Head Shaking Indians – the animation project

Head Shaking Indians is an absurd animation project created by Misagh Alami during the pandemic lockdown period of 2019-2020.

The initial idea was to release multiple animation videos but the project was ultimately put on the shelf when Misagh joined the direction team of the feature film Opponent (2022).

The animation is based on a real life incident of when Misagh moved to a dodgy area in England and met some bizarre people in a series of events which escalated into complete madness.

On this page, you can experience the animation in its incomplete form by reading the first draft written by Misagh and edited by Tom Blommengren, with a complete storyboard by Viktorija Burlakina and a few scenes voice acted by Dhruv Phadke, Rameez Hussain, Tom Blommengren, and Prajna. Plus, you can watch a mockup animation of scene two.

Content warning: this work contains content which may be offensive to some people. The intentions are purely artistic.

INT. MIND – DAY

MISA appears behind a window, speaking to the audience.

MISA
Hey, it’s me, Misa. I’m outside of a window. Kinda weird. Almost creepy. But listen… For a while back, I was working as a filmmaker in England. I had just finished a drama course in University and I was what we would call… a struggling artist.

MISA
In order to make it and have a career, my decisions in life had to be like…

INT. NEO’S APARTMENT – NIGHT

MORPHEUS is sitting on a sofa, facing Misa. He reaches out his hand, holding two pills.

MORPHEUS
Do you want the blue pill, or the the red pill?

Misa grabs both pills.

MISA
Both. Fuck me up!

Misa swallows the pills.

MISA
(while swallowing)
What else you got?

Morpheus is stunned.

MISA
Gimme the black pill dude!

Misa flashes Thanos’ Infinity Gauntlet and snaps his fingers. Morpheus disappears into black dust.

Misa gets on the ground and snort the black dust.

MISA
YES!

INT. MIND – DAY

MISA
Life was mental.

MISA (V.O.)
I left for work early morning, and came home past midnight – every single day. I worked so hard that it barely made any sense.

And the reward you get for surviving as a struggling artist…

A hand pushes a pack of noodles into Misa’s mouth, which frustrates him.

MISA (V.O.)
…was enough money to shove some noodles in your mouth and do your best to live with near zero nutrition.

GOD
(pushing another stack of noodles into Misa’s mouth)
EAT.

MISA
(to hand)
Dude stop!

MISA (V.O.)
So one day (I am knee-deep into shooting a film when) I move into this super-dodgy flat in one of the roughest neighbourhoods ever.

MISA (V.O.)
(The entrance is in some back alley and) The first thing you do when you open the front door is to walk right into the trash room.

MISA
I, NEED TO WALK, INTO, THE TRASHROOM, to get into the flat.

MISA
It’s like – BOOM – instant quality slash sarcasm.

A GIANT breaks through the wall, and pushes the trash containers on to Misa with his two massive hands.

MISA
It’s like.

GIANT
Here you go buddy – welcome home. Give it a sniff buddy.

Giant sniffes the whole odour of the trash.

GIANT
Mmmm… Very nice buddy.

Misa walks away, out of the room.

GIANT
Where are you going buddy? Isn’t it lovely buddy? Don’t you like it buddy?
…
Bud?

INT. STAIRS – DAY

Misa enters the stairway.

MISA (V.O.)
Then I am greeted with stairs that just seem to lead to nowhere.

Misa starts walking up the stairs.

MISA (V.O.)
I mean, here are normal angled stairs.

Visualisation of normal angled stairs.

MISA (V.O.)
And this is how steep these are.

Stairs appear as profoundly steep.

MISA
Yo.

MISA (V.O.)
I walk. And I walk. And I walk. And walk, and walk, and walk, and walk, and walk. Stairs you are tearing me apart!

Misa stands still out of frustration. He hears chanting from mysterious gremlin creatures and turns around to check.

MISA
What the… It’s like cheerleaders from hell.

Misa gets in deep thought mode.

MISA (V.O.)
My life flashes before my eyes.

Do I push on and continue to climb these infernal steps on toward a most uncertain future?

Or do I let go, and tumble down to a life of soul-draining routine and comfort?

I stand there deciding who I want to be in either iteration. And I, I decide I want to be the one who leap.

