Ananya: Yeah, So shall we get into the log line? Okay. What is your log line? Your log line is your film's guiding light. It is your film summarized in ⁓ one sentence, 40 or less usually, which allows you to see the forest for the trees when you're so lost in the weeds of your film that you're unsure what you're even writing about anymore. Akshay: Yes. Ananya: Why does the log line work so well? Because it contains four essential elements. The first is your flaw, limitation, block or wound or need. What is this essentially? This is a block in the character, in the protagonist, which is stopping them from reaching element number two, that is their goal. The goal is why the film exists, it's what the character is going after, it's the journey we are following them on, on their pursuit of the goal. Then we have conflict. The conflict is an engine of outer obstacles or challenges that forces your character to confront the need within them, the limitation within them and overcome such limitation so that they're able to achieve their goal. Which they weren't able to in the past because they couldn't overcome this need. And finally, have stakes. Stakes are what your character is going to lose should they not achieve their goal. It is not simply losing the goal. It is ⁓ level lower. ⁓ With that said, I have a logline on black. Would you like me to read it out? Akshay: Yeah, go for it. Ananya: A proud and stubborn teacher for the specially abled is tasked with educating a particularly difficult deaf and dumb child to independence lest she be committed to a mental asylum. Akshay: That's great actually. I had never thought about the log line from his point of view. Yeah, fully that makes more sense actually. Ananya: ⁓ You thought of it from Rani's point of view. Okay, let's talk about that. Akshay: Yeah, yeah. But now I'm seeing the flaw in it, because the goal... had the goal... The flaw with the girl I thought was like she's blind and deaf. That's her limitation. ⁓ That's her limitation, wound, we call it. And the goal I thought, wants to learn to read and write. ⁓ But that was never own goal. It was actually the goal... Ananya: It's a limitation, yeah. Akshay: put on her so now what you're saying makes more sense yeah for sure yeah Ananya: Hmm. So to break this down into its four essential elements, the first is your ⁓ need or wound ⁓ or block in this which Amitabh's block he's proud and stubborn and he believes his way of doing things is the right way of doing things ⁓ and he doesn't relent. Then we have the which is to educate this particularly difficult deaf and blind woman into independence, that she has to reach independence. Then we have the conflict, which is that she is particularly difficult. Deaf and dumb toh theek hai, he has been working with deaf and dumb, killed children for his whole life. He's a special needs teacher, but she is a brat. That is what he notes at their first introduction to each other, that she's a brat because she throws a plate at him. Akshay: ⁓ Ananya: So he knows that his pride, his stubbornness is going to be challenged by this girl who is particularly difficult. And the stakes are being committed to a mental asylum. So not only will she not be independent, it's if she fails to be independent or show proof of going in that direction, her parents are going to commit her to a mental asylum. Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: Cool. Let's go into the hero's journey next. So what is your hero's journey? Your hero's journey is the structural spine of your film. It is the classic mono myth which stories for millennia now. Actually, I don't know how long is a millennia? Akshay: Yeah. Huh. 1000 years. Ananya: Thousand years, yeah for millennia now, yeah, have been telling stories I believe using this structure because yeah we were telling stories for a millennia. So in this structure essentially every hero ever goes from being someone who has a flaw, a block, a wound or limitation to someone who goes on a journey of initiation. Akshay: Yeah, yeah. You Yeah, yeah, of course. Ananya: Where they learn to get rid of this or overcome this wound and return to their old life as a new person. This has multiple steps and your hero in your film is also going to take the same steps. Why? Because these are the basic turning points that every character who is going to undergo change has to pass through. Right? So whenever you're writing your film, ⁓ have to give your audience these emotional hits every so often by taking them on this emotional journey that your hero is going on. So let's dive right in. Akshay: Now I very worried about my hero's journey because that is still from her point of view. Ananya: Rani's point of view. ⁓ but I think the beats largely align because even I found myself vacillating between the two. Yeah. So the first is your ordinary world. Your ordinary world ⁓ that phase of your hero's journey when they haven't really begun going on their journey. You see what their life is like, you establish what their need or their flaw is. Akshay: ⁓ Let's huh, okay, okay? Ananya: Establish their circumstances, the when, where, who, why and what of their situations and you essentially see who they are in the before. Right? So in this film, we can talk about it from both perspectives because this is a relationship journey. We see that she is or kid rather, Michelle McNally, a young six year old child who is ⁓ deaf blind. and she is essentially ⁓ way the story has been told a bit of an animal in that sense. ⁓ she's a destructive force exactly. She has no manners, no sense of the world around her for obvious reasons that she doesn't have two literally. And she is a danger to everyone including herself, right? And she's bullied. Akshay: Yeah, she's destructive. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Ananya: all of that. Then we also see Amitabh Bachchan and he is a teacher for the deaf and blind and he is someone who cares deeply and passionately about the work he does at a school but he has also not seen the kind of success he wants to see for the work he wants to put in. These are their words. Then you have the call to action. Akshay: Yeah. Yeah. Ananya: The call to action is where your hero is first told that come, come, you can now work towards achieving the goal you've always wanted to achieve. We are calling you, are sending you, are beckoning you to come on this journey, right, to take it on. So from Rani's side, the call comes from her mother. father wants to send her to a mental asylum, but she's like, no, let's give her one more chance as this really good teacher. Let's give her a shot. And that is where Amitabh gets the call from his principal at the school or head teacher. Mrs Nair. That, okay, now there is this family. They have a particularly bratty child and they need you more than anyone else. Akshay: Mrs. Nyer. Ananya: like I will do this but before that you have a refusal of the call is where your protagonist themselves or someone within the world refuses to go on this journey in Rani's case it is her father who is quite reluctant to call another teacher home ⁓ but the mother Mrs. McNally convinces him otherwise that no you do this Akshay: Huh. Ananya: The next beat you have is