Ep 237- Kalki 2898 AD and Kill Review, Barzakh 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.

[00:00:26] Hi, you're listening to Khandaan, a Bollywood podcast regular feed. Thank you so much for your support over the years. We now have a Patreon channel with bonus content and exclusive merch for those of you who would like to support us.

[00:00:39] Every dollar goes towards creating more and better content. Visit us at patreon.com. 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.

[00:00:55] Hey, everybody. Hello. We're recording this on a Monday, not on our usual Sunday. So we're having Monday energy instead of Sunday. We'll still bring all the hate. Wow. Wow. Revealing like spoilers straight away for the show. I don't give a shit. Sujoy is that guy.

[00:01:25] He's the one who's sleeping. He's the one who's sleeping. He's the one who's sleeping. He's the one who's sleeping. Okay. I haven't seen usual suspects. I've seen chocolate. I haven't seen. I've seen chocolate. It's the A's.

[00:01:48] I don't think there's a better illustration of Khandaan podcast than having seen chocolate and not having seen usual suspects. But it's okay, man. You don't know the posters. You don't know he's in the middle anyway. So I didn't spoil anything.

[00:02:03] I know all the spoilers. That's why I haven't seen it. He just said he's seen chocolate. Who was Kailasuzen Irfan? Obviously he was Irfan. Who else would they do it on Ilkhaful? Okay. Back to the program.

[00:02:25] We're going to be doing two reviews. We're going to be talking about Kill and we're going to be talking about Kalki 298980. 298980. That's right. I think that's what I said. I think that's what I said. No, no. You flipped the nine and the eight. Did I? Yeah, you did.

[00:02:45] Okay. I'll have to check the recordings anyway. We want to talk first about the Barzakh trailer that literally dropped this morning and Amrita already has thoughts predicting what I'm thinking.

[00:03:01] I literally like Asim sent it in the group chat and I watched it and I was immediately like, yeah, Asim's going to hate this. I think Asim was expecting something like Churaayal.

[00:03:14] And I saw this and I was like, yeah, this is absolutely not Asim's vibe but Asim's still going to watch it. I also know that about Asim. I don't think anybody could have predicted this.

[00:03:28] Literally nobody could have predicted what the show is going to be and we still don't know what the show is going to be, to be honest. Yes. But I will say that this being, I mean, he's been bread crumbing this for a while, I think, like Asim.

[00:03:42] He's been bread crumbing it on his Twitter account for a while because I was just thinking back after I watched the trailer that he's sort of like been talking about like spirituality

[00:03:54] and about how like, you know, the beauty of love and philosophy and all that kind of stuff for quite a while. So it's not out of, this didn't really come out of left field except we were expecting something more in line with what he had already made.

[00:04:14] But it also makes sense that somebody as creative as him would want to make something that is completely different from everything that he's done before. Like that makes sense. And he's like one of those people like Zoya Aqsa, like I trust whatever he's got cooking.

[00:04:30] So it might not be what I want necessarily, but it's probably something that I need. So you just literally watched it 30 seconds ago. Yeah. You rarely do your homework and you also don't check the tweets I sent you. What did you think of the Bazaar trailer?

[00:04:48] Man, it's such a visual spectacle like the trailer looks beautiful. I think it's the same cinematographer as Chirayal that he has collaborated before, as well as on cake. I think his name is Mo Azmi and yeah, it looks spectacular, like really, really beautiful.

[00:05:12] And to see Fawad Khan like on screen like this. Where is Swetha? And the Kajal. It was really beautiful. I'm not sure. This is really confusing like what's the story going to be?

[00:05:30] I think there is somebody who's dead that is involved and everybody is like not really happy with their father having his, I don't know which number of marriage he's having, but he is. Yeah. It looks super pretty.

[00:05:45] Like first of all, like you know, if you're, you know, you have Sanam Sayeeen. Then you have Fawad Khan. I think you're on that level of pretty nice.

[00:05:54] Like if you have these two actors already there, but it just strikes me that like it brings me back to cake. It brings me back to Chirayal's. But also like this element of magical realism in it, you know, like, like what was that book from Gabriel? Mark 1000.

[00:06:15] 100 years of, yeah. Yeah. Like it reminded me of that in a way, but like in Pakistan. I did that. Wait, do you mean love at the time of Kolo? No, I meant the other one. The 100 years of solitude. Yeah, 100 years of solitude.

[00:06:33] But there was also shots in it where I'm thinking, oh, this looks like, you know, and when Shah Rukh and Manisha are in that Chadrin Satrangire. It's a friend we think of that too.

[00:06:47] But I know he has, Asim Abbasi has like a kind of a, how do you say a very dark humoristic twist in it too? Because I have seen his show Count Abdullah. If you've not seen Count Abdullah yet, it's like about a Muslim vampire. So it's quite fun.

[00:07:04] So it's kind of a comedy show. I didn't finish the whole thing. I watched a few episodes, but it was very broad and he was really reveling in this kind of like horror comedy tropes. And I could see that.

[00:07:17] I can see that as a kind of vibe he has. But Amrita, what did you think? I mean, I think probably you were most looking forward to this, right? Yes. I mean, this has been on my list ever since it was announced. And I am really, really looking.

[00:07:33] I think you do for something like this, you know, like a huge multi-generational romantic melodrama that has like tones of magical realism. As you said, this is basically Bhanzali territory except I think this might actually have a script. So I am really looking forward to it.

[00:07:57] Yeah. And I think, I mean, I don't know what the plot is. I don't think we can figure that out yet. So I think it's just like visuals and a mood and like the kind of art that they're kind of going for. It looks pretty.

