Ep 230- Heeramandi, Aavesham, Crakk Reviews

[00:00:00] Hi, this is Asim. This is Sujoy. This is Amrita.

[00:00:18] And you're listening to Khandaan- A Bollywood Podcast about the three main Khans of the Hindi

[00:00:23] film industry, Amir, Salman and Shahrukh.

[00:00:26] Hi, you're listening to Khandaan- A Bollywood Podcast regular feed. Thank you so much for your

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[00:00:37] for those of you who would like to support us. Every dollar goes towards creating more and

[00:00:42] better content. Visit us at patreon.com slash khandaan podcast.

[00:00:48] Hi and welcome to a new episode of Khandaan Podcast. My name is Asim Burdini and I'm

[00:00:54] joined with Just Amrita. Hi, Asim. Sujoy is still traveling the world. Check out his Instagram for

[00:01:02] amazing pictures. I think he's in Korea at the moment if I'm not mistaken. He's on the train to Busan.

[00:01:07] He's poor guy so tired and I'm sending him so many jokes. I'm finding the worst

[00:01:15] that I can send him and he's just too tired to even react on it. I'm enjoying it so much.

[00:01:24] But yeah, this is Sujoy's. Sujoy's having simultaneously the time of his life but also the worst

[00:01:34] it's a very Sujoy thing to happen. Yeah, simultaneously. But yeah, I think we'll hear

[00:01:40] all about it when he's back which is in a couple of weeks so we're holding four together at the

[00:01:45] moment. We watched a few things that we want to talk about but I think our main review is going

[00:01:49] to be Hiramundi, the show that dropped on Netflix. Actually I had a TikTok live yesterday. Haroon

[00:01:57] Rashid, our friend, hosted us and I joined and it was really cool and I want to thank

[00:02:03] 4,000 people that joined us which is insane. When you have the biggest

[00:02:11] Bollywood DJ radio host doing the TikTok, obviously so many people show up so that was

[00:02:16] really cool and TikTok gave me a dollar which was also cool. I don't think a dollar.

[00:02:23] Paisa fe, Tamasha. Exactly. I'm a dancing monkey for money man. Pretty much sign up

[00:02:30] your Patreon for one dollar. Yeah, if you won't give us a dollar on TikTok, give us a dollar on

[00:02:36] Patreon please. Yeah, we're actually just discussing what we will be reviewing next time

[00:02:44] and I think one of our listeners, Turtle Pirate, had a good one so I think that might be the one

[00:02:48] that we choose but also I think maybe we should do a hangout. It's been a while and the last one

[00:02:53] didn't go well because we missed up the time zones so maybe we should announce something. So if

[00:03:01] you want to hang out with us it's going to be on Patreon. You can join from one dollar.

[00:03:06] So a few things that we watched or Amrita, you didn't watch or you avoided watching. I

[00:03:13] watched. Absolutely not. Yeah, no. I watched Amir Khan on the Kapil Sharma show. I mean I saw the clips

[00:03:22] and I was immediately like there were some things when he was talking about his work,

[00:03:28] I was like okay like that was interesting and like Amit truly does have a perspective about

[00:03:35] what it means to be a filmmaker in Bollywood right? So that was like interesting but the

[00:03:40] moment he started telling quote unquote charming stories, I was out. I was 100% out but you are

[00:03:48] number one fan of the Amir Khan club so how was it for you? See the thing is for me I've never seen

[00:03:55] a Kapil Sharma show. That was my new thing like I'd never seen it. I didn't know what the format

[00:03:59] was. I don't even know these people so you sent me a clip and I was like why are people laughing

[00:04:04] like a loon when it's just like a story he's telling. I didn't understand that it was like

[00:04:08] this is the format of the show. Like everything is funny even when it's not funny because like

[00:04:14] the lady Arjuna Purin Singh she's sitting behind a desk which I don't understand why she's in front

[00:04:20] at a desk and then Kapil Sharma is actually listening quite sincerely to Amir but Arjuna

[00:04:27] Purin Singh is laughing like he's telling jokes and it's not, it's just a story that he's

[00:04:32] telling so I had some trouble with the format and then also these comedians come in and

[00:04:38] he's telling like a very heartfelt story about how he picks up on emotions and

[00:04:46] you were telling the story about how his wife, his first wife Rina was delivering a baby

[00:04:54] and she was in so much pain that he kind of picked up an acting note while she was in pain

[00:05:01] and then she slapped him was like why are you thinking of acting when I'm you know can

[00:05:05] you not be present but that's just the way his brain works right and it was a good like

[00:05:11] that's the thing like he has insights in these moments which I don't think any other actor necessarily

[00:05:16] does like I don't see Akshay Salman or even Shahrukh doing it this way like you know

[00:05:22] he's like in that space he's like half of his brain is always about filmmaking

[00:05:27] and that's just the kind of guy he is and he also tells the story about why he's been tagged

[00:05:34] perfectionist and where that came from and that was actually from Shabana Azmi which was a really

[00:05:39] cool story too so a lot of cool stories and this is all part of Amir's Mea Kulpato right like he had

[00:05:49] two flops and now he needs to go to these comedy shows and kind of tell people that he's a human

[00:05:54] that can interact with the common people again but I don't know I didn't know all of these

[00:06:00] stories get intercut with these terrible sketches that again everybody's laughing about and I'm like

[00:06:05] what is going on clearly I mean I'm not enjoying it Amir is not enjoying it only apparently

[00:06:12] Arjuna Puran Singh is really enjoying it so but again this is like a format I don't understand

[00:06:18] but I don't this is not an Indian thing necessarily these format exist in I've seen them

[00:06:22] in Italian TV I've seen them on French TV I've seen them on British TV and it's just not a

[00:06:28] format that works for me this kind of forced laughter thing um so just FYI uh that show's

[00:06:36] been cancelled by the way which show can't couple Sharma on Netflix is it yeah I ain't got it

[00:06:44] cancelled after Amir yes wow okay apparently their ratings were in the in the toilet so

[00:06:54] apparently that's one more uh there's one more big dinner to like the Amir

[00:06:59] being formed when nothing is going right nothing really is going right so because they have like

[00:07:06] eight more episodes coming up they have like Bobby Deval is dropping there's a few others and they

