LOGLINE

Humans are a bag of emotions. Love, anger, grief, lust, jealosy are some emotions
that drive us to act and then we are filled with either a sense of fulfillment and satis-
faction or emptiness and sometimes the most dangerous, that is guilt. Guilt has the
power to transform people both ways for the better or for the worse but it asks for a
release. Consumed in guilt, a life is only suffocating.

This is a series of six stories exploring the complex human mind and the way it reacts
to guilt- a sense, that is born within but soon grows to make one feel trapped and
eventually exhausted trying to fight it. Only a few succeed in breaking out but those
who do, they transform.

STORIES

Pencil

Set during the early eighties in Shimla, the film explores guilt of an 8 year old boy who
fights over a pencil with his best friend. His complaint to the teacher earns his friend
a punishment. He feels sorry for his friend but only on getting home he realizes that it
was all his fault and that his pencil was always with him and the one that he fought for
was actually his friend’s pencil.

Guilt assumes the shape of an insect for this entomophobic boy and his fears push
him to make a choice between accepting his mistake and living with it at the cost of
losing his friend and more importantly, losing his peace of mind.

Metamorphosis

Set in the 90s , in Raja Bajaar, Kolkata, a 13 year old boy in his adolescent years, is
bullied by everyone. His life changes over a summer vacation when a newly wed cou-
ple moves into his neighborhood. Their open window lets him into their most intimate
moments. He experiences thrill and excitement beyond something that his body can
contain and his life erupts into a whole new world thats unknown but fun to be in.

Watching them becomes a regular affair for him. Puberty often comes with random
concoctions cooking in the mind and the lady from the neighbourhood soon becomes
an obsession.
It all comes tumbling down, when he is caught watching his neighbour by the lady
herself. He knows that he has in some way betrayed a bond of trust that the lady had
bestowed upon him by being kind to him while everyone else seemed mean.
Guilt creeps in and he feels arrested.

One day, he is introduced to the extreme violence and abuse in the relationship. He
knows he has to do something to help her. in his mind, this is also a way for him to
absolve himself of the sin that he has commited.

In his tiny capacity he stands up and decides to help her out.

Metamorphosis is about the transformation that he goes through, both physical and
psychological from being a weak boy to a man who stands for the right things.

The Message

On the Valentine’s Day of 2002, in Pune, 21 years old Kishor wants to send a message
to one of his classmates Sheeba, proposing her of his love. He has secretly admired
her beauty and has often caught her watching him unaware.

He knows she feels the same way for him and its a matter of making it official at some
point. Today seems like the most appropriate, when the whole class is gathered at the
hostel cafeteria at the evening party.

He wants to write something very sweet to her that can truly unfurl the love that he
feels for her, in his heart. He realizes that he needs to recharge his prepaid phone.

He heads to the nearest store to recharge his phone and meets this beautiful girl
at the counter. He can’t be not smitten by the her beauty. Its raining outside and as
Kishor waits for the recharge, he sets off on a dream with this girl on the counter.

It all feels fresh, fragrant and beautiful around as he walks with this girl along a lonely
path holding hands under their yellow umbrella. The path seems unknown and its too
misty to see anything beyond a certain point. Its all so nice and dreamy but it feels like
a tiny thorn bothering Kishor all through out. Its Sheeba and her love for him.

She has never said that to him but he knows that she loves him. Guilt plays on Kishor
and he knows its wrong. He wakes up from his dream to realise that his recharge
hasnt happened.
Its a case of the recharge happening on another number by mistake for which the old
lady at the till, who is the young girl’s gand ma doesnt want to take any responsibilty.
Its a significant amount of his pocket money and if he has lose that money he will have
to use up some more money to get a recharge so he can send that message to
Sheeba. That will not leave him any more to buy her a gift.

This special occassion where he would speak of his love to a young woman already
seems to be going in a not-so-special place soon. Weighed down by his guilt and this
mishap Kishor decides to run through the rains to propose Sheeba.

