Neha Mahajan

Theme:- God only knows Logline​ :- ​Story Of a household Synopsis​:This is a story inspired by Kate Chopin's story of an hour, it's about Sudha, the protagonist and her husband Rakesh, who is a seemingly happy couple but inside their happy faces lies a layer of dominance and patriarchy which is deep rooted and almost invisible. In a series of events which happens while Sudha's husband Rakesh has gone to a business trip in the presence of her sister Resham and later joined, Rakesh's friend Sandeep, Sudha witnesses a new world, a world she never thought about since her marriage, a world that would be free and peaceful. A world she didn't even know existed or even if she would want it to exist, after her quick imagination of this world, reality strikes in and shatters all the pieces of her dreamlike place. The story is a ironical depiction of a normal indian household which later unfolds the truth beneath. Story:October 18th, 2013 - A day after Rakesh and Sudha got married. There's a happy chaos all over the place-women working in the kitchen can be heard calling out everybody to have breakfast while the kids can be heard playing outside. Rakesh and Sudha can be seen smiling widely amidst all this chaos, their eyes staring into one another's with a look of fulfillment of how they wanted to be with each other and now it has actually happened. After four years of their marriage -It's 2014 Rakesh calls Sudha in the afternoon to give her the news about their new car he'll be coming home with in the evening, the model and colour of which Sudha knew nothing about or was never asked about. In the evening, Sudha could be seen holding a thaali all prepared to do the rituals even before Rakesh arrived. They did the puja and Rakesh took her to a drive. Sudha also knew how to drive a car and obviously dreamt about driving one like any other person would if they knew they'll have one at their homes but maybe Rakesh never knew about her knowing how to drive or he never cared enough to ask. Present i.e. 2021 It is the day Rakesh was leaving for Mumbai early in the morning for work. Sudha just woke her husband up while she was preparing breakfast along with the extra food for him as he had to leave for the journey in the evening directly after work. Sudha's sister Resham was there too, and she would stay with her until her husband comes back, which wasn't known to Rakesh but he said he'll come back as soon as he's done with the work there. They had breakfast which Sudha served wished him a safe journey and he left. Sudha was all pale with baggy eyes and she was looking weaker than ever, sort of like an unhappy person would look. Maybe it was because she stayed up late the previous night for packing the bags and woke up early to prepare food and do other chores. Resham told her to take some rest and even before she heard it, she ascended to the stairs up her room to take a nap. Resham did all the dishes and cleaned up. After a couple of hours, someone knocked at the door, it was Sandeep, Rakesh's best-friend. Resham opened the door when he hurriedly entered and asked about Sudha, he was all sweaty and breathless like he ran errands to come to their house. He muttered something about a rail accident which at first, Resham couldn't understand and by the time she did it was too late to give a reaction as Sudha could be seen descending from the stairs, she noticed the tension in the room and asked what happened there and what were they talking about. Sandeep took a deep breath and told her to sit down and listen calmly and he broke out the news of her husband's death in broken sentences as gently as he could to Sudha, who is a heart patient. He got know about the rail accident from the newspaper office he works in, with Rakesh's name leading the list of people "died". Sudha didn't react to the news of her husband's death in a way any other woman would do. Her sister was holding her while she grabbed her by the arms and bursted into tears. She cried for a while in her sister's arms and then with a shocked look on her face she went up to her room, told no one should follow her and locked her door from the inside. In her room she entered, and there was lying a comfortable roomy arm-chair Infront of the wide open window, she sank into the chair and could see from the wide window clouds of blue and grey in the spring season. The whites in between the clouds were the thing which attracted her the most. How they penetrated the clouds. She could hear a very faint sound of a song someone was singing from a distance and could also hear the peddler crying his wares just outside the street from their house. She could hear the trees rumbling and making noises while the wind hits them, she was in a phase of self introspection, there was something coming towards her which she tried to put off with power as her thin and tender hands could push, she did think what was coming to her was not right but she eventually accepted it and muttered something under her breath…. . "Free, free, free!" This monstrous thought is what she embraced and thought about all the upcoming days. Summer days and winter days all sorts of days ..she would have for herself. She thought about how after her husband's death she's all by herself, no one to live for. She did love him, often she did and she knew the fact that she would cry at the sight of his face all grey and cold but in the long run, FREE is all what she was thinking about. Her sister cried out her name and told her to come out otherwise she'll get sick.. Sudha opened the door.. Grabbed her sister's waist and descended down the stairs like a goddess of victory,like she had won over something . And just then, someone was opening the front door with a latch key and the person who entered was Rakesh! Who was far away from the scene of accident and never knew there has happened one. Sandeep was too late to cover him up and save her from seeing her husband. .. She fainted right away... When the doctor came he said, she died with a joy that kills. But ​God only knows​ what ironical joy Sudha had and whatever she planned for herself all got into vain. She died of shock and not happiness.