A tribute to the migratory birds at Pong Dam
Apropos an ad in Bombay Times on 11th Feb… “Love is in the air!”
By: Vivek Mohan
The film opens on a holiday crowd at an airport lounge. Amongst them are a man and a woman who exchange curious ‘glances’! En route the passengers sight lovely migratory birds! A pintail smiles at the man gazing outside in the blue sky…
“Alone?!”
“Yes…(not very enthusiastic)and you?!”
“No annual vacation – that is my fiancée’ (blushes)!”
(The pintail ‘asks’ the man to switch on a particular channel and write on his mobile to communicate).
“I hope and wish you too return as two!!”
“I hope and wish too – I mean return as two!!”
“(As an after thought) why don’t we look right here?!”
“Are you out of your mind?”
“We are talking hearts here!”
The pintail winnows through the windows and comes across various ‘charachters’ including a woman pretending to read “how to win hearts and influence a man”. The Pintail ‘eurekas’ back but the million-dollar ‘q’ is how the twain shall meet?!
That is the middle of the film with comedy of errors like the man ‘asked’ to spot the woman sees a ‘jassi’ instead as she excuses herself to the loo!
Everyone departs after landing but not before the man and the woman exchange ‘curious’ glances again!!
Later at a lakeside pintail birds-eye-views a woman reading a book covering her face only to be obstructed by the jealous fiancée’ ending up in a heated argument! The cacophony results in the woman uncovering her face and the pintail, playing cupid, rushes to search for the man with fiancée’ in hot pursuit! The confusion settles in a fusion and it is ‘love at third sight’!!!
The man and the woman return hand-in-hand for the flight back home, fondly remembering the pintail!
That’s not ‘the end’…
Pintail pops up again.
“So, back as two!!”
The woman blushes as the man thanks profusely!
“And you?!”
“Till the baby can fly!”
“The stork does bring one, after all!”
Perplexed pintail flies in another direction.
That’s still not ‘the end’…
Pintail lands near his fiancée’ and a thrown book “How to win hearts and influence man”, when a tourist ‘requests’ them for a pose, which they happily oblige thinking…”How to win hearts and influence mankind or kind man?!”
Back in flight, the ‘couple’ reads a headline…”bird hit saves lives!” and smiles!
End credits roll.
Ost plays.
Everyone lives happily ever after!
The end.
List of characters (in order of appearance):
Man.
Woman.
Pint(oo)ail.
Fiancée’.
One-line summary…
How two migratory love birds play cupid to two lonely persons!
(The writer is a Mumbai-based award winning Himachali film-maker)
