What I Found Between Opening credits and Closing credits of "Between Hello and Good Bye"

Al right, first of all I really thank the director of "Between Hello and Good Bye" for making this beautiful short film. Note, I am thanking him and not appreciating him because, this film actually helped me to do some exercise on Screenplay writing. You will come to know about as your read this blog.

Assume the readers have watched the film, if not please do watch it before proceeding further.

Here is the link again : Between Hello and Goodbye - Tamil Short Film

First let's briefly go over the story as it was shot:

So its just a chronological story of a writer Dwarakh who broke up with his girl friend Rohini,  has a target to finish the summary of his novel in a day. But he finds to know that night is his girl friend's birthday. He calls her and comes to know she is engaged to Srinivasan. That causes an an argument. At the same time, he looses his pet dog Tony. Next day he explains it to his friend Satya who has crush on Dwarakh. After the painful event, they both look happy together. Dwarakh sits the night to finish the novel. When Satya meets him the following day, she comes to know Rohini is back along with Tony and Dwarakh is happy about that. Satya gets disappointed and goes away. However Rohini looks moody. When Dwarakh asks if Rohini is in love with Srinivasan, she interestingly says "I don't know", leaving both Dwarakh and Rohini in a state of confusion.


Now when I watched the film first time, I completely went out of the way it was narrated. That's why I thanked the director. During the scenes when he recollects his past moments with Rohini I thought the movie will go till the end in the same pattern, switching from present to past.

So till the time Dwarakh has the phone conversation with Rohini where he comes to know about Srinivasan, I was with the director and then I lost him and found something new. Here is that version of story what I found:

Till here we know, Tony was presented by Dwarakh to Rohini and now while he is having conversation with Rohini it was barking loud. It cuts to the restaurant scene where Dwarakh meets Satya. I assumed it was the morning of next day July 24 ( I am correct here). In this scene Dwarakh says he lost Tony last night. They go in search of Tony, they don't find it. Dwarakh hugs Satya, in that pain. Satya feels happy and they both come back home. She says at least finish tonight.

 - Here I felt the movie came to a climax. Rohini left Dwarakh but Dwarakh found Satya. Satya is happy too. I concluded -  "This is the End". The scenes followed, actually convinced me on this conclusion. Lets see how it happened :

After they go in the car, it cuts to Dwarakh's face in water bowl. There is a similar shot in the beginning of the film. I felt the movie has gone back in time to the same spot (23 rd night). To my bad (or good) Dwarakh wears similar kind of Red T-shirt. So in that night mode, I couldn't find difference between the two Tees and so I assumed its not 24th night but 23rd night.

He sits back and starts writing his novel. The clock shows time around 1:10 am. That also convinced me because on 23rd night he had called Rohini at around 11:55 pm. So I assumed this scene is after the call with Rohini and when he lost Tony.

There he hears sounds of foot steps, dog barking and someone ringing the calling bell. It cuts to Satya ringing the bell. That made me to think, the movie went bit more back again in past. Its the time when Satya was having crush on Dwarakh.  He says Rohini came at around 1:30 in the night. She brought Tony and they had good conversation. Satya feels she is lost, and she leaves.

Here I felt, the director used the 1:30 mark as the linking point. As Dwarakh was writing novel at around same time, he recollected of similar situation that happened in past. Moreover, Rohini brought Tony to his house. Initially he presented it to her. But from the beginning of the film we are seeing Tony in Dwarakh's house. I felt here is the link how the dog came to his house.

When Satya leaves, Rohini talks about Srinivasan. Dwarakh asks if she is in love with him. She says "I don't know". I was bit confused here. Dwarakh only came to know about Srinivasan on 23rd night. If this scene is sometime in past then how does he comes to know about Srinivasan ? I had this confusion.

Rohini had confusion about Srinivasan so she said "I don't know", Dwarakh was expecting Rohini to be with him but after her response he got disappointed. Satya was disappointed for loosing Dwarakh.

Movie ended there....

Even thought I had that little confusion, I was bit convinced that the screenplay actually had "The End" at around 20 min mark when Dwarakh hugs Satya and they both drive back happily. However to keep it special and new, I thought the screenplay is written to have a scene from their past at the climax point.

My chronology of the film after this conclusion was:

Rohini and Dwarakh were in love. Dwarakh presented her Tony. Satya had crush on Dwarakh but she was disappointed with both of them being together and Dwarakh was still loving Rohini. Rohini met Dwarakh and gave the Tony back as she was thinking about Srinivasan. On Rohini Birthday night, when Dwarakh sat to finish his novel, he had a conversation with her and recollected everything. In that frustration, he left Tony in outskirts but next day when he met Satya, he felt sad about loosing Tony. They both go in search of Tony but fail to find him. In that pain, Dwarakh hugs Satya and finds Rohini in Satya. Satya also feels happy about it.

(Totally a different Story. May be I don't like characters like Satya to be left with Pain)

Since I had that small confusion about Srinivasan, I watched the movie again and then realized I took a different route after mid-way.

However based on my understanding, I made few observations on the characters. Hope you find those interesting too...


About Dwarakh:

1. Starting with the title, that comes up as GUDBYE and gets "re-written" to GOODBYE. 
2. In the following scenes, he writes few lines of chapter 3 and again he "re-writes" it as he didn't like it first.
3. He is unsure of the spelling for "Mosaic". He made a mistake and corrects it. He pre-records it as well that he will make a mistake.
4. He writes Pink skirt and then "rewrites" to Red Skirt. (That's what he wants it to be).

I felt all these talk about Hero's characterization. Look at his life. He fell in love with Rohini then had some conflicts and then they both broke up. Now he feels he still loves her and wants to gain that relationship. It means he wants to "re-write" his past in a better way and in the way he wants at this time.

About Rohini:

She was a girl who was very much interested in classical dance, who joined Kalakshetra but all of a sudden changes her plan to become a Air-Hostess. That shows she could be fickle minded who changes her decision even on high priority things. That same nature could have caused her to feel Srinivasan is better than Dwarakh.

About Tony :

Tony appeared to me as their symbol of love. If you have followed my chronology, Dwarakh presents it to Rohini. Later Rohini returns it back to him. It means she returned his love back. When Dwarakh looses Tony, he hugs Satya and feels the comfort. It means the symbol of Dwarakh-Rohini's love is gone so there is no barrier between Satya and Dwarakh.

About Satya:

A cool friend of Dwarakh. She also has crush on him. But when she sees both Dwarakh and Satya together she gets disappointed and left out. However when Dwarakh is sad and helpless, she comes there for him and finally she was happy when he hugged her. They both were together.


Those are my findings. Hope you are also able to follow my version of story as well and my observations.

Feedback on this feedback is also welcomed.

- Sai Kiran
(SaikiranVepa@gmail.com)