Ep 260 - Kaalia - 80s Dhamaka Series

[00:00:00] Dhamaka Dhamaka Dhamaka Dhamaka Dhamaka My name is Blackhandan Where we are standing, we start from the line of line You've never been here Hi and welcome to a new episode of Khandaan Podcast

[00:00:28] where we are continuing our Dhamaka series with Kaalia I am joined with my lovely co-host Amrita and Sujoy Hey Amrita, hey Sujoy Hey everybody Hello By the way, have you noticed my arrogance where I don't introduce myself anymore? I'm just like, everybody knows who I am I'm the granddaddy of podcasting Yeah, I'm Asim Barney, just so the needlessness Yes, so second movie is Kaalia

[00:00:58] Maybe we should discuss why we picked Kaalia Because I think when I was watching the movie Before I was watching the movie It made complete sense to discuss Kaalia When I started watching the movie I was like, why did we make this decision? I think we all had the same, you know, like journey Because when we first started talking about Kaalia We were just like, oh my god This like neglected classic Why don't people talk about it? You and me Amrita were hyped We were like, yes, Kaalia

[00:01:29] We were like, this is one of our favorite movies We love it Why don't people love it? I think we went to Manish's Bollywood drafts of the Amitabh Bachchan movies Yeah And we were really hyping Amitabh Bachchan's Kaalia in that sort of top 10 list And yeah, revisiting it was rough Like I think we also, Asim, you sort of brought it up But I'm not sure if it was for Kaalia or some other movie

[00:01:57] But the 1980s Amitabh Bachchan movie It sort of overlaps across different movies So when you go back and re-watch it You're like, is this from this movie or that movie? And this felt like, re-watching Kaalia was pretty much that Like, oh my god, yeah, total disbelief Yeah, 100% You have that like, it's all amalgated in one movie And you don't know which it is from And I think

[00:02:25] It's like, my head is an unreliable narrator Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah I mean, we had brains of, you know, six years old Or 12 years old, whatever, when you watched it So, obviously But I think it's also interesting Because we are going to be revisiting movies That were, you know, they However you see it cut and dry Like, this was a massive hit It was a massive movie that people talked about And I think revisiting it is interesting even for us Like, do they even, you know, stand the test of time? Or do they not?

[00:02:55] So, I thought it was kind of an interesting And it also just shows what the 80s were, you know So, yeah It's interesting though, because from all the lot of Amitabh Bachchan 80s movies We got to pick Kalia Because in the same year He had Yaraana, Barsati Ekrat, Naseeb, Lawaris, Sil Sil Sila Yeah From 1981 And if we go back 1980 Then we have Dor, Dho Paz, Dostana, Rambal Ramshan

[00:03:25] But I think the reason why we picked Kalia Was mainly because it was such a massive hit And I do feel it's an under-discussed movie A lot of the ones that you've mentioned For sure There's like books written about those movies, you know But Kalia, it's kind of just fell between the cracks But it has, it was like big And also the name has a ring to it still, right? Like Kalia, oh yeah, I remember that And this and that Although I don't think people actually remember

[00:03:54] What the movie exactly was But the name still kind of has, you know Brand recognition Also that, the brand recognition also comes from The iconic poster of him with the Hatkari You know, it's like, and like he's really angry I think this is one of those really iconic Angry young man posters of Amitabh Bachchan for sure Iconic visuals, iconic dialogues, iconic songs Yeah So there's elements why, right? Yeah But

[00:04:23] It comes with a lot of terms and conditions may apply Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Amrita, what was your experience re-watching Kalia? After, I guess, years, right? Yeah, I, you know, like Much as you and I have been sitting around saying Oh my god, this is like the best movie ever I have not re-watched this movie Since I was like 10 or something Yeah Which became immediately clear to me About like 30 minutes into the film

[00:04:52] Because This is not a very tightly plotted film, is it? Amrita, it also just shows How big of a hypocrite you and me are Where we can just like completely convincingly sell an idea And not have any basis for it whatsoever Yeah Yeah Sitting here convincing the entirety of Manish's audience That Kalia is a great, unforgotten classic And meanwhile, it's like, you know

[00:05:21] Like 40 minutes of like some guy losing his arm And the world's just like, why? Why are we spending this much time following this story? Okay, do you want me to just tell people Yes, let's do the plot summary for Kalia So how I remembered it Expectations versus reality Exactly It's literally like from like the half of the movie Is what I remembered Which half?

