Ep 236- Maharaj, All India Rank, Diljit on Fallon, Kalki 2898 AD Trailer

[00:00:00] Hi, this is Asim. This is Sujoy. This is Amrita. And you're listening to Khandaan- A Bollywood Podcast about the three main Khaans of the Hindi film industry. Amir, Salman and Shahrukh. Hi, you're listening to Khandaan- A Bollywood Podcast regular feed.

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[00:00:49] Hi, and welcome to a new episode of Khandaan Podcast. My name is Asim Burney and I'm joined with my lovely co-host Amrita and Sujoy. Hey, I'm Amrita. Hey, Sujoy. Hey, everybody. How's it going? Hello. Hello. Again, we're drought drought in Bollywood.

[00:01:05] There's no major releases or anything like that. So we're just talking about a few of the things we watched and we'll be answering some questions that we got from our lovely patrons.

[00:01:14] If you want to be a patron, you can sign up for one dollar and support our work. I think it's very important to support work of people you enjoy. So they can continue working. I know where I know where this is going.

[00:01:32] So let's let's get into a few things. I think let's let's Amrita, we were just talking about something. I cut you off because I was like, this is good content. Like I usually do to you guys. Let's say that. People should listen to our thoughts.

[00:01:50] A few big things in rap and music were happening, right? So you, Amrita, maybe you can just pick up the thread where you are. Yeah, I was talking about how Diljit made it to Jimmy Fallon and friend of our show, Sucharita Tyagi

[00:02:07] was in the audience to support him. And there's this really sweet clip floating around of Diljit and her. They had an interview after the show and Diljit said, you know, like like a while back, Sucharita had said, you know, after watching him perform that I wouldn't be surprised

[00:02:30] if he showed if he ended up performing on an American late night show. And he said, right after I performed at Fallon, that was the first thing that I thought of. And that's why I'm having this sit down interview with you. And I thought that was so cute.

[00:02:48] But also Jimmy Fallon melt the heck out of that appearance. Like if you go to the Jimmy Fallon Instagram page because we can't go on the TikTok page in India, obviously, but maybe even on TikTok, check it out.

[00:03:03] If you are in a country where TikTok is not yet banned. But if you go to the Instagram page, then literally it is all Diljit videos is Diljit sitting in his green room. It's Diljit teaching Jimmy to talk in Punjabi.

[00:03:24] There is the Jee performing like everything, you know? And after all of that, Jimmy still called him Punjabi. So I don't know how well all of that actually turned out. He really put the OO in Punjabi, right? It's not fun to listen.

[00:03:49] There was also a really cute video of after the performance when Diljit is basically just crossing paths with Queslov, who heads up the band at the Jimmy Fallon show. And Queslov and his team are sort of like crossing over with Diljit and his team behind the scenes.

[00:04:15] And Queslov says, you know, they're American, so I'm sure like there's an element of them just being effusive. But Queslov says that was like one of the top five performances I've seen in the 15 or 16 or whatever years that he spent on the show.

[00:04:33] And again, to me, that's just a symbol of just how much performers really appreciate Diljit. I mean, obviously, like randomly people like you and me really appreciate Diljit as well. But I think performers also really appreciate Diljit because he's just

[00:04:55] he just brings it every single time, you know? One of my favorite, I've talked about them before, but it's called Waleska Herrera. There's this YouTube reaction channel. But they really know their music and they did a breakdown of Diljit's appearance as well.

[00:05:13] And they were just talking about just how difficult it is to come up with good sound on TV. And how Diljit killed it even with all the challenges that he faced, you know? Yeah, so big, big day for Diljit and for Punjabi music. I did hear the interview.

[00:05:35] I did listen to that interview with Tsucharetha and Diljit. She asked Diljit about that specific song choice and why that was important and why not the other big hits that he has. And he was like, because this was his first sort of late night show appearance,

[00:05:53] it was deliberate for him to bring that costume and bring Punjab into the picture because this was Punjab coming into, you know, the appearance of Punjab. And he was the mascot of it. And that's why the appearance dictated his song choice.

[00:06:09] And yeah, that was really, really cool because there's like Naina and all those lovers and all those songs as well, which are probably bigger hits. But this was him showing off the image of Punjab to the world in a way. So yeah.

[00:06:24] I thought it was an amazing performance. Like he looked like a million bucks. Yeah, it was really, really cool. I hate Jimmy Fallon. I can't stand the guy. I would literally slap him if I saw him. So it was very difficult for me to even click, watch the.

[00:06:38] So what I did is I watched somebody that had reposted the click, the clip instead of watching from the official channels, because that's how far I take my stance sometimes. I'm very hard headed that way. But I thought he did. He was amazing.

[00:06:54] I do have to add before, before somebody takes my hip hop card away, that questiv is the head of the roots with black thoughts. That's what is known from Jimmy Fallon, a band leader.

[00:07:06] But yeah, I get getting a getting a, you know, a hat tip from the roots. That is that is insane. That is like high level praise, you know? So that was that was really, really cool. And I also love this. Sucharita interview was very, very sweet.

[00:07:22] He just seems like a very nice guy to beat all over. So I'm just it's one of those guys that I hope nothing dark comes out. Like he's just be good, you know? So but I'm sure nothing dark will come out.

