A black wall – Credits

A hot humid room. Incandescant light. 100W bulb may be. There is a song playing in the background on a cheap speaker, probably a mobile speaker or a cheap FM radio. It is an Ilayaraja song (or aadukalam song). It is not loud but faintly audible. It is unnaturally quiet. Broken only by the speaker’s noise.

Nondescript chatter begins…

The wall shown is dirty. Paint peeling off here and there. There are blood stains on the wall. A few palm impressions in blood on the wall.

As we look to the right, a calendar with a big picture of Jesus Christ, Shiva and Muslim scripture hangs. Ajanta lamps is written in the bottom of the small calendar. Days are crossed out till January 23^rd, 2014. A blinking array of serial lights decorate the wall above the calendar.

Nondescript chatter slowly becomes clear…

Voice 1 – A 45 some voice commands, “Do it correctly. We have to drain every last drop of blood before the heart stops beating. That is proper halal cut. A little bit to the right.”

Voice 2 – A 30-35 voice – “ok” (with a nodding head)

Our eyes move ahead. There is a plug point and a charger is connected. Our eyes move down to a mobile phone FM in loudspeaker mode with headphones connected. Our eyes move ahead to a set of knives used for butchering. Our eyes move ahead to the light source above the knives.

Voice 1 – “Recall the last time? One customer brought back the stuff. I gave him a new one and a discount. What was it – mutton or chicken?”

Voice 2 – “I remember. Mutton.”

Exhaust fan is off but rotating with the faint wind. There is a morning sunshine outside. Faint light.

Song stops. Power goes off.

Voice 2 grumbles. Voice 1 no response. Heavy breathing. May be there is a third person in the room!

Light comes back. Chicken crying noise!

Our eyes moves to the right. We see mutton, chicken and other non vegetarian items hanging upside down. Light blinks.

Our eyes continue moving. We see a a pair of human legs tied upside down. Our eyes move forward. Another set of mutton and chicken limbs.

We are shocked and eyes pan back to the legs. It struggles once and becomes still.

Light goes off.

Credits…

Storyboard

Scene 1:

Single shot sequence. Long Take. Single person POV.

Inside a minimally lit single butcher shop. Most probably has a 100W bulb in the center of the room. Early morning hours.

Camera is placed in the entry of the room placed in the center turned at 90 degrees to its left.

FM Radio running. Nondescript chatter.

Shot

Exhaust fan (rotating due to natural wind and pressure difference) on the right side of the screen.

Credits rolling out on the left side of screen. Credit ends and shot starts panning.

Panning speed slow – define frames per second.

Exhaust fan connected to power to a plug board.

Panning starts

Camera traces exhaust fan cable to the switch board. It has 3 plug points.

First one is connected to fan.

Second one connected to a mobile phone adapter.

Third one to serial lights.

We trace second one down to mobile phone.

FM is playing on it.

Panning continues at that level

There are couple of butcher knives with blood a few feet to the right.

Voice 1 – A 45 some voice commands, “Do it correctly. We have to drain every last drop of blood before the heart stops beating. That is proper halal cut. A little bit to the right.”

Voice 2 – A 30-35 voice – “ok” (with a nodding head)

Camera starts moving up the light source on the wall which is a serial light.

We find a calendar with days crossed out till January 2014.

A calendar with a picture of Jesus Christ, Shiva and a Muslim scripture hangs. Ajanta lamps is written in the top of the small calendar. The blinking array of serial lights decorate the wall above the calendar and goes to the left of the screen.

Panning continues at that level – head level.

We continue at that level to the right.

We see mutton, chicken and other non vegetarian items hanging upside down.

Power off

Voice 2 grumbles. Voice 1 no response. Heavy breathing. May be there is a third person in the room!

Light flickers and our eyes continue moving. We see a a pair of human legs tied upside down. Our camera / eyes move right as if nothing happened. Another set of mutton and chicken limbs.

After a second eyes pan back quickly to the human legs. The hung human legs struggles (wriggles) once more and goes still.

Light goes off completely.

Last shot:

Melting painting on left side with credits rolling on the right.

~ Trilok ~