[00:08:09] It looks, I mean, I'm very, very excited for when this drops on the 19th and we're going to be reviewing this for sure. We're very, very excited. We, Sujai and me got a chance to go to a press screening and watch Kill already last week.

[00:08:27] Like I think it's been a week already that we saw the movie, right? Yeah. And usually when there's such an early screening, it means that the distributor or the producer are very, very confident of their movie. Also, this is a movie that has done the festival round.

[00:08:46] It was a Sundance at a few places. A lot of people, a lot of critics have seen this movie already. Sujai, what did you think? Are they justified in the confidence they have in the way they're screening this movie? Absolutely.

[00:09:01] I think I like, I really like enjoyed the heck out of this movie. Like you guys know I'm an action movie fan.

[00:09:10] I love this genre of movie, especially, you know, all happening within a couple of hours or one day in the life of an extraordinary assassin kind of a movie, you know, set in a close setting.

[00:09:22] So it really is a good addition to the action genre, not just coming out of India or whatever. They are trying to promote it as the most violent movie in Indian cinema.

[00:09:36] I think it stands up to that, you know, claim and, you know, destroys it, it tears it open and all of that. Is it the best action movie I've seen so far in my entire, you know, innings of watching action movies? I don't think so.

[00:09:54] There are bigger, badder, more bloodier movies than this. Especially like that what's coming out of Korea at the moment, like I recently watched Bloodhound, which is a Netflix series and it has way more innovative action sequences and choreographed sequences.

[00:10:16] But this is still like it's such a fun ride at the cinema, especially watching it with a very participative audience with all the ooze on the ass. It really has that, you know, choke hold on the audience. It commands their attention and like makes them gasp on demand.

[00:10:39] Like I heard a lot of screams, a lot of like surprised moments when people were like... Almost as many as when Dharmendra kissed Shabana Azmi. That's the level. Oh my God, is he gonna do it? Is he gonna do it?

[00:11:01] You don't know if that's Kill or Rocky Rani, you know. At one point I think like I don't want to spoil what happens in the movie but somebody gets killed and then one point of view rose down. There was this guy who just went, what the f***?

[00:11:23] It just started laughing. Yeah, but I think for people who are not sort of adjusted to this level of violence, it's going to be a rated 18 release, I think, or a release in India. It's definitely an 18 here in the UK.

[00:11:42] They will be very, very shocked at the level of brutality that is on display here. So just be prepared because it does get really bloody and really like in your face.

[00:11:57] But something's had, I think has to be spoken about, you know, there is a line by the villain in this movie when he says Asa kohan maarta hai be? And then the villain looks at the hero guy and he says that.

[00:12:13] And the guy is supposed to be a super commando.

[00:12:17] So it has to be said about the, I don't know what sort of a trauma or sort of completely ice cold existence that a soldier has to live after killing somebody because he's supposed to be used to this kind of a violence at the border.

[00:12:34] He makes that claim as well at one point saying you know border pay hotato cheet phad dita or something like that. So yeah, in the face of what's happening right now everywhere. I don't know like, yeah, my thoughts are all over the place.

[00:12:54] Yeah, I mean, what's interesting is it's a very kind of classic template Bollywood movie, right? It's like, you know, father doesn't want his daughter to get married to this guy. So he's forcing her to marry somewhere else.

[00:13:08] They have a train ride and they have to go save her, right? Basically, that's the premise of it. While there are Gundas that are, you know, trying to rob the train and then they figure out who this daughter is and how rich her dad is.

[00:13:20] And they want to kidnap her. And there's also like a bit of a rape thread going on there too. And then like mayhem kind of erupts on this train. Yeah. It has a bit of Gajini in it.

[00:13:35] It has a bit of the night comes for us in it, but it is still very desi. And it was just interesting to see that with because our audience was not desi. This was like a fully filmed nerd horror crowd that we went with.

[00:13:50] It's a Lionsgate who is distributing across in the UK and the US. And so the screenings were passed down by the Lionsgate PR rather than Dharma and what's the other company associated with it? The Monga's company, right? Sikia Entertainment.

[00:14:08] So it was kind of a mixed crowd like they were like 40% or less. Less. Yes, probably 15 or something. Yeah, very less. But it was hilarious because the crowd like they were like, oh, this Gore Fest violence movie and then the Dharma logo comes in.

[00:14:27] Gore didn't know I don't know what's going on. And then the romance is also very Bollywood like it's like really like, you know, like they're in a toilet together and becomes like all romantic and flashbacks and like hair blowing in the wind.

[00:14:42] And the guys are like, what's going on? I can't handle emotion right now. I don't know what's happening. So that was really, really cool. But there were two moments.

[00:14:52] So it is, there are moments in the movie that it struggles with the budget like there's moments in the sci-fi and the Gore where it's not great, especially with the blood splatters everywhere. It looks quite fake.

[00:15:06] But the other thing was also there's this element of Muslims in it too. Whereas like, oh, if we had only stood up before then we wouldn't be in this situation. I was like, what is this suddenly doing this line in there? It just stood out to me.

[00:15:23] Maybe it didn't stand out to everybody but on reflection, it was just oddly put in there, especially when you have soldiers and stuff like that. Yeah. Wait, who says that?

[00:15:33] So I think there's a family with two kids and it's a Muslim family because clearly the kids are named like Arif and Asif and something like that. Right?

[00:15:44] And because the Dacoos come in and then they, because the kids are young, they are very fascinated by the Indian Army. They look at the commandos and they were like, we aspire to become Indian Army someday.

[00:15:58] But my mom is like saying no, no, no, because all of that. And then eventually when the Dacoos happen, these two kids stand up and one of them, I don't want to spoil it but... Yeah, I don't want to spoil it either.