[00:07:34] And I really appreciate also the fact that he is a giant star and, you know, Punjabis have been having a really difficult time of it in India over the past few years. And I mean, we were laughing about it last time about how Kangana got slapped.

[00:07:53] But she got slapped because she was basically feeding into the anti not just Punjabi, but like anti-sick narrative that has sort of really taken flight over the past few years. And the whole like Halisani terrorist, blah, blah, blah.

[00:08:13] And to see somebody take center stage on a huge platform like Jimmy Fallon, whatever like our personal feelings might be about Jimmy Fallon. But it's a huge deal, you know, as the Tonight Show. There's like no bigger stage that you can have in American late night television.

[00:08:34] And to see him go up there and say like my who Punjab and in like full sick gear, that means something that is a political statement and like kudos to him. Like really kudos to him.

[00:08:48] Because I did see somebody also interview him like why do you not say I'm Indian? Why do you say I'm Punjabi, you know? And of course they do, you know? So it's it's quite funny, especially because I saw that clip of Anurag Kashyap too about

[00:09:04] what's the movie that won Cannes or something at Cannes all that. What is the name of that movie? All that all that lights the what? Yeah, the Paiyakabadiya movie. Yes, yes, yes, yes. And she was like the interviewers are big, big year for India at Cannes

[00:09:21] and Anurag got really, really mad. He was like this is not for India. India just takes credit, you know? They didn't even fund this movie. They didn't even want this movie, you know? But when it wins, it takes the credit.

[00:09:33] So just let me think of Diljit's thing, you know? That where he's like very much Punjabi as a Punjabi actor, performer and then people are like why are you not Indian? Why can we not co-op this? So it was just kind of funny interesting dynamic to see

[00:09:50] because I saw sorry also because I saw another clip of a honey sing bigging up a Pakistani act singer Faris Shafi who's had the song in a Coke Studio, which is amazing. Blockbuster, I don't know if you've heard it, but it's really, really fun.

[00:10:10] It's really what I've been listening to a lot of times. So it's cool that, you know, with Punjabis is just they gel together. They don't have that, you know, division and border as much because they just share a common culture.

[00:10:25] They share a common language and they're kind of cool with it, you know? So, yeah, sorry, Sujoya, I cut you off. No, the Pail Kapadia movie was all be imagine as light. Right, right. Shall we get into some of the things we watched?

[00:10:41] Sujoy, you watched a few things. I did. I watched Varun Grover's directorial debut All India Rank, which landed on Netflix. And and I also watched Maharaj, which just literally dropped to no fanfare after all the noise that it's been making. So which one should we talk about first?

[00:11:03] Let's do it All India Rank, because I also watched Maharaj. OK, let me bring out my notes. You've not seen it, Amrita, All India Rank, right? Yeah. It's been on my list with Lapata ladies and I still haven't gotten round to it. Wait, where did I keep it?

[00:11:24] Oh, yeah, there you go. So All India Rank is kind of similar to the other competitive exam movies set in middle class India in the 90s, you know, the struggle of people trying to move about their social circle by means of

[00:11:43] the parents pressurizing their child to go into, you know, absolute academia and all of that. It's like brimming with 90s nostalgia in the way that is being shot and all of that. And but well, I'm not a I have not watched a single episode of Quota Factory,

[00:12:02] which is so much popular in India. So I'm not very much familiar with how much Varun Grover has borrowed or not or how similar it is or not. I'm just introduced to this world. I have although watched 12th rank, which is I think a 12th fail,

[00:12:19] which I feel is much superior to this. I think what it what All India Rank lacks is it feels that it saying like it feels episodic that in a way that it's not very clear because it's a it's a two hour movie.

[00:12:41] It's not concise enough to say what it's trying to say. So the drama feels like very meh surface level, surface level in a way. Yeah. So and I don't know who this movie is for. Like I do know it's for the core people who of students

[00:13:02] who probably go through the nostalgia of all the their struggle days trying to get into competitive exams. So and I've gone through that. But even after that, I did not necessarily connect with the the messages that this movie was trying to say.

[00:13:19] However, there is one portion where the drama of the the parents trying, you know, realizing about the struggle and what that might, you know, bring to this child's psyche and probably trauma and all of that.

[00:13:35] There is a scene where the father and the son talk talk it through. And I think that really brought it. I think that was the best scene of the movie. I'm not giving away spoilers, but also like, I don't know, I have mixed feelings about this movie.

[00:13:51] I don't know if I can recommend this enough or I can say that it's a bad movie. It's a good attempt for a first movie by a director, but also like I'm not exactly sure where I stand with this movie. Yeah, it's funny.

[00:14:06] We're talking about it because there was this clip that went viral also about this girl that was too late for an exam and her mom just fainted and everybody was commented, you know, like the girl is the one taking

[00:14:18] the exam, but the mom is making it, you know, emotionally so much harder for her just by making such a big deal about these things. And there's also some student protests going on in India at the moment, right? Some papers.

[00:14:32] Yeah, there is a big scam with the medical entrance examinations and how fake and corrupt it is and what the whole ecosystem behind it and what it may lead to the consequences of the people involved, etc. Yeah, yeah, it's been on my list for a while,

[00:14:51] but I think I need to watch La Patalei's first before I get into this. So yeah, even 12 fail, I haven't seen yet. So but you're right, there are a lot of these movies about the problem for me is like even that portion in three idiots in a way

[00:15:05] because I haven't gone through all of that, you know, in that same way. It's not something that I connect with or I want to visit that. Exactly. The context would be completely lost on you the whole because it's riding so much on nostalgic visuals of the 90s, right?