[00:07:11] just cancelled it yeah wow okay yeah Netflix India man they really can't figure their

[00:07:17] shit out can they like I don't know like they spent a lot of money clearly they spent a lot

[00:07:21] of money I mean we're gonna talk about it when we talk about Hiramundi because I have so many

[00:07:27] yeah so I mean the I thought the Amir is great in it he's his stories are amazing

[00:07:34] I liked him a lot on it and I think it's a good show I just is a good interview I just think

[00:07:42] I skipped through the comedy parts basically or when Amir is dancing and stuff that he's

[00:07:47] clearly not interested or good at you know like interacting like a human being

[00:07:54] so but I think he's very aware of his he's very vulnerable also like he literally almost cried

[00:08:01] twice in the show talking about how his movies haven't done well and how he was depressed and

[00:08:07] the Kapil Sharma show made him feel better watch and this is a lie this is a hundred percent lie

[00:08:13] there's no way Amir was watched and maybe he was depressed because he was watching the Kapil

[00:08:18] Sharma show that's maybe the reason but there was there were quite a few moments of like

[00:08:24] vulnerability from him and I thought that was really cool and I think I hope it works I

[00:08:29] clearly he's not he doesn't want to do this it's a strategy so I hope at least paid out you

[00:08:33] know like he got a bit more good will because I think he's had a rough go around for the

[00:08:38] last few years but you don't have anything to add on the rough go around because you're part

[00:08:42] of the rough go I'm his official troll number one no like you know you know like what my opinion is

[00:08:53] about Amir like as long as he's making movies I can like you know I'm like okay this is great

[00:09:00] this is you know like my kind of stuff or maybe it's not my kind of stuff but I appreciate the

[00:09:04] thought and the moment he starts like philosophizing on top of it I'm just like no thank you

[00:09:12] like Bollywood Jesus can get the fuck out I don't care but I have to say like I feel a lot of these

[00:09:18] clips are floating now because that's what the internet does it just cuts a clip and I think those

[00:09:24] a lot of times like we know this but these clips are kind of unfair the way the story is told

[00:09:30] yeah like like the like you sent me the one where he's like talking about Punjab right like he was

[00:09:36] you know the way the clips showed shows it is like you know Amir is in Punjab and he's basically

[00:09:43] you know Alia Bhatt in Gangubai the ending where he's like you know everybody is like for now but

[00:09:49] the entire story is actually quite nice and slightly islamophobic but still it's a nice story

[00:09:58] but when you clip it just he does seem come off to be very douchey which is unfortunate

[00:10:04] but I guess that's just the internet for you right yeah watch it like I watched it I think if you are

[00:10:11] an Amir number one fan like me and just forward to the shitty comedy bits which don't work for me

[00:10:17] if they work for you great you know if they work for Amir in depression great you know yeah

[00:10:22] I you also watched the movie right yes I finally made it out of the theaters to watch

[00:10:30] Aarishan with Fath Faso and a bunch of like newcomers that they recruited from the from

[00:10:39] Instagram I think like their influences and there's like you know these three kids and it was it was

[00:10:48] hilarious and it was also like Fath Fas like such an amazing actor like I like I enjoy watching him

[00:10:59] and on screen so much and this particular character has like you know in the hands of a lesser actor I

[00:11:06] think it would have been like a very one-note performance but here like you know you feel

[00:11:11] bad for him you like you're rooting for him there's a scene where like he does like this

[00:11:19] really cool thing and you're just like wow like you know you're like absolutely thrilled that

[00:11:24] he's doing all of it I'm not giving spoilers because I want you to watch it when it comes out on

[00:11:29] streaming or whatever because I don't think it's playing in your neck no it's not and the kids are

[00:11:36] really great and it's it's funny because I was telling the friend that I went to watch it with

[00:11:43] that this makes it three for three that I've seen in from Malayalam cinema over the past

[00:11:49] couple of months with like manual boys RG them and then Aarishan it's about it's a story of

[00:11:56] like men being idiots you know and like the consequences of them actually you know what that

[00:12:08] the manual boys actually is based on like a real life incident like that actually happened yeah

[00:12:14] RG them is also based on a real that really happened and Aarisham is not based on a real

[00:12:23] life incident but honestly like the entire time I was like both my friend and I were like we know

[00:12:31] these guys like you know like literally like we went to school with these guys like we know who

[00:12:36] they are so it might as well have been based on on real life so it's just yeah but it's

[00:12:44] like the the whole time that the boys were making like one bad decision after another

[00:12:49] like you knew that they were being idiots but not in a way that makes you like

[00:12:57] feel unsympathetic towards them you know this is our whole technique of guys this is what we aim for

[00:13:05] really idiots but still you feel bad for us that's that's what the the kids and Aarisham

[00:13:11] do really well you know and it's it was and the only thing was like there were no there

[00:13:16] were like there was like one female character well two but it was really like 1.5 and as we were

[00:13:23] walking out my friend was just like what they couldn't find like even one woman to put in there

[00:13:28] and I guess not but it was yeah it was a fun journey and I think you liked it nice I'm waiting

[00:13:38] for it I think only one jimel boys just dropped on a hotstar I think so I'm definitely going to

[00:13:46] check that out remember you said that it was it was a fun watch I don't know why Aarisham

[00:13:51] didn't show here or maybe just not in my area but there is a movie with

[00:13:58] there is one that came out I think but all actors I don't know so there was a tovino

[00:14:04] thomas movie also that came out but again it's they just keep coming out and I don't hear any

[00:14:09] buzz from him as I don't know if the new one is good or not but I just tend to watch them

[00:14:13] when they come out on streaming so yeah yeah but there's a lot that has dropped on streaming you

[00:14:19] know really high quality stuff you know there's 12 fail that dropped there's lapata ladies that dropped

[00:14:26] I chose to watch crack a classic an instant classic

[00:14:32] I need to say the title as a whole but I gotta say I I saw on Nora Fatehi's page that the movie had

[00:14:43] dropped on streaming so I go to the search bar I do crack crack didn't find it then I got cracked

[00:14:51] CRACT didn't find it and I was like what what is this movie even called I said crack with two

[00:14:57] kids so I was like ah finally for cracked it

[00:15:04] just so that you know in case people have forgotten this is the movie for which to do promotions

