We briefed this as the most familiar Kolkata street drama painted straight into patua brush: the auto-wallah and the commuter locked over a fare nobody will win. A facing pair stages the standoff — the driver's jabbing finger against the passenger's raised, refusing palm, the whole quarrel held in those two hands. Behind them the yellow-and-black auto crams a row of peering faces, the real comedy of the shared ride. We dressed the driver in a khaki shirt and red-check gamcha with a blue lungi, the commuter in office blue, and kept the ground plain top and bottom so the gestures carry it. Boneless shading rounds the driver's belly and the passenger's lean — affectionate, everyday, unending.