Synopsis
#3:
Title: The Comic Book Hero
Idea: Love’s Labour
Plot: After-hours antics rescuing damsels in distress based on
childhood comic book heroes wins a graphic artist the heart of the woman
responsible for producing blockbuster content for her media house
Genre:
Romance
Script
Regn No (SWA): 35036
Membership
No: 49484
A small-town boy brought up on Phantom, Tarzan and Spiderman comics studies graphic design. On graduation he joins a film production house as a graphic artist doing storyboards. He becomes a part-time cab driver attached to one of the ride-hailing platforms to pick up stories by eaves dropping on his riders’ conversations. He lives out his hero fantasies in real life by helping some of them in their distress. Under a pseudonym he sends storylines to the media house production director. The resultant serial generates blockbuster TRPs even as the protagonist continues to be a lowly graphic artist in the media house living a double life. All he cares for is to be close to his sweetheart who works there and who thinks he is a genius because of his contributions to her story development skills making her a star in the company.
Main Protagonists Background – The Springboard on which the Story is
Built
A small-town boy with doting parents who love his graphic design
abilities and his prowess at giving voice to his characters bringing them alive
in the voice of the Bollywood stars’ voice, diction and intonations.
The Story
Seg 1
Ram liked nothing better than to run off to the local second-hand bookstore every bit of free time he has, retreat into a corner, and devour the comics the store keeper generously lets him have. When he is home, he traces some of the characters and scenes and displays them on the wall. He also gives voice to his characters by imitating the leading actors of the day.
Seg II
His parents who run a small grocery business encourage him. He wins the best student award for art and drawing and a scholarship to the JJ School of Arts in Mumbai. At graduation he is campus placed at a major media house making hit serials as a graphic artist.
Seg III
In the media house there is a clear hierarchy of sales and marketing people and the storywriters for the serials and then there is the studio where all the graphic artists and production people sit. Ram does the job he is given to do but his heart is on what the storywriters do. They are better paid and tend to win trade awards and bonuses when their work does well. And, of course there is Gita. He cannot take his eyes of her and she rarely lays her eyes on him even when briefing him on a storyline. Of course, she is the favourite of many other male writers.
Seg IV
Ram figures the only way to get her attention is to become a storywriter himself. He is chatting one day with a friend Shashi from his home town who is the operations and cybersecurity manager at Uber the riding-hailing cab company. Ram asks him if the cab drivers do not tire of driving around the whole day. His friend says not really. Some are on their phone the whole day talking to all their friends. Some eaves drop on the riders’ conversations and are amused by the life of the rich who use the service. It could be of grief, joy, victory, achievement, punishment, schemes, fear …whatever.
Ram realizes where he can get story ideas and impress Gita. He asks his friend if he will let him drive his car as a cab when he is not at work. His friend agrees.
Seg V
The very first passenger he picks up is Hema Chakravarty, a pretty, Smita Patil-type dusky woman in her late twenties, who is confiding in her friend on the phone that she fears going home because of her abusive husband who needs no excuse to beat her up. She suspects he is having an extra marital affair because when a certain call comes, he runs off to a corner of the house even when dead tired after piloting a long flight.
Ram drops the woman at her upscale apartment. He is agitated by what he hears. She seems like such a sweet woman. How can this monster do this to her? Ram decides he is going to fix this problem. He saves her number and name on the phone and the home location.
Seg VI
On a Sunday Ram sets up a watch on the apartment block. When the security cabin is left with just one person, he heads to the cabin and tells them that madam has called for the cab but she is not answering the phone. The security reaches for the register and traces his finger on the flat owner name and flat no.
During the conversation Ram notes the flat number and pretends that he is getting a call from madam and retreats from the security office telling them all is fine. He also notes the adjoining flat no and one floor above and below owners’ name. As a graphic artist Ram has a photographic memory – from all the seeing an object and tracing without the object in front of him.
Seg VII
He turns up again as a Zomato delivery boy with the name of the person on the flat above. Security man lets him into the apartment. He rings the middle-aged woman’s door bell. A man emerges. He was dressed up to pilot a flight. Ram attempts to handover the food packet but the man says he has not ordered any food. He calls out to his wife angrily if she had ordered food. Ram looks at the invoice and the door number. He apologizes and says the food parcel is for the person on the floor above. He pretends to go to the upper floor and descends by lift and exits the apartment.