[00:15:23] There is a minute visual details thrown here and there, which I would feel about. Oh, I know that reference because that's such a dopamine hit when you watch movies like this, but it's completely lost on you.

[00:15:40] Yeah, even when I watched Aavish, there was a lot of like, you know, like Indian student and their issues kind of thing in there. And again, it's not something that I've went through. So it's very hard.

[00:15:52] It has a lot of that nostalgia for vibes to it, which I don't necessarily work for me. Yeah. Second movie you watched was Maharaj, right? Or Netflix? Yeah. Amrita, you're not boycotting this. This is because this is an armor movie, right? I'm boycotting it because I can't

[00:16:12] I can't afford to be attracted to like two men in saffron in a row. Like after Adil Kulkarni, like J. Deep, I love it in this looks really good to me. And I'm like, there is something seriously wrong with my brain right now.

[00:16:28] You basically have developed Stockholm syndrome. That's what happened here. Yes, that's what it is. Yes. By the way, J. Deep looks cut man like exactly like he I don't like six pack like it's amazing the way he looks in this. I don't want to make any backshot jokes.

[00:16:46] Jokes, by the way. I was just like, like I always thought he was an attractive man. But yeah, like I saw the the trailer and I was just like, damn. Alrighty. Yeah. Especially the way he speaks, you know, is like very like soft spoken to

[00:17:06] and I was just like, all right. Yeah. Do you reckon so I have a question here, right? So this is a movie where it's the next generation of the Khandan podcast is being launched in a way. But the villain is mounted on such a larger scale, like he's

[00:17:29] the villain gets. Yeah, it is mounted. Pun intended. Well, like the intro scene is so grand when it comes to the Maharaj, the Maharaj is the title character of the movie. What was my question? I completely.

[00:17:48] I'm just like, you know, it doesn't even know where to look anymore. Oh, God, something about this being the next chapter of Khandan and how before that I had actually a genuine question. I completely forgot. Speaking of which, when we do handover Khandan to my daughter eventually

[00:18:09] only review Suhana Khan, Junet Khan and one of the kids of Suhail or something like that. The content you've been getting. Never mind. No, I think you were saying something about like how like Junet is not like the focus maybe of the. Maybe I don't know.

[00:18:34] So just to get it back to you, if you if you get your thought just jump in, but so this movie was about to be released on the 14th of June and it got delayed because somebody said, you know, it's going to be offensive to the certain.

[00:18:48] I OK, I'll just say I don't I don't know exactly which words to use to describe what's happening in this movie. Is it a religion? Is it a sect? So please, you know, just give me some leniency because this was all

[00:19:01] very foreign to me, but it seems like they call it a sect in the transition of the movie and they might be offended by this. So it was about, I think at the start of Bombay when Bombay just

[00:19:15] literally was given to the British or taken from the British, one or the other. It's it's there were these Hoveyly's these manders. They call it Mandir. They call it Hoveyly's and the biggest Hoveyly was this Maharaj character.

[00:19:32] He was the head of it and I think the story is about basically what's it called? I mean, this practice exists. You exist even in Europe and a lot of places. I think it's called the first night where the Lord has what's it called?

[00:19:50] Do you know what I mean? Right? Yeah, there are these senior like that's what's senior. So it's basically if a marriage is happening, the Lord of the surroundings gets first dips to sleep with the woman that's the bride to be here.

[00:20:06] It's different because there's also this religious element to it, which is called Charan Seva where the whole town apparently all the women had to sleep with this man and even using the word had is difficult to say because it feels like they willingly slept with this man.

[00:20:25] And this is based on a real story and real people. So I think I said that without being offensive to anybody. I think I was pretty accurate. Yeah, yeah. So Junit Amir Khan son is playing kind of a social warrior journalist

[00:20:42] called Karsandas and then Jai Di Walawat is playing the Maharaj who is also called JJ, which feels like an Amrish Puri villain's name more than a kind of a saint, deity priest. Oh, now I remember my my train of thought. When Amrita was lusting over. Jai Di Walawat.

[00:21:07] My question was when Amrish Puri did Temple of Doom, do you think people were lusting over Amrish Puri then? I think it's the hair man. A lot of it is the hair as a bald man. I know that the hair is a lot.

[00:21:25] I would like to be a good friend and be like, that's not true. But it is true. It is true. Put on a fake wig and I look 10 percent like 10 times hotter. I know. I can't lie. So, yeah. So the story is basically he's this kind of journalist.

[00:21:50] He wants to change the world. His the girl that he wants to marry, they're going literally going to get married in a few weeks. She gets picked for Charanseva. He barges in while this is happening and he tells her, you know, you're just getting molested. Come with me.

[00:22:08] And she refuses to go when she sees the error of the ways she commits suicide. And then it's basically a battle between this high priest and Johnette's character. So that's kind of the story set up. I think I really enjoyed this movie first of all, straight away.

[00:22:28] Like I kind of went in with low hopes. I was like, it's going to be fine, but I really, really liked it. It's it is genre filmmaking. It is courtroom drama. It's a bit of, you know, it's a bit of PK. It's a bit of Jadugar.