[00:16:14] But then there is a moment of, yeah, I don't want to spoil it. But yeah, there is a hockey stick moment which I really liked after that. Yeah, it kind of gets back. That was a bit weird for me. And then this is a larger point, right?

[00:16:32] I don't know how to kind of tackle this though but remember like after huge atrocities are happening in the world, there's always this cinematic catharsis that we look for, right? I'm thinking of something like the Serbian movie. I don't know if you guys have heard of that movie.

[00:16:56] A Serbian film? A film, yeah. It's like one of the most horrible movies ever made. Yeah, I watched it. And it is... A lot of people are saying it's an answer to what happened in Bosnia and Serbia and the kind of horror that people went through.

[00:17:13] And it kind of you make a horror movie and you kind of revel in that gore, you know?

[00:17:19] And this happens through a lot like if you go through like 70s exploitation, all of these things, even black exploitation, a lot of it is speaking to the horrors that people are living and then you kind of revel in that violence.

[00:17:32] And there were certain moments in Kill where I was like, this is weird. Like enjoying this much gore and violence and still being the good guys is weird, you know?

[00:17:47] And I don't know how that sits with me necessarily because I can't just detach myself and say, oh, just kill them all.

[00:17:54] But this idea of killing them all and it's only that one literal line where as a joke, the villain is saying, who is the one who kills? You know, you are the monster, right? Yeah.

[00:18:05] And that violence and monstrosity, it just kind of like after a while I was like, hmm, should I be enjoying this? You know what I mean? Yeah.

[00:18:15] But I don't think any regular viewer will be thinking about either of those three points that I've said because the movie is just so much fun. It's so propulsive and these three leads that they have are so good. This new guy, Laksh, is amazing.

[00:18:33] Like the fighting is so real, right? It puts Vidyut Jamwal and Tiger Shroff to shame. They've been doing this for five, ten years but this guy comes in and he makes it so real.

[00:18:48] You know, it's like thinking of what Tony Ja did after Jean-Claude Van Damme, you know that kind of thing. Tiger Shroff is very much flippy, flippy slow motion reverse kick and this guy just stabbing eyeballs. It's a completely different ball game. And the villain is great.

[00:19:08] He has that lecherous quality that you know, you see him and you hate him straight away. Yeah, he stopped that Shakti Kapoor energy to him. He has all of it. Like really like a despicable human being, you know.

[00:19:22] And I think that's just the quality an actor has that the moment you see him, you kind of hate him straight away. And then you have also the love angle is that. Anya Maning Palak. She's been on a few things. I think she's super cute.

[00:19:38] I think she's a very wonderful presence on screen. The few things I've seen her in. She was an insutable boy. I saw her to Paris and she was cute in that too. Here she's great too. The role isn't too big, but she's amazing in it.

[00:19:53] And I mean, honestly, we've tried to keep it spoiler free because the movie is only coming out on the fifth. And I really want Amrita to go in spoiler free. I think it will blow your mind. Blow your mind.

[00:20:09] I would say two more points for an action movie. This like really has some really inventive kills. Like you think like it proceeds from very fast cuts and I was already like thrown up.

[00:20:27] One thing about action movies that really bother me are fast cuts where you can't really see the action. It starts with that, but then progressively gets better and better.

[00:20:37] And there are more sets of like horrible, horrible visual visuals that will come your way and more inventive kills one after another. And it's like, you know, it's like it peaks towards the end.

[00:20:50] Secondly, because there is no extra actor's association or such in Bollywood, like nobody actually knows which actor played what from amongst the extras. Because there's a lot of this is a dacoo gang who is trying to loot this train, right?

[00:21:09] The extras who are acting in this movie are terrible. They have some drama scenes and they are supposed to act and it is hilarious to see that. But yeah, Amrita go book your tickets. Anybody listening go book your tickets.

[00:21:26] It is hard R like it's really, really violent, but it's like horror violent. You know you go with the crowd. I hope it's a packed theater and I think you're going to have a ton of fun with this one.

[00:21:38] So kill is coming out this week, 5th of July. So if you haven't seen it or if you do see it, let us know.

[00:21:48] Let's go back to the main review of our after I'm trying to stretch out the kill conversation as much as I can but I'm done. I can't like painted myself in a corner because I can't spoil anything. Yeah, we're talking about Calchi 289880.

[00:22:06] I have the IMDB so you are correct. I did see that nine to the eight.

[00:22:11] IMDB says I'm going to read it because I don't fucking know what this movie was about a modern day avatar of Vishnu a Hindu God who is believed to have descended to earth to protect the world from evil forces. That's what IMDB is saying. I'll take it. Sujoy.

[00:22:29] You know, I'm gonna hear from you. I know kind of. What do you think of Calchi? I think out of the three of us, I think I probably had the easiest time watching it. I think you guys really hated it for us.

[00:22:47] And I think the issue is also that I don't think you're. I don't understand shit. I don't get it and they don't explain it. Yeah, I don't know how a buggy gets pushed two feet and 10 feet. I don't know what that references to. Yeah, I was very happy.

[00:23:06] So this is this like this movie really is for an Indian audience who has grown up with the Mahabharata and is therefore familiar with the characters and also like even you know like it doesn't require you to have like in depth knowledge of the Mahabharata.

[00:23:25] I don't think but it does require you to know at least a little bit about it.

[00:23:30] And if you go into the movie without knowing who these characters are because it literally begins with a scene from the Mahabharata where the war has ended and then there's this guy and if you don't know who that guy is or like why he's doing the things that he does to start off that film.

[00:23:48] Then you don't understand why he's being offered a redemption arc. You don't understand who is like giving him this chance. And then you don't like they do like a couple of stylistic choices in this movie. And there were choices. There were choices.