your mentor. This is when your character meets someone who has been on the journey that they have been on. And now if your goal is to slay the dragon, your mentor hands you the sword to do this, right? Akshay: Yeah. And in this case, we think that Debraj's principal, Nair is the mentor in this case, because she's the one who tells him that you have to go. There's this girl who is ⁓ deaf dumb and like she'll be sent to asylum by her parents if you don't do this. ⁓ So literally tells him that you have to go now. So she becomes structurally the mentor in the hero's journey. Ananya: Yeah. Akshay: And she also has a figurative presence later on in the film, which we'll talk about, that he keeps writing letters to her about her progress. So there is a very direct way that mentorship has been tackled here. Ananya: Yes, absolutely. Then we have crossing the threshold. Crossing the threshold is where your character takes your first step or leap into the new world. It is where they take their first defining action ⁓ kind of establish their presence in the new world. Now, I believe this is a big sequence in black. So in black Amitabh Bachchan goes to ⁓ Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: the McNellys house. has his first introduction with the bratty Michelle McNally, who he is going to be teaching. He sees that she is essentially very primal in her instincts. She doesn't sit down at the dining table. She's stuffing food into her mouth like some savage. And ⁓ her parents let her have it. They're easy on her with this. But he disciplines her rather violently. And her parents don't like it. or rather her dad, Michelle's dad doesn't like this and he asks Amitabh Bachchan to leave. He asks Debraj to leave. But as the father character leaves the next morning for work, Devraj stays and he convinces Michelle's mother that listen, your husband is gone for 20 days and in 20 days, just hand me over your daughter's charge and I will make a woman out of her. And then when she says, okay, you will have my daughter later this evening, he has completed crossing the threshold. Akshay: Yeah, I think there was a little bit overlap here. I remember what ends up happening is ⁓ he comes to the house, sees that she's a bratty child. He and the father gets up and goes, you know, and he makes her eat with a spoon for the first time. And I thought that was a moment of crossing the threshold there because you see that he is Ananya: Yeah. Yeah. Hmm. Akshay: not only come here but successfully taken the first step of teaching this child what he does. ⁓ So I thought that was the moment and what you said that he convinces her that let me be or your husband is gone anyway that I thought comes in part of test allies and enemies. Ananya: Yeah. Yeah. Hmm. I can see what you're saying. I just felt because even I back and forth I had written crossing the threshold was using the spoon and okay But then it didn't feel like he had crossed the threshold in Like emotionally when I was watching it. I just felt like no his presence here He hasn't gotten situated enough here. Like he hasn't you know, dug his nails into the ground Akshay: Hmm. Yeah. time. Okay. Okay. Hmm. Ananya: So that was just the feeling, it's not based on a technicality, it's based on the emotion. So yes and no, it could be both, either or. Akshay: Hmm. Hmm. Both. Essentially it's just one, two same scenes, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Ananya: Yeah, exactly, exactly. Yeah. So then you have Tests, Allies and Enemies. Tests, Allies and Enemies is the phase in your hero's journey where they are beginning to understand this new world. They're seeing what challenges and obstacles they're going to face, who their allies are, who their enemies are and what's the new world going to treat them like. Right, over here we see that the ally is Mrs. McNally. who wants her daughter to ⁓ grow and become independent at any cost. We have the enemy who is Mr. McNally, who is currently not present, but in his absence, they need to achieve their goal of making progress on her independence and education. And then the challenge is the tests are Michelle herself. Her behavior is bratty, it's violent, she is hard to discipline. And they face many challenges where She's unwilling to learn where they're working into the late of the night, where she's tripping and falling, and Amitabh Bachchan's character is going between ⁓ letting her almost put herself in danger's way that she learns the hard way, what it is to be a more careful human being in the world, but also being there for her and taking care of her as is necessary. But even as this goes on, as Michelle improves, Akshay: Huh. Ananya: in her behaviour, one critical challenge that they are facing is that while she is learning to be able to name things, she doesn't understand the meanings of the words that she is facing and she is learning. So in doing as we watch all of this's audiences, we reach the approach to the innermost cave. Your approach to the innermost cave is Akshay: ⁓ Ananya: If your character was going to like steal a bag of gold from under the dragon, now is when they do it. They are going to finally go after it. In this, is Mr. McNally is finally coming home and Michelle still hasn't made the kind of progress that she wants to make. Amitabh gives it one final last shot, but it is of no avail. And the next day, Mr. McNally comes home and he sees that Debra is still there and he fires him. He says, please leave. And therein commences our ordeal. Now, what is the ordeal? The ordeal is that if you've stolen the bag of gold from under the dragon, now the dragon is chasing after you as you escape. All right? So over here, as Amitabh Bachchan is leaving the McNellies' house, he sees Michelle eating like an animal with her hands all over again. He loses his shit. He's like, I might be leaving her, but I'm not leaving her in this condition and going. Akshay: ⁓ Ananya: So he gets into a scuffle with her and he throws water. She throws water at him. He gets angry. He takes her to a fountain because he knows that she's scared of water and he douses her inside. At first she is terrified but soon she begins to like the water and then he puts her hand in and he explains to her that this is and she begins to understand what water is. Right? This is your ordeal. Akshay: Ugh. Yeah Ananya: And then you have the reward. The reward is when you have finally left the dragon behind. They're no longer after you and you're just you, your bag of gold. And over here, it is where she learns the meaning of water. And she is also then able to understand what the word 'mother' means, who her mother is. And she has finally made progress into being someone who ⁓ rote learning to someone who is understanding. Quite the metaphor for our Indian education system. Akshay: Hmm. Hmm. Yeah. Ananya: Okay. Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: and then we have the way back. This is your character on their way back to their old life now clutching the bag of gold with them. But yet there are challenges, obstacles and enemies in their way because if you don't have challenges, you don't have conflict, you don't have a film. ⁓ Mukherjee is now a young woman. is, she wants to go to university. Amitabh Bachchan's is still a very prominent figure in her life. He's a teacher. He's someone she has respected, she has respect for. And now he helps her prep for university. Once she gets into university, he sits in her classes with her, allows her to learn because the education system doesn't support her learning needs. She starts to make friends and she even starts to discover the idea of romantic love and she starts seeing Debraj or Amitabh Bachchan's character in a new light. Simultaneously, we also see Amitabh Bachchan's character has early onset Alzheimer's or dementia. I don't know, early onset, just onset of Alzheimer's and dementia. And all this culminates as one day after her sister's wedding, Michelle McNally wants to experience what Sharirikh Pyaar is. And she tells Amitabh Bachchan, who she has been developing some affectionate feelings for, that can you kiss me? Amitabh is conflicted. Akshay: Huh. Huh. ⁓ Ananya: He really wants to stay in her life. He's been staying in her life even though his dementia is setting on because he believes he's responsible for her. He needs to make her an independent woman. But in this moment, he kisses her. And after that, what all the dementia couldn't do, this kiss makes him do, as he leaves. Right? He leaves from her life. And then, Michelle McNally is still left trying to pass college. Akshay: ⁓ Yeah. ⁓ Ananya: While she's fighting against a system that is rigged against her. So finally at the age of 40, she graduates. At this time, Debraj Sahai, her teacher has not been in her life for a very long time. Until finally find him at her doorstep. Turns out that he has dementia and he has been in a home Akshay: Huh. ⁓ Ananya: and he is essentially in the last stages of it. But Rani really wants him to see her graduate because that was his main goal for her to make her independent. So finally, when he is at his lowest, when he is a man who is a shell of his former self, she puts on her cap and gown and she goes to him. And even though his memory is non-existent at this point, he is to come to lucidity to an extent. Akshay: Huh. ⁓ ⁓ ⁓ ⁓ Ananya: and see that she is in her cap and gown. And this is his resurrection from someone who has completely lost his memory to now being someone who is actually seeing that the goal he'd set out for has been achieved. He's coming back up from the ashes. And finally, you have the return with the elixir. This is when your character goes back into their old life, but now a new person. Over here, Akshay: ⁓ Whoa. Huh. ⁓ Huh. Ananya: More than coming back into an old life, there is a role reversal of Rani now becoming the teacher and Amitabh becoming the student as she is going to help him recover much like he helped her. Right? Akshay: ⁓ Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Yeah. You know, after the approach to the innermost cave, my hero's journey was completely off. Like, I had another way. But I didn't want to stop here because I wanted to see exactly the full extent of this. So in my analysis, the approach to the innermost cave ⁓ was like we started correctly that, you know, he is now ⁓ Ananya: ⁓ okay. Akshay: needs to make headway but the father has come here and the first thing she does and after all the entire sequence plays out she says the word water so she's understood that what the word means so now for me this was approach to the inmost cave because had this not happened the rest of her life would have played out completely different like she would not go to college she would be sent to asylum so now Ananya: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Akshay: So that became approach to the inmost cave for me because this will now actually lead to a different life for her, which the ordeal became that now she's gotten old, she's got admission into the college, but the realities of life have started hitting her. Like the sister is jealous of her, that she's failing her exam, that and at the same time, he is growing old and his dementia has started. So and that he might not be able to work with her. So he turns to like he Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: puts her to braille and his dementia keeps getting worse and worse. For me, this was the whole ordeal part of it. Now, the reward for me is that ⁓ it starts with the portion of that he leaves her stranded on the street because he completely forgot she was waiting for him when he was having when he was getting ice cream for them. His condition has gotten much worse. The wrath of the sisters jealousy like fully crescendos, which leads them to kiss. So I thought Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: that was the reward of this relationship and equation between them. ⁓ Now after this comes a road back. Now he has left her after kissing her because he felt whatever. And now she's back alone. she's like exactly how she was at the beginning of the movie. We see her struggling. Resurrection after that comes when even after all that struggle, she has gotten her MBA. Ananya: Right. Bye. Akshay: She comes to see him. She's not allowed to see him. And she gives that big speech in front of everybody. And she said, my dream is to now see him, like seeing me in my graduation robe. ⁓ And elixir, the return with elixir comes when she actually goes to him in the robe with the degree ⁓ and remembers her. And he places the, that, this was my student and we made this happen. Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: So this was the journey after ⁓ the approach that most cave for me. Ananya: Hmm hmm. I see that. The reason I would disagree with that is because I think once you have your reward, your reward is the point at which your stakes kind of disappear maybe. Because if the stakes here are being committed to a mental asylum after she has Akshay: Hmm. Huh. Mm-hmm. Huh. Ananya: what you mean? After she has said the word water and associated mother with mother, water with water, you know that she's not going to be committed to a mental asylum anymore. So that is the equivalent of having like fended off everything and Akshay: Yeah, I know. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I know what you mean. It's again like it becomes two films, right? Essentially that first half of the second half is completely this. That's again another problem with the plotting in some way that it becomes two different films completely, right? And again, what you're saying that the stake completely disappears then, but Ananya: Hmm, yeah. Hmm. Yeah. Akshay: a new stake comes into picture, which is that after that she wants admission in a regular arts college which ⁓ Ananya: But there's no stakes there. That's the goal. Akshay: That's the goal. Hmm. Right. Hmm. Ananya: So that is, those are the challenges on her way back to like independence, right? Akshay: ⁓ But then, you know, the whole putting the whole bit in the road back also doesn't feel organic, right? Like because that whole section went through so many ups and downs in itself, right? Like maybe like we should have done like Heroes Journey first half, Heroes Journey second half. I don't know. ⁓ Because they do feel they do feel totally also they feel different. Ananya: Hmm. Yeah, totally