Timeri N. Murari

SYNOPSIS
       An innocent village GIRL, on the eve of her marriage, finds her whole secure life shattered by an unexpected event. She finds herself far from home, facing an alien, predatory world, with no experience to deal with it. Only through good fortune, after a brutalising experience, a reluctant stranger befriends her. He is a Transvestite, a wise, witty character on a journey of his own. He’s an entertainer, earning a living from his performances in villages and on the roadside. She forces him to help her get home. In order to ensure she makes the journey safely and without further harm befalling her, he disguises her as a Man.
     And so they start together on the road: the GIRL now acting the man, the MAN now a woman, on a journey, which neither knows where, or how it will end. Like a ‘LA STRADA’ this is the dramatic story of two people travelling along an endless road, all alone, beyond the boundary of ordinary society, outcasts, slowly coming to terms with each other and the world around them. He teaches her his craft and together they entertain the passing parade of people they come across. The film is also filled with the humour of their many experiences.
    At the same, for the GIRL this is a journey of discovering the freedom of being a man in a male chauvinistic Indian society. Her suppressed spirit soars. She no longer has to behave as the servile, traditional woman.
    But they can’t deny their destinies of being a woman and a man who have gradually fallen in love with each other. And so towards the end of their journey they revert to their sexual identities to fulfil this love. But a journey once begun can never end. Nor can the traveller return to be the person she/he once was. Her past won’t accept her and her future is now irrevocably intertwined with her lover, come what may.

EXCERPT FROM THE SCRIPT

25 INT CAR NIGHT

The interior light is on. They're eating chicken, tearing at the meat hungrily, cracking the bones as they talk. As if they're tearing apart SITA. Almost like savages. SITA crouches in a corner. They discuss her calculatedly, as if she's not even there.
RAVI: How much will she fetch?
GOPAL:Twenty, 25,000.
RAVI: Rosy pays too little. We must try another buyer.

GITA: I'm not selling her. She's going to work for me and Rosy. I'm retiring.
RAVI: What about us?
GITA: I'll pay you five each and 5 percent of her earnings for one year.
RAVI: How much is that?
GITA: Say five men a day for one year. That's an additional 4000.
RAVI: Why only five men? She’s young and strong and quite pretty. She could fuck ten, maybe 15 men a day.
GITA: (angry) do you think a woman’s a machine.. (Pause). I'll make that 5000.
RAVI: We'll think about it.

GITA, RAVI and GOPAL pass a bottle back and forth. They now give some food, chapati and vegetables and SITA wolfs down her food. They laugh at her. She ignores them and finishes.

SITA: I want to pass water.
RAVI: I'll take you. And teach you how to fuck.
GITA: No. It's woman's business.

She reaches to the back, takes down a long nylon rope. She ties SITA'S right hand. Then she takes something else (a torch which we don't see now) and gets out of the car.

26 EXT FIELD NIGHT

GITA feeds out the rope. Then stops SITA. SITA squats.
Surreptitiously, we see her trying to undo the knot in the rope. A torchlight falls on her. GITA tugs hard and SITA falls over. The light remains on her.
GITA stands above her, stares down, then slaps her hard.

GITA: Behave yourself and you won't be beaten.

SITA falls at GITA'S feet and clutches them.

SITA: (weeps) Please, I beg you, let me go home. I am to be married tomorrow. I beg you...take me home.

GITA squats down to face SITA

GITA: (contempt) For what? To live a life of unending drudgery and being the slave of a stupid husband. Tomorrow you'll have luxury and your own money to buy silk sarees and gold jewellery. And you'll enjoy fucking a man for pleasure, not duty.
SITA: (weeps) I don't want that.
GITA: How do you know what you want you ignorant villager? What choice have you ever had?
SITA: Please...I beg you...

GITA slaps her again.

GITA: Now shut up.

Paan stained, sharp teeth, like a trap. Hauls her up roughly and drags her towards the car.

27 INT CAR NIGHT

GITA pushes SITA in. GITA shoves SITA down on the floor.

GITA: You sleep there and don't move.

GITA stretches out on the back seat. The car starts off, again after some efforts. GOPAL drives. He takes a quick shot of liquor.
SITA sits uncomfortably. Tears well, she wipes them away. She looks determined.

28 EXT ROAD NIGHT

Various shots of the road at night. Lorries, busses, glaring headlights. Mile stones.