Misa starts running up the stairs. The sound of drums and accapella style African Jazz is played in the background with the gremlins dancing to the rhythm.

MISA (V.O.)
COME ON!

Misa runs at fullest speed. Soon he discovers his leg muscles are as big as a house.

MISA (V.O.)
Is it ever gonna end!

Misa finally arrives to the top, where the Gremlin Messiah is awaiting him.

GREMLIN MESSIAH
Behold! You are in the presence of the gremlin messiah…

The Gremlin Messiah abruptly stops when discovering a gremlin child who clinged to Misa’s leg all the way to the top.

GREMLIN MESSIAH
Oh I see you brought a passenger.

Gremlin Messiah recognises the child.

GREMLIN MESSIAH
Ohhhhh….
(tears up)
Pincho… My lovely little Pincho. Come to Papa.

Gremlin Messiah grabs his daughter.

GREMLIN MESSIAH
You brought my Pincho to me.

Gremlin Messiah kisses his daughter.

PINCHO
Thank you for carrying me up here, you brave mister stair walking human.

MISA
What’s going on, I don’t know. What the fuck.

GREMLIN MESSIAH
Focus boy, Stay fierce.

Gremlin Messiah starts to sing the rhythm of the African Jazz song, and slowly, in a creepy manner, walks backwards into the dark.

GREMLIN MESSIAH
(singing)
Oh-ah-ah-oh-ah Oh-ah-ah-oh-ah…

Misa is completely creeped out.

MISA
(disgusted)
Ahhhhhh…
(paus)
Haha, ok, enough.

INT. LOUNGE – DAY

MISA
So once I went through (the process of just walking into my new home in) what appeared to be some form of acid trip from hell, I finally had a chance to get a small dose of the people who I will live with.

Misa’s flatmates, SANDEEP, and a few other Asians appear.

MISA (V.O.)
My flatmates are this really cute cocktail of people from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. They had just moved to England and came across as this spicy group of innocent souls in total awe of everything.

MISA (V.O.)
But… already from the get-go, I noticed something was off with them, particularly in the way they greeted me.

Misa reaches out his right-hand to Sandeep. Sandeep grabs it with this right-hand.

MISA
Gimme one mo.

Sandeep grabs the hand with his left-hand as well.

MISA
Jokes, I didn’t ask for both hands, but that didn’t stop them from grabbing every inch of my hand as if they were in the presence of someone worthy of profound respect.

Okay. Kinda cute!

The camera angle is from below, showing Misa as a higher being. Misa stares at the camera. Blinks.

MISA
This is an uncomfortable angle.

INT. LOUNGE (TIME-LAPSE) – DAY

Time-lapse of Misa coming home late at night and passing by his flatmates in the lounge.

MISA (V.O.)
I see them every day when I get home late at night.

Misa passes by the lounge where his flatmates are chilling.

MISA
Hey.

New day, passes by again.

MISA
Yo.

And again.

MISA
What’s up.

And again.

MISA
Fellas.

And again.

MISA
Hi bros.

And again.

MISA
Bonjour.

Until one day, Sandeep stops him.

SANDEEP
Misa.

MISA (V.O.)
My flatmate Sandeep stops me and appears to have this urge to share something important.

MISA
Spill it out.

Sandeep looks at Misa quietly with total anxiety.

MISA
Dude speak!

MISA (V.O.)
Come here… literally had to squeeze it out of him.

Misa squeezes Sandeep’s body. And then Sandeep, in a mental anime like sequence shouts some crazy (nonsensical) shit.

MISA
(slowly tilts his head to the camera)
What burst out of him, was just too MENTAL for me to wrap my head around.

Sandeep appears with his friend, DANGAL.

MISA (V.O.)
(Are you ready for this.) Basically, he brought his friend over to audition for my next film. And with film. I mean. You know. That kind of film. The kind for adults.

The sound of a scratching record is heard, the type when a song abruptly stops.

MISA
Yes, he thinks I make THAT type of film.

MISA (V.O.)
Instead of asking him…

MISA
Dude, what in the world are you on about?!

MISA (V.O.)
I paused a moment to reflect on what lead to this. What made Sandeep believe I work in THIS field. Well… I had to go back to the very first night when I moved into this flat.

