Overview
LIMITED SERIES PILOT TITLE:
LAJJAWATI: A LOVE STORY FROM INDIA
*A Story of Desire & Destiny from the Land of Unity in Diversity*
GENRE:
Historiographic Metafiction/Romance/Drama
WRITERS:
Story: Sumathy Ramakrishnan (a.k.a. Sumathy Ram)
Screenplay: Sumathy Ram and Charles Leopardo
TAGLINE:
“A Tale of Tragedy & Ecstasy in the Game of Love & Glory!”
LOGLINE:
“In the run-up to India’s independence, a Muslim journalist, after discovering he was originally born a Hindu Brahmin sets out in search of his true identity, but by finding his true love he inadvertently destroys the tranquility of a traditional Iyer village”.
BRIEF SYNOPSIS:
While religious riots rage in the city of Calcutta, Muslim journalist Jaleel is told by his dying grandfather that they are both Hindu Brahmins who were converted by the Muslim fanatics who slaughtered most of his family when he was an infant. Jaleel is called away to help a threatened community during the riots, during which he and his friends discover a boat piled with the corpses of riot victims. In Jaleel’s absence, Dada dies. Helped by his publisher Charlie Myers and a Catholic priest, Jaleel has his Dada’s body cremated in violation of Muslim custom. Jaleel travels by train to the South to carry out his Dada’s final wish to search for a lost temple. While exploring the wilderness Jaleel is dramatically sidetracked when he rescues Lalitha, the wife of local guru Shastry after she falls into a gorge. Lalitha’s grateful husband promises to do anything Jaleel asks, and he replies by asking to become Shastry’s student to become a Brahmin. Conflict erupts when Shastry brings Jaleel into his home, with the opposition led by religious zealot Narasimma Iyer who is incensed by the presence of a Muslim in his orthodox Brahmin village.
This Limited Series Pilot, LAJJAWATI: A LOVE STORY FROM INDIA, is an original, unproduced debut Pilot Script.
Director – SUMATHY RAM, CHARLES LEOPARDO
