Quick Intro

This is a plot that I believe would make a great short film. It has all the right elements: Potential for great shots, opportunities to capture human emotions and finally a nice little moral that is not too preachy

Let’s Begin : Traffic Jam

Scene: It is around 10 in the morning on a busy street in a metro. The perfect location for this in my mind is the junction of Nungambakkam High Road & Anna Saalai in Chennai, India A man in a car. He is dressed as though he is headed to work. He in in the middle of a busy street. He is late, between checking his watch and honking the horn you can see how helpless he feels as the traffic stretches both ways. He can neither go ahead or reverse and get out.

The camera then pans around to see how the different folks around are reacting to the traffic jam. Folks on two-wheelers are sweating and one person takes off his helmet to reveal a face soaked in perspiration. He wipes it away and puts his helmet back on (afraid that in that micro-minute when his head is exposed, a traffic constable would catch him and book him for not following the rules). We also see a luxury car in the traffic. The well dressed chauffer has the air-condition at full and the lone occupant in the back seat doesn’t show any signs of discomfort. He is busy on his phone giving instructions and quite oblivious to the stand-still life around. A couple in a nearby car are discussing, we can’t hear their words but it is about the traffic surrounding them.

The camera now zooms out and transforms to the bird’s eye view of the whole scene. We zoom out until we see the beginning & end of the jam. This starts at a junction way in front.

We now zoom in to the reason this is happening. There are two cars, one trying to make a turn from an outside lane with the one inside not allow him to pass. The impasse continues.

Endings

(1) A kid steps out from one of the cars. He looks at his dad and tells him, “Didn’t you teach me to share? Why don’t you share this road with him ?”(points at the other driver). Sheepish with embarassment, the father steps in his vehicle reverses it and gestures to the other driver to proceed.

We now zoom out from here and within a minute the entire traffic jam is cleared.

(2) An old man who is walking (along the direction of the stopped traffic), comes to the front and tells the drivers the misery they have brought upon the people in this kilometer long traffic-jam. With a stern admonishment, he asks both the drivers to sit back in and proceeds to direct them.

The vehicles along the road begins to move and we again zoom back to reveal a road with smooth flowing traffic.

Extras

• To heighten the aspect of urgency, we can show an ambulance in the jam