[00:22:42] You know, it's all of those things mixed up together, but really well made and really good performance. And it's a period piece. And I think they were struggling. This is Yash Raj, which is kind of distributing it if I'm not mistaken or maybe also produced it

[00:22:58] because Sidharth P. Malhotra is like a house director for them. He's done Hitchkey for them. He's done We Are Family for them. Both are again, Hitchkey is a very template genre filmmaking, you know, like a teacher changing, you know, lives of students.

[00:23:14] We Are Family is very much a Hollywood remake. And those both were quite competently made. They weren't like box office smash, smash hits, but they did really, they did quite well. And I think this is another one of those movies, which is just really well done.

[00:23:31] The costumes, the production design is really cool. Even some of the special effects is a bit dodgy. But I think the main thing is the performances that people are kind of coming for. I mean, obviously Jair Diwal Awat, he's kind of the linchpin. He's amazing in this.

[00:23:48] And then you have Junete Khan, which I think is an interesting, what did you think of Junete's? Surya. He's still like, I think a few workshops behind to actually be launched as an actor. I think especially this movie where there are so many like face off scenes

[00:24:11] with somebody like Jair Diwal Awat, there is one particular scene where he is drenched in rain and he has to give this whole monologue about, you know, I'll be coming for you. The people, your bugs might be with you,

[00:24:24] but the truth will, you know, triumph, et cetera, et cetera. And it's such a template, Bollywood monologue drama scene. And I would like in words of the Gen Z's, like Amir Khan would have ate that, you know? And but it's also unfair to compare

[00:24:41] a first time performance of Junete Khan to an Amir Khan who might have done it in Ghulam or whatever in his peak. But having said that, like I could see the sort of unpreparedness or the rawness or the freshness or whatever you may term it.

[00:24:59] Like you could see when the rain is falling on his eyes, he's so much troubled with blinking and also delivering the line. He's not really ready for that sort of Bollywood template performance, which we are so much used to. Like we grew up on scenes like those

[00:25:15] and this movie is like a throwback to that era of, you know, villain is bad and the hero is gonna save the world. It's very much that. It's a period movie as we, you know, just described in the story.

[00:25:30] And it's a brave move to launch a Khan baby in a genre like this where the actor is not hensht. It's not a six pack, you know, hero-hero in romance or whatever. There is no item number. There is none of those.

[00:25:51] And there is this movie drops like this trying to deal with these stories. And it's a brave movie. Like I would say like Yash Raj has been doing, you know, this sort of like really brave move like with movies like The Great Indian Family, which came and went.

[00:26:11] Nobody really talks about it. But it's a movie also that deals with, you know, religion and why we should question all of that. And this is also such a movie. But coming to Junayit Khan, yeah, I feel that he is a little bit raw still,

[00:26:28] but I appreciate that he starts like his first movie is this. For me, I thought he was great to be honest. Like I think he, like it's, there's a few moments where in the emotional outbursts his voice modulation isn't 100%, you know? He's still like posture wise.

[00:26:48] He's like, but those are for me are, you know, small things, you know, it's a big rule to take on. Oh, absolutely. It's a big thing to take on Jadipalavath, you know, in these scenes. And, you know, I think if you compare him to,

[00:27:01] you know, one of Sunny Deval's son, you know, Salankhe Deol and stuff like that, I think he does, he has a personality and it shows. And it's also just brave to take on this movie and the current climate and even though the movie did get blocked

[00:27:16] and it gets ready. And the thing is like, you know, he didn't do any press. I don't see any interviews of him and stuff like that. And, you know, like it's not... I want to talk a bit about that.

[00:27:29] Like, I tried to search a lot, like Maharaj, right? The only entry is on IMDb and some times of India articles regarding the release and the controversy and everything. There is not even a link on Wikipedia about the movie. Junior Khan does not have a Wikipedia page.

[00:27:48] I tried to... Like, the songs of this movie are quite good. I tried to search for the songs on YouTube, music on YouTube. Only the trailer songs are available. I don't know what's happening with Yash Raj. Like, on Wikipedia, if you see the list of Yash Raj movies

[00:28:03] that they have produced, it ends with The Great Indian Family and then Tiger 2 and the next one that who Ayan is making. I don't even see this movie listed. So, I don't know what is happening. I don't know if it's like Yash Raj's

[00:28:23] infamously inept PR and marketing strategy at work. I think it's mostly Netflix and Netflix, you know, just like belly-flopping hard any time, like a twang person even looks in that direction. So, I think like basically this movie got made and especially with the star cast that it has,

[00:28:51] which is to say, Junaid Khan. I think it got made because the source material is a book that was written by somebody who's very much aligned with The Right Vine. So, they took like a book that already was,

[00:29:10] you know, like the author is somebody who's known to the ecosystem. Like when the court case happened, you had like editors at like I think Opie India or whatever, like, you know, whatever those right wing rags are. You had like editors from there saying like,

[00:29:27] no, no, no, I know this man. He's written a book that is like, you know, very important and it is not anti-Hindu and it is fine and I'm sure the adaptation will be fine. So, they got a piece of... I was actually saying this to Asim.

