King Shahryar discovering his wife's infidelity has her executed, but in his bitterness decides that all women are the same. He begins to marry a succession of virgins only to execute each one the next morning, before they have a chance to dishonour him.
The vizier whose duty it is to provide these virgins to him each night quickly runs out of supply (Surprise). Scheherazade, the vizier's daughter, to rescue her father from execution - offers herself as the next bride and her father reluctantly agrees.
(Note to self: This is not clear. Because reluctantly hi sahi, her father agreeing to the daughter giving herself up implies that he either (a) thinks his daughter is very bright and can save her own neck. Knowing fathers, we know this is not even possible or (b) he is okay for her to get herself killed. because he figures that if she is a virgin at 40, she should kill herself anyway (somewhat more likely option)
On the night of their marriage, Scheherazade begins to tell her first story in a valiant attempt to save herself from execution. She wisely tells him only a part of the tale and strategically gets to the suspense part of the story only close to day-break... the king eager to hear how the prince and the princess of the story meet postpones her execution.
(This is also where all saas-bahu serials have got the inspiration to close the hour with accident scenes (did they kill off the hero?), a husband's hand raised in the air (will the otherwise loving husband slap his wife? and the like)
The next night, as soon as she finishes the tale, she begins (and only begins) a new one, and the king, eager to hear the conclusion, postpones her execution once again.
Each night she picks from a wide range of storytelling techniques researched by her(while other pretty girls were busy getting laid) - sequels, trilogies, character detailing. Her best work was undoubtedly 'Ali Baba and the forty thieves' where she spent a night each on each of the forty thieves...no detail too small to be omitted- bathroom habits (more lately used in- atithi tum kab jaaoge), wardrobes (refer 'Veer' for more contemporary use) and so on.
She manages to come up with about 350 not so original stories. But what she lacks in originality, she makes up in technique (this is not true for Madhur Bhandarkar or Sajid Khan or Siddharth Anand or...) because Princess Scheherazade tells these 350 stories for 1,001 ARABIAN NIGHTS.
At the end of the 1001 nights, the king discovers he is in love with his clever wife and would like to stay married to her forever.
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Notes to self:
1) IF not creative, please try to lose virginity to avoid execution
2) In unlikely event of creativity - try not to marry murdering king.
