The Third Man (1949)
The brilliance of the screenplay in Carol Reed’s The Third Man, written by Graham Greene, lies in the fact that even though it has a serious theme — about how historical crises have been exploited at different points of time — it follows a thriller/mystery format, keeping the viewer hooked throughout. Orson Welles’ being cast as ‘the third man’ was among the film’s strong points. Apparently, he has been reported as saying that it was his most favourite character among the ones he has portrayed. For me, The Third Man’s script is a textbook in how to economise as a scriptwriter — saying a lot in very less time with the fewest possible words and images. And yet, keep it entertaining.
The Apartment (1960)
The beauty of The Apartment’s script is that it deals with tricky moral issues, despite being a mainstream film of the 1960s. The female protagonist sleeps around with people at the work place, while the male protagonist acts as a sort of pimp in his pursuit for success and money. But at no point do you cringe at their actions; rather you stay with the predicament of these two people who fall in love eventually. The credit for the well-etched out characters goes to the film’s scriptwriters, IAL Diamond and Billy Wilder, who also directed the film.
Anand (1971)
Some screenplays are driven by characters, while others have a design. The script of Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Anand had a design — you knew early on in the story that Rajesh Khanna’s character will eventually die. But all that happens till he dies is what holds your interest — friendships are formed, there’s some unfinished business, and all of these things come together in the end. Of course, the brilliant touch came in the form of Khanna’s voice on the spool just after he dies. Eventually, the spool runs out, an analogy for Anand’s death. Gulzar’s dialogues were just lovely.
Garm Hava (1973)
MS Sathyu’s Garm Hava is very simple in its storytelling, unlike Anand’s more cinematic appeal, yet effective. Set in post-partition India, it had an ensemble of lovely characters written by Ismat Chugtai — whose short story the film is based on — and Kaifi Azmi. Be it the patriarch, played by Balraj Sahni, who doesn’t want to leave India and go to Pakistan. Or his mother — a very old woman who doesn’t want to leave her ancsestral house. Farooque Shaikh played the youngest brother, full of angst about what was happening around him. Jalal Agha played someone who had just returned from newly-formed Pakistan, but there was still confusion because people weren’t properly settled on either side of the border. Amidst all that, there was a love story. Garm Hava is an example how a simple telling of a story and powerful characters can do wonders.
Blind Chance (1981)
Blind Chance follows a unique script structure — at various points in the story, the lead character has to make a variable of choices, and each variable leads to a certain path. And so it continues, till the character returns back to point A of the story — where it started from in the first place — in the climax. The script follows the idea of fate dictating where a character reaches eventually. An inventive form of storytelling by filmmaker Krzystof Kieslowski, Blind Chance was refreshingly original, and inspired another film with a similar script pattern, Sliding Doors (1998).
As told to Aniruddha Guha
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