But life has a different plan for him. As he reaches there, he realises that the party has
begun. People with their respective partners have all gathered there and are huddling
around something. He makes his way to the epicenter only to find Rishabh, from his
senior class on his knees proposing to Sheeba, who is all smiles with her face partly
covered behind a bouquet of beautiful flowers.

The whole class claps as Sheeba accepts Rishabh’s proposal. Kishor, still drenched
in rain can hide his tears.

Lust to Love

Its 2009, 25 years old, Krishnan Srinivasan, now Chris, is a casting agent in a model-
ing agency in Mumbai. He is tried hard to bring about a transformation from being a
good boy from a modest Tamil background to this cool dude just to be a part of the
hep fashion fraternity. The transformation has made him wear colored pants, gel up
his hair, drink and consume stuff and behave in certain ways that is perceived ‘Cool’.
Life seems to be good.

Its the 10th weekend in a row when he will be bedding a model. Its casual jokes at
first in the name of breaking the ice and creating a comfort level to work together, and
then innuendos will work as a bridge to reach the final culmination on the bed. The
drill is a standard operating procedure and Chris knows it very well by now.

Shibani, an aspiring model/actress, from Ranchi with a brilliant academic background

happens to meet Chris for work and forms an instant connection. She is his date for
this Saturday evening. Shibani knows well that it will almost be impossible for her to
break in to the industry without certain compromises. Inexperienced, Shibani chooses
to give it a go with Chris, who she considers a good friend and trusts him the most of
all the people she has met.
Chris, is excited for the evening. But things change when he succumbs under the
pressure of trust that Shibani has forced upon him. The story explores how humans
react under different situations and how the inherent character that forms in us while in
our growing years surely peeps out loud.

Two Stones

Its 2014, 35 years old, Rajveer, living in Delhi, is going through a divorce. 7 years of
marriage with Shefali had started crumbling almost 3 years back. Though she has
tried to make it work, but now it feels its time to break apart.

Misunderstandings have replaced love in their lives. Rajveer, has always blamed this
on Shefali and her alleged affair with Shikhar, who he thinks has manipulated her.
Overall, he has blamed his ill fate and these external forces for his broken marriage.

To escape the agony for a bit, Rajveer decides to take a trip to his hometown in Pun-
jab, a small township 300 kms away from Delhi, where he spent the best years of
his life growing up with his family and friends. Traveling around his school, the play-
ground etc reminds him of the wonderful times he had spent there.

While walking, he comes by an old bank. He remembers how his dad, a bursar, would
come there for work and bring him and his brother just for their mum to have some
time in peace. Like all kids, they would play around the peepul tree. They had found
their toy in stones. They would hide the stones and come back to look for them in their
next visit.

Remembering all this, Rajveer, is keen to find the stones now. He remembers that they
had both hidden it together on the tree trunk right before Rajveer was leaving for Delhi
for his Boarding School.

Years of stay in the boarding school away from the family and away from his brother
has Rajveer loose his sense of bonding. Puberty, new friends. new aspirations, drugs
has him completely loose all perspective in life.
A selfish lie to protect himself and save his image in front of his parents and friends
costs the life of his brother in an accident.

Under the peepal tree near the bank, Rajveer discovers the 2 stones in the same
place where him and his brother had hidden them the last time they had been their
playing together. His fortified guilt emerges as tears roll down his cheeks to a deep
realization. He had secretly blamed himself everyday for his dear brother‘s death but
had known no way to break out of it or even change his approach towards life and
relationships.

The 2 stones- 2 inanimate objects sticking together for years against the forces of
nature, as if abiding by a secret pact, seem like life’s way of showing him how he had
been on the wrong side again with regard to his relationship with his wife.

The Phone Call

Set in 2017, Mumbai, Mr. David Gonsalves is a widower living a solitary and sedentary
life, mostly on his couch, in his one bedroom flat in Bandra. Under a stoic exterior, still
lives a man made up of flesh and blood, which is hungry for affection, love and atten-
tion. Also, its an early onset of Alzeimer’s for him.