[00:24:07] Everything in the movie is a choice, including the casting of younger Bachchan but like that is a whole other thing.

[00:24:15] But they do a couple of choices in this film that don't make any sense unless you actually know the story of the Mahabharata and also you have an understanding of where we are culturally and politically in India. So we never see Krishna's face.

[00:24:36] So you don't see Krishna's face but then you see Arjun's face and then you see Ashwathama's face. You see like Karna's face and you are just like why am I seeing all of their faces but not Krishna's.

[00:24:49] And there's like, you know it's because whoever it is that you got to play Krishna like you know it would have been a whole bunch of scrutiny that this movie didn't want. And you can see that being done.

[00:25:01] It's funny though that Arjun is played by the actor who plays Arjun Reddy. Right? But I literally watched, so it's played by Vijay Devarakonda. He plays Arjun and literally like I saw him and I thought, oh finally he's in a hit movie.

[00:25:22] I saw him and I thought someone is here. But also it's like so funny because his vibe in Telugu is so different from his vibe in Hindi. But also like Liger, it wasn't like he was doing with the best material possible.

[00:25:44] But anyway, I think this movie had like a good concept. Like that concept of like a man in search of his redemption who is forced to sit through countless horrors waiting for that perfect moment.

[00:26:05] Like when the credits were rolling and they were showing like all those animated like you know wars and the Holocaust and all of that. I was like, oh like maybe they will pull this off and then they immediately did not.

[00:26:19] But I thought the concept was good but the execution was kind of shit. Can I ask a question? Because I'll be asking a few questions because honestly I didn't understand a lot of this movie to be honest. Who is Kalki?

[00:26:33] So that's like in you know the avatars of Vishnu God. There are 10 avatars and at the end of the Kalyug which we are living right now in the 21st century,

[00:26:45] it's supposed to be the birth of the 10th avatar of Vishnu who will save us from all the evils and that avatar is called Kalki. So that's Prabhas? No. That's the baby. The baby that's about to be born from Deepika. Oh right, okay.

[00:27:02] Because I came back my daughter and my wife were asking me and I didn't know. I was like who is Kalki? I don't know. The whole story has a lot more going for it but...

[00:27:16] Sorry before I go I wanted to say when they asked me who is Kalki, I said I don't know. I was like I need to ask Sujoy a question because he knows the most about this stuff. So Sujoy, what were you saying? You're the specialist here.

[00:27:30] I'm not the specialist, I just grew up watching Mahabharata and reading Amar Chitra Katha so that's where I get my knowledge and my dad used to tell me all the stories as well because he used to read the Mahabharata every day.

[00:27:41] But what Amrita said just branching out that this movie relies that the audience has some knowledge of the Mahabharata but also this movie relies a lot that you grew up watching Prabhas movies because he is not giving you anything.

[00:27:58] If you do not subscribe to that fandom, I think this movie is already half lost. I am not part of that fandom, that's why this movie gives me nothing. Going back to the story, what happens is at the end of the Mahabharata

[00:28:18] there is the Kurukshetra war where we start this movie in that animation form where Lord Krishna and Ashwathama played by young Amitabh Bachchan. They meet and a lot of deception happens between the two warring families the Kauravas and the Pandavas. What happens is the Kauravas lose.

[00:28:41] Lord Krishna after planning a very cunning plan manages to kill Ashwathama's father, Dronacharya and Ashwathama is grieving that he tries to kill the end of the Pandavas family. He wants to kill the son of Abhimanyu, who is the son of Arjun

[00:29:02] who is in Uttara, Abhimanyu's wife is pregnant then but he tries to kill Uttara as she is pregnant with Abhimanyu's son he does not manage to kill the son so Krishna saves it and then curses him that because you did such an evil task

[00:29:24] you will live to see the ruins of humankind what happens over the next 2000, 3000 years or whatever so he takes his power which is his money on his forehead and then he's powerless but he's still immortal but he's withering all his strength has gone

[00:29:46] and he is given the responsibility to save his next incarnation which will be Kalki so that's why Amitabhachan is in hibernation and waiting for the days when his duty begins again so that's where the movie starts because I didn't know who the good guys were

[00:30:05] like at the start, right? maybe there are no good guys, I don't know the complexity of the story I guess, right? well yeah Prabhas is supposed to be the good guy but honestly he's so unlikeable in this film like his character that it's really tough

[00:30:21] like this is my... the movie itself is making fun of Prabhas in a way as an audience it is what I am getting how the script is written he's this lazy guy who does not give a shit

[00:30:35] and that is Prabhas in real life with his art film career he's working really hard in front of a blue screen for like 10 years now and there is a SS Rajamoli cameo as well here I thought that was funny, I was like I get that reference

[00:30:56] they made fun like if Rajamoli catches him then he will be gone for the next 5 years at the end of that scene Rajamoli says oh next time I will catch you for 10 years I am like please do make this man work why was RGV in there?