[00:15:10] Vidyut Jamal went into the Himalayas stripped naked and pouched a bear ass on the side of

[00:15:19] some stream and was like this is where I come to medicaid or something like that and then I'm

[00:15:24] just like what but anyway was it worth the you know the the leeches in uncomfortable places

[00:15:31] so this is one of those movies that you literally it's so bad it's good kind of thing right like

[00:15:38] this is the kind of movies you have to watch with your friends get drunk take shots whatever

[00:15:42] you want to do take whatever and just have a good time I was watching it on my own so

[00:15:48] I don't have any friends but I still have a good time because I was really excited for this kind of

[00:15:54] bonkers insanity that this movie provides this is not a good movie on my letter box I gave it

[00:16:00] like two stars it's not a good movie but I did enjoy the insanity of it right also speaking

[00:16:07] of going naked Vidyut Jamal produced this movie himself so I do respect that like he had a vision

[00:16:16] and he's putting his own money behind it and I can kind of respect what he was trying to do but

[00:16:23] man this movie is hilarious man like it's so it's so bad it's good kind of thing let me

[00:16:28] give you a few do you know anything about the movie first of all I imagine no I know that

[00:16:33] Nora's in it and he has a mullet Nora is really good I am enjoying Nora's strategy of becoming

[00:16:42] an actress because I've heard good things about her in Madhgaon Express right here she does she's

[00:16:49] actually probably the best out of all of like the actors and basically she knew nobody's gonna see

[00:16:56] this movie right so it's a great training ground for her to kind of you know become like a proper

[00:17:00] actress which she clearly wants to do and I think she's actually quite good in this movie so

[00:17:06] but also they don't make her do the things that she's actually good at like dancing on a

[00:17:10] good song then they don't have the budget for that but she is actually acting and she's actually

[00:17:14] quite good in it so this movie is like um is very much inspired from Gully boy uh but it also meets

[00:17:21] mixes it with uh Khatron Ka Khiladi and like uh you know that Korean show I like physical 100 which

[00:17:28] is like an extreme sport kind of thing um but the funny part is it's like it's uh

[00:17:34] with you Jamal playing like a Mumbai Gully boy so but the dude is like 44 years old and there's

[00:17:42] something just hilarious about a 44 year old doing parkour because you could do parkour over the

[00:17:48] own over the wrinkles on your own face you know it's just something very hilarious about that

[00:17:54] I said Bernie you are a hater you're part of the movie mafia the nepo gang

[00:18:02] I'm just happy because I'm 45 and I'm literally wrinkle free here you know like I'm not cracked you

[00:18:08] know so I'm enjoying it but like the man is just like a physical specimen like the things he does

[00:18:14] is like insane like how can he do that I don't understand like and he's just so far above

[00:18:22] anybody else like in terms of like physicality it's just not even an equal race like like there's

[00:18:28] a lot of moments where the CGI enhancement in the action scenes but you're like you don't know

[00:18:33] because it's with your Jamal and he could literally be doing these things right like

[00:18:37] there's a scene where he's like running over a train and he does like he hangs like that like

[00:18:42] horizontal on the doorframe of the train while the train is riding and knowing with your Jamal

[00:18:48] skills I don't know if he did he probably did that like it's insane like who does that

[00:18:52] with your Jamal does you know so that is crazy but the writing of this movie is just all over the

[00:18:59] place it's filled with bunch of cool people and you know these are cool people because they're

[00:19:04] constantly high fiving each other high five left and right they wake up they high five they go

[00:19:09] they high five you know they call each other sissies when they don't know you know look at

[00:19:14] the sissy that's that's what cool people say you know when you're when you're looking at the sissy

[00:19:22] and then when when with your Jamal is doing something crazy you know like insane one of the guys will

[00:19:28] say he just cracks school because cool people do that kind of thing right that's how cool people

[00:19:33] talk and this game is a global phenomenon phenomenon this is a global phenomenon everybody's tuning in

[00:19:45] on their phone everybody's watching it you know like things go viral in the world in bodywood like

[00:19:50] you know when sultan was breakdancing on jaggumeha and everybody was just watching it on the phone

[00:19:56] is like yeah this is going viral that kind of viral and the rules of this game are insane they don't

[00:20:04] make any they're like the ramblings of a madman it's like have you seen parks and recreation

[00:20:09] yeah you know that game he invents ben the cones of dunshile that's how the rules of this game are

[00:20:17] they're like insane it's like it's like true american in new girl they make no sense you know that

[00:20:24] kind of level and the game master is arjun ram pal so he is the game master this is a game that is

[00:20:33] watched by the entire global world so there's a lot of eyeballs on him right so he also has

[00:20:40] a side hustle of nuclear arms you know something that you need to be very covert and secretive

[00:20:45] about yes like a side hustle where he's selling like very fluorescent plutonium to everybody

[00:20:53] insane yeah this is one sequence i have to say this so again i'm telling you everybody watches

[00:21:02] the show right like everybody's on the phone this has been going on for a long time and stuff like that

[00:21:07] the idea is it's called mehdan so everybody's talking about mehdan in english and stuff like that

[00:21:12] so vidy jama had an older brother and imagine if vidyud is already 44 how older this other

[00:21:18] brother used to be so anyway he is the first that gets picked to mehdan and go there but he dies

[00:21:24] in mehdan and they send a bag of money which nobody wants to judge because insanity it's no

[00:21:30] it makes no sense they're poor but they don't want to judge a bag of money for some reason

[00:21:35] but vidyud is like who killed my brother and how did he die he doesn't know although this game

[00:21:41] has been watched by everybody on everybody's phone so after the interval vidyud jamal gets

[00:21:48] the vidyud sent of how his brother died how he dies is he jumps off a plane and the idea is they

[00:21:58] jump off a plane and they throw a motorbike first and then they have to catch the motorbike

[00:22:04] and then let go of their parachute so the parachute of the brother it doesn't work because

[00:22:11] it's been sabotaged by arjun draupal and the screen is like just a scooter

[00:22:18] flying through the burj khanifa and exploding and vidyud is like no and it is the most hilarious

[00:22:27] still i've ever seen like imagine you not knowing how your brother died and then vidyud fell into

[00:22:35] the burj khanifa because his parachute didn't open oh my god

[00:22:46] i got it i mean yeah you know what that is that's crack that is he is crack that's