they're absolutely like the first half and the second half are completely different films in that sense. Yeah, but I do feel like that big chunk is the way back because she is kind of how would you define way back? Way back is when you're going back now having won whatever you want to win, right? Like to your old life or to your old world and Akshay: Yeah. Hmm. Hmm. Ananya: She is now reintegrating into society in the second half. That is the old world that she is going into. Right? That is also Amitabh taking her back into the old world. It is the road to going back into the old world. The old world is where you go back to college. It is back on that road, on that journey. So, I don't know, it just felt like the way back to me. That okay, the biggest thing that had to be achieved is achieved. Akshay: ⁓ ⁓ ⁓ Hmm. Hmm. Maybe, maybe. Ananya: That was how I faked about. Okay this is broadly the hero's journey, whatever resonates with you, you take it. Akshay: Yeah, Ananya: The next thing I want to talk about is the theme of this film. So what is your theme? Your theme is your perspective as an artist that you put forth in a film. It's your idea of the world that you use your art as a medium for to convey to everyone else. And usually it is posed as a dramatic question in a film that okay ⁓ what should prevail good or evil and you show both sides of the story but at the end of the day if good prevails you're making the statement that okay the idea is that that good prevails over evil. Now in this film I've been racking my brains to see what the theme is right and it isn't a yes or no question that is it this or that is it this or that I've come to this idea of what the theme is and Akshay: ⁓ Ananya: because I was analyzing how Michelle and Debraj's relationship evolves over the course of this film. And here's what I have come to. What do we owe each other in our relationships? Akshay: ⁓ Ananya: that is the thematic question that we are constantly being asked. Right? And my answer to this, which is not answered directly in any way in the film, this is not on the nose thematically, but it is answered through actions is we owe each other, we have what we owe each other's fulfilling each other's needs. Akshay: Hmm. ⁓ Ananya: And to demonstrate this, the first half of the film is Michelle needs to be disciplined. Debraj comes in and disciplines her. Then in the second half of the film, she needs a companion. And he is largely her companion. While he does discipline her here and there, they are more on equal footing now because of her age, because of the way her mind works now. ⁓ then when she falls in... ⁓ Akshay: Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Ananya: love with him. Okay? Like what is her need at that point? It is her need to feel like a woman. And he does kiss her and he's like, okay, this is what you need from me. But of course, their relationship, just feels wrong to him, obviously, because the student teacher relationship, right? So then he takes off from there. But he has fulfilled a need for her. And then at the end of the film, when he is by himself, Akshay: ⁓ Yeah. Yeah. Mmm. Ananya: She steps in and fulfills his needs, his need of like coming back to his senses, to lucidity. So if I had to a question throughout this writing process, if I had to keep a thematic guiding light for every scene, I'd ask, okay, how do we, how do these characters fulfill like each other's needs in this? Or how does rather Debraj fulfill her needs? Akshay: Boo. Hmm very well observed, yeah. Yeah, it feels true Ananya: that is. Let's get into scenes and sequences next. Akshay: Okay. I want to talk about the unpredictability of a scene, the technique of unpredictability. That, Debraj is convinced that he's not gonna leave Michelle no matter what, until the father has come back after 20 days from his trip. He sees her immediately and he says, leave. And he says, okay, I have failed. I thought I will be here for 20 days. I will teach this kid, but he can't. Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: So he has decided he's leaving. While he's leaving, he sees her misbehave. And he can't take that again. So he just decides, no matter what, I'm not going to leave her like this. And he takes her to the water. And here she surprises him that she learns the first letter. And this also brings around the mother and the father. Here, not only she learns one word, she ends up learning many words like grass, mother, father. So I thought that... Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: the scene just kept in rising action and it was unpredictable in every beat and we spoke about escalation in Munna Bhai that how it just kept rising, rising, rising, rising, rising. So ⁓ each beat, each call of a character's choice led them to discover something new. Ananya: Hmm. Hmm. Akshay: And I also want to reference another technique which you spoke about in Chak where you said the technique is the character is not written just for plot. Like it's true to the world of the character is that Debraj has to now leave, but he still can't see his pupil misbehaving so much. So he can't help himself and he has to go and school her no matter what. So similar to that. Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: the sportsmen who were benched in the game, they just can't sit on the bench anymore even though they've been told so they have to go in and like partake. So I thought ⁓ this scene had multiple elements going on so I thought it became like great. Ananya: Hmm. Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. Akshay: I also want to point out another thing that in such stories, which is about learning, training, the emphasis that the writer does is that they teach one or two techniques, not many, which is not a real life situation, right? Because in real life, learning and training have many aspects. But again, I come back to Chak De! because they did the same thing there was that he taught the girls that there are two rules. One is that you will have to pass the ball in five seconds, no matter what, and you always play for the team. That is it. Of course, he's doing multiple things with her, but these are the two things which have an arc in the story. And in here, we have, there is a spoon and napkin and water. That it could have been 100 other things, but they've chosen these things and they, showed this arc over in 20 days. Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: So you have an arc and you understand that, ⁓ it's not just thematic of this one technique, but he's transformed this student or this team in the previous case. Then ⁓ another scene I want to talk about is where ⁓ Debra just called to the principal's office in the older Michelle's college ⁓ and he's given ⁓ Braille book, you know, and the scene could have completed here. But suddenly, Ananya: Braille book so that she can finally pass her exams because she has not been passing. Akshay: Now I've been passing her exams, right? So it's such a big point in the plot A of the film that ⁓ the scene could have ended here, he could have immediately gone back to her and like she could have started learning the Braille book. But what they end up doing is that he suddenly has a blank look on his face and he becomes clueless. This is what talking about. And we see the onset of his dementia has started because he asks, how do I go back? Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: And he's like, the door, where's the door? ⁓ behind you. So generally, the end of a scene takes you to the next step of the same plot, you know? Or the scene begins with two plot points converging. What here they have done is that the beginning of the scene forwards your plot A, but the end of a scene begins a new plot. Ananya: you Hmm. Akshay: So I thought that they constructed the scene with two plot points. I thought that was a very efficient way of storytelling. Ananya: Definitely, yes. Akshay: ⁓ see that Michelle been failing the exams for years. ⁓ She hasn't gotten her degree and she's really... We initially when she fails, we see like, they celebrate about it and nothing is like wrong. But the third time she fails, it hurts so much. ⁓ And it's because one of the screenwriting techniques we about is that ⁓ Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: If you want your characters to fail, show their desire and the preparation. And we see it here. Now we see it over so many scenes that she is trying really, really, really hard to clear her exams, but she doesn't. And that's a technique like show this. If you want to show your character fail, show them really prepared hard. So this time, and the failure hits even more because she calls him mother and says, I failed again, you know? So I thought this was again. Ananya: Hmm. Yeah. Hmm. Akshay: a good screenwriting technique they used for this particular sequence. Then I want to talk about another scene where they do escalation really well, which was the moment the scene where Debraj Amitabh Bachchan's character has left Michelle stranded in the street ⁓ he goes to buy ice cream. We see him in Michelle's room and when he gets a knock on the door and the principal ⁓ ⁓ Ananya: Yeah. Akshay: He's like, ⁓ who are you? And he says, I'm Michelle's principal. And immediately, Debraj is like, wait, I'll call Michelle right now. And shouts, Michelle, as audience, you're already surprised that he can't do that because we know she can't hear. And that's what the principal says that, she can't hear. He says, wait, I'll go and get her. So we think Ananya: Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Akshay: we, the audience thought, this is another scene. Every like she would have come back whatever. The principal's like, she's not in there. And the door opens and Michelle is standing right now ⁓ And he's shocked. And along with that, audience is also shocked that, my God, like Ananya: Yeah. Akshay: It had like she was ⁓ all alone for such a long time. So again, like the escalate, the scene kept escalating one after the other, after the other where, ⁓ where is Michelle? ⁓ I'll get her. ⁓ she's not inside. And so these choices really like makes you feel like what is going on. And now when Michelle enters, he tries to hold her hand and she dismisses him. Again, another element of escalation of the tension between. which the movie is now going to explore. Ananya: you Akshay: I want to talk about callbacks in the movie. So we've established earlier that what is a callback? A callback is a sentence, be a moment, could be a scene between two characters ⁓ where they repeat the same moment in their life later on. And it either shows that the relationship has not changed or the relationship has completely changed. One callback was when he sees her in the graduation robe, ⁓ he does a dance. And we'd seen them do the dance before when it snows for the first time. So again, first of all, it's not only like a plot device that he remembered that. But secondly, like in his head, the nature of the relationship hasn't changed. Ananya: Hmm. Yeah. Akshay: But the beauty of the scene was that he still needed to remind her that, ⁓ to me the relationship has not changed. And so he extends her hand and makes her feel ⁓ the word water on her hand. So again, that's another callback because that's something he had taught her for the first time. ⁓ And he's telling her, see, I remember and our relationship has not changed. And that was a good callback. Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: And another callback was later on after that when she's, think it's his death scene. It's the procession for his, it's his funeral, right? The last scene of the film. Ananya: Is it? Akshay: No, I thought he died. Ananya: I think so. I thought they were just starting on a student teacher journey. Akshay: I thought they had that thing, but she's walking with a candle in the end. Amidst a lot of people, so I thought, he died. OK. Viewers tell us, did he die or not die? In her voiceover, she says that, and once he learned the word water, which was the first word he taught me, Ananya: I didn't know that, maybe. Akshay: He told me what I told him what he told me that ⁓ else learns letters A, C, D, but we will learn the word B, L, A, C, K, black. Again, it's a good callback and in this case the relationship between them has changed. First, he was this teacher, she was the student. Now, ⁓ is the teacher and he's the student. So that was a good callback. Ananya: Hmm. Definitely. And another one to add to that is the fact that when they first meet, she touches his face to see who he is. That's how she learns how to recognize people. And she touches his sunglasses and he likes them. So she gives, he gives, she likes them. So he gives them to her. And then when she is training him towards the end of the film, he sees her sunglasses and she hands them to him. So this also shows us a shift in the Akshay: ⁓ Huh. Huh. Hmm. Huh. ⁓ no. Ananya: dynamics of the relationship that now she's the one pandering to him. And another callback I liked was when ⁓ he wants her to get admission into university and he speaks to the principal and the principal says this is hard and he's like, look Amitabh says, ⁓ it's not often in life that one gets the chance to do something good. So I'd request you seize it. And then Akshay: Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Ananya: When the principal finally has the braille books to hand over to so that Michelle can pass, he says that it's not often that one gets the chance to be a good person and here I am seizing it. So at first it shows that, okay, now they weren't on the same team and he's like, now I am on the same team as you. So one simple sentence or dialogue echoed from a different person shows that they have learned and changed their ways. Right? Akshay: Hmm. Say, yeah. Huh. Yeah. Sweet. Ananya: ⁓ That being said, I also want to talk about the rule of three in this, which they've done very well with young Michelle's introduction. And they want to show us the various ways in which she's a danger. So they do it three different times by showing us three types of dangers. The first is how the world is a danger to her. Akshay: Huh. ⁓ Hmm. Ananya: So when Michelle is going down the stairs, someone has attached cans to her to bully her and to stop her progress. So that shows us that the world is a dangerous place for Michelle. Then the next is when she is reaching for a dinner