Tasher Ghawr (2020) Movie Script

In the last 24 hours,
23452 new cases of coronavirus
and 700 deaths have been reported
in India.
(TV playing)
Sujata!
Sujata?
Uff!
Damn it!
-Sujata!
-Coming!
So annoying!
(TV playing)
Sujata, the Ayurvedic herbal juice.
A HOUSE OF CARDS
Oh my God!
Sujata?
What's all the noise about?
I've been telling you for so long.
All this noise is so I don't have to hear
what he's saying.
Uff!
Who can tolerate it?
The same complaints every day.
"Will I at all get breakfast today?"
All he does is eat
through the day!
Order after order.
A four course breakfast.
And then he feels hungry
right after lunch.
In the evening, he wants flat bread
and a little later...
...puffed rice with peanuts.
He overeats at dinner
and burps in the middle of the night!
Uff!
Earlier, his tirades were limited
to Sundays.
But now, every day is Sunday!
But a few days
ago when I told him...
that the house is
infested with rats...
Even in the kitchen, you know.
They're wreaking havoc!
He said, "Don't worry.
Even the rats won't like
your horrible food."
That's when I understood.
If rats reject my cooking...
then cows and goats too...
(song playing)
This lockdown...
When will it end?
What's wrong?
-Am I going to get breakfast at noon?
-Yeah!
No...
Damn it!
Nonsense!
I feel suffocated.
(song playing)
No.
Not that I like going out much.
I'm not very social.
The woman in that house there.
The house just opposite ours.
Her name is Tulika or something.
She used to come over
for a chat sometimes.
Whenever she came over...
I would press against my teeth
and cry out in pain!
I would almost crush my cheeks in.
I'd tell her that I have
such a bad toothache
that it aches all the way
up to my head.
Then I told her...
that my gums give out a terrible stench.
"See for yourself, you'll know
if you come close."
I've told her so many times...
about this toothache.
Uff!
She must have thought
that I have tooth cancer.
And that my gums
are completely rotten!
She doesn't come over anymore.
Actually, I love solitude.
I cook by myself...
Walk around the house...
I sing...
There's fabulous play
In the house of cards
The joy of sea waves breaking
On the shore
A little light is all it takes
For a young plant to grow
And for birds to know their way back home
I have no story to tell
I quite like staying alone at home.
And I didn't even keep a maid
so that I can stay all alone in the house.
I know it's really difficult for everyone
during the lockdown...
because domestics can't come.
But I have no problem with that.
Let the clouds cover the sky
Early in the day
Someone comes to your dreams
At the crack of dawn
I switch on all the fans at home.
They keep spinning.
They spin continuously...the fans.
My curtains flutter in the wind.
Indebted to the season that forbids sorrow
A clear mirror appears on an immaculate day
And the plants in my garden...
love the rays of the sun!
Indebted to the season that forbids sorrow
A clear mirror appears on an immaculate day
Displayed in myriad disguises
A spell of stormy winds
Takes my joys up into the skies at will
KALIYUG
(THE DARK AGE)
When I water my plants,
the soil gives out a beautiful smell.
I find it amazing!
I feel drawn to smell, you know.
So many different kinds
of smell.
When I roll out the dough
for flat bread...
the flour has its own smell.
When I cut vegetables
with the knife...
there's a steel-like smell
in the knife.
When I clean raw fish...
there's a mixed smell
of blood and water.
A fishy smell.
The reddish smell...
is a favourite.
Smells have colour too, you know.
When I hang out the clothes
on the terrace...
the wet clothes have a smell.
A bluish smell.
The wet, fishy smell makes me feel like
a fish that escaped from a fishing net.
Feels like school is over!
I feel as if a large cloud
will make me fly into the skies...
just before it starts to rain.
One day I had told my husband
about these smells and their colours.
That was many years ago.
Ever since, he thinks I'm completely crazy!
I have no story to tell
Then, he got a new girlfriend.
A lover.
If you say your wife is crazy,
it's grounds for sympathy...
and it's easier to get a girlfriend.
Isn't it?
Hmm?
My husband's girlfriend.
God knows where they met.
Who cares anyway.
I'm relieved
that he's not my headache anymore.
He leaves home at nine a.m. these days.
Then, after he's done with office
and meeting his girlfriend...
he returns at midnight.
I meant before the lockdown.
Uff!
-Sujata, is it done?
-It's ready.
When he's not there,
I have the whole house to myself.
I watch TV by myself
in the evenings...
Have some snacks...
Make some flat bread...
Each one has a different shape
and size!
I made one yesterday, you know.
It looked like a sickle.
How I was beaten up
after that, my goodness!
-What's this in the juice?
-Oh...
What tastes so bitter?
I think some apple seeds
might have remained...
-Nonsense! Apple seeds, my foot!
