In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones

by Arundhati Roy

The screenplay of this moving, funny and unusual film is published here for the first time, together with over thirty stills and a witty, nostalgic preface in which Arundhati Roy writes about the making of the film, its relevance today and its significance in the development of her art and her politics.

Genres: India

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 15, 2003

About the author

Arundhati Roy is an Indian writer who is also an activist who focuses on issues related to social justice and economic inequality. She won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her novel, The God of Small Things, and has also written two screenplays and several collections of essays.

For her work as an activist she received the Cultural Freedom Prize awarded by the Lannan Foundation in 2002.

Reviews

[Vartika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Late one night in 1989, an unusual movie way ahead of its time was screened on Indian national television, to be watched by the very few who remained awake during those 'indecent' midnight hours. Later that year—to the filmmakers' surprise—it won the National Film Awards for Best Film In Languages Other Than Those Specified in Schedule VIII Of the Indian Constitution (more on that in a bit) and for Best Screenplay. In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones was then lost—Doordarshan even lost the print—to obscurity, as most films bereft of big names do.

When in 2003 Penguin decided to publish the screenplay, the screenwriter Arundhati Roy had already bagged the Booker, the director Pradip Krishen had established himself as a prominent environmentalist, and Shah Rukh Khan—whose first on-screen appearance was as a gay college gossip in the movie— had gone on to become "the King of Bollywood." Despite the fact, and even as it acquired a cult status amongst architecture students (whose lives it follows) and admirers of Roy, SRK, and fringe cinema, Annie remained in the dark, and the screenplay never saw a second printing—which makes my having acquired a copy in 2021 quite the miracle.

A still from the movie, featuring Roy in silhouette. Roy wrote the screenplay and played the character of Radha, a free-spirited and nonconfirmist student who questions the system in thought and deed.

The aforementioned are just some of the many ways in which Annie defied the odds. As for convention, it didn't care for many, and was instead committed to realism: a nonpareil depiction of campus life in Delhi, one of the most exciting things about it was how it reproduced the rhythm and idiom of the way students spoke at the time—that peculiar English, or Hinglish, with smatterings of Punjabi, an essential aspect of the youth culture to which Annie was an impassioned love letter (a whole language other than those specified in Schedule VIII!). The title reflects this commitment, and the story follows an idealistic Architecture student named Anand Grover—the eponymous Annie, who keeps a chicken coop in his hostel room and spends his time 'giving it those ones', i.e. daydreaming about social uplift—as he struggles to "pass" on his fourth time repeating his fifth year.

With great wit, humour (LOTS of it), and feminist overtones, Annie also explores collegiate spaces not only as sites of irreverent creativity but also those where many of us awaken to our socio-political realities. The character of Radha—a sort of foil to the character of Annie—demonstrates this in her interrogation of architecture as an institution and how its existing form is much less a noble pursuit than appears to be (indeed, as another Goodreads reviewer called it, small islands of righteous indignation amid the sea of indifference that are our university years). That all this fits together with jokes about cocks and chickens, intact crystal bowls, and "the bogs" is what makes this movie such an incredible work of art—and just as fun to engage with in book form.

One of my favourite stills from the movie, depicting a communal washroom dripping with markers of collegiate humour. Washrooms are actually quite important to the plot!

While it has none of the rich imagery that Roy later employed in The God of Small Things , Annie too is an intimate (albeit very differently) and semi-autobiographical piece of writing. Moreover, in recounting her experiences at the School of Planning and Architecture for film, Roy marked a niche in the age of 'behalfism' in cinema by pointing the camera back at her own millieu—two years after the movie was made came Economic Liberalisation, when both these phenomena started to disappear from Indian cinema in favour of the aspirational. 90s Bollywood was certainly inventive, but hardly anything can claim to pull off the kind of sardonic close that this one does!

Luckily, some of the nighthawks who formed Annie's 'indecent' audiences during its first and only TV broadcast recorded it. You may watch the full movie here.

