City of Joy Page #3

Synopsis: Hazari Pal lives in a small village in Bihar, India, with his dad, mom, wife, Kamla, daughter, Amrita, and two sons, Shambhu and Manooj. As the Pal are unable to repay the loan they had taken years ago from a moneylender, their land and property are auctioned, and they are rendered homeless. Hazari and his family re-locate to Calcutta with hopes of starting life anew, save some money and go back to Bihar, as well as get Amrita married. Things do not go as planned, as they lose their entire savings to a con-man, Gangooly, who took their money as rent by pretending to be a landlord. Then Hazari gets an opportunity to take up driving a rickshaw manually through a local godfather, Ghatak. He gets to meet a American, Dr. Max Lowe, and together they strike up a friendship along with a local social worker, Joan Bethel. Misunderstandings crop up between Joan and the Godfather, resulting in the shutting down of their shanty medical clinic. When Hazari sides with Joan, his rickshaw is taken away
Genre: Drama
Director(s): Roland Joffé
Production: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
  1 nomination.
 
IMDB:
6.4
Rotten Tomatoes:
53%
PG-13
Year:
1992
132 min
783 Views


EXT. HOWRAH STATION (CALCUTTA) - DAY (EARLY MORNING)

A huge bridge dominates the skyline. The train trundles

to a stop, its WHISTLE clearing the way. People hang onits sides, sit on the roof... and now flood the platform,

flowing into the station, clearing a view for us of thePals, clinging to their baggage in the middle of thishuman anthill.

CLOSE ON THEM (MOVING)

Hands reach out with sweets to sell, with tea, asking for

money.

MANOOJ:

Daddy, I'm scared.

(CONTINUED)

7.

CONTINUED:

HASARI:

Scared? No -- why? This is veryexciting. As soon as we get toour friend's house, everythingwill be fine.

But, despite Hasari's charade of confidence, they (andwe) are overwhelmed by the size of the station and thedesperate energy of the humanity around them. As theypress on, a small beggar woman huddled on the platformturns her eyes eerily on Manooj... as a deformed handstretches INTO the FRAME. Aloka senses someone: A

beggar, face half-hidden and eaten away by leprosy. This

terrifying image presses the boys tightly to theirmother and moves Hasari to encircle Armita with one hand

and attempt to wrap the other three inside the embrace ofhis other hand. It does not seem possible that he canprotect all of them against the predatory eyes watchingthem. He moves them quickly to a wall...

HASARI:

Wait right here. Don't move.

WITH HASARI:

He moves to a line of VENDORS, shows a piece of paper toone, as he digs out his precious screw of money to make apurchase of sweets from the Vendor.

HASARI:

Please, can you direct me to myfriend at this address? We are

to stay with him.

The Vendor gives the address a look, shows it to theVendor next to him. Both look at Hasari.

VENDOR #1

There's no such address as this in

Calcutta.

HASARI:

But that's not possible.

VENDOR #1

Of course it is possible! I have

lived here all my life. You are

new. Who would know if a placeexists or does not?

VENDOR #2

Bombay, perhaps. Delhi. Look

there.

(CONTINUED)

8.

CONTINUED:

Dear God, what now? Stunned, Hasari hands Vendor #1 a

rupee and, with the sweets, turns back to his family, hisface going through a magical transformation as heprepares to suggest to the family that all is well.

EXT. CHOWRINGHEE LANE - DAY (MIDDAY SUN)

A few clean and cared-for Ambassador cars sweep into thegateway of the Grand Hotel, past a gateman.

RACK FOCUS TO:

FEET - MAIDAN

Feet tramping the pulsating tarmac, sending up dust.

ANOTHER ANGLE:

The Pals, scared, dispirited, weary, consumed by thecrowd. They've been walking a long time. Shambu cries;

Aloka tries to ease his fear. They stop numbly at theedge of the park, put their bundles down against a longwall.

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Mark Medoff

Mark Medoff is an American playwright, screenwriter, film and theatre director, actor, and professor. His play Children of a Lesser God received both the Tony Award and the Olivier Award. more…

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