Analyzing Narrative and Characters in 'The Most Beautiful Thing' Film

This essay offers a comprehensive analysis of Maaz Khan's short film, 'The Most Beautiful Thing,' focusing on the relationship between Brandon, a shy boy, and Emily, a disabled girl. It explores themes of love, connection, and transformation through character sketches, plot analysis, and storytelling techniques. The essay delves into Brandon's initial isolation and his subsequent growth through his relationship with Emily, highlighting the film's effective use of artificial lighting and non-diegetic music to convey subtle emotions. The climax, involving a misunderstanding and eventual reconciliation, is examined, along with the resolution where Emily overcomes her fear of speaking to express her feelings. The essay concludes with a personal reflection on the film's message of unconditional love and the importance of inner connection.

Running head: STORY-TELLING
Story-telling
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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Introduction:
Directed by Maaz Khan, The Most Beautiful Thing is one of the finest short films
beautifully portraying the inexplicably beautiful relation between a shy, withdrawn boy,
Brandon, and a disabled girl, Emily. Once the movie starts, the audience finds a young teenager,
wandering aimlessly over the corridor of his college, unable to strike connection with the young
students of his age, and by the middle of the story, when Brandon has already met Emily, he
transforms into a content, smarter and confident person. This is one of the most essential themes
of the story- the magical spell that love casts on Brandon; even though he cannot verbally
communicate with his beloved friend, he can sense every iota of happiness arising out of his
blissful union with Emily. The effective use of artificial lighting in alternate scenes, and non-
diegetic music is highly consistent with the mood and tone of the story, and helps the audience
understand even the most subtle emotions felt by the characters.
Summary:
Against the backdrop of a clamorous class corridor, where the young students are too
engrossed in talking with each others, or indulging in sensuous activities, the short story The
Most Beautiful Thing starts. The audience, in the very opening scene, is being made aware of the
ugly scenario of the present world, where most of the people engage in conversations for the
sake of it, and lack depth of any emotion. Brandon, a teenage boy, is intimidated by the
indifferent attitude of his classmates. On the one hand, the Prom Night is coming up, and people
are trying to find new partners, and on the other, Brandon is too shy to ask anyone to become his
companion. Brandon clearly belongs to another world. Brandon is perplexed, and he fails to
understand if his friends are too desperate or he requires brushing up his social skills. However,

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no matter how despondent Brandon feels, pitying his own condition, he soon finds a girl, and
tries to woo her, by greeting her. However, the girl shows no sign of interest, and apparently
turns a “deaf” ear to his call, and walked away. However, nevertheless, Brandon is fortunate
enough to accidentally meet her on the very next day, and as he approaches her for a second
time, to his greatest dismay, he discovers that the girl is deaf and dumb. She cannot greet back
verbally, and cannot hear a word, in the first place. Nevertheless, they exchange words by simply
using a notebook, and employing the use of signal language. As days are passing, Brandon is
becoming more confident, and feels drawn towards Emily. While finally the day arrives, when
he decides to profess his love for the girl, and ask her out for the Prom Night, he is shocked to
find Emily, with another boy, where the latter is trying to kiss her. Repulsed by the very sight of
it, Brandon flees from there, deciding to severe all his ties with Emily. However, Emily, finally
confronts him, and explains how the boy tried to kiss him, but she hit him, and the unknown
facts were disclosed by Emily, in her own words. Although earlier, she said that she prefers not
to try speaking as she fears to be ridiculed, in the last scene, she tries to communicate with all her
heart, so as to embrace the love of her life.
Character Sketch:
As far as the short story is concerned, the characters of the two protagonists, Brandon and
Emily have been portrayed in much detail by the writer.
Brandon: In the opening scene of the story, it becomes evident that Brandon is more of a
recluse, who stays mostly detached with people around him, as they intimidate him. He is a
teenager with much depth of feeling, and cannot hang around with anyone, for temporal
pleasure. He is shy and withdrawn, and fails to make friends easily. He easily gets perplexed,