A phone call that becomes a regular visitor changes the course of his life. It seems an
unknown caller at first but then David recognises the caller to be his long lost daugh-
ter. He is hesitant at first but then opens up. Years of solitude and this immense plea-
sure of speaking to his own daughter after ages brings about a different David as he
eagerly waits for the call every single day.

Through his conversations, we get to peep into David’s decrepit past. We discover
that he had been a talented but unsuccessful violinist. But his love for his music and a
obsessive hunger for a name for himself had had him sacrifice his family. All his du-
ties towards his family had been ignored and his painful failures had made him a very
bitter man.

Through the course of the phone conversations, we realise how he had lost his family
to a horrible accident in which his wife and his 3 year old daughter had been burnt to
ashes.
Though it was an unfortunate accident for the world and David had surely earned
sympathies, but he had been under the burden of a guilt. That ominous night,
David had been home playing a solo by Bach on B minor (https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=iEBX_ouEw1I).

The family had been living in a state of poverty and the little child Maria cried sitting
on the floor. Clara, David’s wife angry and exhausted pounces on David to seek for
answers to all those wedding vows and promises that he had made to her. Under a
spell of rage he pushes her away, she hits her head on the wall and falls down. She in
her fall hits against the stool holding the burning candle that falls and catches fire.

Angry and grief striken he turns his back to his crying 3 year old daughter who gets
consumed by the fire.

As the house turns to ashes, Davids rage settles down soon to turn into a huge ball
of guilt that has kept him on the edge all through his life, eversince. He had alienated
himself from the world, after that and nothing sounded like music in his ears.

Years later, the phone call seems to coincide with that hope to settle things inside of
him. Lines blur in his sub conscious and he goes on to believe that its a call from his
daughter who is grown up now.

Through the film he talks to Maria as he explore his life in flashbacks only to speak out
and accept his responsibility, all aloud.

If the phone calls were real or a figment of his imagination which occurred with his
Alzheimer’s growing worse is kept open to interpretation.

But having released all that bile that he had bourne in the core of his heart all these
years and the acceptance of his mistake aloud helps him feel much lighter. Ofcourse
he loses his mind by the end...but dies a happy man in his bath tub.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

The ability to receive, reflect, introspect and react through emotions makes us
Humans. Our experiences and the outcomes sieved through our conscience helps us
develop into the people that we become.

In our society, we have always tried to create a divide in terms of the gender - Men Vs
Women. And we have stereotyped these genders so much now that we often forget
that we are all humans first.

In a patriarchal setting where men are supposed to be ultra macho and tough,
’Echoes’ attempts to bring out a subject thats countercultural - Boys do cry and men
do feel the pain.

Being human, they do have poignant moments. Moments when they feel guilty, sorry,
loved, lovelorn and vulnerable.

‘Echoes’ is an anthology that captures, the voices from deep within the human mind.

VISUAL TREATMENT

Each film will have a unique visual imagery given the time and place that its set in.

Pencil is set in the 80s in a cold and quaint little township up North with a Victorian In-
fluence in terms of architecture. The sereness and the cold weather will help be a bed
for a story with an innocent kid learning a new lesson in life.

The story is based in and around a school and James’s room, in his house. The
school is supposed to be reputed and an old colonial structure. The students studying
there come from polished backgrounds. The school is on a hill station and the road to
it is very scenic.

The film will capture beautiful compositions under day light and gritty and mood lit in-
doors for the feel to have a distinct contrast. The cold ambience will allow a bed to set
this story in a space that is filled with grief , guilt and nausea. The beautiful exteriors
will help in the way of a release.

Sillouette, shadows and reflections will be added to accentuate certain emotions and
moments in the film.
VISUAL TREATMENT

Metamorphosis is set in the 90s in Kolkata. Its in one of those old quintessentially
Bengali households with old furniture and windows and doors painted green. Two
such houses would usually face each other and only a narrow lane would seperate
them.