roll on the dining table and she accidentally knocks a candle and sets the table on fire and she's still in that room. Others have to come rescue her. So she's a danger to herself. Akshay: Hmm. Hmm. ⁓ I Ananya: And then finally, she's playing with the cradle in which Sarah is and she ends up tossing Sarah out of it. So in that she shows that she's a danger to another person too. So in this rule, three ways of doing it, they've established three different ways in which danger surrounds her. And they have thus established that she is someone who needs to be tamed for the lack of a better. Akshay: Cool. Yeah. ⁓ ⁓ Ananya: So instead of repeating one form of danger three times, that she's dangerous, they have shown different ways of danger within the world. So how can you explore one emotion from several points of views? Is what I'd harp on here. ⁓ Then, very smart, yeah. Another thing which I really like was the use of the form of the cinema. Akshay: Hmm. Uhhh ⁓ Thanks a lot. Uh-uh. Ananya: where when you're opening and Rani says that in the film that you know I can't see, I can't hear and my world is fully black and the screen goes black and for some time there is just some view over it and now if you're in a theatre okay screw watching this on our laptop but you're in a theatre the screen goes black for an extended period of time and you are in complete darkness Akshay: ⁓ Hmm. Ananya: It is so jarring as an experience and I thought that was great use of the medium of the form to get your audience to understand what is going on and put them in the character's shoes to really build empathy. So, wonderfully done there. Akshay: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah... Yeah... I have a very inappropriate thought. Like, this would be a great, like, a 40 film. Like, least today. Ananya: Hmm. Not even 4D, like 5D. Like... Right. Akshay: Like a ride, like you know like there you put them and like something, shutters so, oh, we'll be sent to hell. Ananya: Yeah, we should pitch it to like, Imagica ⁓ It's it's just a video game but real. Where? These are your... Akshay: will be sent to hell. Yeah, and like you will feel the real challenges of the people. Ananya: Yeah, exactly. It can't be a two hour long experience, but like 10 minutes. Akshay: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, Ananya: Another one I wanted to get into a technique which is your character's entry in the film where now we've seen the first half of the film and we've seen Michelle McNally essentially be a brat that image is burned into your brain and now you need to establish that they have leaped time and that she has grown. So this is essentially a time when Akshay: FU Hmm. Ananya: When your character has arc'd so much and acr'd so much off screen, you are not introducing the same character. You are introducing a completely different character. And that's when you owe it to them, not just because we were now introducing Rani into the film, but because you're introducing a completely new character, they deserve the same entry that you would give in the start of the film. And that's why what they've done wonderfully here is first you see her visually. Akshay: Hmm. Hmm. ⁓ state. Huh. Huh. Huh. Ananya: You see her happy, you see her singing with a singer on stage, dancing. Why is that important? Because you've never really seen her happy in the first half of the film. And you've seen her hair all over the place like this and all of that. But here it's prim, it's proper. So you see the visual transformation of how she has gone from being a wild child to someone to a ladylike. And then you have the university interview scene. So in the first half of the film, she's a kid. Akshay: Yeah. ⁓ Yeah. Yeah. Ananya: She can't speak, she really can't articulate her thoughts and so you don't expect much of her. But now we have to be on her side. So they have made her intelligent and she's not just spewing knowledge, she's spewing wisdom. Like when they ask her if you're in India, America, is it east or west? And she's like, well, the world is round, so it could be on the east or west. you know, she doesn't give, they want you to build ⁓ respect for this character, which could not have been done through the first half of the film. Akshay: Yeah. Yeah. Ananya: So it's very important to treat them like a new character when you've jumped time off screen and they have arc'd. Akshay: Yeah. Yeah, cool. Ananya: Another technique I wanted to talk about is gifts. This is what you gave your audiences as a parting gift. It is more knowledge of the world around them, of things that happen, where you come out of a ⁓ movie like, now I know a little bit more about our big world in which we live. And over here, the gift is how are people with special needs educated? What is the form in which they're educated? And at first we have Mrs. McNally asking that question, that look, she can't see, she can't hear, how are you going to do it? And that's when he explains, we're going to do it with the hands, the hands are going to be useful when we do everything. And then we see that in motion, that when, that even to recognize a person, she does this, or to understand how words are being pronounced, she'll put her hands on your lips. Akshay: Hmm. Hmm hmm hmm hmm Ananya: Even later on with the singer, she's only able to dance on stage because she puts her hand on the singer's mouth and is able to lip read with her hands. So these are gifts which otherwise you and I wouldn't be privy to in the ordinary world. Akshay: Yeah. Yeah. Ananya: So very well done here. And I also want to talk about a visual misdirection which is done initially in the film. It's not a perfect misdirection because it was a little bit confused. But this is when Rani has gone to church and she's saying that the most important person in her life was her teacher and she has been waiting for him her whole life to come back now for the past few years to come back. And just as she says, I've been waiting for him to come back, we cut to a car. Akshay: ⁓ ⁓ huh. Good. Huh. Uhhh Ananya: a car winding up the hill. So you think as an audience, you automatically put two and two together that, okay, I think that they are coming, that this is the teacher coming back. And then she, the voiceover cuts to, haan, but jabhi hum ghar aare the hai and then we see that it's actually her and her sister in the car. So they have built hope in that moment. And that, and only once you have the hope, can you have that downer of, but wo din bhi hume nahi mile. Akshay: Her and her sister. Mmm. Ananya: So have to bring it up in that moment to take it down for that down to land for your audience and for your audience in this case. And also then they finally find Debraj in that scene sitting at the back of their fountain. And then you're like, but he's actually here. So this to give it this graph, they have created a visual misdirection. Misdirection doesn't always need to be with dialogue or with wit. It can be just in your cutting. Yeah. Akshay: ⁓ scene will come. Ananya: also wanted to talk about ⁓ Amitabh's introduction visually in the film. So if you notice over here when Debraj is here for the first time, he's sitting outside the fountain, you only see the