[00:31:14] like I don't get it everybody went nuts when RGV popped up yeah but like why was he there? but anyway I think what helped me is one the fact that I haven't watched any of the last few Prabhas movies so I you know like unlike Asim

[00:31:33] I have no resentment that Prabhas got me again the one through Prabhas fan it's not a resent when it's seething anger it's not even resentment but I think like this is my problem with a lot of these universe cinematic universes that people are coming up with

[00:31:53] especially in India which is that people forget that every movie needs to tell a story by like complete to itself every installment needs to be like a full movie in itself before you go on and make like a cinematic universe or like you make like other installments

[00:32:12] like this movie is complete setup like that's all that happens in this movie it's set up set up set up it doesn't even have like a good resolution at the end you know the movie is titled Kalki and Kalki is not even born

[00:32:29] yeah you know what I mean and the mother of Kalki is supposed to be the MacGuffin of this movie and she gets nothing to do here in this movie like Deepika literally has like 15 minutes of footage in this 3 hour long movie I'm really pissed off

[00:32:46] and she says like the same dialogues as she said in like what seems like every movie right like the you know she's the sainted mother and it like I could predict what she was gonna say in like some scenes like the scene where she gets angry

[00:33:04] at Amitabh's character for following her around and she says you know like why everyone keeps calling me mother but all I do is like bring destruction to the people around me like I knew that line even before she said it

[00:33:17] and I could have just like said it in concert it's very predictable in a way that see the thing with predictability is that it's not always bad like sometimes it's really good like especially with genre filmmaking and science fiction is a genre

[00:33:34] it can be very pleasurable to the people who like that kind of genre and here the predictability was not pleasurable in my opinion it was just yeah it was just very half conceived I would say hmm okay so I don't wanna make fun or you know denigrate

[00:34:01] mythology, religion anything like that I'll try to talk about the movie because I don't understand I don't know the stories I don't know the meaning of it and I don't think the movie does anything to explain it to somebody like me who I mean I've seen like

[00:34:14] I've seen how I'm up to you and I know a bit of these stories right like this this part that I understand yeah also yeah I this part I don't understand like so I like and the movie doesn't know not a good job in explaining it

[00:34:27] but I it made me wonder because we've been hearing this idea about we need to mix mythology with sci-fi and we can tell these stories and it really made me wonder when has a mix of sci-fi like sci-fi and mythology ever really worked

[00:34:44] and I couldn't figure any out like it's never really worked for me like the only maybe I mean we've seen it like in gods of Egypt we've seen it in Jupiter ascending we've seen it maybe in Thor I think Thor is the most successful one

[00:34:58] but I would say Thor became became successful when they stepped away from the mythology and just made it like a crazy ass adventure so this whole idea of mixing mythology with sci-fi I don't think it's really that successful as a mix necessarily it's coming out of the whole

[00:35:16] right wing I think so and I mean like what's in your story I get it you know Pakistan also had a movie come out like last week called Umro Ayar also based on like religious things like that I saw the trailer my sister sent it to me

[00:35:33] I was like this looks dumb this looks so dumb you know so I'm not even like I'm not saying like because this is not my religion that I find this dumb maybe it's a genre that appeals to me I fell asleep in this movie to be honest

[00:35:45] I fell asleep at the first fight and I woke up when Kamal Hasan was floating and I was like I don't know what happened so I was that bored I had to go and get snacks and eat myself and mess up my diet to keep awake

[00:35:59] I just found this movie very very dumb like I don't like and cheap I hated the guns they were holding I hated the weapons they were holding I hated the de-aging I felt the de-aging was terrible I thought in Shambhala they have these AI

[00:36:18] people in the background that look like AI generated people their plans were dumb Prabhas's hair was dumb the mechanics of Bhujiya was dumb I don't understand how she turns how she turns into a gorilla I don't understand how that works I thought Kaira was going to die

[00:36:37] the moment she started talking I was like she's going to die in 5 minutes and yeah I don't like Deepika in a damsel in distress role I don't like it I don't feel it justifies the star she is I don't understand why they needed to

[00:36:55] put her boobies into flames I don't understand why that was happening maybe that's part of the story the movie didn't explain enough to me I didn't get enough out of it I thought it was quite cheaply made I don't think the action set pieces were great

[00:37:11] like if you look at Kill we saw it the action was so amazing with much smaller budget I didn't feel anything I didn't want Prabhas to win the only thing I liked about this movie is Amitabh Bachchan it's awesome that he is 10 feet tall

[00:37:28] this is awesome like a giant Amitabh and then you give me two Amitabs this is what I want but all the rest also when he took off the mask he was all rotten he put the thing in his forehead and then he became all back healthy again

[00:37:46] he was just busting left and right and Prabhas couldn't do shit awesome 10 out of 10 but that was it that was literally like 5% of the movie I'm guessing this is what Prabhas fans feel right? what I feel about Amitabh is maybe what Prabhas fans are feeling about tomorrow

[00:38:08] somebody who follows the show so you were tweet asking before you had watched it where you were just like I don't remember what you said but you were just like you're not looking forward to it or something or that it looks dumb and she was like

[00:38:25] she texted me and she was just like I'm not taking the opinions of Rajmas I don't want this and I was like why is Asim a Rajma? He's not even Punjabi what's a Rajma? I don't get it like what? Oh Rajma Chawal yeah I don't eat Rajma Chawal

[00:38:44] that's what I was telling I was like I don't think he's ever eaten a Rajma in his life no I haven't I'm not a Rajma no and I was like but that's basically how I think a lot of people who like for me

[00:39:02] I've made peace with the fact that I'll never find Prabhas attractive again right? Like I've made peace with that fact because he used to be a very attractive man before Bahubali did a complete number on him and on Rana Dagubatti but

[00:39:18] now that I've made peace with the idea that like leading man Prabhas is not somebody that I find attractive anymore I feel much better about watching his movies and sort of appreciating them for what they are rather than what they aren't

[00:39:34] why would they know good songs in this? Why would they know any songs in this? Like why did Disha Patni not get a song when they're in that sky garden? She did. You fell asleep No, was that a song? Ground score No, they had a dance and everything

[00:39:52] Like that dance that was a dance Go dance Isn't Prabhas a good dancer? Isn't Disha Patni a good dancer? Like I don't know No, I wasn't sleeping at that time They wake up Did we all watch it in Telugu? Yeah, I watched it Me too