Seg VIII
Ram calls up his friend Shashi at Uber and gives the name of the pilot and the location asking him to send him the notification when the pilot attempts to book the cab. Ping! he gets the notification and accepts the ride.
Ram picks up the pilot and they head to the airport. During the ride the pilot is flirting on the phone with his mistress Seema and telling her how he beat up his wife for ordering food when she had not ordered food. Accusing her wanting to have an affair with delivery boys.
He tells her it is important to build a case to plead for divorce if she does not ask for it. That’s why the beatings. And soon Seema and he can be together when the consignment arrives. He talks a bit in code about Dubai embassy and some staff over there who are shipping gold into the country as part of diplomat’s baggage.
Ram drops the pilot at the airport. Before the pilot gets off the phone with his mistress, she tells him to call on a separate sim number which she shares with him. He asks her to message it to him since he cannot note it down as he is in cab. Ram records the whole conversation on his phone and saves the pilot and mistress’ number in his address book on the phone.
Seg IX
Ram calls up the pilot’s mistress Seema from his phone pretending to be the pilot. He tells her that he too picked up a sim at the airport and she too should call him only on this sim. But depending on his convenience he will call her from either phone. Also, when the consignment comes someone will call her and inform in case he is on a flight and the consignment needs urgent attention.
Seg X
Ram reaches out to the media house under his friend Shashi’s name and address and of course changed voice. He shares with the production director a basic story outline. The director gets excited and connects him to Gita who will work with him on developing the story. They work out a contract based on TRP generated by the serial.
Seg XI
Following day Gita in turn calls Ram and says that they need to work on
a storyboard for a new serial. Ram and Gita begin working together. As the
story comes in and Gita does not understand something Ram suggests what could
have happened and helps her take the story forward. She is amazed at his
ability to forecast what is going to happen. Rightly enough when Shashi / Ram
sends in the next episode to the serial it is pretty close. Gita praises Ram.
She confides that it is his inputs that is making her a star in the company.
Seg XII
Compelled now to take the story further Ram informs Shashi about what is happening on the smuggling front with embassy stuff and pilot being involved. But Ram tells Shashi that he does not want the pilot to get into trouble. But, he wants the mistress to go to jail for being a marriage breaker.
Seg XIII
Shashi contacts his counterpart in airport security who had done a cybersecurity course with him. He informs him that the information is being given by an informant on the condition that the pilot will not be put into trouble unless otherwise told.
Seg XIV
The pilot’s phone is tapped. The consignment information is collected. Because the sleuths are listening, they jam the line and the pilot does not get the details. He just hears the line is bad and that the counterparts in Dubai will reconnect. He manages to tell them that he going on a flight and a woman will come to the airport on 20th 5 pm and pick up the consignment from the man wearing a golf cap.
Seg XV
The consignment arrives. Ram calls up Seema pretending to be one of the smuggling team members and tells her to pick up the assignment from a courier at the airport. She turns up at the airport. The courier signals her to a lonely part of the airport and hands over the consignment. The sleuths round them up and charge them.
Seg XVI
Ram reaches out to the pilot and tells him what happened. He tells him the police have the record on him. He tells him about the poor phone connection when the call was picked up by the pilot. He gives him a deal. Turn in the names of all the accomplices and he will cut him a deal. Also, when he gets home carry a present for his wife – a gold set. Take her out for dinner and apologize for his rudeness. Ram tells him that he is keeping an eye on him and his wife. If he is ever rude or nasty to her or ever raises his hand on her or as much as a frown, the information that is already with the police will be acted on.
Seg XVII
Ram continues his double life as a lowly graphic artist and cab driver. Listening into his riders’ joys, sorrow, situations and figuring out ways to help them incognito. And, converting his efforts into content for hit TV serials by helping his sweet heart add value to the story sent by alias Shashi/him and winning her affection and complete dependency on him a simple small-town genius with a multi-million-dollar house he hopes she will one day share with him.
Curtains
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