[00:05:51] The first half The half after like he comes back from prison Right, right, right The post-Kadir Khan era Yes That is what I remember But there is an entire other half to this movie Which is the beginning half Where you see that, you know Amitabh Bachchan is basically And also he looks really weird in the first half, right? Yeah, when he's playing Kallu Yeah With that wig So, yeah It's just a

[00:06:20] It's a choice But young Kallu lives with his brother And his bhabhi And his niece And one day his brother gets into some sort of industrial accident And loses both his arms And his boss refuses to help the family out So Kallu decides to take, you know Matters into his own hands

[00:06:48] And rob the sate So that he has enough money to like, you know Take care of his brother But not only does he fail He gets basically caught by the sate And sent to prison But also his brother dies So it's just like failure on all terms A badly executed plan from Kallu basically Yes But now that Kallu's in prison

[00:07:16] He basically ends up Getting a PhD in crime From the people that are in the prison And he realizes that he has now found his tribe And he becomes a full-time criminal And he convinces his bhabhi That he's actually Gone to America Every time he goes to prison Don't you love You know, the olden days When you are just like

[00:07:45] Oh yeah, I couldn't call you I was in America That's how it is Anyway, so on One of his many visits to the jail He comes across an upstanding Jailer Played by Pran Who is dealing with his own Tragedy Because he had a little girl Who was stolen From him By one of the criminals That he crossed

[00:08:14] And meantime Amitabh Bachchan also meets This girl called Shalini Who is between Barbie And absolutely gorgeous And they become an item And then, of course They basically go up against You know Sorry, I'm blanking on his name I can't believe it Shani Seid Yeah Played by Who? Like that's Amjit Khan Amjit Khan That's it

[00:08:45] I thought you were blanking on Shani Seid But you were actually Blanking on Gabbar Singh Exactly I was like I remember Shani Seid I can't remember Amjit Khan Anyway So Amjit Khan Is the big bad And he's the guy That like stole Parveen Babi away From Kwan But is also The one that like You know Allowed Kallu's brother to die So he's just like An all around bad guy And so Now They must all

[00:09:15] Band together To bring him down Yes And it all happens In a villain's lair Yes Yeah We need to Like we need to Break this movie Piece by piece Because there is A lot going on here First of all I want to get into The The Bahiya Bhabi Dynamic of this all Yeah Oh We spoke In the previous In Kars We talked about The age difference

[00:09:45] Between Tina Munim Simi Aragarewal And Rishi Kapoor Being Five years Right And Tina Munim Being very How much Is the age difference Between Asha Parekh And Amitab Do you guys think I'm sure you haven't Looked it up I have looked it up I thought I'd Ask you Oh my god Is she younger than him She's not younger than him Two years Yeah It's nine days

[00:10:14] She's nine days Older than him Oh My god So the moment I figured that out This relationship Becomes very creepy Like there is this Obsession Like A There's the idea Of You know Basically what they're doing Is they're interchanging The Bhabi As a mother character Right Like Completely plain Completely devoid Of any You know Femininity She is now Just like a goddess That you have to be

[00:10:44] At the feet To do everything for And she is like Completely You know Allamya ki gai Completely bholi She doesn't know anything She doesn't Figure anything out The only thing That she gets Really used to Is getting rich The moment she gets rich She is like Thak rain She's just like Ordering You know Tu ye kar Tu ne boh ni kia You didn't do this Like Where is the tea The food is not ready And she's really good At bossing Parveen bhabi

[00:11:13] The moment she steps Into the house So it's An amalgam Of these things And also I just Watching it now I just thought It was very Very creepy The relationship That Amitabh And Asha Parekh Happens Because they're Very very close To the point Sometimes he's just Like stepping out Of a shower And he's like Torso naked You know And I was like What relationship Is this Like this seems To be a very Obsessive baby Bhabi

[00:11:43] Deva relationship Going on Which I had I was getting A bit uncomfortable Watching it I don't know If you guys Had the same thing Or not Well at the same time I think Kallu For the beginning Part of it Where they Established that Relationship Kallu is Well yes Asha Parekh's Character the Shanti Bhabi Is looked at This woman With no desire Like she's there To serve her Husband and the Family and that's It And Kallu is Looked on As this

[00:12:12] Like a Pre-pubescent Child Yeah It's pretty much That So that image Only gets changed Once he's Learned the ways Of the world When he goes to Prison in a way So I did not Read it that Way as you Did Asha I had issues With that Relationship but I don't know If I necessarily Thought that It was creepy As such It seemed like A very Run-of-the-mill No boundaries Sort of