[00:22:54] like yeah it's it's it's amazing they shot this movie in poland so they have a lot of polish

[00:23:00] henchmen and polish people they're not the most tanned people in the world they're quite pale

[00:23:08] and they clearly ran out of money so they only have like two henchmen that are like hench

[00:23:14] there they have muscles and all the rest are like out of shape polish people

[00:23:20] and the thing is in poland they make them wear like only a bulletproof vest that's it

[00:23:27] they're only wearing no shirt bulletproof vest and like a skinny jeans a black jeans and they've

[00:23:34] got like all of these love handles coming out and like pale skin and no muscles like just flabby arms

[00:23:43] no i think it just ran out of budget and they had to get like builders and lorry drivers

[00:23:47] to be henchmen or something like that you know at least they could have just led the way their

[00:23:51] own shirts not even a shirt in polish weather man it's it's crazy it's this movie man it's like

[00:23:58] it's such a good time i mean like i mean i i don't think the level of marketing i'm doing

[00:24:06] with this movie is as much as with your jamal being naked you know this is this like you have

[00:24:11] to go watch this movie cracked asim has not been able to say the full title with a straight face like

[00:24:20] in like ever i think he's been cracking up even when typing

[00:24:25] it's so funny oh my god yeah so that was cracked that's it oh god okay shall we move on to our

[00:24:44] main review yes are you ready for this um why don't you tell me first like you know what you were

[00:24:52] discussing on uh tiktok about this with her room i think we need to so we're talking about here

[00:24:57] amandi and i think we need to get into zone of it right so

[00:25:00] um

[00:25:12] i actually had like a mumbai dialogue written down for the crack part too but i couldn't go through it

[00:25:17] i can't i would be able to do it so anyway this is my way um yes uh so so your question was

[00:25:27] what did we discuss about on the tiktok uh we uh i mean we we had um it's funny because both me and

[00:25:35] haroon got screenerscent right so we had a chance to watch this uh whole season a week before um

[00:25:43] the the episode went live and it's an interesting situation because although you get to see something

[00:25:49] first you are also watching it in a bubble and i had certain thoughts about the show and haroon

[00:25:56] had certain thoughts and then when it goes live and you hit like twitter discussions you're like oh wow

[00:26:02] like okay like i clearly did not feel as okay there's certain points that i was like okay this

[00:26:08] doesn't work that doesn't work but the furiosity of twitter about certain aspect really took us uh

[00:26:16] we didn't expect it at all um it kind of blindsided us so we were discussing a bit a bit of that

[00:26:23] uh and then we talked a lot about uh i think one of the main criticism has been about uh

[00:26:29] shermin seagal's um portrayal of alam zeb and the criticism about that uh we talked about sanjali

[00:26:37] love and sali as a whole how does that work for you how does that doesn't work for you and i mean

[00:26:43] if people haven't checked us out we were on our friend manish matthur's um episode of it

[00:26:48] pot to be you from talk film society we did a s r k draft and my feelings about s l b were

[00:26:56] illustrated very forcefully on that episode um so we talked about that we had a bunch of other

[00:27:03] content creators come on so it was a really nice conversation of an hour that we had

[00:27:08] but i also wanted to delve in with it with you because i do feel i feel having watched it

[00:27:14] a week before already had been marinating in my mind and then so much discussion then i had another

[00:27:19] i had a call with haroon before while we were talking while we were watching the show because

[00:27:24] he was literally the only person i could talk to about it um because both of us had signed the

[00:27:29] embargo and then we had the one hour tiktok live so in a way i feel there's been a lot

[00:27:33] of discussion already and i'm a bit spent some kind of looking forward to your thoughts

[00:27:38] because i actually don't know um i was sending you just reactions of i'm really enjoying this

[00:27:43] show um this show is fire and then even i was taking notes and then literally the further the show

[00:27:50] progressed i stopped sending you reactions on the show it just got really silent to it got really

[00:27:58] quiet so yeah what did what did you think of ira mandi um i thought so the when the the

[00:28:06] series begins with like a close-up shot of a woman's kagra right you can see the fabric and that's how

[00:28:13] the the whole thing begins and i think you couldn't have a better example of what slb thinks is

[00:28:25] filmmaking because it's just aesthetics you know uh and it's not even

[00:28:32] aesthetics that fit the period it's just aesthetics that appeal to him he likes those sort of gauzy

[00:28:43] the patas he likes those deep cut sabbya sachi louses he likes those that's a dozy work it's

[00:28:51] very the you know the the giant ceilings the the women running through hallways the

[00:28:58] chandeliers it's all very slb but there is no heart in this in the series like there are

[00:29:08] isolated performances that i thought were great uh sanjira sheik was great uh sonakshi sinha

[00:29:15] was great we chacha that was great but there was nothing in there that made me think that oh

[00:29:22] my god like this is an amazing story that i'm obsessed with any of these characters you know

[00:29:29] like even the good performances i didn't particularly care for those characters i thought uh i thought

[00:29:36] like so the first couple of episodes that i saw that's the one where you have sonakshi's um

[00:29:42] older character uh in flashbacks right rehana yeah and rehanas are fucking bitch but she is so

[00:29:52] interesting you know she's like a proper villain and then she just goes out with a whimper and then

[00:29:58] you know like the the faridhan who comes you know the second sonakshi that comes she's not

[00:30:05] really a villain in the way that rehana was you know faridhan is basically having a revenge

[00:30:12] art which is very different from having a villain art yeah um and i don't know like i genuinely

[00:30:19] i couldn't find a single character that i really cared about and also i thought social media was having

[00:30:27] its usual hissy fit about nepo casting when they went to town about shaman seagull

[00:30:36] but they were right in this particular instance i mean that is like

[00:30:42] like her her face doesn't move and also her udu is shit you know like there is this uh

[00:30:51] there's a spot where like uh i think in the in the last episode i think where she meets like farida

[00:30:58] jalal and farida jalal is like really uh you know like really sick and she says she has to say

[00:31:06] something like up uh dabai se pareh sku karriya or it's like something like that you know

[00:31:10] and the way she says it is like the worst diction that i have ever heard in my life

[00:31:16] and it's especially noticeable because it's right next to farida jalal who is so good you know she's