[00:29:47] It's a very clever piece of maneuvering by Aditya Chopra because he's been dealing with this kind of shit for a while now, you know, like with going back to like Bhattana or whatever, like, you know, and Aditya Chopra, whatever my issues with him

[00:30:06] and I have a long, long list of issues with Aditya Chopra. But the man is no dummy. Like he knows how to play the game and he knows the business. And... Aditya Chopra was like, I'll give you an interview Netflix but you have to release this movie.

[00:30:26] And I think like that's basically, you know, like it was like built in. Like it is a complex movie and from the trailer, I did get those 90s vibes, you know, in a good way. And I've already started seeing people on Twitter going,

[00:30:41] like, well, this seems like very dated, like that monologue that you were talking about Sujoy, the one in the ring. People have been posting clips and being like, this is very old. And I'm like, actually, no, I'm very impressed that Junayad would do that. I like it.

[00:31:02] Like this is the kind of stuff that, you know, like it's one of those things, right? Like when the Archies came out, everybody was like, oh my God, like this is so agglicized and so Western. And like, why do you stockings always do this?

[00:31:17] And then Junayad comes with this and then everybody is like, Like basically people are going to bitch and moan about everything that you do, by virtue of you being a stock it. Or even if you're not a stock it, you know, like, Katikaar in last week, you know,

[00:31:39] like one day he was the darling of the masses and then the next day he was basically scum and he's not even a stock it. So you can basically just build whatever narrative that it is that you want and then just sort of work it that way.

[00:31:55] And people are gonna say whatever it is that they want to say. So I want to say like Kudos to Junayad. He seems to be one of the few stock kids that I can see that has like an actual like acting strategy here.

[00:32:11] Like, you know, I can see how like this is working out. His next movie is with Sai Pallavi and it sounds like a really interesting project as well. I love it. Like he's making moves and like, you know,

[00:32:24] what Asim was saying about this being like a good movie rather than it being like a good stocked launch. I think that's really smart and nothing less than I expect from Mamuka Beta. No, it's really good. I also want to shout out the women in the movie

[00:32:46] because I think they're great. I thought Shailini Pandey who plays his fiance Kishori, she has a very like, she's very alia, but coded like I could see the similarities. But she's great. Like I said, like wow, what a,

[00:33:01] what a like basically she has a song and three scenes, but they're all tough songs and tough scenes. And I think putting all of that on a very young performer I think she does really well. And I also really liked Shravari Wagh in this.

[00:33:16] I've seen in a few things, but she comes into this movie like she's Rani Mukherjee. And I'm like, good on you. You know, like believe in yourself, you know, you know, hustle until you actually are Rani Mukherjee. And she was like really like, wow,

[00:33:31] who is the star that comes in and the movie? Come on, hey, just let me go. I can't, I can't. And I was like, wow, like this is cool for somebody who literally has not done a lot of work. Having that kind of star presence is really cool.

[00:33:44] She has so much spark in this movie. Like, and I Googled who, where have I seen Shalini before? She played Preeti in the original Kabir Singh movie, Arjun Reddy. And she was also in Jaiesh Bhai Jordha, which was Siddharthi Malhotra's previous movie,

[00:34:00] which I have, I think is the connection why they named the Nick named the Maharajas JJ all the time. It was like Jaiesh Bhai Jordha. I don't think they're creating a Jaiesh Bhai Jordha Maharaj universe. I don't think this is happening. By the way, talking about Shaveri Wag,

[00:34:19] she was in that three universe movie called Mungia. Mungia, yeah. And that is apparently the sleeper hit of the year. Like it's going. It's a sleeper hit. No, but like it's like literally outperforming. Like it's really outperforming its budget. It's making like, it's, I think it's almost

[00:34:38] like it's nearing a hundred crores on like a, like a sub 20 crore budget. Like it's huge. One more thing about Maharaj is just inherently funny because the climactic, climactic scene is a courtroom drama and the court, the justice is being delivered

[00:34:54] by the British, which I thought was hilarious. You know, it's just something in it. So funny. And it's Jamie Alters playing one of the lawyers that's like represent. Yeah. And it's when he starts talking that I figured out

[00:35:08] it was Jamie Alter because this voice is so similar to his dad's. Yeah. It's funny because JJ goes like. This in this, you know. Yeah. And JJ is like, who is this kid? His ki muche mi nahi nahi kli. He doesn't have a voice. He's like he's 43.

[00:35:22] Like this guy is old. I didn't understand that. But also like it's hilarious because Yashraj notoriously doesn't spend any money on their non-Desi cast. And so they're all the worst actors except the two lawyers. One is Jamie Alter and the other is the

[00:35:38] the guy that was playing the villain in Hiramundi too. So those are good, but the judges are like just hilariously bad. So like it's so like no information about the cast and crew is available on the internet. Like the supporting cast, you've seen them in every single,

[00:35:54] you know, Gujarati theater or Gujarati TV adjacent, you know, shows and whatever. But one face that I definitely recognize, I think Haroon, the friend of our show who would definitely appreciate this reference is Nanuji, who's the guy who is the pipe cutter in Ishq.

[00:36:16] Who is he? Who's playing in Mahatma? I can't remember his name, but he's the guy who, you know, the Mara Mara Mara Mara scene. If you remember the deaf guy who keeps on cutting. Yeah, that. But it's a good one. Amrita, I think you'd like it.

