Evening in a cozy apartment. Six engineers have just secured jobs in an investment bank in London and are celebrating. A writer (Subhash) narrates his idea for a film highlighting injustice in countryside India. The engineers question and mock him. Rajesh explains justice is not a bad idea. He admires investigative journalism. But it won't work in fiction. People in the modern world don't care about justice. Subhash gives up on his idea and Rajesh argues with him to not give up and continue writing. A phone rings and they find out open positions are 4 not 6. They decide to vote anonymously to decide who will go out. Arguments ensue and engineers start pulling each other down brutally. Rajesh pushes Subhash on what he believes. Subhash challenges Rajesh’s beliefs about his life, choices, and his new job. Rajesh says he has changed career paths all too often in 4 years of graduation. He wants success. He wants to show his mettle. The engineers exhaust each other and they reveal existential pain. Subhash asks Rajesh if these are the people he wants to show his mettle to? Rajesh sees Subhash's point. He relinquishes his position, decides for investigative journalism. The group has to decide on only one of the five to quit. They decide against the loudest, most confident candidate. There are three minor plots as well. But this is the major action. Does this look like it has potential for a comedy?
Sounds like it's more of a lit fiction to me, but with the right tone it could be a thriller, maybe even a comedy depending on the execution. Reminds me a little of the 2005 Argentinean film 'El Metodo' (The Method) but that movie wasn't the first to do it, it's one of the oldest plots/settings.
My wife said the same thing. This sounds more like a thriller. But I am determined to make it a comedy. I will be talking more as I develop the characters. Do tell the other similar narratives you have come across.
Ok it seems like the overall theme is scarcity and how humans react to it. There was a Spanish movie called the platform (out in netflix) which is more brutalistic but it has similar tones of people fighting over resources. The philosophical/psychological stress it puts the characters under is the focus of the story. Anyway, could be interesting to watch and see if it may help you some. Be warned though, it's very dark. Edit: forgot to say that it has a lot of dark humour which I appreciated. Still overall a diabolical film but I found some parts intensely funny because it was so fucked up.
That was my top WTF movie at the time I watched it. Not because it was great--more like very, very good with the knock being it wasn't fully realized--but because the premise was so off-the-wall and unexpected.
I really liked it too. The ending is a tad shallow because they couldn't lean fully into the nihilism of the movie. It was too distressing and may hurt its reception I guess. But I think with stories like this, you end up making your own personal endings anyway.