The inside of these houses are amply lit during the day but dimly lit under the yellow
light during the night.This setting will allow for the film to have a contrast. The boy
feels weak and inept but slowly theres a transformation. The scenes are planned in
the day and night basis the mood that the emotion requires in a certain scene.
VISUAL TREATMENT

The Message, is set in the early 2000s in Pune. Its a fairly modern setting, mostly un-
der the evening light. The film ends under a setting Sun as Kishor’s heart sinks seeing
his crush being wooed by someoe else.

The film is shot mostly hand held depicting Kishor’s wavering interest in women. He is
nice but shaky and unsure through the film. The floaty camera will capture the
chaos and noise on a regular day at a market place in Pune. But there will be dream
sequences which will be distinctly different in etrms of compositions. They will be con-
ventionally pretty frames, less jerky in sync with the stabilty and a sense of settlement
that Kishor is seeking for.
VISUAL TREATMENT

Lust To Love, is set with the backdrop of fashion in it. The industry is glossy, glam-
orous but cosmetic. The characters in the film are all pretending to be someone that
they are not to a point when they cant hide their core characters that they have con-
cealed all through out.

The film is captured with a lot of style and beauty. Most of the shots are indoors and
are mood lit. The sensuality is accentuated with music. The film begins with shots that
touch upon the characters superficially. Hence the camera will capture a lot of wides,
mid longs and mid shots. But as the film proceeds, and we get to know the characters
up and close, the camera frames them on tele and sometimes macro lenses.

The camera is also used to play with the focus given that the sharpness of thinking is
lost at a point for all the characters.
VISUAL TREATMENT

Two Stones, is with a breaking marriage in the backdrop. Thers a lot of stress and
tension stemming from insecurities, egos and inhibitions. A minimalistic approach in
terms of lighting will be assumed, in sync with the sparseness that has remained in
the marriage.

A lot of the film will be outdoors as the character rediscovers the path to happiness.
The contrast in the lighting will allow for the contrast in the story come out more evi-
dently.
Certain dream sequences will be shot with imagery thats graphic and stark. The idea
is to introduce a sense of clarity and vividness as the protagonist is achieving clarity in
his perspective of life.
VISUAL TREATMENT

The Phone Call - The high contrast and dimly lit ambience in David’s room will lend a
grim and intense look and will add a lot of atmosphere and depth. The idea is to cre-
ate a moment of crisis played out in emotional subtlety.

The extremely nuanced performance with a lot of emphasis on camera work in sync
with the mood in the scene will help bring out the wide emotional spectrum from the
depression to a happier state and eventual mental deterioration, better.

For instance, the beginning of the story depicts a mundane, and stoic existence of
David. The shots will be stable, occasionally on the tracks, slow and long. And as the
film progresses and the mood shifts to the opposite side where David is anxious, to
stimulate the same feelings through the camera the shots will be kept short in length,
losing focus in bits with a lot of Close ups and Extreme Close Ups and occasionally
going hand held.

The dream sequence of David will predominantly be high speed.

Again, the lighting will be kept in tune and hence it will be mood lit with mostly practi-
cal lighting methods. The emptiness in the life of David will be backed by a bare and
minimal sound design mostly constituting ambient sounds and a hint of diegetic mu-
sic, predominantly classical violin music from old cassettes that David is listening to
as well as him playing the violin to punctuate certain emotions in the film.
DIRECTOR’S PROFILE

Shubie is a Writer and Director based in London. Coming from a design background
his work is always visually rich and extremely cinematic.

His beautifully crafted storytelling and keen editorial eye paired with a strong back-
ground in Visual Effects struck a chord with creative agencies in India and U.K.

He has eversince been working with clients such as The Economist, Marriott, Castrol,
Fed Ex, Maybelline, Lenovo, Samsung, Carlsberg, Nokia, Sony Pictures, Pepsi Co,
Cadbury, Honda, Acer, Mahindra & Mahindra Automobiles, Nicorette, Reliance, Nero-
lac, Godrej, Appy Parking etc..

He has worked as a Director, Creative Director, VFX Art Director and Production De-
signer and brings together a wealth of expertise with which he creates his cinemati-
cally driven and visually inventive ideas.

*All images in the presentation are not actual project images and are strictly for representational
purposes only.