Treatment Note I wrote, designed and referenced for a very renowned veteran ad film director.

1. TREATMENT
NOTE

2. When a mind is perturbed, when a mind is not at rest, it wanders.Wanders unrestrained.To faraway places.To imaginary lands.To fantasy worlds.
Created by a mind unfettered by the laws of logic, a mind that soars high and beyond the reach of shackles and constraints, a mind that transcends
the boundaries of reason.This film is about such a mind. It is a wonderfully comical depiction of a perturbed mind. A curious mind that belongs to
a person, much like you and me who likes to surf and watch videos in spare time. But when these videos begin to weigh down on your pockets, it
is time to reconsider your leisurely activities.The mind has every reason to be disturbed. But what if a saviour came along and freed you from all
the constraints that had held you back.Wish no more –Youtube Go is here!
This film has a wonderful arc that shows the journey of a mind – from perturbation to peace. Our character derives joy from watching videos
online which in turn become the source of his sorrow. His mind is ill at ease and becomes a roving nomad that settles in whatever dream presents
itself.The dreams are vivid, graphic, visually stunning but scary to the eye that perceives it.Youtube Go puts that wandering mind to peace.The
flight of fearful mind comes to an end.The journey from perturbed mind to a peaceful one has been achieved thanks toYoutube Go.

3. CAST & CHARACTER
This film is all about hyperbole, comedy and swagger. It is
about an unfettered mind that belongs to one ordinary
man who is all worked up about his data charges.
Although his mind is quite imaginative and unrestrained,
our guy is just an ordinary, very relatable character who
we can all identify with. He is a young, middle class
character traveling in a bus who is worried about his data
charges.The very contrast of the fantasy world he takes
us to and his ordinariness is what would make this film
immensely interesting, humorous and novel.
While he is an ordinary man, there is absolutely nothing
ordinary about the characters we meet in this fantasy
world. A goat drinking out of a cola can who warns him
against his actions is everything dreams are made of –
fairytalish, bizarre, surreal, highly imaginative and our inner
child’s dream come true.
The goat has a swagger too. Seated on a lounge chair,
there is an immense amount of confidence that oozes
out of every pore of his body. Perhaps with Hawaiian
shirt and sunglasses on, he is the perfect representation
of a beached whale with nothing to do but laze around
in the sun at a beach.
The man doing zumba is fat, funny looking and dressed
in clothes a size too small and too tight to cover his
rather big paunch. But as he dances, the vigour, the zest
and the enthusiasm are never compromised. Despite a
bit out of tune and rhythm, he has quite a few pupils in
front of him eager to learn whatever it is he has to
teach. Suddenly, in the middle of his move, he stops,
caught in a strange pose, looks into the camera and says,
“Mat kar…mat kar…main keh raha hun na…mat kar.”

4. OUR ORDINARY
BUT LIKEABLE
YO U N G M A N
W I T H V I V I D
IMAGINATION

5. THE GOAT IN A MUPPET/PUPPET FORM DRESSED IN A HAWAIIAN
SHIRT SIPPING COLA BYTHE BAY

6. OUR FUNNY, FAT ZUMBA
DANCER WITHTWO LEFT FEET

7. Pammi Aunty is the quintessential Punjabi woman with a
loud accent, body language and dressing sense. Even
though middle aged, she is very shapely, voluptuous and
likes to flaunt her figure as she dresses herself in tight
clothes that accentuate her curves. She comes from a
middle class background but she has a put-on royal flair
about her. In her head, she belongs to the British royal
family and sure behaves like one. She is animated as she
talks on the phone and then suddenly in the middle of a
sentence, stops and addresses the camera as if something
urgent and unforeseen has happened.
In the Bollywood Dandiya dance set up, our hero and
heroine are quintessentially Bollywood looking
protagonists. They are wearing glamorous and glittering
clothes with mirror work all over.There is great grace in
their dance. Perhaps to add a surreal quality and some
sense of a dream world, we could interchange their
voices when they speak into the camera at the end. We
could give the heroine the hero’s voice and hero the
heroin’s voice. Until then the proceedings are quite
innocent and unsuspicious. It is in the lavishness of the
setting that you find the dreamy quality.
In high contrast lighting, our horror film dracula is not
entirely visible but his eyes are shining red like the devil’s
and his vampire teeth are gleaming in the colourful light.
The space and the character we see here are the very
definition of kitsch, Ramsay brothers and those B grade
movies that combine elements from futuristic fiction,
horror and slasher movies. Our character is scary
looking, also quite gory with the mask and the make up
on.You flinch at the sight of him but the grotesqueness
also strangely entices you and you cannot take your eyes
away from him. One can tell that he is obviously wearing
make up but that doesn’t placate you at all. As he nears
the camera, the sight becomes more and more horrid
and yet you stare at the screen unable to take your eyes
away.The suspense is building and it is the climax of the
moment that is going to stun you and make you laugh.
When he says the lines, “eh kya.... kar....diya...tuney??” like
your next door neighbour would, you can’t help but
laugh out loud. The casualness, the irreverence for the
character he is playing and the ordinariness of his voice
makes this moment magical and truly hilarious.