29 INT CAR NIGHT

GOPAL is drinking. RAVI is asleep.
GITA is asleep. She snores gently and turns over.
GOPAL stares ahead, eyes squinting from the lorry lights. He reaches for the bottle, takes a drink. He looks to sleeping RAVI. GOPAL's eyes close for a moment, then come wide-awake. He hears the click of a door unlocking. He glances back, then adjusts the mirror. He sees nothing, shrugs and continues driving.

30 EXT CAR/ROAD NIGHT

We see the speed of the car. It's going very fast.

31 EXT ROAD NIGHT POV GOPAL

A lorry is coming straight at him. Its lights fill the screen. We hear the screech of brakes.

32 EXT ROAD NIGHT

The Car swerves off the road, into the undergrowth. The door flies open. The lorry races on, taillights disappearing.

33 INT CAR NIGHT

GITA has fallen off the seat, the car door is open. GOPAL is holding his head. RAVI is shaken.

GITA: Banchuth I told you to drive carefully. You could have killed us all.
GOPAL: My head hurts.
RAVI: (angry) I hope it's broken.

GITA manages to sit up. Suddenly she notices SITA's gone.

GITA: She's gone. Quick.

All three stumble out.

34 EXT FIELD NEAR DAWN

It's nearing dawn, though still dark. GITA flashes her torch around. We follow its light moving erratically.

GITA: She won't be far. Spread out.

We see them split apart and move deeper into the fields.
SITA lies in a ditch. Her eyes are shut tight

GITA (OC):I'll beat her within an inch of her life when I find her.
RAVI (OC): Give her to me. I'll cut her to pieces.

SITA slowly she raises her head. A light flashes past. She ducks down fast. Movement nears. We hear, loudly, some one nearing the edge of the ditch.

GOPAL (OC): I've found her.

SITA cringes, shuts her eyes tight.
GITA and RAVI hurry up to GOPAL who is pointing down. GITA flashes the light down.
We follow the light. And see: A log covered with an old cloth.

GITA: Idiot.
GOPAL: It looked like her.

GITA now moves towards the ditch. The other two fan out. GITA stands on the edge of the ditch and her light pans the field. Slowly it comes downward. Finally into the ditch.
The ditch is empty.

GITA: We'll wait until it gets light. She won't have gone far.

We pan to the horizon. The sun is rising. The earth awash with beautiful, pale light. The countryside is lush. In the distance, we glimpse a river.
SITA is cautiously making her way. She stops, out of her own expertise, to examine the cane, sniffs it.

We lift up from her. We see GITA, RAVI and GOPAL cautiously approaching. GITA gestures and GOPAL enters the field. The other two stay to the edges.
SITA stops. She hears GOPAL crashing around. She peeps up, sees her pursuers. She breaks for the bund and starts running. Hair flying, fear giving her speed.
RAVI and GOPAL chase. GITA slower. They're catching up, though not as sure as SITA on the bund.
We hear SITA'S breathing, the slap-slap of bare feet on earth.
RAVI and GOPAL RUNNING
Silhouetted against the horizon. SITA enters the frame, runs across. Then RAVI and GOPAL. All leave frame empty for a second. Then we see GITA walking hurriedly across.
SITA doesn't look back for a few moments. Then, a quick glance. She stumbles and falls. We hear her cry out. She lies there a few seconds, winded.

RAVI (OC) We've got her.

She's frantically picking herself up. She limps a bit as she starts running again.

35 EXT RIVER DAY SITA

She approaches the river. It's flat and calm and maybe 50 feet across. She's breathing hard, shaky.
SITA stops at the water's edge. She looks back.
She sees RAVI and GOPAL running towards her.
SITA hesitates only a moment. She plunges in as RAVI and GOPAL reach the down slope. SITA frantically thrashes through the water. GOPAL runs to the edge, wades in. But she's just out of reach now, swimming.
He stands there frustrated. GITA pants up.

GITA: Get her...get her....
RAVI: I can't swim.

She looks to GOPAL. He shakes his head. GITA watches SITA. They move off.

GITA (OC) Stupid fools. Now we have to go and steal another girl.

SITA pauses, flails, keeps going. We remain on this shore until she reaches the other side. We see her climb the bank and collapse.
OFF CAMERA, we hear faintly a car trying to start up. Once, twice, thrice, finally it does and moves away fast.