[Kunal Sen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Among Indian films, Pradip Kishen's 'In which Annie gives it those ones' and Anurag Kashyap's 'Paanch' are perhaps the two most famous 'lost films' of all time.

While Anurag Kashyap's new found muscle (or clout) might miraculously help 'Paanch' still bulldoze (or sneak past) the censors and get its elusive mainstream release, 'In which Annie..', on the other hand, seems condemned (and content) to remain lost in the Doordarshan archives, screened just once on the national television more than twenty years ago, and then never again.

The screenplay is Roy at her witty, wordy, sexy, blasphemous, robust best. Her helpings of stand-out lines are bountiful throughout the screenplay. "Crystal Bowl, still intact": what could be a bigger ROFL moment in the history of Indian cinema. Her characters are tragically flawed and involuntarily funny. Even the end credits are some of the whackiest, most sardonic end credits I've seen. It remains indisputably, an acquired taste. Lovers of the comedies of Mehmood and Rajinder Nath may please skip this without guilt or charge.

It was never meant to be watched. That's what makes this such a memorable ride of bittersweet irreverence, heedless abandon and lost innocence. One of the rare cult classics of our country. And this book is the story behind it. A must read.

[Ahtims · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book - a screen play of a relatively unknown arty type film released in India in the late eighties, actually. The main theme is a group of senior architect students in a remote architectural college in North India ( I presume). All the characters were eccentric and funny, there was a quaint mix of English and various Indian languages, a few predictably unpredictable characters, a stereotype Principal, adding to it all the tense final months before exams. I usually hate screen plays and dramas, these are difficult to read and comprehend. But this one was a cakewalk. I just adored the book from first page to last. I would really love to see the movie, but from the preface I understand that the movie video recording is totally damaged. Only drawback of this book is that non Indians will have a tough time to make heads or tails of it.

[Udaya]

This came highly recommended and did justice to the "you'll really enjoy it" tag, because I did. Arundhati Roy writes people, from a view just a bit inside them - not to be groatsq or anything, but it makes for sharp yet light tragicomedy. The play was hilarious, shining with the vibrancy of many characters all sticking awry from a seriously bizarre book. Its just what college life was like - small islands of righteous indignation amid the sea of indifference we call the university years.

Worth reading at least once, worth keeping on your shelf.

[Kumar Anshul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally I read a screenplay for the first time. Though it seemed a bit boring at the beginning, all-in-all it was an interesting read. Though Arundhati Roy didn't have much space for the bombastic lines and obscure analogies, which she makes up for with a smooth and humorous plot.
I used to think that this book, being out of print, is one of those rare ones but later I got to know that the book (and the movie) is quite famous among the architecture students of the country, for the obvious reason that the story is about a group of architecture students.

[Mohammad Sabbir Shaikh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't know Arundhati Roy had written a movie at the beginning of her writing career. I didn't know she had won a National Award for Best Screenplay for the same movie.

Then I met this book.

It told me that this movie, In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones, is a wonderful movie and a must-watch. So watch if you aren't a reader. Or, even best, read if you want to become one.

[K Yuan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots of Hindi and Punjabi transliteration written without English translation, you're better off watching the movie on Youtube.

Having said that, I highly recommend the movie. A definite change from the usual big Bollywood blockbusters, and as Roy weaves a intricate portrait of life as an architecture student, or more accurately, a university student. While you can't help feeling abit dazed and dreamy through the movie, the melodramatic climax fits the movie well enough for captions to explain the rest. Also, Roy is a noteworthy actress.

[Richa Kedia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A unique read!!

[N · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite "meh" for a writer like her, though it is entertaining.

[Suysauce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Known fact: this cult classic was Roy’s first screenwriting experience.

Lesser known fact: it’s semi-autobiographical.

Many have said it’s one of Shah Rukh Khan’s earliest screen appearances.