-I didn't see, it was a mistake.
Bullst!
Uff!
Had it been a real sickle...
He would probably hit me with it.
But what can I do?
There's no point blaming my husband.
He has become cranky staying home,
all day.
He can't meet his girlfriend at all.
Can't cuddle her.
What are you doing?
She must be in the kitchen.
I miss your cooking.
"You aren't letting him touch you, right?
Him touching you,
making love to you...
I just can't bear it!"
No, just a minute.
"You aren't letting him touch you, right?
Him touching you, making love to you...
I just can't bear it!"
No, no that.
"I just cannot tolerate, Sharmi."
Now Sharmi says...
"What to do, Dilu?
You know, right?
Because of this idiotic lockdown...
He's also at home...
All the time.
How can I help it?
He follows me around all the time
and gnaws at me whenever he gets a chance.
I feel like killing him, baby."
"Dilu baby" is Dilip,
my husband.
Uff!
And the moment he heard this,
my husband was shocked out of his wits.
"What do you mean he gnaws at you?
What the hell is going on?"
Uff!
Their affair stinks
like a sore, you know.
A little pus, a little blood...
When you apply medicated powder
on a wound and the pus gushes out?
The medicine gets mixed with the blood...
It becomes disgusting,
making you feel nauseous.
Their affair is like that.
Exactly like that.
Gooey, sticky,
poisonous.
I've seen sores like this before.
Do you know where?
On my mother-in-law's back.
She had bed sores.
Uff! She would hurl
all kinds of abuses at me all day.
Yet, she got sores on her back
instead of in her mouth.
Just imagine!
Uff!
These rats won't let me live in peace!
(muffled shouting)
Daughter-in-law!
(indistinct shouting)
My mother-in-law, during her last days,
screamed a lot.
It drove me nuts.
She was paralysed after her stroke.
I couldn't take it anymore.
So one day, my mother-in-law...
fell off the bed
and died.
She cracked her skull, you see.
It was a minor crack.
But it bled for a long time.
I think I gave her
too many of those blood thinner tablets.
My husband says I'm an illiterate villager
who doesn't know English.
Apparently I didn't understand
the doctor's prescription.
I think, instead of the medicine
for her nerves...
I must have given her
the blood thinner tablets thrice a day.
Anyway.
She was in a pool of blood
in her room.
I had just...
fried some potato fritters
with cumin seeds...
put together a snack...
taken a bite out of a green chilli
and sat down to watch a movie.
TV shows are indeed very loud.
Still, I watch them sometimes.
When I need a lot of noise.
(TV playing)
I needed a lot of noise that day too.
Maybe that's why I didn't realise
when my mother-in-law fell down.
I didn't hear her whimper.
I had dozed off
while watching the TV.
Her son,
my husband...
brought the house down
when he returned at night.
His mom fell and bled to death
without me even realising?
How can I be so irresponsible?
There was a lot of shouting.
Hmm...
Into the incinerator went my mother-in-law.
When were back from the crematorium,
my husband beat me a lot.
I silently accepted it.
Oh shoot!
I had blood clots all over.
That day I came to know.
My blood,
my mother-in-law's blood...
A fish's blood...
They all smell different.
Anyway.
No one shouts and screams now.
My ears and mind don't ache from it.
My mother-in-law's room had a strange...
...smell of pus, blood, antiseptics,
her ointments...
All of these mixed together
to give off a weird smell.
That's not there anymore.
I miss that a little.
But what to do?
Can't have everything the way we like them.
Where did they go?
Hey!
I'll kill you today, just wait!
I'm sure they've escaped
to the living room.
They just won't let me live in peace!
The cakes got burnt too.
Damn it!
I will end this today.
You have to eat everything, isn't it?
Everything from furniture to clothes!
Just wait.
Today you can have a feast!
Sorry.
I got so busy driving these rats away
that forgot I was chatting with you.
They've made life hell.
I've poisoned the flour so many times.
If only they ate that and died,
but no.
Raw flour doesn't appeal
to their taste buds.
Pests!
Wait, today I'll give you
baked flour to eat!
It wasn't such a problem earlier, you know.
There were just one or two.
They wouldn't reply
if I spoke to them.
But now they have families here!
Infested the whole place.
Whenever I say something,
they reply in their own way.
I can't tolerate so much chatter.
Yesterday, after a long time...
I got that smell again.
That fishy smell.
I was eavesdropping on Sharmi
and my husband's call.
That's when I got it.
Who knows where that smell came from.
He has been quiet for a long time.
Wife is in the kitchen,
this is the perfect opportunity!
He's video calling Sharmi.
Uff!
"You're in this flimsy nightgown again?
Don't you have any shame, Sharmi?
You're not even wearing a bra.
Are you trying to seduce him, Sharmi?
