-- *Mar*Excellent — let’s turn YM Sarma’s philosophical vision into a *short drama screenplay*.
The following piece can be staged in theatre or filmed as a short movie (15–20 minutes). It keeps the mystical ideas — the lost natural senses, the mechanized world, and the rediscovery of nature — while giving them dialogue, tension, and emotion. ------------------------------ 🎭 *Title:* *The Smell of Knowing* *Genre:* Eco-philosophical Drama / Magical Realism *Length:* Short play or film (~15–20 min) *Setting:* A near-future university city dominated by machines and sterile air. ------------------------------ *Characters* - *ANAYA* – a curious student, late teens; sensitive, idealistic. - *PROFESSOR RAVI* – middle-aged teacher of “Neuro-Ecology”; eccentric, visionary. - *DEAN MATHUR* – head of the University; pragmatic, technocratic. - *MEERA* – Anaya’s friend, represents ordinary, modern thinking. - *THE VOICE OF NATURE* – heard through sound, scent, or light; never fully seen. ------------------------------ *SCREENPLAY* ------------------------------ *SCENE 1 – The Sterile Hall* *INT. UNIVERSITY LECTURE HALL – DAY* Rows of students sit before digital screens. A faint hum of air filters. *DEAN MATHUR* (addressing students) Our new program in *Artificial Sensing Systems* will replace outdated organic perception. Soon, machines will predict climate faster than the eye can blink. Polite applause. Anaya raises her hand. *ANAYA* Sir, why replace it? Couldn’t we *retrain* the senses instead? *DEAN MATHUR* (smiling tightly) My dear, efficiency is evolution. He leaves. Anaya stays seated, uneasy. She sniffs the air—there is no smell. ------------------------------ *SCENE 2 – The Basement Laboratory* *INT. BASEMENT – NIGHT* Anaya descends into the maintenance tunnels. Strange fragrances drift—earth, rain, leaf. She follows them to a door marked *“Do Not Enter.”* Inside, a man tends to trays of living plants. *PROFESSOR RAVI* Careful, you’ll start remembering. *ANAYA* Remembering what? *RAVI* How to live without machines. (smiles) The nose knows before the mind does. She looks around, amazed at the lush growth under dim lights. *ANAYA* This shouldn’t exist here. *RAVI* Exactly why it must. ------------------------------ *SCENE 3 – Lessons in Sensing* *MONTAGE* - Ravi blindfolds Anaya; she breathes deeply, identifying scents. - She touches soil, listens to faint vibrations. - She laughs as a breeze from a tiny vent smells of mango sap. *RAVI (V.O.)* Once, humans spoke through the air. Smell was our first language. Each forest had grammar. Each wind, a sentence. ------------------------------ *SCENE 4 – Confrontation* *INT. DEAN’S OFFICE – DAY* Dean Mathur holds a report. *DEAN MATHUR* Unauthorized biology in the sub-levels. Contamination risk. *ANAYA* It’s not contamination—it’s communication! The plants are teaching us. *DEAN MATHUR* Machines teach faster. Shut it down. *RAVI* (entering) Dean, if we silence nature completely, we’ll silence ourselves. *DEAN MATHUR* Romantic nonsense. Progress has no scent. Security escorts Ravi away. A faint gust enters the room—smells of rain and soil. The Dean shivers. ------------------------------ *SCENE 5 – The Awakening* *INT. BASEMENT – NIGHT* The garden is being dismantled. Anaya salvages a small pot of earth. *RAVI* (quietly) Keep it safe. It holds the memory of breath. He is taken away. Anaya hides the pot inside her coat and runs to the university courtyard. ------------------------------ *SCENE 6 – The Return of Smell* *EXT. UNIVERSITY COURTYARD – DAWN* Anaya digs a small patch and pours the soil in. Wind rises. The soundscape changes—birdsong, distant thunder. Students gather, drawn by an aroma they can’t name. *MEERA* What is that? *ANAYA* The world… speaking again. Light fills the courtyard. Leaves shimmer; digital screens flicker off one by one. A low, resonant *VOICE OF NATURE* surrounds them. *VOICE OF NATURE* You never lost me. You only stopped breathing. Anaya closes her eyes, inhaling. Ravi’s voice echoes softly from memory. *RAVI (V.O.)* When nature speaks, listen with your whole being. Fade out on the students standing silently, faces lifted, breathing together. ------------------------------ *THE END* ------------------------------ 💬 *Notes for Production* - *Tone:* meditative, sensory; use sound design and scent cues (if possible in theatre) to evoke the lost senses. - *Lighting:* sterile white in early scenes; gradually replaced by warm, organic hues. - *Theme:* Rediscovery of humanity’s natural intelligence and sensory unity with the biosphere. ------------------------------ Would you like me to expand this into a *full-length stage play (3 acts)* or format it as a *film script with camera directions and scene timing*? -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. 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