INT. BEDROOM – NIGHT

Misa wakes up in the middle of the night. Exhausted and dehydrated.

MISA (V.O.)
I woke up in the middle of the night, with that strange feeling you get when you sleep and wake up in a new place. When everything feels weird and the good ol’ paranoia kicks in.

Misa looks to the left wall.

MISA
This wall is a lot closer to me than I remember.

Misa looks to the right.

MISA
What’s that shadow?

Misa sees a shadow in the shape of an attacking human. He looks around and finds the source of the shadow – a bunch of stuff randomly stacked on top of each other to form the shadow figure.

MISA
Oh ok, nice one.

Misa looks straight up to the ceiling, focuses on a small red light.

MISA
They have a fire alarm. Thank God.

Misa focuses more and sees the red light in the shape of an ugly firefly.

MISA
Oh, it’s a creepy fly. Help.

Misa blinks, shakes his head, and focuses even more. Sees a monster holding a small red lightbulb.

MISA
Oh, okay.

Misa pulls the cover over his face as the monster slides down from the roof with its tongue out.

MISA
Freaking out.

MISA
Anyway.

Misa pulls the tongue of the monster and it slides back up, just like how vertical slidable curtains work.

MISA (V.O.)
I was so dehydrated that it felt like my tongue was as dry as sandpaper.

Misa stands up, dragging himself out of bed.

INT. HALLWAY – NIGHT

Misa walks this long never ending hallway.

MISA (V.O.)
So I walked down the hallway, completely disoriented, and in desperate need of some water.

While walking, Misa has an increase of anxiety and fear.

MISA (V.O)
Some light is coming out of the kitchen.
Why is there some light coming out of the kitchen?

MISA
Why?!

MISA (V.O.)
Do I really have to cross paths with someone at this state? Not gonna lie, I was crazy paranoid and wanted to do just about anything to avoid meeting others.

Misa is close to the kitchen door.

MISA (V.O.)
I stepped into the kitchen…

INT. KITCHEN – NIGHT

Misa is in the kitchen, confronted with the view of Sandeep, the Indian flatmate.

MISA (V.O.)
…and THEEEERE HEEEE WAAAAAS. With his puffy sugar-sweet cheeks, and tender cotton candy smile as delicate as a flower in the morning dew.

MISA (V.O.)
We ended up in this intense staring contest.

Looking…

Observing…

Dreading what is to come next.

And then it started to happen. His face suddenly lit up and I could sense he was only a few moments away from dropping some of the most next level lyrics known to mankind.

Sandeep prepares his posture and head.

MISA (V.O.)
I embraced myself as he slowly softened the muscles on his neck to release the stiffness around his head.

A moment of blissfulness hit him and he flexed the muscles at the sides of his mouth to increase his smile to a level of pure euphoria while he boosted up his engine to tilt his head from one side to the other like he was getting ready to dance the whole world into smithereens… Wait for it… WAAAAAIT FOR IT.

Sandeep starts shaking his head while speaking.

SANDEEP
Huuuungry huuungry.

Misa looks at Sandeep in shock.

Misa slaps Sandeep.

MISA
Why would I eat dinner 4 in the morning!

MISA (V.O.)
This made me wonder, why do Indian people shake their head while they speak?

WHY do indian people shake their head while they speak?

I mean, it’s kinda funny, but, is it practical? Is there something beneath the surface that we are yet to discover?

Let me entertain you with a few theories.

Misa speaks to the viewer.

MISA
And relax you kawaii lurker, this is all kinda relevant to what happened.

Misa reaches out of the screen to grab the viewer by the cheeks.

MISA
HANG IN THERE CHAMP!

Misa slides a bit back into the screen, but then slides out again, pushes his finger in between the eyes of the viewer.

MISA
Mhhh!

A sound of the squeezing is heard. Once satisfied, Misa slides back down a bit. And then makes the sound of “Moah” with his fingers, indicating that he is happy with the results.

MISA
Beautiful.

Camera turns to the viewer and we see the viewer has the mark of bindi on their forehead.

INT. NATIONAL MUSEUM – DAY

Misa swipes past the screen, in a Bollywood dance move.