[00:36:31] Also just was shocked that this was happening and I was shocked that men were paying to watch it. While this, I did not know. And I was like so shocked that this is all based on reality and all of these, like there were a lot

[00:36:46] of shocking elements in this movie. So it really like, wow, it showed me something that I didn't know. But yeah, I would never be surprised by the depravity of men in power, you know? So yeah. One thing I wanted to bring up

[00:37:04] because it's going to lead into the trailer for Kalki, which also dropped. Have you figured out the title of Kalki 289? What's the AD? AD, yeah. The full trailer dropped and I had this problem in Maharaj and I had this trouble with Kalki.

[00:37:23] Guys, I don't think I understand Hindi anymore. Like I don't understand it like we've reached a place. But obviously when we were growing up, we had Kadir Khan dialogues, which were Urdu dialogues. Like I could understand it. I need subtitles. I need subtitles for Maharaj.

[00:37:42] I need subtitles for Brahmastra. I need subtitles for Kalki. I just don't speak this language anymore and I'm thinking that's probably what they want. Boycott, boycott. Yeah, no, no. I mean I watch Korean stuff and stuff like that. That's fine. But I think mission accomplished.

[00:38:00] That's what I'm saying. Whoever wanted it to become more Hindi and rooted in India versus a global Urdu-speaking kind of thing, yeah, mission accomplished. I don't understand the language anymore. Like I have real, real trouble. It's weird. You say that because for the longest time

[00:38:21] in the last couple of years, when we grew up watching movies in the 80s and the 90s, even the early 2000s, whenever a Bollywood movie starts, the title of the movie is shown in Hindi, in English and in Urdu. And we have seen some movies show that

[00:38:38] in the last couple of months. Merry Christmas, Didadi. Merry Christmas, Didadi. And it sort of disappeared. And famously Javed Akhtar, when he writes his lyrics, he writes it in Urdu scripture, right? Or Arabic scripture. But yeah, it's lost. It's nowhere to be found.

[00:38:55] Which makes me think that we should watch Kalki in Telugu. I will, I will watch it in Telugu. I definitely will watch it in Telugu. But you guys, do you understand it? Like, Surya, when you were watching Maharaj, do you need subtitles?

[00:39:08] Well, I studied Hindi for in school. So my vocabulary is not that bad. But also sometimes it does get lost. Like, what did he say? Because I don't speak that on a day-to-day basis, right? So... I mean, the problem is always going to be that,

[00:39:25] you know, if we want to have like real Hindi quote-unquote, then that becomes like what is now today known as dialects of Hindi. But are actually languages that predate what we now call Hindi, right? Because Hindi is a Victorian construct

[00:39:43] that was basically built as a sort of resistance against the encroachment of English and the, you know, my colleagues' education program in the 19th century. So what that does is like, you know, so say your language is like in Avidhi or it's in Mithili or it's in...

[00:40:09] Like these are languages that are beautiful, but also I don't understand them. Like Pan Singh Tomar is like, that is like a very good example, you know? Because that is actual like Hindi-Hindi if you want. But it's actually in Mithili. Like it's not Hindi, it's Mithili.

[00:40:26] Sohnchurya was another one. Like I couldn't understand anything that they were saying. Sohnchurya... Oh, actually I was talking about Sohnchurya. Pan Singh Tomar is also in... I forget which language exactly it is. But like, see this is a thing, like I don't even know, right?

[00:40:44] Because I don't belong to that part of the country. The Hindi that Sujoyan I learned and that we know is basically a very standardized sort of a thing. It's like when you learn Arabic, right? Like there's like standardized Arabic. But then like you talk to somebody in Lebanon

[00:41:01] versus somebody in Cairo is like very different. And that's basically what it is. So if you want to... This whole nativist urge to be authentic quote unquote, it's a doomed project because it eventually devolves into a state where nobody can really understand each other. Whereas with Hindustani,

[00:41:27] like when you're talking about like Hindi versus Urdu, what you're really talking about is Hindustani, which was like the Ligwa Franka that we had all across Northern India and Pakistan, like present day Pakistan and Northern India. And that is basically a mix of like local languages

[00:41:46] that everyone can understand. And a lot of these, we talk about like the Muslims that wrote Bollywood cinema. But even the Hindus, like people like Yashopra or something, when they were growing up, it is absolutely likely that they grew up writing Urdu script,

[00:42:10] like Nasthalik versus like Devan Agri. Like it's really like our generation, like Sujoyi Mai generation and maybe like a couple of generations before that, that really began to be taught Devan Agri exclusively, but before partition, like if you were born before partition

[00:42:29] and you lived anywhere in Northern India or the Northern part of the subcontinent I should say, you were more likely to learn Nasthalik or just as likely to learn Nasthalik as you were like the Roman script or the Devan Agri script. So there are like all these,

[00:42:51] these letters that are written between people who in Bollywood, who are writing to each other in Nasthalik and they're not thinking about like, I'm writing in Urdu, I'm writing in Hindi. I'm just like, they're just writing in Hindustani. That's what they called it.

[00:43:07] So I think like especially with movies like Maharaj and with Kalki, I also, I think, because it's supposed to be like science fiction but also mythological. There is a feeling that, okay, we need to show that this is more Indian

[00:43:24] and the way to do that is to make it more Sanskritized. So it's not even like Hindi, it's basically Sanskritized things. And again, like it just sounds really fake to me because that is not what anybody was talking like. I haven't watched Maharaj so I don't know,

[00:43:42] I can't really talk about its dialogues but if it's set in Bombay and in the 19th century, they were 100% not talking in like a Sanskritized anything. They were talking in- He has a three minute monologue where he's just speaking in Sanskrit at the end of it.