back of his head with snow falling and it's like this. After that, you go into ⁓ old age home slash treatment center where you see him from a distance. You don't really get a look at his full face or anything like that. Akshay: Hmm. ⁓ Ananya: only his silhouette almost. And then you see Rani holding his hand and like training like are trying to like read the story or get him to read the Braille story that she's written for him of their story. And even then it's only a side profile. It's his face is covered like with a beard and all. So you don't really see Amitabh. And then later when he's introduced for the first time, he's literally holding a light bulb to his face and he's saying, let there be light. Akshay: ⁓ ⁓ Ananya: and you And you see his face in all its glory. So how do you give an introduction at the right moment? Of course, these are directorial choices where you say that I'm going to shoot it like this and like this. But even when you're writing it into the script, I would write, okay, a man is ⁓ a man less of a person and more of a shadow, a darkness and ⁓ a beard so unkempt that you cannot see the face beneath it. That is how I would phrase it in my script. Akshay: you Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Ananya: And then when I wrote this, he holds the light up to his face and every wrinkle, etc. is up to show us the crow's feet that give him the years that have marked ⁓ face with years of experience. And this is essential in building up a contrast. Why do we build up contrast? We've talked about this a million times so that you start with the low emotions so that when you have your high, the high lands, you start with the lows that when you take them low, it lands. You're going from flat to flat, it doesn't work. Akshay: Huh. ⁓ Ananya: So this is how you do it for a character entry point of view. You really introduce them at a moment when you can see them for who they are and how you want them to be perceived. Because you want him to be perceived as a strong, stubborn, proud man. You don't want him to be seen as hollow and weak. So you keep that hollow person a little away. You don't let your character get, your audience get invested in them. You let them only get invested at the point when you want their buy-in. Akshay: Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. ⁓ ⁓ Ananya: So one more technique I would like to point out here ⁓ is the explanation of Alzheimer's and it functions. So as we watching Amitabh's Alzheimer's, we have Michelle's parents and the doctor talking Michelle's parents are asking what exactly is Alzheimer's and the doctor is telling them. This is keeping the audience and the character the same level. So then when another character gives an explanation, it doesn't seem as expositional as it would should the two characters already have known. Akshay: I have two three more things but they're very small so I saved them for the last okay I want to talk about the closing visual where I think he died and she's on the candle march for that Ananya: So. possible possible but why would they have a candle march for his death Akshay: I don't know. I feel like... It just felt like a death. but my point was not that. My point was that what they've done is we've seen her walking for this, you know, but the voiceover is completely different. The of which she says is that he taught me ABCDE is not what I should learn. My first letters will be B-L-A-C-K. And that's what I did once he said the first word, water. So I thought this was very ⁓ artsy the voiceover was completely different of the visual. And I feel that's the way a good voiceover personally should be written, where it has nothing to do with the visuals. ⁓ Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: This is actually telling me a story, you know? ⁓ And it also has underlayers that, ⁓ she tried to do all that, but not for long because he's obviously now passed away. So that's what I thought. But so I thought that was a great use of, that was a great closing visual imagery for me. ⁓ And great use of voiceover technique here because otherwise, like I told you, I tuned out during the voiceover beach beach mein because Ananya: Yeah. Akshay: I hate like knowing feelings, feelings, blah blah blah. Like, like I would rather listen to audiobook, right? Like, you know? So that then I'm gonna point. ⁓ Ananya: ⁓ yeah, yeah. Just to end up there, I've written this in dialogue but we can bring it in here. In terms of voiceover, this is the one film where I can excuse a voiceover because she literally doesn't have a voice. So for most of the film, it's her talking through sign language or her mumbling. So when we have to convey what's actually going on in her mind and the information is pertinent, the voiceover is the only way to do it and they have Akshay: ⁓ Yeah, I agree. I agree. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Ananya: try to use it sparingly. I don't feel like this. Akshay: They've tried to use it sparingly and in that I think few places it's really elevated like you know the one you pointed out the misdirection one that he will he came but it was the car this thing so again like good storytelling way of using the voiceover Ananya: Yeah. Hmm. Akshay: I want to talk about the kiss ⁓ between Michelle and Debraj that even though we concern, and critique and all of that, I just have to say that's a fucking bold choice. Like, it's a bold stroke of storytelling. And I feel like Ananya: Yeah. Yeah. Akshay: I was a little, like I was consumed actually in that moment because I understood her desire and his need to fulfill her desire. And again, beautifully done, you know, like even when they kissed, that portion between their lips is dark, you know, so it's like still not, it's not voyeuristic still, you know, and I, and I think we should just like really compliment bold strokes and like stories like. Ananya: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Akshay: ⁓ Like we would never see a commercial movie going there. Like today we can't do this, you know? ⁓ But they did it back in 2005 and I thought it was amazing. ⁓ Ananya: No, no, you can't. Definitely. Akshay: And one last small trivia trope thing is that Michelle McNeely, alliteration names. ⁓ I love characters who have alliteration names. Meghna Mathur, Kabir Khan, Peter Parker, Bruce Banner, Midge Maisel. ⁓ I think I was reading about it a little bit that why do people do this? I think because real life names are not named like this. So to give them a slightly more Ananya: Yeah. Hahaha, yeah. Yeah. Ha Hmm. Akshay: charactery kind of a feel. Filmmakers purposely do where the first name and the last name start with the same letter just to have a little bit of memorable quality to it. So yeah, that's Michelle McNalley. Ananya: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Nice, nice. I want to now let's get into character creation. Yeah. So one technique we see with Michelle up top, Rani's character is that when Rani is helping Amitabh who is now at his lowest with reading a book and the doctor says that there is nothing that can be done to restore his memory. Akshay: Yeah. Ananya: and her mother says, "what you're calling impossible, Michelle will make happen." So