MISA
So… Theory ONE of the indian head shaking extravaganza.

In the National Museum, a father is waiting with his daughter in the exhibition room.

DAUGHTER
Daddy, what is this?

Daughter points at a glass box with item inside.

FATHER
That’s an Egyptian mummy.

Daughter points at the next box.

DAUGHTER
What about this?

FATHER
That’s an ancient metrorite.

Daughter points at the next box which is an Indian person with his head inside a glass box.

DAUGHTER
And this?

Indian guy starts shaking his head.

INDIAN HOLOGRAM
I am a hologram.

Misa appears on the screen.

MISA
Ok sorry, that’s just ridiculous. Let me have another go at it.

INT. AREA 51 HEADQUARTER – NIGHT

Misa swipes past the screen, in a Bollywood dance move.

MISA
Two. (Theory two of the indian head shaking phenomenon.)

In the super secret headquarter Area 51 that focuses on alien activity, when skimming through the data, the CEO has a sudden realisation.

CEO
We’re being hacked. (They are on to us.)

The CEO turns around to RAJ, an indian computer scientist.

CEO
Raj! Quickly! Shake your head like there is no tomorrow!

RAJ
(Heavy Indian accent)
Copy that sir.

Raj gasps for air. Starts shaking head frantically.

RAJ
(gibberish)
Dabli-babli-balegahe-danglagahe…

Raj’s head shaking increases rapidly to extreme levels.

RAJ
…dale-bale-galeh…

RAJ
(Shouting)
PUNJAB!

An EMP (Electromagnetic pulse) hits the town. Lights in each building shuts down.

INT. BASEMENT – NIGHT

Misa swipes past the screen, in a Bollywood dance move.

MISA
Three.

In a dodgy basement, three friends, MARK, CALLUM, and DHRUV (Indian) sit intensely in front of a desktop computer. Mark is typing frantically.

The screen shows a loading bar with 98% left of downloading some secret data.

ALL
Come on, come on, come on…

Loading bar turns to 99%. Cheering increases.

An EMP is heard outside of the basement. Callum and Dhruv run to the window to check.

MARK
What’s that sound?

The electricity goes out in the basement room.

MARK
No-no-no-no-no…
(We lost it)
Turn on the generator!

Callum sticks one wire into each of Dhruv’s ears.

CALLUM
(Scottish accent)
Shake it loose, brother.

Dhruv starts to shake his head.

DHRUV
(while shaking)
Mh-mh-mh-mh-mh-mh-mh-mh…

Callum kicks off a praying ritual in front of Dhruv, swinging his arms and chanting.

CALLUM
Kumbaya-kumba-kumba-kumbayaaaaa…

As the ritual and head shaking increases, the electricity and lights slowly starts to come back.

MARK
We’re back, we’re back! Keep going!

Screen shows 100% successfully transferred.

MARK
WE DID IT BOYS!

Mark sees a top secret PDF file, clicks it. File loads up with an image of an alien and text stating that aliens are invading earth TODAY. Today is doomsday.

MARK
What?!

Callum interrupts his own kumbaya singing with the sounds of an elephant. At this point, the head shaking and ritual is at its highest peak.

Mark turns back, to see Callum transformed into Ganesha, the four-handed elephant God, and Dhruv is nearly in a super sayan state.

Mark screams his lungs out (like a Homer Simpson scream), followed by another scream of Ganesha (Elephant Callum).

INT. CABIN – NIGHT

“One week later” text appears.

Misa swipes past the screen, in a Bollywood dance move.

MISA
Four.

In a post-apocalyptic world, a family of three indians, mother, father, and son, are hiding in a cabin. They are being corned by a two aggressive flesh-eating aliens.

INDIAN FATHER
Don’t move.

INDIAN MOTHER
(to child)
Stay behind me sweetie.

INDIAN CHILD
I’m scared.

INDIAN FATHER
Don’t be.

The aliens get closer to them.

INDIAN FATHER
I’m sorry.

The father, realising he can’t protect his family, starts to tear up.

INDIAN FATHER
I’m so sorry I could not protect you.

INDIAN MOTHER
I love you.

A tear drops from the father’s eye, slowly sliding down his cheek.

