Cobalt Blue

Anuja, hurry up!

Aseem will drop you on the grounds today.

Baba, I need the car keys.

Why did you park under the tree?

Sharada, where's my tea?

Aai, I'm hungry. Please hurry up with breakfast.

Tanay, wake up!

Why can't he ever wake up on time?

PABLO TANAY

As we speak of The Grapes of Wrath ,

which is a very important novel about the great American migration…

Anybody over here who has experienced migration?

Yes, Tanay.

My father shifted here, six months before we came to Kerala.

He came to work here as an accountant with Thomas and Chenetra Spice Exports.

For us, in 1980, moving from Maharashtra to Kerala

was like moving from one country to another.

I never imagined that I would have to leave my hometown.

But one day, suddenly, there was a call from my father.

What's your hurry? The children have exams coming up.

And, I'm not sure Appa will be able to cope with such a long journey.

Why don't we come there after Diwali?

I've had enough of your whining.

It's been over a month now.

You need to leave today. I can't stay alone any longer.

Please! Think about the children.

If you don't show up in two days,

I'm going to find ways to deal with my hunger over here.

And I don't mean food.

Hello?

He…

He hung up.

My mother didn't allow us to go and tell our friends that we were leaving.

I forgot my favorite blue notebook at my friend's place.

And, I haven't seen it since.

It's always about what you lose.

What you leave behind.

My mother also told us that we have the blue sea right by our house.

But, in reality, it's quite far away.

And of course, it's not blue in color.

So as I grew up, I realized that grown-ups can lie.

And so we can.

And that's why we write.

Tanay!

Fullshirt! When did it happen? He was fine this morning.

Half an hour ago. Go home. I'll get Anuja.

THOMAS & CHENETRA SPICE EXPORTS

They are waiting for you.

Tickle his feet. He's only pretending to be asleep.

Take over.

-Stay on. -Pass…

Pass it on. Take over.

Go for it!

Sir!

This is not fair. She is trying to cut my way.

You tell her now, or I won't play with this team.

Calm down, Anuja.

Come on, play.

Please!

Anuja!

Fullshirt, what are you doing here?

Appa is no more.

Fathu, I have to go. Please bring my kit back.

Sharada, give me something sweet to eat today.

Let's take her downstairs.

Aseem, check if the ambulance is here.

You need to come downstairs. Tanay will handle things.

Baba, come. Let's go.

Tanay, wait here with Ajji.

Appa was cruel.

He really troubled Ajji and Aai. I saw it happen many times.

He used to beat up Aai.

I'm going to take the room upstairs.

But you already have your own room.

I still have to share a room with Fullshirt.

I need my own room.

I will walk with you to the crematorium.

Women don't go to the crematorium.

Tanay, go with your father.

Cheta, take us to Cheranallur.

Pablo Neruda!

Pablo!

Pablo!

The room upstairs may finally be mine.

I'll read alone, write alone.

I want to live by myself now.

Ajji?

Ajji?

Ajji?

Aai!

Aai!

Aai!

-What happened? -I don't know.

She never wanted to marry Appa. So how is it, that on the same day…

Love is a habit.

The habit ends…

you die.

It is with profound grief that we would like to inform you

that last week, my mother and father passed away on the same day.

They always protected our family

from the strange culture and customs of Kerala.

Tanay has inherited his flair for writing from his grandfather.

Aseem is an ace at mathematics, just like his grandfather.

Anuja's eyes are just like her grandfather's.

She always reminds me of him.

My wife is an able homemaker,

and is always mindful of our great traditions.

Mary, why don't you join us for the film tonight?

Are you crazy?

Fort Kochi is a tiny village. I would get caught.

Just wear my niqab. Nobody will know it's you.

Oh, shit! Mary… my period…

Fathima, let's go.

Fathima, go slower!

We aren't transporting medicines to a dying man!

It's eggless.

Please!

Tell this eggless fairytale to my mother. Eggs, chicken… all are cool with me.

-Nice, no? -Thanks for the cake.

-I'll leave. -Okay.

Thank you.

"All I want to say is that

they don't really care about us."

Isn't this cream meant for girls?

My swimming coach told me to apply it every day.

There's a lot of chlorine in the water. All the boys use this cream.

Why aren't you wearing your holy thread?

-Let capitalism perish! -Let capitalism perish!

-Let capitalism perish! -Let capitalism perish!

Let democracy prevail!

-Long live student unions! -Let capitalism perish!

-Long live student unions! -Revolution will win!

Silence!

Why do you choose to ignore us, Tanay?

Why didn't you come to the student body meeting?

Look, you're a good writer.

You will help me write speeches.

Come to Anthony's tonight for a beer.

Sorry, I can't make it.

Vishnu, stop bothering him.

Why do you always support him?

Just leave him alone.

Go!

Now, many novels and plays have been adapted into films.

Some films are as good as their original works.

This one is my favorite, L'Argent , which means "money."

It's a film directed by Robert Bresson, originally a novella by Tolstoy

that was called The Forged Coupon .

-Long live student unions! -Long live the revolution!

-Long live student unions! -Long live the revolution!

-Long live-- -Class!

Can you think of any films which were originally a play or a book?

Sir, Mathilukal , by Adoor Gopalkrishnan, sir.

Yes.

Sir, Lolita , on Nabokov's novel.

Lalitha, have you actually read Lolita ?

Maurice , on E.M. Forster's novel.

Tanay.

Here, watch this. Mirror .

You missed it at the film society screening.

I was hoping to find you there.

You know, I've been asking my parents for a separate room

for a very, very long time.

The VCR and the TV are in our living room,

so I can't really watch all kinds of films when the family is around.

-Can I ask you something? -Of course.

Why do you stay here alone?

Aren't you scared of being alone?

When you're young and you leave home, you depend on the kindness of strangers.

If you… need to… read books… or watch films…

you must come here.

Anytime.

Yes.

I will leave now.

Anuja, call your mother.

Fullshirt will get married soon. He'll need his own room then.

When I was young, girls would go to the temple to study late at night.

We never had our own rooms.

Anuja, don't mess around! Help me grind the spices.

Don't call me into the kitchen, Aai.

I can't even tell the difference between salt and sugar.

-By the way, congrats Tanay. -Congrats?

For what?

She's crazy!

Aai, please let me take the room upstairs.

Even Anuja has her own room.

Your father has decided to rent the room out to a paying guest.

Paying guest?

Okay…

Rent it out to a boy or a girl?

Pablo…

The paying guest has to be a boy.

Obviously, this isn't a very original idea.

You know the Menons next door, right?

When their sons left for Oman, they had three girls as paying guests.

Lalitha is one of them.

Stop barking, Gorbachev!

Her father chose to poison himself when the USSR collapsed.

Isn't that a great topic for my first short story?

Russia…