[00:31:24] just absolutely on point and then you have like shaman seagull who can't even say like

[00:31:30] like forget like getting the udu right or the accent right she can't even say it like

[00:31:35] normally you know like why aren't you eating your medicines like that's all she needs to say

[00:31:41] like but she can't get that emotion out is just terrible and the the way this entire story is

[00:31:47] structured alam se is the heart of the story right like if you don't care about her and tajdaar

[00:31:56] then you know like tajdaar sorry uh and you really don't get what the story is if you don't

[00:32:06] love these two and if you don't root for them but i didn't root for either one of them you know like

[00:32:11] i was just like can i just say like about that like i don't think sanjali laman sali can write a love

[00:32:18] story like i don't think he's capable of doing it like i have not seen like literally the best

[00:32:24] one like it's always immediate falling in love like that's every time it's it's the same

[00:32:30] thing and the best version of that was the chandelier dropping in hamdil leh chuk esanam

[00:32:37] and it was the best version of what he wanted to say and it's he's never been able to repeat it

[00:32:42] and it doesn't work for me he does does the same thing with all of his dp car and veer movies

[00:32:48] and he's doing the same thing here and i did not i did not root for this love story whatsoever

[00:32:53] because i don't understand why i should be rooting for these people um i don't i didn't

[00:32:57] necessarily like tajdar that much either um and like he he doesn't care sanjali laman sali

[00:33:05] does not care to make the us love these people he loves these visuals he doesn't care for the

[00:33:11] characters because he cannot convey that love i don't know why he's like a weird a i art robot

[00:33:18] or something like that like he cannot you know create human connections and i don't know i don't

[00:33:24] i mean somebody shifted from normal human emotions it's very pretty but there's no heart

[00:33:30] there's no emotion and i think that fails all of these actresses across the board and i think

[00:33:36] that's also why twitter was so up in arms about it i mean there's like another aspect to it as

[00:33:43] well which i'll come to in a bit but what happens is that when you have a uh like s lb's sense of

[00:33:53] filmmaking is very much taken from like bollywood right so there's pakiza and mugle asm and like

[00:34:02] you know those yeah those big grand yeah but also this idea of having the same actor play

[00:34:10] the son or the daughter or you know that kind of thing or like that's also a very hindi film

[00:34:16] trope which i fear if you're an outsider you don't even understand what they did with

[00:34:21] sonakshi's character or with shaker summons character right when they're actuals you know

[00:34:26] he's playing the young version and then he becomes the son and if you're an outsider you're like what's

[00:34:30] going on here you know like that's a hindi film trope but uh what happens is that when you look at

[00:34:37] something like mugle asm or pakiza um that is complete i don't know if you watched either one

[00:34:43] of those movies asm but they're completely emotion based like everything is like very

[00:34:50] heightened emotion right um when madhubala says to uh to prithvir aj kapoor that you know

[00:34:58] uh yeh khaniz aapko apna khoon maaf kati hai like it is like it is like a very like

[00:35:05] over the top dialogue but in that moment you are just like oh shit like burn you know like

[00:35:12] you really feel the impact of it um when in pakiza you know like you know like raj kumar says to

[00:35:21] me now kumari that you know like aapke peyar boh khupsura thayon is the mean par mat mat rithiye

[00:35:27] like whatever you really feel it you're just like oh my god like that is the most romantic thing

[00:35:32] that i've ever heard and bansali just can't do that i think the closest that we got was like

[00:35:39] probably madhuri and sharok in devdas where you know like uh you know like you can feel the yearning

[00:35:47] that chandra mukhi has for devdas when like you know uh madhuri and sharoka sort of playing off

[00:35:54] each other but that's about as close as he's come and that is entirely because of madhuri and

[00:35:59] sharok it's not because of bansali yeah you know yeah so when your um when your inspirations are so

[00:36:09] well known and you basically are trying to recreate the aesthetics on film then people also

[00:36:17] automatically expect the emotions to come with it and then all of a sudden the emotions

[00:36:23] are in there and they get really upset and i think that's why like twitter was so

[00:36:29] vicious when uh when this one came out you know and i think also it's that i this is theory i have

[00:36:38] why i'd never connected with the renvir deepika movies with s lb that much because he treats

[00:36:44] his actors like a prop and i think there's no pushback deepika and renvir will not push back

[00:36:51] to sanjaleela monsali i think even renvir kapoor back in the day pushed back too much and that's why

[00:36:58] he hasn't been casted again um but salman ashwarya sharok madhuri these people know what they want

[00:37:07] and selvi was in a different stage and they pushed back they were like no i'm not doing this this

[00:37:12] is the way i want to do and that actually added to their personality to their performances

[00:37:18] deepika and renvir are great actors sharmine segel segel is not you know right so if she it's her

[00:37:24] mamu directing it and he's only interested in visuals it hurts her because she doesn't have

[00:37:29] the capability or even the charisma or even the connection with the audience to give us anything

[00:37:34] more than what selvi is directing her to do uh and i think that's where the mistake lies

[00:37:40] he's just not yeah do you feel and this is another theory of mine is that he just takes on too much

[00:37:47] like i think he if he's writing and directing and composing and doing set design and doing the music

[00:37:54] and doing the choreography that that's why everything kind of feels uh you know

[00:38:00] kind of mid because he's not focusing on two three things like especially the music like that's

[00:38:05] a big thing for me like i didn't like any of the songs yesterday i won't be singing them in six months

[00:38:10] time you know um i was here and i was actually super dismoinered in the music especially because like

[00:38:19] the aji sakal bana is like one of my favorite uh sufi hymns but this was probably the most

[00:38:27] mid version of it that i've actually heard you know like it's terrible yeah and then

[00:38:33] there's also you know like i think it was just really funny to uh to go on twitter and see all

[00:38:39] the pakistanis who were watching this because they were like why are they in la ho and like all

[00:38:45] like talking like lakshmi would do like what is happening here you know um and i like i like

[00:38:54] somebody wrote into me and they were just like you know they kind of uh this indian person

[00:38:58] like wrote into me and they uh because i uh i quote i retweeted like one of the pakistani

[00:39:05] twitter threads where they basically had is like a really interesting thread actually where they had

[00:39:11] actual archival photos the first tweet does that whole thread such a disservice because