8. O U R P A M M I
AUNTY IS SEXY
F O R H E R AG E ,
V O L U P T U O U S
A N D L I K E S TO
FLAUNT IT. EVEN
T H O U G H H E R
WORLD IS SMALL,
HER HABITS AND
E T I Q U E T T E S
BELONG TO THE
BRITISH ROYAL
F A M I L Y –
CERTAINLY IN HER
OWN HEAD.

9. O U R Q U I N T E S S E N T I A L
BOLLYWOOD HERO & HEROINE

10. OUR MONSTER WHO SCARES
THE DAYLIGHTS OUT OF OUR
POOR PROTAGONIST

11. LOOK & FEEL
A film that thrives on drama, tension, frenzy and fun
needs a visual language that would match up to the class
of the storytelling. When the shackles of reality have
been broken and visuals are a manifestation of
someone’s highly creative and whimsical imagination,
there is little sense in holding oneself back.The trick is to
let go and express oneself without restraint.The success
of this film lies in getting rid of inhibitions and fear and
creating a world that is rich with visual drama and
imagination. The worlds in all of the 5 scenarios are
tonally completely different. It would be a very
compelling challenge hence to create 5 different worlds
that are strikingly different and yet have a common
thread so they feel like one film.
The first sequence with the goat sipping Coca Cola is
outright bizarre, strange and fantastical. It provides every
scope to explore and venture out into the untrodden
territory. Perhaps using a funny looking muppet or a
puppet with a mix of goat and human characteristics
against a realistic backdrop but with little elements that
are surreal, perhaps paper cut outs far away from the
foreground or projection in the background.
We would treat the Zumba sequence as a full blown 50s
style cabaret musical with glamour filters and bright
spotlights which add both style and kitsch to the film.
While our Zumba guy is funny looking, the visual
treatment that he receives is as if he is one of those
beautiful 50s heroines. The setting would resemble a
cabaret club with its extravagance once again
reminiscent of the bygone era to add glamour and a
surreal feel to the setting. The lights would be bright,
warm and neon in measure.
We would go a slightly different route with Pammi
Aunty. We would put her in a very middle class
household either in Delhi or Punjab, something of the
sort in ‘Do Dooni Char’, ‘Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye’ or
‘Khosla ka Ghosla’. The strangeness comes from the
contrast between the house and the character. Pammi
Aunty would be an over-the-top dresser with high
fashion aspirations but falls miserable short when it
comes to taste and aesthetics. Her behaviour would be
very dainty as if she belonged to a royal family with her
pinky hanging up in the air as she delicately lifts her tea
cup etc. She certainly has a British hangover but in reality,
she reminds us ofVidya Balan in ‘Ghanchakkar’.

12. OUR HAWAIIAN GOAT FINDS HIMSELF AGAINST
A BACKDROP THAT IS A WONDERFUL MIX OF
PROJECTION & POP-UP STYLE PAPER CUT OUT