[00:44:02] He's literally just speaking Sanskrit and then he translated it but it really felt like on Muslim TikTok, you probably are not on Muslim TikTok but there's like, on Muslim TikTok you have these Daba guys, they're like also, they're just preaching and converting people to Islam

[00:44:18] and they'll just like, speak Arabic verses from the Quran and then translate it or adapt it. And me, it bothers me because I don't speak it. So you're just like showing off like how much you've memorized things that you're gonna be using anyway, right?

[00:44:35] So it's kind of the same thing for me. You're really like pushing an agenda of your purity by doing that. Like this is my level of authority because I have memorized these texts, you know? And I don't know if filmically it works.

[00:44:49] I mean, it doesn't work for me but I'm sure it's making other people happy. So I don't want to- That particular scene though, I would defend it in a way because he says that whole speech in Sanskrit and then he translates it what it means

[00:45:02] and then he asked the Maharaj how it is translated within the Haveli in the context and how they misinterpreted to spread because nobody usually speaks Sanskrit. He addresses that and that's why because they have the power to be the only ones knowledgeable about Sanskrit,

[00:45:18] they say that this is the meaning and this is why you should be subservient and serve the Maharaj and the Haveli. The authority of the Haveli relies upon these other religious texts but this is what it means. They are the only ones to say the meaning

[00:45:32] and that's why he says that the true meaning is this, this, this and not that, et cetera. Yeah, but I mean, I just don't see young actors speaking three minutes in Sanskrit. It doesn't happen a lot and he manages and it looks good, well pronounced.

[00:45:50] It looks like genuine how it should be. So it just, yeah. So, but yeah, getting back to the Kalki trailer, Amirita, you saw it, right? What did you feel? What did you think? Are you excited for this? It's... A minute of silence. Look, I want to... Like it...

[00:46:14] I'm not the audience for this, right? Like we're just very sad because I... You know how much I love my science fiction. Like I love a good space opera. Like I would watch the shit out of it if it looked even halfway competently told

[00:46:33] and this just doesn't seem that way. Like I'm just... I don't know, like I don't... Like it's very... Like the... I'd be okay with it sounding so derivative if it also made me think, oh, like I'm just really interested to see

[00:46:51] how like this would work out, but I'm really not. Like it's just not for me. Sijya, I am not... I wouldn't say I'm excited, but the latest trailer makes me think that I should give it the benefit of the doubt, especially because Kamal Hassan has been...

[00:47:12] You've been saying that for every single... Oh, please. The past five years. Yeah. I mean, the man was probably... I really would like to root for him, you know, but... I'm really convinced, you know, like, I guess it either... Maybe I should give it a shot.

[00:47:30] There's the first poster. Maybe I should give it a shot, you know? Like I was just about to say that in the latest trailer, they show Kamal Hassan and he looks like, you know, a throwback to Supreme Leader Snoke from The Last Jedi. And I'm excited for that.

[00:47:48] And also... That's what you like. That's what you want to see, you know, as Kamal Hassan as Snoke. And also like in the latest trailer, Amitabh Bachchan is kicking ass. When was the last time we saw that? Like he is... You know, Yeah, exactly.

[00:48:01] And they're really kicking ass left, right and center. And I'm excited for that. I have to say though, like this is the first time in a long time that I've seen Bachchan this enthusiastic about a movie. Like I saw like the press conference

[00:48:16] and he was like leaping about the plays. He was like super happy. I was like, I haven't seen you this happy, you know, very long time. So you must feel it. Ajuba nahi chali thi. Ajuba nahi chali thi. He's still got that grudge inside him, you know.

[00:48:31] I think it's just he got the shipment of the same drugs they're putting Joe Biden on. Oh, time to wake up. They got a debate where's the stage? I didn't know Amitabh Bachchan was on the debate. Yeah, I would go watch this to be honest.

[00:48:57] But having I've only seen the Hindi trailer, the dialogue are so cringe. I would go watch it in Telugu, I think, because the Hindi dialogue are going to ruin the fun, I think. I do like that they actually dubbed their own Hindi though.

[00:49:14] You know, it's like Amitabh's voice is Amitabh's voice that I think like it's such a small thing, but I think it's quite cool. Why wouldn't Amitabh's voice in Hindi? Literally is a Hindi actor. No, but they shoot it in one language

[00:49:30] and then they have like Sharath Kelkar dub everybody. You know, he's doing Deepika and he's doing Amitabh. You know what I mean? The bar is on the floor and it is like drawing like grooves on it. The bar is Sharath Kelkar. Yeah. So sad.

[00:49:48] I like this trailer the most out of everything else that I've seen of this mess of a marketing campaign that they've done with this movie. I think like even if the movie is good, they should fire whoever they hire to do the marketing

[00:50:04] because I have not seen in such an incompetent job seen in my life. Like this is like Yashraj level of marketing. Like this is how bad this is. This is how bad it is, you know? It's like you have Deepika, you have Amitabh,

[00:50:22] you have Prabhas and you still screw it up. I don't understand how you do that, but they managed to do that. So all the other thing that I had is that maybe I like this trailer because it has more Amitabh and less Prabhas

[00:50:34] because Prabhas just basically sleepwalks to everything that I've seen at least and he does nothing for me lately. So I'm hoping this could be something but even the three or four lines that he's delivering are so boring. So boring they put me to sleep.

