Story of my life!

One of my favourite films of all time is Charlie Kaufman’s Adaptation (2002). Though the film was directed by Spike Jonze of Being John Malkovich fame, I would still call it Kaufman’s film. Nicholas Cage walked away with just an Oscar nomination where he should have won his second Oscar for Best Actor (after the brilliant Leaving Las Vegas). For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, please go watch the film once you’re done reading this. Hell, I’ll even lend it to you.

Anyway, the story goes that after the success of Being John Malkovich (1999), Kaufman began to write a screenplay adapted from a book but just couldn’t turn the fabulous book into a decent film. So what does he do? He writes this film about the writer Charlie Kaufman trying to adapt a book into a film. A classic case of turning inability into an opportunity. Anyway, what ensues is too complicated to explain. I couldn’t if I wanted to.

Well, coming to the point, I just wonder how these writers think. There comes a time in all our lives when we watch movie or read a book and say “How do people come up with this stuff?” Well, I’ve pondered over that question many times. What follows is a statement - “I could never think of something like that” and then the question - “Or can I?” The answer to that question can either change your life for the better or reveal just one more beautiful thing that you suck at. The question troubled me quite a few times but I was too busy creating a fool of myself in some major areas of life to realize that I couldn’t write worth shit. As time passed by and I saw more and more people writing, I felt like the time has come to give it a shot. The final nail in the coffin, however, was in the form of a film poster. The film in question was YRF’s Pyaar Impossible (2009) and the piece of information that grabbed my balls and thrust them into the meat grinder was “Written by Uday Chopra”. I said to myself “If this doesn’t put you pen to the pad, nothing will”.

Armed with an introductory chapter from Syd Field’s book and a low self-esteem (many thanks to the poster), I set out like Frodo heading into the dark lands of Morodor. Little did I know that I would be beaten to a pulp before I even got out of the Shire. What happened? I had an interesting character in mind. I knew the kind of story that I wanted to write. The atmosphere was set. I had it all. And then I asked the all important question – “So this is my main character, now what happens to him?” And that’s where it all came crumbling down. I just realized that I had everything but a story.

How do people write a story? Do they start with an interesting character in mind or do they have a defining action around which the story revolves or do they have a major conflict to start with? Thanks to Syd Field and extensive reading about films and screenplays, I can atleast list out all the things that were missing from my endeavour. This list ran into a few days and then suddenly something struck me - If every story or screenplay that I liked seemed beyond my realm of imagination, would anything that strikes me make for a good story? And if it doesn’t interest me, would anybody else be interested in it?

American Beauty (1999) has one of my favourite lines in a film – “It's a great thing when you realize you still have the ability to surprise yourself.” And I think that is what a good story is all about. The story must be able to surprise the writer – “Shit! Did I just write that?” Once the writer thinks that his story is so good that he can scarcely believe that he came up with it, then half the job is done. Then it’s upto the audience and as far as they are concerned you never know what’s going to happen. But, if nothing else, you are left with a story that atleast you’re proud of. And for people like me, and Uday, that is good enough.

So with renewed self-confidence and morning-show tickets to “Pyaar Impossible”, I promise to try. Try till I succeed or atleast till I get tired of humiliating myself.