Fk you!
Fk you, Sharmi!
I'm done with you
if you sleep with your...
...husband."
He tries very hard to prevent
Sharmi from sleeping with her husband.
But every night he climbs
on top of me...
...and gnaws at me like a rat!
What about that?
Maybe he can't see my face
in the dark.
Maybe he thinks I'm Sharmi.
No.
That's why he--
When he digs into my body
like an animal...
Why the hell are you so dry?
He takes out his frustration
like this.
Sharmi isn't dry.
But apparently, I'm dry.
Why?
It doesn't take more than two minutes
to make me soaking wet.
Tell me...
Does vomit have blood
and pus mixed in it?
Who knows?
When he's done making me wet...
I stumble my way to the washroom.
To wash up.
I don't switch on the lights, you know.
Darkness has a black, damp smell.
A very stubborn smell
like that of tar.
Once it gets stuck to your body,
to your soul...
the smell doesn't want to go.
Then, it's dark on the outside...
and dark on the inside too.
I hum to myself
while waiting for dawn to break.
Where night flows
Into the ocean of daytime
You and I met
At that very confluence
Sujata, how much longer?
Will you stop making so much noise?
He used to like my singing
when we were newly weds.
Back then I used to sing
a different song, of course.
Love-sick songs.
Then I had two miscarriages.
They removed my uterus.
I don't know if he changed
or I did.
Actually, I just can't tolerate
screaming and shouting.
I thought, if I had kids...
the sound of their cries,
their call to me...
I would get used to it.
Maybe I would like the commotion.
But they didn't cry.
They never came.
Only I kept bleeding.
That blood smells different.
Like the smell at the crematorium.
Like cheap incense sticks.
Fishy smell.
From that day onwards,
my ears can't tolerate much noise.
I keep feeling...
What if there was no one else anywhere?
If I could be all alone,
maybe they would come to me.
If I took a nap
on a peaceful afternoon...
maybe they would come
and chat with me for a long time.
(singing lullaby)
I brought these two recently.
This one and that one.
Recently means before the lockdown.
That day, while chatting with them,
I suddenly noticed...
that they're whispering.
Usually, when someone comes
to talk to me, I feel repulsed by it.
But when they whispered...
I got goosebumps!
I felt like I want to hear
only them speak, you know.
Why was it so?
Are they in these plants?
The ones who didn't come?
This is becoming too much now!
Will you give me some food
or not?
I'm watering the plants.
I'll be right there in some...
What?
I'm baking some cupcakes in the oven.
-Cupcake.
-Cupcake, my foot!
-It's raw batter in the name of cake!
-Boiled eggs...
No...
Omelet, fruit salad...
I'll be right there...
Looks like I have to make
some other arrangement for you.
He often threatens me
with this "other arrangement."
I still don't know
what this "other arrangement" is.
The next stage is slapping me.
Then pulling me by my hair
and banging my head against something.
After that...
Actually, it all depends
on how angry he is.
Like today, he's very angry.
Maybe he has had a really good time
with Sharmi today.
Or maybe she has shown him the world
through her flimsy nightgown.
You see, the more my husband
falls for Sharmi...
the more he hates me.
And this lockdown...
won't be lifted anytime soon, will it?
It's a big problem.
Isn't it?
Oh no!
Would you look at that!
I had washed the clothes
early in the morning.
I forgot to hang them out
because I was busy chatting with you.
Damn!
Damn it!
Quiet!
Quiet, damn it!
Always making noise.
It's all over.
It'll be over
only when I let it get over.
It's not over,
nothing is over.
Only if I let it.
Raw batter doesn't appeal
to your palate, huh?
Now I'll give you
baked batter to eat.
Where did they go? Huh?
Hey!
This is a foreign cake, understand?
Listen to me and eat up.
See?
I won't find a single one now.
Uff!
Damn it!
Please don't behave like my husband.
He'll do exactly
what I tell him not to.
My husband is all about extravagance.
Has to be oversmart in everything.
Western habits, uff!
The food is ready, okay?
I'm going to the terrace
to hang out the clothes.
But don't eat the cake.
I'll be right back.
Bloody bh!
I've been hungry since morning
and she went away without serving the food.
My freedom is in the sky
And in its light
My freedom is in the dust
And in the grass
My freedom is in the sky
Far beyond the mind and body
I lose myself
My freedom soars in the melody of the songs
My freedom is in the sky
And in its light
At the altar of the Creator
Burns the self-sacrificial fire
At the altar of the Creator
Burns the self-sacrificial fire
My freedom comes when I offer myself there
My freedom is in the sky
And in its light
My freedom is in the dust
And in the grass
My freedom is in the sky
And in its light
My freedom is in the dust
And in the grass
My freedom is in the sky
And in its light