13. OUR ZUMBA GUY FINDS
HIMSELF IN A CABARET CLUB
FULL OF EXTRAVAGANCE,
OPULENCE & A SENSUAL
ENERGY

14. IN THE CABARET CLUB,
BRIGHT SPOTLIGHT & WARM
BACKLIGHT WITH A TOUCH
OF NEON, MAKE OUR ZUMBA
GUY ODDLY DIVINE

15. R E G A L
P A M M I
A U N T Y
IN HER
UNFLAT-
T E R I N G
MIDDLE
C L A S S
HOUSE

16. We proceed to a rather extravagant Bollywood
dance set up. It is large, it is grand, it is ornate and it
is magical realistic.The décor is a wonderful mix of
beautiful and kitschy.The groove of the dandiya raas
that our hero and heroine are performing to the
tunes of energetic music against a big troupe of
professional dancers is truly infectious. The fairy
lights in the scene and the shooting lights off the
screen dazzle the setting and add divinity to the
frame. The clothing is bright, colourful and
resplendent with its embroidery and mirror work.
The dew is making the flower decoration glitter in
all the light. All these elements put together have
created a feeling of parallel reality. One is constantly
reminded of a Sanjay Leela Bhansali film as one
watches the unbelievable display of glitter and
glamour, dance and music and textures and colours.
Suddenly, we are in a strange dark place. Barely
anything is visible. Suddenly a red light comes on
and we see a part of a human face. It appears to be
an ugly face but we can hardly tell. Then another
light comes on – this time it’s a green light.The light
reveals a bit more of the face and the face appears
hideous. Finally a third light comes on – yellow this
time and the face is bare in front of us. It is a
monstrous face – call him Frankenstein, call him
Dracula, call him a zombie or call him the hero of
any Ramsay movie. He is ugly. He is gory. He is
kitschy. Somewhere the skin is peeling. Somewhere
there are boils sticking out of the face.The eyes are
red like the devil’s. The camera continues to zoom
into his face and while we are tempted to look
away, something about that face keeps us hooked
and enticed. Behind him, we see a strange setting.
There are other characters much like him.There is a
lot of smoke around.There are disco lights. It almost
looks like a ghost party.

17. THE GLITTERING, GLAMOROUS AND COLOURFUL DANDIYA RAAS STRAIGHT
FROM A BOLLYWOOD FILM

18. T H E
G H O S T
P A R T Y
W I T H
U L T R A -
N E O N ,
H I G H -
CONTRAST
LIGHTING

19. MUSIC
Music is an ultimate expression of thought and emotion. Music
creates an environment, a desired atmosphere in a film while
enhancing the overall mood and emotion of the film. Be it
drama, comedy or action, without music no amount of visual
scape can complete the film.A film that is a wonderful mélange
of all of those three elements needs a kind of music that is
grand, operatic and absolutely mesmerizing. The romance and
thrill of the dream would be accurately captured by a kind of
music that is layered, complex and energetic.
Even as the music changes with each sequence, we could find a
way to have a thematic commonality in the music that ties the
whole film together.The first sequence has a Goa lounge sort
of a feel, the second a peppy Zumba music, the third inspired
from 80s style kitschy Jeetendra numbers, the fourth modern
dandiya inspired Bollywood number and the fifth a beautiful
blues and jazz to which our monsters are perhaps grooving - a
wonderful amalgamation of humour, emotion and endless
energy. As suggested, even though the music would be
drastically different for each sequence, we would find a thread,
a rhythm, a tune that would musically tie the entire film
together.

20. It would be my absolute honour to work on a film that bursts with joy, drama and a
sense of humour and reminds one of the masters of cinema like Tim Burton,
Stanley Kubrick and to a certain extent Baz Luhrmann. They have created visual
masterpieces that remain ingrained in the minds of the audiences for decades,
generations and centuries.This film is any director’s dream come true – to be able
to tell a story without constraints and inhibitions. For a film that offers a fantastical
realm one needs to ensure that while a fairytale looks like a fairytale, it feels like
reality; a magical reality.
This film is essentially about the coming together of reality and a dream scape.The
reality is bitter with constant worries of data charges and the dream is fantastical
even though strangely scary for it reminds one way or the other of the reality. But
what is most evident is the contrast and in order to bring home this contrast, it is
important to create two worlds that are distinctly different; while one is loud,
dramatic and over-the-top, the other is downright real and reasonable.A larger than
life treatment would emphasize this gap most vehemently and in doing so, express
the exaggerated fear that our poor man lives with. In his dreams, his fears have
gained a monstrous proportion. I would love to collaborate with you on this
wonderful film and ensure that the treatment does justice to this wonderful script
and places it on a high pedestal where it belongs.
Thank you!