[00:39:17] yeah the tone the framing of that the rest is so interesting but the framing of that tweet is so

[00:39:24] uh you know uh antagonistic that you like immediately you know you go on your defenses but

[00:39:30] the rest of the tweet is actually very interesting yeah and they had like all these photos of what

[00:39:35] the actual tawais looks like uh what how they dressed um and they were talking about you

[00:39:40] know like it's the scene in uh the series where uh one of the like an englishman called

[00:39:48] gunther for some reason comes to uh uh comes comes to manisha's character and shows her the

[00:39:56] gramophone and this is in the 1940s when like the gramophone was like like people already knew

[00:40:03] what a gramophone was like they had movies in the 1940s like it's 40s is 20s i'm not 100% sure

[00:40:10] the first part like rehana and uh malika john's youth that is the 1920s i believe and then the

[00:40:18] the last part is in the 1940s is like right before independence basically oh then it may like i thought

[00:40:25] it was the 20s so i was like okay i'll forgive that there's like no mention of pakistan or any

[00:40:30] anything like that but if it's the 40s like i don't know i mean the name didn't exist but

[00:40:35] there was like the but the entire like politics of this thing is like really weird because you

[00:40:40] you're supposed to be following you know like the other uh character at the center of this story is

[00:40:47] aditya rao hyderi's character uh who is supposed to be very politically you know like minded she's

[00:40:54] like she says that you know like i i don't want to be uh bazar wali i want to be a milk wali and

[00:41:00] like i want to fight for my country blah blah blah but they don't mention who's doing the fighting they

[00:41:07] just say like bagi like do that like the bagi's had like actual names at that point you know you

[00:41:13] had the congress you had you know the muslims you had like you know like they were actually

[00:41:20] people in la hor who like the people that they're talking about and like they're showing on screen

[00:41:25] they belong to like proper like parties with me they weren't just like a concerned citizen

[00:41:31] society that just sort of met in bookstores and were like we're gonna go blow things up like

[00:41:35] that's not how it happened they were like communists you know like there was a huge

[00:41:39] communist movement in la hor at the time um and they don't mention any of those things which is

[00:41:45] like a really weird choice and i wonder if it's because of the current political climate in india

[00:41:52] and you know like netflix being like hey we can't mention the people who were growing things up in la

[00:41:58] hor at the time yeah i think that's part of it that's true and second slb is just not interested

[00:42:04] that's also there yeah i think it's both of these things together right so and it's sad because

[00:42:10] like you know like the actual story of hila like the few times that slb allows his characters

[00:42:17] to be human like you know when like rita chadda's characters insanity or uh you can see like what

[00:42:27] sanjida shakes character you know like the the way she's been warped by her by her experiences

[00:42:34] and her family and the way that she treats her daughter for example like you know it's just like

[00:42:40] it's so interesting and there's so many different things that you could explore about these women

[00:42:46] and like their interior lives um and they just sort of like throw everything out the window just so

[00:42:53] that they could show them posing very prettily against like wallpaper yeah and then and then you come to

[00:43:00] the last episode and you're just like what just happened oh my god that last step but like before

[00:43:06] we get into the last episode i do want to say a few things that i did like about the show

[00:43:11] um i i was worried that sanjali labansali because he saw much like a such a theatrical filmmaker

[00:43:20] that he wouldn't be able to translate that to a bingeable eight episode show and i think until

[00:43:26] the first four episodes i was actually really amazed by how well he did it and how every

[00:43:32] episode really ended with like a mic drop moment you know like when when um when you figure out

[00:43:39] that bibo jan is a revolutionary is like wow you didn't see that coming then sonakshi senha comes

[00:43:46] back you didn't see that coming you know then also i love the fact that sonakshi senha is just

[00:43:51] snatching everybody's shit is like oh i like that ring snatch i like the chip snatch you know love

[00:43:56] that so all of those moments are really good and then lejos performance and then her death

[00:44:02] all of these moments were mic drop moments and then as soon as the focus starts shifting on

[00:44:07] the love story it doesn't work for me anymore but back to the positives i think sonakshi is amazing

[00:44:13] in this like what like after the hard like i don't know like you know i like sonakshi i've liked

[00:44:19] her for a long time i'm just so happy that she's finding roles that work for her and she seems

[00:44:24] to be reveling in these role and the kind of the way she's presented i thought she was really

[00:44:29] amazing expressions dancing looks uh even elocution right i think she does a really

[00:44:36] good job with the urdu and the pronunciation and stuff like that i thought she was amazing i thought

[00:44:44] richa chadda was amazing even if it was a very small role i also think she had the best song

[00:44:49] for all of the songs that there were i like i just love the trope of you know loudly singing

[00:44:55] a song in a party where only two people know what song is about you know and you're just

[00:44:59] like guilting people and richa does that which i thought was really cool um i also

[00:45:04] liked a lot of the supporting actresses i like the actress that was playing syma uh she was really good

[00:45:12] she um i liked imad uh sorry the shama i think the i think it's the actress that's also playing

[00:45:19] lapata ladies uh shamin segal uh shamin segal uh not shamin segal uh what's her name the scar

[00:45:26] the one with the scar sanjida shake she is amazing she is amazing so one of the best in there

[00:45:33] i thought farida jalal was really good uh i liked it is very pretty but i think the thing with pretty

[00:45:40] you know that coming in you know it's like rohi chatti is gonna flip her jeep it's going to be

[00:45:46] pretty when um when sanjidhi labansali is going to be directing it and my wife was watching it

[00:45:52] after i was watching it and she was like always like oh is this going to end well for these people

[00:45:57] i was like it's a sanjidhi labansali show it's not going to end well for anybody here right

[00:46:02] including us as the view of the audience right i thought uh i thought uh uh

[00:46:11] manisha kurala was also good i think the the character is written so badly it's so under

[00:46:18] developed and like haphazardly written that i could never really understand what malika jan was

[00:46:23] about like she's it makes sense to me that it was originally written for reka because this is

[00:46:30] the kind of role like underwritten role that reka could come in and absolutely safe you know it's like

[00:46:36] that thing that you were saying about like how certain actors like sanman charok and madhuri

[00:46:41] and nothing you know like they know how to like make it work for them this is what it's required

