Punar Maraṇaṁ

Logline:
Two friends go on a journey of failed suicide, understanding the harsh realities of life and the enticing escape that death offers.

Synopsis:

Two friends are sitting at a roadside shop. The atmosphere is bleak and sad. They are oblivious to the furore of the traffic around them. A dark, ominous figure enters the scene and walks up to the shop. He is invisible to the tall protagonist, but the short friend cannot take his eyes off of the dark figure. The dark figure purchases and lights a cigarette. At that exact moment, a thought takes birth in the mind of the protagonist. He looks into the eyes of his friend determinedly and says, “Let’s die.”
The scene winds back a few minutes and it’s as if the dark figure never came there. The two friends pour their heart out to each other in grief and despair. They come to the opinion that the fear of death will insulate them from insults. The protagonist looks into his friend’s eyes and says, “Let’s die.” His friend is shocked but agrees to it in the end. The shopkeeper who overhears the conversation asks them to clear their debt before they die. They depart from the shop.
The protagonist goes to his house, to see his family one last time. He finds them engrossed in their fun and disinterested in his struggle and pain. He walks out without saying a word and washes his feet in revulsion. He leaves, engulfed in torment and misery.
The protagonist arrives at a bridge and finds that his friend is already there. He stands beside him, and they talk about how death is better than living amongst the insults. They jump into the water together. A passerby notices them and saves them.
The protagonist wakes up in a hospital and finds out that his friend passed away peacefully. He smiles to himself. He also overhears his family calling him a waste of time and money. He realizes that nothing has changed despite his suicide attempt and leaves the hospital in a dazed state of realization, wrapping a cloak around him. He roams around the city aimlessly, looking at life and its various wonders that always seemed to elude him.
He ends up at the roadside shop where two regulars are smoking and talking amongst themselves. The protagonist finds the two chairs he and his friend used to sit upon and rearranges the place to remind him of his friend. The two regulars call him a coward for choosing the ‘easy’ way out. The protagonist is left to his devices when the shopkeeper rudely seizes his collar and demands that he clear his and his friend’s debt and then go die again. The shopkeeper throws the protagonist out of the shop, who goes on to visit his college on the way, only to find more people muttering and commenting about him and his friend. He stops at a school and is reminded of the good olden days.
As he is walking around, he encounters a madman who describes the details of death. But all the details make death sound like paradise to the protagonist. He reaches a temple and finds a newspaper reporting his friend’s death. He looks at the god in anger and questions his humanity for subjecting people to an endless torturous cycle of life and death. The god hears all his turmoil and is moved.
It is night and the protagonist is on empty highway. He removes his cloak as there are no more prying eyes. He walks on the road and stops at a spot. He looks at it endearingly and curls up on the ground, finally able to sleep peacefully. Two sisters who sneaked out of the house in a car are returning in a hurry upon their dad’s multiple calls. They run over the protagonist by accident. They stop in horror and try to help the protagonist. Finally relieved that he is able to leave this harsh world, the protagonist begs them, “Let me die”. He looks at the car and finds the same dark figure sitting on top of it.
Understanding him to be Death, the protagonist smiles happily, welcoming his liberating, warm embrace.