essentially what she's doing there is speaking well of another character as well as setting up the mythology of another character that she has these powers and skills which no ordinary person has, plus she's speaking well of her. So these are two techniques, A, building the mythology and B, ⁓ Akshay: Hmm. Ananya: sayings we believe characters, we believe other people who say nice things about others. But most important character creation I want to talk about is Amitabh Bachchan which is his scene. ⁓ And immediately in that one scene where Mrs. Nair has come to tell him that Akshay: Huh. Bye. Ananya: you know, ⁓ am, you have to go and teach this girl how to ⁓ be a woman. You see so many traits. First, you see that he is extremely like ⁓ passionate about what he does. Even though he's sitting there, even though he's just had like an eye surgery, he is looking into a light. He's focusing on how can I help my students like learn better. Akshay: Ugh. ⁓ ⁓ Ananya: He cares deeply, he's passionate about the work he does. The second is he's very playful. He doesn't really mind what other people are saying or doing. He'll play with your words, he'll make fun of you. When she has a letter, he says, if it's my resignation letter, do this, put it here. If it's my retirement, put it here. Very playful about it. C he has a penchant for drama. He's not, you know, like, he's not just playful in normal sense, it's an elevated sense of play. Akshay: ⁓ Huh. Haha ⁓ Ananya: He is wild with his hand, he gesticulates, he has no problem in expressing himself. So we really like him for that. We also see that he's extremely hardworking. But then, not only do they show us all these good traits, they deepen his character immediately by showing us the fact that despite the fact that he's so hardworking and he cares so much and he's passionate, he is someone who is nursing the failure of not having been Akshay: Huh. Ananya: as successful as he would have liked to with his students. He's like, when I was leaving students, I was leaving in this direction and all my students were saying bye in this other direction. He's like, I still haven't done what I'm here to do and that shows us depth of character. So in one scene, they have set up who Amitabh Bachchan will be for the rest of the film. And this is an especially strong introduction because he loses every single trait by the end of this. Akshay: Hmm. Hmm Hmm. ⁓ Ananya: When Dementia comes on. So very strong character creation and setup like setting up wildly different traits as well as depth. Akshay: Yeah, very nice Ananya: Cool, let's into next. Akshay: ⁓ You know, because we're watching these old films now, I'm trying to do this exercise where we've already seen the movie once in the past, right? Now I'm trying to remember that, ⁓ I remember this dialogue even now. And why do I remember? And I noted two dialogues in the film that I remembered them because they had original thought in them. And I think a key to good dialogue is that Ananya: Yeah. Akshay: some new perspective about the world, about some original thought, some new truth, which we haven't heard before, seen before, comes to, one of the characters says that in the film. And I think that's something, because you're essentially like making the audience feel that they've learned something new, right? ⁓ And obviously it can't happen in every dialogue of the movie because that will be so boring. But when it does happen, ⁓ it can stay with you and two dialogues which stayed with me that ⁓ he says that everybody else learns the first five letters ABCDE but you will learn BLACK. Again, what does it mean? It's like, I don't know, but sunke bahot achha laga, you know, ⁓ and ⁓ immediately me back to 2005 when I had actually first seen the movie. Ananya: Hmm. Akshay: And the second one I remember very clearly from back in the day, which when it happened again, it like just gave me a little bit like, oh, oh yeah, this was this line was there was when she's when Michelle is giving interview for her admission into the college and she's narrating that the question asked is what does knowledge mean to you? And she says knowledge is this knowledge is that knowledge is light, but she says knowledge is teacher. I thought that was such again a wonderful line because first of all, original thought that this person perceives knowledge to be this exact this one person because that's true to the her character that she's only seen this one person imparting knowledge to her. ⁓ And again, a bigger truth like, know, like there is some where knowledge comes from those who give knowledge to you. So I thought like, I really like these two dialogues because Ananya: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Akshay: for the sheer originality in their thoughts. Ananya: yeah for sure especially the second one that good character and good dialogue can't be separated so it's only they're only able to she's only able to say knowledge is teacher because as writers we have we know her character so well that we can say that in her perspective knowledge is teacher and it also happens to like pander to a universal truth yeah the first black one i just like what was this Akshay: Huh. Yeah. truth yeah yeah ⁓ Ananya: I thought that this is a little self-indulgent. Akshay: That is all I have on Ananya: Yeah, me too. So, thanks. Akshay: I really enjoyed the second half so much. it just like, first half was surely like not working for me, but second half really elevated. And you know, when I see this happen, it reaffirms like a faith in like, which one, ⁓ not advice, but like one nugget I remember that, you know, that this is a stark difference between film and TV, that your film can start slower, weaker. Ananya: Mmm. Yeah. Akshay: But if the end works, people will forget it. People will forget all your shortcomings. But whereas in TV, if you don't start well, everything is over. And we have ample number of series that start great, but they decline season three, season four, season five, whatever. So I thought that this happened with me in the film. The second half was so strong for me that the whole film worked. Ananya: Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. And I loved the first half. Like the second half I'm just like this is normal like life things. The first half I was like ⁓ I like the horrors of it, the different treatment, I liked the slight violence. All of that. I was like okay this is interesting because otherwise you see these characters like we really love treating like mentally differently abled characters as you know like these precious things and here he's just like slapping her around. Akshay: No. Huh. the Fed. Yeah Yeah, yeah, no first half was a lot of originality to it for sure. Yeah Ananya: Letting her fall. Yeah. Cool! Well, thank you all for watching another episode of the Breakdown Besties podcast. We will see you next week with another episode. Next week we are doing Hum Tum. So stay tuned for ⁓ And in the meantime, like, share, subscribe, leave any comments below. And we're only doing Hum Tum because we a ⁓ viewer recommended to us. So we take you all into account guys. So please let us know what want ⁓ and we will see you next week. Bye. Akshay: Bye.