[00:50:50] You know in Gangso Vasepam, you know, when Sardar Khan dies and Richa Chattan's character goes to Faisal Khan and says, When will you wake up? When will you wake up? It's that for us and Prabhas, like slapping a Ganjari Nasseri. When will you wake up? Yeah, yeah.

[00:51:10] And he's like supposed to be the hero that you know, like I'm like, yeah, I just want Amitabh to kick ass, you know? Yeah. And Amitabh does great. He looks great. All of that CGI, buying drugs is working really well. I like it. I like it.

[00:51:23] And that is the one thing that I really liked. Deepika always great to see. I don't know what she's doing, but she's playing Mother Mary or something like that. I'm not sure if she's somebody pointed out that she's basically played the same character in the last

[00:51:38] like four or five movies that she's been in. I'm like, yeah, yeah, I can see. Yeah, yeah. She needs to like choose a master. She was the mom in, you know, in Javan. She was the mom.

[00:51:51] Now she's the mom in this like she needs to like switch it up a bit. Yeah, but I mean, always good to see her. I like her little bob cut she's got going on. I like that. So the movie is called Calcut 2898. Just 80.

[00:52:10] You should also add like J. Gato, she take after that. Right. She take after J. Oh, whatever. You wrote at the end, you know. Yeah. How much pleasure is a miss too much pleasure? See like this movie is just. Yeah, from it.

[00:52:27] I mean, so we put out a reel last week about like how some South Korean artist was accusing the Calcut team of ripping off his artwork. And now it's just like Americans as well. Like it's just like, like, you know, just like a long list of

[00:52:45] people coming out and being like, hey, that's art art. Like how are you just like doing this? But yeah, I guess like by Genie films or whatever. So I have a theory about this though. Probably they did not know all these original artists because

[00:53:01] they went to mid journey and they were like, you know, AI generating and mid journey infamously is under a lot of trouble about their training data sets and where their sources are not crediting the original artists. So probably that's the case. Yeah, I think so too.

[00:53:17] I think there was a point also I raised a couple of weeks ago about, you know, AI and artist's accreditation in India has probably that discussion is not even starting. So I think this is probably the result of that.

[00:53:29] But I'm looking at the release date again because it's such a mess. It's releasing literally next week. So this might be our main review for the next episode when I'm thinking about it. Right. Possibly. Along with Kill perhaps. Yeah, no kill is coming out fifth of July.

[00:53:42] So that is going to be a bit later. Okay. I do want to go watch Chandu champion though. Like I don't know if... Me too. If any of you. I'm so chingey but like no. You are chingey. Yeah, I don't know. I feel... We have it was.

[00:54:02] What did you say, Asim? Said tell me how it was. But no I'll go watch it. And I also wanted to watch... I was going to watch both Chandu champion and Mujia this week and then I got sick. Otherwise that's what this episode would have been about.

[00:54:22] Please don't send us letters about like how we are like all about the star kids and we don't talk about outsiders because we would have... It's just that I've been sick. So excuse me for living. Somebody tweeted about the current roster of movies

[00:54:38] being screened or other cinema and all like re-releases. Like Lakshya is getting re-released and all of that. And they're doing well. They're doing very well. Good for them. Like Lakshya finally getting its deal so many years later. Lakshya is not getting released here

[00:54:55] but Pokiri is getting released the Vijay version, the Tamil one. Tupaki is also getting re-released. Matrix is getting released. It's not even just the Indian cinema. Like even Hollywood that we don't have content. There is the whole 99... The movies of 1999 getting a re-release.

[00:55:16] There is a season going on and I think... I'm going to watch Matrix tomorrow and then there's the Iron Giant and the Mummy is getting re-released and all of that. Why not? An American Pie. Wow! Yeah none of that is happening in India. Okay.

[00:55:38] I think we wanted to do the Q&A but let's keep that for our next episode because there's a lot of questions and we're already running an hour. I would suggest sign up to Patreon. Like legit. Like not like you... I usually plug it.

[00:55:53] But I think if the embargo is up or down, we might get you an earlier review of Kill on Patreon and this episode of the Q questions will also go earlier on Patreon. So sign up there for a dollar. You can get those episodes quicker

[00:56:11] and yeah you can support our work. So that would be good. Amrita, where can people find you online? You can find me on Twitter at AmritaIQ. So Joy. You can find me on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok at 93K and you can also follow us at Khandan Podcast

[00:56:29] on all our socials at Khandan Podcast. I'm at Asim Burney. Drop us an email at UPodcasting.gmail.com Follow us on TikTok too. We need to get to a thousand people and then we can start live TikToking, which would be cool. We did the last one with Haroon

[00:56:45] and I wanna do some more. We've got some new friends on TikTok which is fun and I wanna do lives with them so we need to get it to a thousand people. I know people in India you can't help me but people outside sign up to...

[00:56:57] Do your thing. Do your thing. Yeah, do your thing. Okay, that's it. Thank you for listening. ["Guruya Maksha Makkha Chalo"] Girl, you're a cat over a finger. Girl, you're Maksha Makkha Chalo. You're my cat.