Film Treatment

Project: Possibility Pakistan

Opening Sequence
A busy bazaar in the centre of Lahore, vendors on the footpaths, children begging for money, a blacksmith moulding metal, the loud voice of the vegetable seller in the early morning; all represent the very basic sources of earning money in Pakistan, a generally third world country of the world. Being poor should have affected them, but it hasn’t. Old and a little too tired, they all must be. But their expressions are camouflaged. Tabla instrumental in the background is sufficient entertainment for them to feel refreshed and happy.

Scene 2
Load shedding has made the puny room look even darker. A small lantern in the very corner of the room directs light on Jamal, a young boy who is trying impossibly hard to study. Ten people make the room a little too noisy as they laugh and chat, oblivious of Jamal’s resilience to study. But a chubby lady of 40, dressed dirtily with sticky hair, is observing her son with pride but her eyes twitch with annoyance as they look at Surraya, a young girl of only 3, who, unaware of poverty, country’s economic conditions and load shedding is playing innocently with a cackling joker. Unable to hold for long, the lady stomps to Surraya and dragging her across the room, lashes out all her anger at her innocent play in an unnecessary fury. Jamal, perturbed by the chaos in the room, looks up and feels sorry for her sister as his mother gives preference to him over her. Walking to her mother, he takes the cackling joker from her hand, gives it to Surraya.  Holding her sister with one hand and the lantern and his books with the other, he walks quietly out of the house.

Scene 3
A young boy of not more than 10 years old is busy concentrating on the thin strands of thread and the equally small-holed beads, striving to get the thread through them to finish his 98th hand-made bracelet. He has to complete a bunch of 100 bracelets by tonight, or else his father would beat him for the fifth time this week. His hands shiver with the thought of it alone. His eyes water but his pace doesn’t slow. A series of uneducated abuses follow the unexpected end of the candle’s wicker. ‘That was the last match that I had. What now?’ He can already feel his father’s angry lashes on his already injured back. Determined not to fall for the same punishment again, he feels impatiently for any source of even the minutest light but there’s none. Feeling for the contents in the box on his side, he eventually finds a wire. Thinking hard as to what a wire can conjure as light for him, an idea strikes him; something that he had once seen on a student’s project in a car when he used to beg on traffic signals.  Digging deeper in the box, he blindly finds a small bulb and a wasted battery cell that he had sieved from the waste disposal boxes outside the katchi abaadi that he lives in. Connecting the wire, the bulb and the battery cell, he is able to make a small electric circuit successfully. Smiling at his accomplishment, he now has a scientific method to outdo not only his father but the bitter tentacles of load-shedding, too.

Scene 4 

The pavement in the plot outside the house with children sitting on the ground in broad daylight looks like a temporary set-up for education. The young friendly teacher dressed in red looks very cheerful with spectacles and primary books. Her fingers have whitened with chalk and look rough. However, relaxed and determined, she asks a question from the black broad and allows her students to answer. Five students raise their hands and look at her in anticipation. She understands their enthusiasm to answer, hence gives everyone the chance to respond. And they are all correct. Happiness and nervousness breaks down and the students now feel more comfortable in the environment. Their determination to study is not only commendable but is outshone by their dirty but straightened clothes and oily yet combed hair with a desire to be like the educated class that their employers belong to.

                                         

Scene 5
This pleasant Sunday morning is a welcome to a new morning full of hope. Today, the markets are close. No young children begging for change, no young girls with multiple ear piercings, no disturbing sight at least in the main bazaar but the traffic jam at the Cavalry Ground is a rude interruption to the otherwise peaceful day. But this traffic jam is another happy surprise as two young boys and three girls roam around the jam-packed cars with a box in their hand. A box saying, ‘For Charity. Our Under-Privileged Siblings have a Right to be Happy.’ Finely dressed in casual clothes, they look educated and their cheerful expressions, their cause and their support hold a lot more significance of their view towards change, towards revolution; of actually looking beyond the obvious, of being something more than what is inside the box.

Closing Scene
(Will be a graphic collation of all the scenes and the concept behind each scene will be highlighted to give a summarised conclusion to the film.)