[00:46:47] and i know it's controversial because like everybody's like oh my god manisha she's like such a

[00:46:52] wonderful actor and like back to the 90s you know like everyone's been talking about like how

[00:46:57] manisha is like an amazing actor and i genuinely don't feel that way about manisha which i think

[00:47:02] like i've spoken about before yeah and this is why like she can't elevate stuff yeah you know yeah

[00:47:12] but i i think that's kind of the best part of it and then the the bad parts is also just

[00:47:18] how underdeveloped so much is and like even like hira mandi itself the power dynamics all of that

[00:47:25] it only focuses on these two quotas next to each other and it's actually even making a quote i don't

[00:47:31] know what she's like actually doing there right like she's just like throwing awesome parties yeah

[00:47:36] that's it but there's like this whole thing oh there she's allowing white people in it and apparently

[00:47:41] also she was allowing prostitution in it i think that was like a very quick thing they mentioned

[00:47:46] but they never talk about that and then it's all about malika jan being the top queen but then

[00:47:51] there's also a committee of towi towives and she's not top queen all of these things what i also liked

[00:47:57] is they hinted in the first episode and then they forgot about forget about it is this debauchery

[00:48:04] of the Nawabs right their mindset like how corrupt they were but then they just forgets about all

[00:48:10] of that even like they become just like classic evil collaborators but like for uh uh fardin khan

[00:48:18] its character he just disappears for six episodes i was like wait he is he the top Nawab or he's not

[00:48:24] the top awab not that i'm saying i need more of fardin apparently all the Nawabs are top Nawabs

[00:48:29] because they all get to like collaborate with the british yeah there's like five of them so how is

[00:48:35] hira mandi working on five Nawabs that's that's the whole economy of hira mandi and all of that

[00:48:40] like because there's mic drop moments performances are good it's kind of propulsive you kind of

[00:48:46] forget about that but then you hit episode eight and all of these problems come you know to the

[00:48:52] surface for me and that's where i was like oh crap he's gone back to sanjay lila bansali things which

[00:48:58] i don't like i don't lie i didn't like that the ending became like a sing song in a terrible song

[00:49:05] it didn't even like motivate me about independence or fire i hated that adity rao hadri dies exactly

[00:49:13] the same way dipika dies in bhaji rao mastani i hated that all of these women are coming to the fort

[00:49:19] exactly like padmavat um you know and then it ends like with a voice over oh these women struggled

[00:49:27] and there are more struggles it ends like bademiya chhote miya like it's insane like what are we

[00:49:33] doing here like it's just basically he ran out of money or out of interest and he's like like

[00:49:39] like let's go i don't i yeah it really annoyed the crap out of me that last episode it just like

[00:49:46] all of the goodwill all of the excitement i had for the first six seven episodes of the show

[00:49:53] just vanished completely and i was like also because like in the last episode i mean we've

[00:49:58] spent like seven episodes following not seven but like like what five episodes following the

[00:50:06] tussle between malika jaan and uh faridhan and you know like at the end of it malika jaan is like oh

[00:50:15] like the uh my kids don't really care for this so here you can have it all and then faridhan is like

[00:50:22] no but i'll fight for you like you know bye yeah it happens so quickly but i mean the that's

[00:50:29] another thing that we need to talk about the the casual brutality of the sexual assault scenes in

[00:50:38] this in this show right because this too a there's the one with manisha koora which is really horrific

[00:50:47] when you think about it and then there's the one that syma has to go through because she's gotten

[00:50:52] sold um but it's like the manisha kooraila sequence is kind of that one really bugged me because it's

[00:51:01] it's very gratuitous in a way but secondly it's also the way it advances the story plot is that oh

[00:51:10] that is the turnaround for sonakshi like oh i never wanted this to happen to her and now i'm

[00:51:15] like now i'm on her side and then malika is like oh because this happened to me now i'm a good person

[00:51:23] in a way it feels like you know like it's good to put my ring is here you right and that just

[00:51:28] kind of bugs me that thought of you know oh we just have something horrible happened to you and then

[00:51:33] you're going to be a good person you know it's like corporate punishment to kids or something like

[00:51:37] that and there's no again there's no inside there's no evolution in terms of you know like

[00:51:43] it changing her mindset towards the british or not the british um yeah it's it's all very

[00:51:50] and it's also really weird that that's how that entire assault thing like manisha's in particular

[00:51:57] works out because both foreden and malika jaan are you know like they're from that world

[00:52:07] from hira mandi yeah you know and there's like this entire thing song and dance about like house

[00:52:12] and jihda sheik's characters face got like you know um cut by like one of her customers or whatever

[00:52:20] you can't tell me that we there was like the first time that you know malika jaan has assaulted or

[00:52:26] that like what is that yeah exactly she's like sonakshi sena's character has been sold as a nine-year-old

[00:52:33] girl right yeah malika jaan has had a life of prostitution where she's sent other women to

[00:52:40] this kind of thing she's literally done this to saima like three episodes ago so i don't know

[00:52:45] like it's just it's very unexplored i don't understand why this was suddenly the switch for her

[00:52:51] when she's had it happen before she's had it done to other people and so i don't know i don't know

[00:52:57] like what they were trying to think they do talk about the physical pain of it which was probably

[00:53:02] manisha's best scene i thought that visually where she's sitting under that fountain all in

[00:53:07] black it felt very like pieta style right like that kind of like mary and that kind of visuals

[00:53:14] um that was probably the best scene for me of her but it's just like dialogue bazi it doesn't

[00:53:21] have any real pathos or pain attached to it like i don't know it just felt very very weird i also

[00:53:29] felt very weird how saima's character just this horrible thing has happened to us and we never

[00:53:34] see or hear from her again except like you know the the lp that they find of her it's all

[00:53:40] these really really weird things like on a one hand he's like supposed to be you know a very women

[00:53:47] centric director about women's stories but when it's time to actually explore these stories

[00:53:53] he chooses to focus on individuals and that's every time what he does that's really what

[00:54:00] hindi film means when they say that something is women centric they just mean that she has

[00:54:05] like a lot of screen time it doesn't necessarily mean that they're doing something for women or

[00:54:10] that they're actually concerned about the issues that women face um but it's really weird to me

[00:54:17] because with hila mandi it's literally set in the world of like sex work so it's not like you

