“The Genie Duck”



On a sunny day, eight year old Neethu sat on the couch, engrossed in her video game, headphones over her ears. A smile crossed her face as she glanced over her shoulder to see Mullai,
a 50 year old man and a gang leader, blowing on a birthday blower with amusement. suddenly, the sound of something breaking echoed through the house. Mullai sighed and muttered, “can you guys make it quick? It’s getting late” 

Upstairs, Neethu’s father Hari, a 33 year old man, was busy fighting off Mullai’s thugs. He threw one out of the room, and as the thug stumbled, he growled, “where are the weapons?” Hari quickly overpowered him. Another thug swung a bat at Hari, shouting, “Tell us where the weapons are!” Hari dodged the swing, snatched the bat from him, and knocked him down. 

Downstairs, Mullai picked up a framed family photo of Hari and shook his head. “Why do people like this always ruin everything by dealing weapons and other activities without my knowledge” he muttered to himself. Meanwhile, upstairs, Hari grabbed a gun from the shelf. A gunshot was heard and Mullai was alerted. He reached for a baseball bat, slowly moving towards Neethu, who was still focused on her video game. Just as he was about to strike, a voice called out “cut” 

It was a movie set. Mullai stopped, turned to the director, and asked “was that okay?” 

The director nodded. “Yes sir, we can move on to the next shot” he then called his assistant to bring the script paper and told him to ask Hari and the others to come down. 

As they gathered, Neethu pulled a bag of chocolates from her backpack and began handing them out to the crew. Mullai chuckled and said “Neethu’s been waiting to give you these for a while” Hari smiled and accepted one, then pulled out a chocolate from his pocket to give her in return. 

Neethu pulled a duck toy from her bag, the duck is wearing big glasses. 
“Press the button” she said excitedly, “say what you want, and your wish will come true.” Hari smiled again and replied, “I only have one wish - that everyone should act perfectly without taking too many takes, so we can finish early, but to do that, we need to get into our characters.” 
The duck toy let out a funny noise, and everyone laughed.

 The director stepped in 
“alright, let’s start. Hari, wash your face and come back down.
We’ll finish this shot while you’re freshening up.”

 Mullai took the opportunity to ask the director a question about the movie’s plot, and the director explained, “Hari’s been selling weapons behind Mullai’s back in the area where he is in-charge of weapon supplies.” Hari placed the duck toy back down and headed upstairs to freshen up.

 While washing his face, Hari heard a strange sound. He stepped out, but everything seemed normal. He came downstairs and saw Neethu, she was playing with her headphones on. Suddenly, one of Mullai’s thugs burst into the house, demanding, “where are the weapons?” Confused, Hari asked for the script, and asked “where are the others?”
But the thug ignored that and repeated his question. 

Hari glanced at the duck toy, which began making weird noises. The thug received a call from Mullai, who ordered him to deal with Hari.

The duck suddenly spoke “everything will be over even before you process this. You need to put on my glasses now.” Hari, confused, but curious, picked up the big glasses from the toy and put them on. Time froze. In front of him, a flock of ducks appeared. The toy duck started speaking again “you wished for something and you’re going to get it. But you only have one chance. You’re part of the movie now. Eliminate Mullai and his thugs, or they’ll kill Neethu. 

Hari quickly told Neethu to go inside and keep playing, and she obeyed without saying anything. Outside, Mullai stood smoking, unaware of the chaos inside. Hari went upstairs and searched for the guns as the thugs chased him. Mullai entered the house and smiled at Neethu, who was still playing.

Hari took the guns and shot the thugs one by one, but as he came downstairs he saw Mullai holding Neethu at gun point. Hari froze for a moment, then his eyed darted toward the duck toy on the table. Without hesitation, he shot the toy. Instantly, everything returned to normal - the set, the actors, and the camera. 



The end