[00:40:14] Amitabh dubbed for the Telugu version or not? Because whoever if he didn't then amazing job because he sounded like Amitabh So I have a few points here Amitabh's last like once in Shambhala the whole climate sequence there is like 10 minutes in that after Amitabh is fighting

[00:40:34] and he's like in all those shackles and he's trying to rescue himself but he has no dialogue he's just grunting like 10 minutes and I was so transphased by that there is literally none of Amitabh talking and all grunting great dubbing job by the way

[00:40:56] See, that's another thing that annoyed me about this movie I didn't understand the power dynamics I didn't understand how Amitabh can punch out a whole statue but he couldn't lift up Deepika with one hand and then he couldn't unchain him I didn't understand what was going on

[00:41:14] when she's falling and he's holding her he's like 8 feet 10 feet wide why didn't he just pull her up? there was this whole struggle and then Prabhas has to jump in and is like why is Prabhas so strong before he got the stick and then he's spinning the stick

[00:41:32] and he's super powered I like the little petal falling on the staff and that being the weight it's really cool but I'm guessing that's Chekhov's danda right? like you saw it happening so apparently Amitabh did dub for the movie himself oh nice, that's why I liked it

[00:41:56] and Shobhita Dhuli Paliya did for Deepika so like coming back to this Rajamauly presence in this movie that sort of highlights how Rajamauly can handle giant scale but with great emotions right? you are invested in what these characters are doing and you root for them, you hate them

[00:42:20] you want to make them win but nothing is giving here right? that particular Kaira character she appeared out of nowhere and then disappeared within 10 minutes like her death is of no consequence in this movie Rajamauly is such a high bar this movie doesn't give me

[00:42:38] what Ayan Mukherjee gives me in Brahmastra forget Rajamauly I had feelings at least in Brahmastra like I got it Shahrukh was there all of these cool things were happening that chase sequence in the interval where they end up at the gate and the fire that was really cool

[00:43:00] and Amitabh had stupid hair in that one you know so everything was great in Brahmastra but Rajamauly is such a high bar I saw this thought go on twitter a few times and I was like what have we been talking about this movie has nowhere near that level

[00:43:18] for me at least all these characters the young little kid who is mistaken for a boy but is not a boy there is some sort of inner story in that they don't even care to explain why is that character so important to the story

[00:43:34] they don't care to explain the villain senator or whatever sorcerer Snoke played by Supri Yaskin Yaskin like why is he evil what is the consequence of that they don't care to explain that there is the other guy who is with the Gandiva they don't care to explain that

[00:44:02] Sasha Tamukharshi who is having the best time of his life playing Darth Vader Kylo Ren whatever you know Tarkin or something he is giving his most and enjoying every emotion in Telugu that he probably does not understand what he is saying

[00:44:20] but he is giving it in the best Bengali accent that he can I love it for him yeah and like none of them makes me want to root for any one of them I saw a meme that why is Deepika holding a temperature checking gun

[00:44:40] it looks so bad in cheap no it's terrible and of course at the end of everything people think like Disha Padme is like the reason why this movie is being dragged down actually it is not like that entire first half

[00:44:58] that went on for two hours by the way it's like a 3 hour movie and the first half was like two hours and those two hours were just like dragging yeah it was an even good setup a few times it was like piquing my interest I was like oh

[00:45:16] Runaal Thakur in this oh yes this is gonna be cool and then it's like oh Dil Krish Salman is in this this is gonna be cool no it's not even when that the whole half an hour spent on Brahmi just making middle class uncle jokes like why

[00:45:34] why does Brahmi need to be in this movie and then the lady with the whips like she jumps out with whips and stuff like that and she's gonna be whipping left and right she whips bob biswas through the face and then

[00:45:46] she just dies I was like I thought she was gonna be a badass but no yeah yeah I don't I don't know but it's a massive hit this movie right and people are really like cheering this on and I feel

[00:46:02] I don't want to be a hater you know like I think if people are enjoying this and this was exactly hitting the audience that they want to hit good you know I think the audience is like a bunch of people who have never watched

[00:46:16] any science fiction movie in their life and are definitely not familiar with any of the you know the inspirations or the the sources for a lot of this material I don't think they've watched Dune I don't think they've watched Star Wars I don't think they've watched like

[00:46:34] any of the things that you know or like you know Mad Max or any of those things you know that are like immediately visible like the inspirations so to speak are not even subtle like it's not even just like oh like it kind of look no it's like

[00:46:52] literally almost exactly the same camera angles and stuff right yeah when Shambhala and the other guys are fighting together like the way they run up that was like completely Dune you know but not as good and also what's his face Supreme Yaskin floating out of the water

[00:47:12] that's very much Harkinen rate yeah just saw that you know and also like you know that was the war rig like when they're being chased by the bounty hunters that was the war rig being chased by Immortan Joe's you know like people so it's all very like

[00:47:32] right there the references are like right there in your face like there's no there's no subtlety to the derivations and like I said I'm not against something that's derivative I just wanted to be interesting when you do the right things

[00:47:50] like I don't want to have the cult of originality I just needed to be interesting I mean they could have done so much with the world building at least you know what I like it's supposed to be the the last remaining city there is you know

[00:48:04] 3000 years from now Kashi and then they just abandon it like what is Shambhala supposed to be they abandon it like there's literally like 80 people there in the final fight like what the hell is happening where is it though it this movie supposed to be the most

[00:48:22] expensive movie of India 600 crores or something in the production budget and this is what we get and like the quality of these movies inconsistent the action sequences are cheap and like lazy apart from like the one with Ashwathama Amitabh Bachchan fighting against Prabhas that was pretty cool