[00:12:41] Relationship You know Like that I'm Used to in Hindi cinema Yeah I I felt like The beginning Part of the Film basically Establishes Kallu As her First child Essentially Pretty much Yeah So she Has the Daughter and Everything but She's basically You know Full-time Caregiver to Kallu as well Nobody gives a Crap about the Daughter The moment They get rich They just dump Her in some School in Ooty She doesn't Even get Invited to The engagement Later on Like

[00:13:11] Full-on Engagement With Parveen Bhabi The kid is Were there Any sequences Or parts Of the movie That you Remembered Like Amrita You're saying You remember The second Half of it I remember The first Half really Well Because I Had the Whole Mukhtar Singh Joke sequence I had that On an audio Cassette So I used

[00:13:41] To listen To it All the Time So I Knew it By heart So I Remember Mukhtar Singh Really Really well And man You know Like When the Writers Which is Tinuanand Was writing The Mukhtar Singh Thing He must Have been Like I am On fire Just see What I'm Cooking here Because I'm Going to Start the Movie with This And then I'm Going to End this Movie With this Because This is That Good Yeah And it Was Also like Isn't Mukhtar Singh The main Villain character In Shah Or something

[00:14:12] Because Mukhtar Singh That character Reappears In Shah Shah You Actually Get to See Mukhtar Singh In Shah Shah But not In this Movie It's Like The Tinuanand Universe Yeah The TSU I can Make that Joke Now It works Okay Then let's Talk about Tinuanand A little bit Because I Thought This was Written by Kadir Khan Like It's not Yeah You know Like the

[00:14:42] Bombasticness Of the Dialogues The whole Jailer Saab Thing I just And also Because Kadir Khan Is in it I just had To assume This was a Kadir Khan Movie And it's Not It is Very much A Tinuanand Movie Right It's Written Alongside With his Father Indir Raj Anand And There is Like a Lehere Podcast Or something With Tinuanand Where he Says that The dialogues Were a bit Heavy on The Urdu And Amitab Bachchan And him Had a Confrontation About the Dialogue Bazi

[00:15:12] And he Really refused To speak One of Those lines And Tinuanand Like bet His entire Career Saying like If the Audience Doesn't clap On this line Then I Will quit My career And this Is only His second Movie So yeah Have you Seen his Dad's Filmography I haven't It is Amazing Like not Movies that I've necessarily Watched But I'm Very impressed Sure Of who this Man was Indir Raj Anand I mean He's done

[00:15:44] Sangam CID Mard What else All these Old ass Movies That you Like Amrita I'm just Going through Choti Bahen I know That's a Favorite Oh I Know the Dialogue By the Way I found It Sorry Go ahead The dialogue Is when Amitav is Basically Replying To Bran Saying Yeah

[00:16:18] That's a Line That's a Line I think Kadir Khan Would have Sort of Simplified it In a way And made It more Palatable For filmy Audience This feels Like very Textbook Poetry Yeah When he Because I Was listening To that Interview And I Was then Then he Said the Line And I Was like I don't Know if Amitav Was not Wrong In taking That stand I was like Okay And also Mukul Anand One of my Favorite directors

[00:16:48] Was his Nephew Apparently Tinu Anand's Nephew So yeah Total Nepo baby Vibes Going on And Siddharth Anand is Also related To him Yeah But all Of them Make Similar Kind of Cinema When you Think about It Right It's Very Filmy Yeah It's Very Very Filmy Big Theater Big Screen Kind of Thing So yeah The Anand Family Has been Kind of Slept on As a Filmy Dynasty So yeah I think

[00:17:18] Tinu Anand Is mostly Known as An actor I would say More than A director Right Which is Kind of Insane I feel I mean I would Say Sure Yeah But also Like his Filmography As a Director Is also Very Commendable I would Say Yeah That's What I Mean He made Like Shahin Shah Just That one Movie But also A movie That we Haven't Revisited In a Long Time So Nostalgia

[00:17:48] Might Be Playing A Thing Yeah When you Were saying About You know Like how Like The characters Get recycled In Shahin Shah and Everything I was like Yeah I do not Remember a Single thing About Shahin Shah You don't Okay I have not Seen that Movie Since I remember Like certain Scenes from That movie But I have Not seen That movie Since like I don't Know 1980 Whatever It was That it Came out No 88 Yeah No I Want to Rewatch Shahin Shah for Sure And he also Did Major Saab By the Way