INDIAN FATHER
(while shaking his head)
Ditto.

As the father shakes his head, the tear flies into one of the aliens. As it is being hit by the tear, it dies by vanishing into dust.

INDIAN FATHER
I don’t understand.

The remaining alien shouts aggressively.

INDIAN MOTHER
You killed it.

INDIAN FATHER
How.

INDIAN CHILD
It’s kryptonite. Your cry.

Father looks at mother, they nod at each other, determined, and ready to fight.

INDIAN MOTHER
The tears. It’s the tears.

The alien approaches the father, in a duel, confronting his prey. The father, determined and ready, pushes out a new tear.

INDIAN FATHER
(shakes his head with an attempt to angle the head-shaking so the tear hits the alien)
BHANGRA!

In a bullet-time sequence, the tear lands on the alien and the alien vanish while in great agony.

EXT. WOODS – AFTERNOON

Epic music is being played. The landscape is filled with aliens, destroying everything in their path.

An alien spaceship is about to land.

Raj, the EMP indian, appear in a powerful state.

RAJ
(while frantically shaking his head)
PUNJAB!

The electricity in the spaceship goes out and it crashes on the ground.
Dhruv, the Indian generator, appears in a super sayan state, flashing electricity at a ton of aliens attacking him – taking them down in batches.

DHRUV
(while frantically shaking his head)
Mh-mh-mh-mh-mh-mh-mh-mh…

Ganesha (Elephant Callum) appears, shouting as an elephant, and destroying everything in his path with his massive body size and four arms.

The indian family of three appears, all of which are shaking their heads while we hear them crying their eyes out. They all attack the aliens, who one by one vanish into dust.

The indian hologram guy appears with two aliens attempting to unsuccessfully bite their way through the glass box surrounding his head.

INDIAN HOLOGRAM
(while shaking his head)
I am a hologram.

A wide shot of all the characters – fighting for the survival of mankind, in a mighty superhero The Avengers/X-Men styled sequence.

INT. HOME – NIGHT

We are back to where Sandeep brought his friend for an audition.

MISA
Boom, we’re back here. Breathe my friends, breathe.

MISA (V.O.)
Quick recap. My flatmate think I work as a director for you know what type of film. I’m confused. He’s confused. I ask questions. He gives answers, still makes little sense. I try to piece things together. I’m still confused, he’s still confused.

But basically…

Back then, most of my friends were performers, and we used to wear really mental outfits.

Misa’s friends appear, one by one, each have crazier outfits than the other.

MISA (V.O.)
Like really next level.

An overweight character dressed in full body and head latex bondage appears with mouth zipper. He unzips his mouth zipper and says.

BONDAGE MAN
Ok, maybe not this mental, but, you get the idea.

MISA (V.O.)
So, let’s see.

Checklist appears.

MISA (V.O.)
Film director. Check. Comes home super late. Check. Have mental looking friends. Check.
… Checks out, he directs naked people.

MISA
What do I do at this point? I do what any reasonable person would do. I pretend to be whatever they want me to be just so that I can prank the life out of them with this audition.

Misa dances away out of enthusiasm.

INT. KITCHEN – NIGHT

MISA (V.O.)
Let me paint you a picture of how the audition went down. We’re in the kitchen. Sandeep tripping to the left. And Dangal, the desperate aspiring amateur actor to the right.

Misa, Sandeep, and Dangal appears in their respective positions in the kitchen as Misa narrates the setup.

MISA (V.O.)
Dangal barely understands English, so we have the setup of me speaking a bit in English, and Sandeep translating, like.

MISA
You walk into the room.

SANDEEP
(to Sandeep, in Hindi, subtitles are displayed in English)
You walk into the room.

MISA (V.O.)
This is perfect as it gives me enough space to brainstorm and sketch up the most mental/wacky story EVER.

MISA
Which leads me to what role Dangal’s character is playing in the film.

Dangal appears in focus.

MISA (V.O.)
What role do you think he is playing? Come on. Guess. You can do it. Come on…

MISA (V.O.)
A human vibrator.

Dangal starts shaking his head to the sound of vibration.

MISA
(slides into the screen)
Give me some credit little friend it’s just TOO GOOD!