[00:48:44] but even then sometimes the stone statue looks like it's made out of styrofoam or something you know it's the physics of this movie is all over the place yeah nothing memorable and like the whole goal that Prabhas has is he wants to go to the

[00:49:04] complex right which is kind of like Matt Damon's Elysium you know that's what it made me think of at least yeah or Alita, Battle Angel whatever yeah I mean so many options like even fifth element all of these but I don't know what

[00:49:18] complex was like how do you get there like okay it's like a garden and rich people it's like the Titanic or something like that but like how do you get there like what is happening in Kashi like why as supreme Yaskin like a bad guy

[00:49:32] you know all of these things are never like that but also like if you say that it's the last remaining city what does that mean you know is this all of the people in the world that are living there like it doesn't even

[00:49:44] feel crowded you know and then there's Shambhala who's another place and then there's a tree from Avatar in there but it's dying but it's not dying again like so many questions that this movie left me with that I didn't understand and on top

[00:49:58] of that I didn't understand the mythology at all yeah so I was just like trying to like catch something that would like work for me and that was really just amita basically you know but amita works any time for me you know that's

[00:50:12] not a that's not a difficult thing you know um I have some theories for the sequel which I is this this is like a universe where it's going to be like seven movies or is this like just two movies what do you know no idea no idea

[00:50:28] okay so yeah the theories they don't even know right it all depends on how big this movie is at the box office and how much money they can make it's making a lot of money it's making a lot of money I think it already

[00:50:40] 400 500 crores something like that but again who knows but so yeah your theories what are you thinking? so the theory is like there's show many sequences in this movie where the councilman is trying to put his hand on the Gandiva and he can't right it's because the Gandiva is

[00:50:58] like the weapon of the gods who's been given was gifted to Arjun and it the theory is that it requires the blood of the Pandavas to be able to get that weapon and Yaskin wants to use that to rule the world or whatever and that's why he's been

[00:51:18] searching the blood of the Pandavas and that's why he's been trying to create all these children or in somehow and so the blood of Kalki would be the one who which will be able to empower him to lay his hand over the Gandiva but there's also another descendant

[00:51:42] in a way that is existing and that is Bhairava played by Prabhas because he's Karnah and he has Kunti's blood in a way and so he is also half successor in a way whose Kunti? Kunti is the Pandava Arjun so the Pandavas had a mother

[00:52:02] the mother was Kunti and Kunti so Kunti basically birthed six sons the first one was an accident and she basically did a Moses on him, she just put him in a reed basket and like put him into the river and then because she was a virgin

[00:52:22] married and blah blah blah and then afterwards she got married to Pandu who was like the king of Hastinapur and then she had five sons that were that belong to Pandu and those were the Pandavas so the first baby that she sent down the river

[00:52:40] was rescued by these this Charityer and his wife who are like this low cost family and they raised that kid up and that kid is Karna and that's Pratapas in the olden times in the Mahabharat side so Karna and the Pandavas are brothers

[00:53:06] so they have the same blood yeah they are the same blood by birth even though they were fighting on opposite sides of the war and Karna and Arjuna were famous rivals so but she wasn't in the movie right? No, Kunti was not Okay that's the, I'm gonna say

[00:53:22] wait did I miss a character that was very important or something like that? Yeah I mean I'm pretty sure this will probably get a second part because it is very very successful I think people are hyped in it I think it also like I mean it also like

[00:53:40] enforces this idea of you know Indian history and doing it successfully compared to Brahmastra which I don't think there's gonna be a second part of that ever right? This doesn't seem to be where I think they were probably hedging their bets

[00:53:56] and Kalki is the one that's working for them so they probably you know want to do a second or a third part or whatever they do I don't think I'll be watching the second part and actually I'll take it even further

[00:54:08] I don't think I'll be watching any Prabhaas movies anymore unless you guys tell me that it's worthwhile and watching I think I'm done like you know like I have like I gave it enough shots I mean I didn't go back before Bahubali

[00:54:24] because I couldn't find those movies and things like that and probably maybe I've seen them remade or something like that but also I saw Adipush too right? We also went through Adipush I've tried guys I've tried I think I'm done I just don't think this chill out guy

[00:54:44] with you know just lying and then being a badass kind of guy works for me I don't think it's not for me Speaking of Adipush we haven't talked about the de-aged animated version of Amitabh Bachchan in the Mahabharata and why that was a choice

[00:55:00] like it brought me memories of Kochadeya I mean the bug eyes the weird forehead like why did he look like that even if they tried to de-age and he's fighting a real life Vijay Devarkonda and Vijay Devarkonda actually looks good in this movie I think

[00:55:24] so it's just like even more star where you're just like why does Ashutama look like a thing rather than a person yeah I was like thinking Abhishek Bachchan is sitting at home without any work might as well have just gotten him or like Sonu Sood

[00:55:42] like a lot of people on twitter were saying he's done a whole bunch of Telugu movies they know who he is why didn't they just call him I was thinking about that but I was wondering how old is he supposed to be when he's younger

[00:55:56] like around the same age as Vijay Devarkonda that's the same maybe Abhishek is even too old for this maybe they should have gotten Agastya instead like I don't know how he looks like him but I don't know if that would have played if they're aged

[00:56:14] the same age or not I don't know he's supposed to be a father but it's Mahabharata time so Abhimanyu was a father and he was like what 14, 15, something like that yeah yeah but yeah I mean are you guys excited for the second part when Kamalasan got injected

[00:56:36] and he showed his abs the entire crowd lost their minds lost their marbles they are really excited for Yasqueen to become the big villain from the I would see Amitabh Bachchan and Kamalasan face off so I will watch the second part I think even my theatre