[00:18:18] This was Which was Also Was a Hit Right Like I remember That time Of Amitab's Comeback The second Comeback Nothing Was working But Major Saab Worked And I Think The songs Were a Big part Of it But yeah It is Teen One And that Made It So Yeah But I Think a Lot of People Just know Him Maybe Better As a As a Supporting Actor Or a Villain I Think Than As a Director I also Just found Out that

[00:18:47] Jalal Aga Is his Brother-in-law Which is Insane To me Are we Are we Able to Are we Going to be Able to Pick a whole Thread from All of the Fifteen movies We do From one To the Other To the Other It's Gonna Be Like this Nice Little Thread We Kalia He Was In Calcutta Doing Promotions For a Film Called Sanjog Or

[00:19:17] Something Which Did Not Work About Tinu Anand Was Assisting Like he Was AD With Satyajit Ray Yeah It A visual Of Kadir Khan Losing His Arms In That Machine And

[00:19:47] All of Those Sheets Becoming Red That's Just Like one Of Those Visuals That's Also Imprinted In My Brain I Didn't Remember Whose Arms Were Stuck In The Machine You Know Could Have Been Any Random Amitab Dad Version But It Was Kadir Khan But Yeah I Remember That Part So Those Two Elements Of The Kallu Saga I Do Remember But All Of This Amrita You Had Completely Blanked Out of Your Brain I

[00:20:17] Don't Yeah No I Don't I Don't Remember Any Of This Stuff I Think There Was A Huge Like If I Remember Correctly This The Later 70s And The 80s Movies Of Bollywood They Had A Huge Element Of Like The Mazdur Unions And There And Obviously But You Are Also And This Movie So There Was That Similar Theme Of

[00:20:47] Common Men Rising Up Against Oppressive Capitalistic Prophet Lords And I Think Kadir Khan Obviously Carried Forward That In His Other Movies When I Was Watching That I Had This Thought It Is Nothing New In A Way This Is The Movies We Need Now You Know Like You Know Workers Getting Together Taking On The Capitalist Bosses And We

[00:21:17] Don't Get These Movies Anymore Now The Heroes Are The Capitalist Bosses Like We Have Animal Where Ranbir Kapoor Is The One Leading The Charge And The Factory Owner And It's Like Wow Heroes Used Used To Be Poor You Just Don't Have That Anymore Right Yeah It's Just It's Kind of A Funny Flip Around That's Happened In Those Last 40 50 Years Yeah Amrita Anything To Add To Movies As Social Commentary On

[00:21:46] Capitalism I Mean It's Very Funny To Me To See The Movies That Were Written By Actual Leftists Versus People Who Saw It Succeed At The Box Office And You Can Really Tell The Difference If You See The Selim Javed Films They Have An Actual Political Philosophy Behind It Or Even The Raj Kapoor Films If You See From The 50s And

[00:22:16] 60s There's A Proper Philosophy There Because They Were Written By People Like Inder Raj Anand Then Pretty Much People Who Were Part Of The Entire You Know Oh Great Now I Forgot The Name Of I'm Just Blanking

[00:22:45] Out On A

[00:23:36] Rad

[00:24:06] There Let's Follow That Breaking Bad Pattern Where None Of This Would Have Happened If They Had Health Insurance You Know Yeah Let's Talk About The Transformation Of Kallu To Kalia Yeah Sujoy How Did That Work For You That Whole Sequence It Was All Of A Blur To Me To Be I Didn't Know When That Actual Transformation Happens

[00:24:36] Because He Goes Back And Forth Out In And Out Of Prison Like Multiple Times And I Don't Like I Thought It Was The Initial Six Months When He Got That Transformation But No He Comes Back And Then Goes Back He Does More Stuff And Yeah Yeah Okay Okay Okay Okay Go Girl Yeah He Seems To Have The Worst Lawyer Ever Like The Lawyer Is Just Like Incapable Of Saving This Man And He Keeps Going To The Same

[00:25:06] Lawyer Like The Same Lawyer At The Start He Was Rich And The Lawyer Just Keeps Sending Him To Jail They Do Have Really Great Barbers In Jail Apparently The Glow Up He Gets Is Also One Of The So There's Three Henchmen That Kind Of Like Train Him Right Was One Of Them Salvador Dali I Feel They Should

[00:25:36] Have Lean Into The Salvador Dali Of It All You Know Like You Know That Kind Of Lean Into The Whole Paintings Of It I Think One Of Them Was K. N. Singh He's Like A Black And White Era Sin Of Legend But He Plays One Of His Mentors And Yeah He Pretty Much Funds His Life After That Yeah Yeah They're Very Like They Come Out Of Jail And Then They Re-motivate Him Into A Life Of Crime Like