MISA (V.O.)
So step by step, I pitch the plot of the film.

The scene is visualised as Misa describes the plot.

MISA (V.O.)
It starts off with Dangal laying down, with no clothes, on a movable table, with a big bucket load of curry on him. He is pushed into a basement by three macho men who are wearing costumes made out of Nan bread.

Dangal and the macho guys look at the camera.

MISA (V.O.)
And unfortunately, from this point, I have to skip all the juicy details because it is totally Not Safe For YouTube.

A tear is shed by the on screen characters. One Matcho Man eats one nan bread out of his outfit while shedding a tear.

MISA
Yeah I know, super sorry.

MISA
But, I guess what I can share is that the story just got more and more mental.

Dangal, appears in a superhero outfit, sitting on a chair.

MISA (V.O.)
To the point where Dangal grows into this superhero who comes to aid for guys to power up. Mhm, in a manner of speaking.

Dangal’s left shoulder is pulsing. One guy approaches Dangal, with his private part censored. He puts his thing on Dangal’s shoulder. Dangal’s head vibrates.

MACHO MAN 1
(shouting)
Upgrade!

Dangal is looking away, disgusted, hating his new faith. Once the macho man is charged, he walks away. Next man in line appears.

MACHO MAN 2
(shouting)
Go. GO!

Dangal is even more disturbed. Once the man is charged, next one comes forward, placing his property on Dangal’s shoulder.

MACHO MAN 3
(shouting)
Shoot up!

Dangal screams.

MACHO MAN 3
(shouting)
MORE!

Dangal screams his lungs out as the macho man is recharging.

MISA (V.O.)
And then later, he loses his super power and is chased by an army of frustrated cucumber-carrying women out for revenge.
A bunch of next level women appear, ready to fight.

MISA
Needles to say… it was bizarre.

Focus moves from Dangal to Sandeep. Slow zoom to Sandeep as he is increasingly confused.

MISA (V.O.)
You know the funniest thing about all of this wasn’t seeing Dangal’s reaction to the story, but Sandeep’s shock at how crazy the story he is translating really is. Bit by bit, I see him breaking apart, until finally.

SANDEEP
(Indian accent)
Misa, this is a very strange story.

Misa slides in, snaps his finger, screen switch to pitch black.

INT. DARK-MODE

A match is lit up and Misa is visible.

MISA
Oh and one more thing. I don’t believe you will ever see me again… unless if you subscribe to this channel, AND turn on notifications. That’s the only way, friends.

Actually, at the time of uploading this video, I have a total quantity of zero subscribers. So with “friends”, I guess I am actually referring to my internal friend.

Misa’s alter ego appears next to him.

MISA ALT-EGO
Hey dude.

MISA
You alright bud?

MISA ALT-EGO
Wha u up to bruv?

MISA
Not that much, just casually losing my mind. What about yourself?

MISA ALT-EGO
Ye-ye, I’m hanging in there.

Misa and his alter ego starts to walk away from the screen, where we hear them less and less.

MISA ALT-EGO
So, what’s your next video about?

MISA
I won’t share it, it’s too mental.

MISA ALT-EGO
Don’t leave me hanging, tell me.

MISA
Well, there is only one way to find out.

MISA ALT-EGO
How?

MISA
Subscribe and turn on notifications.

MISA ALT-EGO
You sneaky bastard.

MISA
I know what can I say.

MISA ALT-EGO
Ok boom I’ve subbed, but can’t be bothered with that alert thing.

MISA
Then you still won’t know.

MISA ALT-EGO
But I just subbed bro, you’re killing me.

MISA
It ain’t enough. It’s animation. It takes forever to make one.

MISA ALT-EGO
So you’re not gonna upload every day?

MISA
Nah, quality over quantity brotha.

MISA ALT-EGO
Right-right, so the algorithm won’t show me your next video because you upload a bit less frequently than what it prefers.

MISA
Oh-yeah.

MISA ALT-EGO
Okay. I’ve turned on notifications. Happy?

MISA
Sure.

MISA ALT-EGO
Anything else?

MISA
Like and comment.

MISA ALT-EGO
You piece of.

Misa and his alter-ego has disappeared into the dark abyss.