[00:56:58] was dead like it was like quite packed I was just like walking out in the days or something like that I don't know I couldn't feel excitement normally a Telugu crowd is quite rowdy even when Prabhas came in there were people cheering whistling and stuff like that

[00:57:18] and no more whistles after that so yeah yeah maybe I just brought the energy down but it slowed me really loudly I'm sorry guys but then I knew this was not going to be my thing I didn't like the trailers I didn't like the posters

[00:57:40] I didn't like the marketing campaign but then like Friday I think Wednesday was when it released and Asim was the first to text in our group chat like oh surprisingly good reviews yeah are you sure I genuinely want to have a good time

[00:57:58] when I watch a movie like there's never hate watch a movie any movie yeah we are spending 3 hours of our life to watch this there's no point hate watching something I really hoped it would like my thing was like when the trailers came out

[00:58:14] reviews came out and I sent that text to you I was like wouldn't it be cool that I've been shitting on this movie for 6 months and it's awesome that would be the best thing that's really legit how I think about these things nothing I like more is proven

[00:58:28] to be wrong like I love it but yeah this was no it's exactly what I thought it was going to be it's actually worse like yeah this made me really really mad I'm glad we recorded not the day itself because I would have just unleashed fury on it

[00:58:44] and I don't think it's fair because I think a lot of people are liking it and enjoying it and working for the audience I think also for Brava's fans probably like he's tried this kind of movie 4-5 times and this one is like hitting

[00:58:56] I'm happy for them you know I wish as a Salman Khan I would have that feeling again it's been a while I had it at Amitabh fan it was hitting so but yeah this didn't work for me in any way and blame the rajma I don't know

[00:59:12] it's fine yeah Amit, any final thoughts on Kalki? yes I'm just really sick and tired of science fiction being unable to imagine any role for women other than breathing like I'm so sick and tired and this is not a Kalki specific critique it is science fiction in like

[00:59:38] pretty much all over Hollywood as well you know like the moment they imagine a future it is somehow entirely full of rape post-breeding and that's the only future they can see for women and when this movie decided to be derivative it apparently decided that it wanted to also

[01:00:00] adopt that and I'm sick and tired of that shit like do better like you know like at least imagine a world in which women are treated like shit we live in a world where women are treated like shit so maybe like we can imagine a future that's better

[01:00:16] so do you have final thoughts on Kalki? I'm blank I'm blank on this I did not have a good time watching Kalki this movie is frustrating like it's so inconsistent and I want to root for this movie because it comes from

[01:00:32] like you know the mythology that I've grown up watching and reading and it's doing a big disservice because if a whole generation is going to be brought up on watching this and going to look at this and say this is my culture this is my mythology

[01:00:54] these are the stories yeah it's not doing service to that like I know the BR Chopra Mahabharata is not a cinematic spectacle by any stretch of imagination but obviously it has the the laser of many many episodes to tell that story but

[01:01:14] there are many many adaptations of the Mahabharata or that do so much more in a very concise way and this is even though this is like a spin-off in a way of the Mahabharata it's doing very much disservice to the source material

[01:01:30] it does not care for its audience at all it does not want me to be invested in any way in any of the heroes, the villains nothing the storytelling perspective it fails on a cinematic you know sort of benchmark as well and what is its success succeeding then

[01:01:54] like sure it's making money that's probably the only thing and that should be a shameful thing yeah I think that's actually really true our entire thing has devolved into how much money does a movie make rather than what creative legs does it have like how is it

[01:02:16] appealing to your emotions what is it shaping the world into like that is completely gone and this talking about successful adaptations of the Mahabharata like the two that I can think of right off my bat one is Kalyug which is the Shashikapur movie from

[01:02:34] the 1980s I want to say with like Rekha and Anant Nag and like a whole bunch of like really good actors and that's such a good like storytelling and it talks about the complexities of like what it's like to be in a family that is like

[01:02:52] torn apart by betrayal and it's it's a really great movie if you haven't watched it you should watch it and then of course there's Raj Meepi which you know came out with Rinbeet Kapoor that came out a few years ago and I thought like

[01:03:08] that was a very successful adaptation as well and also if anybody wants to watch the Mahabharata then I know Ekta Kapoor made a version and I know like everyone's like oh my god Ekta Kapoor but it's actually like a very well reviewed and well acted series

[01:03:30] that tells the story of the Mahabharata and I don't know where you can find it like I don't know where it's maybe old Balaji probably but it's a really good retelling and it's much better in my opinion than the B.R. Chopra one and it's not

[01:03:50] afraid to talk about the complexities of the Mahabharata and like some very like you know complicated nuances so yeah well yeah I mean those were our thoughts I'd love to hear from people that really like this movie or you know just disagree with us I'd happily read

[01:04:10] out those messages on the next episode because I'm keen to hear you know it's a big success people like it what do you like about it you know it didn't work for me at all one thing I did like is like the production design aspect of it

[01:04:26] but in stills whenever movement starts happening like the still of the complex and like the still of the like all of those moments look really cool those are all matte painting yeah yeah like even the suit Prabhas was wearing if he stands still and doesn't move it looks

[01:04:46] okay the moment he starts moving it looks like a cheap wet suit you know and I think that's kind of just the problem with the movie as soon as it starts moving it doesn't make any sense but yeah drop us an email at gmail.com

[01:05:00] I would really love to hear from everybody that like this movie where can people find you online you can find me on twitter at amrita.com I'm at Asim bernie follow us on tiktok join us on patreon we dropped another episode there and we're answering

[01:05:16] about question and we might release that on the main feed too actually but it's going to be later but yeah patreon gets it first from one dollar thank you for joining us we'll be back with a new episode very soon