[00:54:28] have to dig very deep to find like you know the the stories with all the pathos and like

[00:54:35] is right there yeah you can just like think about like faridan story you know like a child

[00:54:42] who sees her mother you know like hanging and then it's like sold off by her aunt

[00:54:51] and then like has that old revenge art like you don't have to go like a you know like you

[00:54:55] don't have to like have like manisha's assault be her driving force like there's so many other

[00:55:02] ways to have approached it yeah so yeah this is really weird yeah it's a it's a shame I thought

[00:55:09] this like literally first few episodes when I was texting you guys I thought this might be the thing

[00:55:14] that you know gets them their international hit that they want and it could be I think

[00:55:19] we a lot of definitely like giving it the big push uh like he like Ted Serrano's uh

[00:55:28] threw out SLB and also shaman segel I guess um and they were having like this huge party

[00:55:35] with like Bill Hader and Ali Wong in you know like Netflix is like doing all that stuff but

[00:55:41] I don't know man I don't know because we were talking you want to talk about

[00:55:45] that when we were talking about the Kapil Sharma show right that they've spent a ton of money on this

[00:55:50] right just their tragic strategy as a whole that I haven't been able to figure out since age is what

[00:55:57] Netflix India actually wants to do um just seems like all over the place uh I think prime has

[00:56:04] a stronger strategy than Netflix even has you know so um the thing is I think it might hit people

[00:56:12] differently because they're not aware of so many Hindi film tropes or they've not seen they're not

[00:56:18] that dealt and I think his his stuff does travel you know people that don't know they do get like

[00:56:24] oh the visuals are so great and this is what Bollywood is supposed to be and they get engrossed

[00:56:28] with that kind of thing he did the same thing with Dave Das too right where it was like a

[00:56:32] big thing in France when I was living there like Dave Das and stuff like that but I don't know

[00:56:38] I don't know it didn't work for me at least I was like I was like from after Gangubai I was

[00:56:42] like where man he's got like he's making things that I like again um you know he's kind of found

[00:56:48] his groove again and uh for the first seven episodes. Yeah FSOD said psyched. Yeah exactly yeah

[00:56:55] yeah I'm uh for um the BBC we're doing um this 90s playlist that actually is going to be out

[00:57:03] when this episode drops so you can actually go to the BBC Asian Network website and vote for

[00:57:07] the ultimate 90s playlist uh saw the best songs of the 90s and I'm one of the panels and I'm also

[00:57:14] going to be one of the judges so I'm going to be on BBC if you want to listen to me when that episode

[00:57:18] happens and because of that I was kind of listening to older 90 songs and I went back to

[00:57:25] Bahon Ke Dharmia which is all I want from SLB right like that song is so hot it's so sexy and they're

[00:57:35] both completely clothed like there's no pecs no nothing right and that's when Salman was like

[00:57:41] I'm not taking on my shirt man I'm doing what I'm doing you know like and that worked you know

[00:57:46] and uh it's a shame like I just don't want any chandeliers anymore I don't want any 70,000

[00:57:52] lights anymore I don't want the same dresses can he come back to like normal times I don't know like

[00:57:58] is he even capable you think I don't think so yeah yeah it's a shame it's a shame I mean

[00:58:08] some people like it like I mean how has the critical reception been have you been following

[00:58:12] a few because I was so done with it I didn't even watch too many reviews and stuff like that

[00:58:17] I don't think the reviews have been particularly kind but uh I do want to give a shout out to our friend Uday

[00:58:26] Uday Bhatia yes Uday Bhatia who wrote a review and called Tajdar Tajdar A. Naram

[00:58:38] excellent pun excellent pun but apart from that I haven't actually been following like I don't

[00:58:44] I don't know like the only reason we are actually like spending this much time talking about the

[00:58:50] series I think is because we had screeners and therefore like you know like we're just like hey

[00:58:55] like we didn't watch it so let's like talk about it but genuinely speaking like if I didn't have

[00:59:02] this show I probably might not even have watched here I'm in day or maybe I would have watched

[00:59:07] like the first episode and then like peaceed out. Triggy of Tajdar do you think he's the

[00:59:12] breakout of the show you think he's got he's gonna be able to kind of catapult himself to success with

[00:59:18] this I don't think so like he doesn't like for a for a guy to do that like you know he needs to be

[00:59:27] like you need to have that edge you know yeah that sex appeal edge which I don't think he does

[00:59:33] like he's a very pretty boy but that's about as far as it goes yeah because I was thinking of

[00:59:45] Siddhant Gupta in Jubilee you know that you could feel like this is a star if he gets the right

[00:59:52] projects which he seems to not be getting unfortunately. I have the exact same feeling

[00:59:59] like that was the exact same reference that I had he's actually like you haven't seen Madhav

[01:00:04] Express but he is so good in it and that is like a like you know like a like a proper male lead

[01:00:14] like Hollywood male lead role and it's a shame that more people haven't watched that film.

[01:00:20] I'm gonna I'm gonna I didn't know he was in that but I didn't know Rafaateh was in it so yeah

[01:00:26] yeah he and Rafaateh are so good in it like they're like so cute together. Yeah it's it's it's funny I

[01:00:33] think like if you speak about this kind of I think Jubilee was so much so better than this compared

[01:00:39] to what Hila Mandi has done right. I think Jubilee did this much better I think again another show

[01:00:47] with Aditya Rao Hadri by the way she looks amazing in this Aditya Rao Hadri. She always does

[01:00:54] but like especially her first song like oh my god really good. She's lovely. I guess that's it

[01:01:03] for this episode. Amrita where can people find you online? You can find me on twitter at AmritaIQ.

[01:01:10] I'm at Asim Burney drop us an email drop us an email I mean actually we shouldn't maybe read

[01:01:14] some comments should we oh crap I should have maybe folded this in more organically I'll

[01:01:19] read it next time. Send us some emails or Hira Mandi what did you think and also read some from

[01:01:24] Patreon because we got a lot of emails there too because I'm keen to hear what people think

[01:01:31] and send us points that we haven't made I mean I get it Alamzee, Mepotism, Alamzee, Urdu that

[01:01:37] I part I get if you have something new to add send us and then we can discuss it on the next

[01:01:42] episode. Cool that's it for this episode and yeah hope you guys did.