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when he finds his other classmates, are able to find partners, while he is still left alone. He sits on
the right of a bench, instead of the centre, despite being the protagonist. This shows he tries to
stay detached, and cannot easily connect with the people around him. He is very sensitive to the
external environment, and easily gets despondent when he finds the girl, Emily, not responding
to his greetings. However, as he discovers she is deaf and dumb, he quickly understands the
situation, and embraces his new relation with her. Brandon has a big heart, he is generous and he
starts loving Emily, despite her revelation of disability. He does not stop himself from loving the
disabled girl, and puts all his soul, in loving her.
Emily: Emily is a disabled girl, who can neither hear, nor can communicate. However, despite
the physical disability, Emily is a friendly, charming girl, with a pleasant personality. It is only
her, who helps Brandon find a friend, and feel at peace with his life. Just like Brandon, Emily
also finds a companion in him, and impacts his life. Her love for Brandon becomes evident when
she forces herself to speak, regardless of what others say, just to resolve the misunderstanding
affecting their relation, and voices her love for him.
Climax:
Though the revelation of Emily’s disability is a major twist in the plot, the climax of the
story occurs when Brandon decides to profess his love for Emily, and is repulsed by the sight of
her being kissed by another boy. Brandon is thrilled when he finds Emily’s text stating how she
has been missing his absence, and gets reassured that she does love him. He realizes this is
exactly the time to finally declare his love for her, and after hours of practice before the mirror,
he goes to visit her in the park. However, finding them in an intimate situation, Brandon loses all
his hope, feels crestfallen, and comes back.

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Falling Action:
The falling action occurs, when the misunderstanding between the two protagonists is
resolved. At the last scene, as a disenchanted Brandon walks out of his classroom, for going to
the washroom, he meets Emily. Emily always feared speaking, in fear of being mocked at, but
this time, she explained how the boy forcefully tried to kiss her, and how she prevented any
further advancement from him. As Brandon realizes his mistake, he admires how she speaks, and
the story happily concludes with their happy reconciliation.
Story Technique and Execution:
The opening scene rightly engages the attention of the audience by presenting a world
that is at once intimidating for the protagonist as well as for them, and the way the camera has
been focused on different angles and different parts of the corridor, at the very same time, brings
in a sense of instability in the lives of the characters. Again, the mise en scene strategy is used,
whereby the camra brings in a close up shot of the “Who wants to go to the Prom” poster, and
again in a while highlights the protagonist standing alone, which clearly explain his loneliness in
w world where he fails to connect, even though he can verbally communicate with each of them.
However, as soon as Emily is introduced, the camera is not sifted here and there, and is more
focused, showing how the protagonist feels content, being able to connect with Emily, even
though they cannot verbally exchange thoughts and ideas. The music sets the tone of the story as
well. In fact, the music at the begining is consistent with his feeling of loneliness, whereas by the
middle of the film when the two characters are able to connect with each other, the music is very
up-beat and happy.
Personal Experience:

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The most beautiful message that the story conveys is that one should always listen to his
heart, and should love regardless of differences, if his soul can connect with the soul of another
individual. The very fact that the best feelings in the world, such as love and happiness, can only
be perceived within the heart, has been briefly summed up by Helen Keller’s words in the end.

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Reference List:
Covell, C. (2017). The Most Beautiful Thing. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=IP8psM4LWXk
Malin, J. J., Vine, V. J., Stanton, A., Cannava, K., Bodie, G., & Pennebaker, J. W. (2014). The
arc of narrative: Using language markers to identify stories. In Poster presented at the
annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Austin, TX.
Rohrbach, A., Rohrbach, M., & Schiele, B. (2015, October). The long-short story of movie
description. In German Conference on Pattern Recognition(pp. 209-221). Springer,
Cham.