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Tuesday, August 4, 2009

An experiment in Linklater

This is an experimental conversational script-ish excerpt. I might update it or not.

Coffee and Chocolate

INT. CAFE - EARLY MORNING
A moodily lit cafe. Some neon. Lazy music playing in the background. There's only one man sitting at a table with a coffee and a laptop. The blue light of the laptop is reflecting on his face as he stares into space as if thinking something. Suddenly a girl enters the cafe. She is carrying a few things in a clumsy manner and clatters her way to the counter breaking the rhythm of laziness.

GIRL
Do you have hot chocolate
(Man nods)
Is it good?

COFFEE GUY
(in a somewhat offended way)
Yes Ma’am

GIRL
Ok. One (pointing to the table she is going to be sitting at)

She sits a table away from the man with the laptop as it is a smallish cafe. She sets her things down and suddenly looks panicked as she looks for something in her pockets, bags etc. Finally she finds he cellphone looks at it and sets it on the table.
Then she opens her bag and takes out what looks like a thick folded paper wad and starts opening it. The sheet of paper is huge and has some kind of a hand drawn map on it with all kinds of scraps, pictures etc. As she keeps opening it, struggling to keep it from flying, the sheet reaches the table of the man with the laptop. He looks at her and holds it down with a smile in order to help her. She returns his smile gratefully. She stands up and starts making gestures as if orienting herself to the map and looking hassled. Man with laptop looks amused. She realizes that she looks funny.

GIRL
(CONT'D)
You’ll have to pay to watch

MAN WITH LAPTOP
I’ll pay
(They both smile.)
MAN WITH LAPTOP
(CONT'D)
I can help you if you want, I know this area pretty well.

GIRL
I know it too.. Its just that I’m bad with maps..
(now muttering to herself)
Which is something I should have thought of before deciding to make one.
But yea.. I’m getting confused about Bajaj Road.. Do you think it turns into Khau gali here or here?
(the man comes over with his coffee)

MAN WITH LAPTOP
Here I think.. why are you making a map, even though its very nice

GIRL
(she sticks a Polaroid where he points)
I don't know really.. I needed to do something.. And I thought of this idea and decided to do it.. Usually I don't finish anything that I begin.. But this time I’m going to.
(She writes something while talking, folds the map and puts it away. The coffee guy comes with her hot chocolate)

MAN WITH LAPTOP
And what do you do otherwise... in general I mean?

GIRL
(she thinks for a while, sips her drink, makes a face)
Mmm.. you know I always hesitate asking that question to anybody.. If a person can answer it in a straightforward manner I don't really want to know them.. And if they cant then there's no use of asking in any case. You get my point? So what do you do..

MAN WITH LAPTOP
(smiles)
Is that a trick question then?

GIRL
Yes.. let me rephrase. What are you doing right now on your fancy laptop?

MAN WITH LAPTOP
I’m trying to write my new stand-up act.

GIRL
Wow you do stand-up comedy? That’s so cool

MAN WITH LAPTOP
Yea.. But its stand up with a difference. I incorporate Indian videos, youtube videos, pictures I may have taken or from the internet into the act.

GIRL
Oh, is it like The Tonight Show or something?

MAN WITH LAPTOP
Not exactly.. Its more guerilla and intimate. You’ll know when you see it.

GIRL
Show

MAN WITH LAPTOP
(laughs)
What show.. It’s 5.30 in the morning

GIRL
Bhaav mat khao yaar

MAN WITH LAPTOP
Acha ok.. But I’m seriously compromising myself here
(the girl makes a mocking face)
So for example this time I’m going to start with a picture, which I don’t have right now, of myself as a kid and dressed like a girl in a pink frilly frock (OR he shows a picture of himself)
(the girl doesn’t show any emotion)
Because I’m a boy you know
(She smiles)
My mom and Bua dressed me up like a girl till I was 5 years because they liked the dresses and accessories made for little girls better. They could have bought a doll but it didn’t occur to them. Which is probably the reason that I do stand up comedy, to assert my masculinity because girls are not funny.
(Now the girl laughs)
I like how you didn’t get offended.

GIRL
Well I am a girl and you were obviously joking. But I know what you mean.. We are so sensitive.. Everyday some community gets offended about some inane thing. It’s like they are waiting to say “You hurt my feelings so I’ll now proceed to burn buses”. Apparently the Indian Motion Pictures would get letters from the Thakur community everytime a Thakur was shown as a villian. No wonder eventually our villians started being called Mogambo and Dr. Dang. Nobody will ask “Mogambo ka gaav ya jati kaunsi hogi?”

MAN WITH LAPTOP
Ha ha. You must allow me to use that in my act.

GIRL
Yea sure... you are paying right?

MAN WITH LAPTOP
(smiles)
Oh yea see this.. Most people have seen this picture of Advani from his election campaign that was plastered all over the city.




(Picture on his laptop)
What the fuck is he doing? Leading the nation or skateboarding
(imitates his pose)

1 Whats and What nots:

Anonymous said...

This is beautiful. I loved it. You understand Linklater's romance quite well.

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