[00:26:05] Yeah You Can Think This education continues I do wonder What Bhero Did Why Was Like Amitav Goes Into Jail 70 Times Bhero Is Still There And The Guy Is Disabled So What Could He Have Done yeah yeah Bhero seems like a nice guy but Bhero did some really creepy shit

[00:26:35] don't want this guy to come out like serial killer vibes or child killer vibes or something like that I hope people get the Bhero reference by the way I don't know what's there man Bhaeron becomes Bhero but yeah he has a soulful voice when he's singing also he fights Bob Cristo in jail I did not remember

[00:27:03] that the famous line is actually said by Bob Cristo first it's pretty much like no Nook I'm your father you don't remember the actual line it's pretty much that Bob Cristo says the line first and Amitabh says right Kalia doesn't get anything he just repeats the same line and he does it twice and then he comes back with another line like you know

[00:27:31] Kalia cannot hit an unarmed man which I was like where did you make this rule suddenly Kalia and I was like when did you get this moral you know framework that you've created in jail yeah but I was like also that line isn't as good as Bob Cristo's line yeah like you're just trying to me too it you know it's not it's not a good line it's it's it's fascinating though because

[00:28:00] the legend of that line lives with Amitabh Bachchan now and yeah it's like Bob Cristo is now remembered with Indian god Marta 70% is us promoting yes it is I'll never stop I'll never stop like yeah the 80s Dhamaka series

[00:28:29] we will come to Mr. India at some point and we'll just it's just be like us losing shit I mean this line is so famous that it's literally in our theme song of all the lines we could have picked it's in there you know so by the way thank you DJ Shai to our new theme song which is getting normally included in this episode now so giving him a shout out for that and I think also Amrita your your favorite

[00:28:58] Praan is back in jail what did you think of we're getting a lot of Praan here like three weeks of Praan right yeah I love Praan there's like yeah like no no slander against Praan this is like I think this is around the 80s like I think like that's oh no actually he did begin his transformation in the 70s I think where you know he started playing maybe

[00:29:27] characters with like shades of grey not entirely like villain characters but characters that are still sort of threatening right like so in Zanjir for instance you know he's he's got a little bit of threat to him he's not just like a a bambi nice guy and the same with the jailer in this one you know he's like moving to elder statesman status but he's also a little bit threatening and he is in many ways

[00:29:57] the only real threat that Kalia has because you know like Shani Saeed isn't doing anything Shani Saeed is just collecting elves by the dozen he just wants to live his life go to Mujra's that's all Shani Saeed wants he wants to like seduce princesses get their diamonds you know like he wants to just like yeah which I don't understand because we

[00:30:35] funding their health and safety regulations can I just say Shani Saeed is less evil than a lot of the rich people we have now or just saying I'm saying Shani Saeed who's not that bad Shani Saeed goes to a

[00:31:05] Shani Saeed has small ambitions you know and Shani Saeed has terrible investment portfolio what does he invest in diamonds and mills two tear business and all of that money gets funded into a layer that he's built with chess pieces and compressor walls nobody said Shani Saeed when are you going to use this I don't care I need a layer I

[00:31:35] want someone to one day do you know like a costing of layers like how much how much money are these people because you remember Mogambo's layer like we talk about it when we get to Mr. India but even as a child I was like that's a lot of money and a lot of real estate and Shan the whole sharks and crocodiles and underwater the thing is they

[00:32:05] have taken the VC funding they have to deliver if you go to the shark tank you say I have an idea to build a layer you can't go back now people have

[00:32:36] I do feel it hurts the movie having these two like it doesn't have a clear path on who the villain is because Pran is not really the villain right in a way but that's like the kind of bombastic jailer sab you know all of that thing happening but it's not really a fight that can be won really right there's not really I I do have to talk about

[00:33:05] how he breaks out of the jail though shall I run down step by step how Kadia escapes from Pran's impregnable jail like this jailer you know this is like you know Zahan Kapoor ka dada you know like he will not let them go he's like Bheno starts singing then

[00:33:35] Kalia hides behind a wall the jailer comes in he attacks him from it it's like the most obvious way only one nook that you could hide behind the door opens on the side that you can see he jumps behind him then he runs out then one of the jailers is coming and then Kalia hides behind a pillar he walks back he climbs off the wall

[00:34:05] jumps off the wall he's out he's free we're done and the van was waiting for him anyway they didn't know how they were going to plan all of this but yeah that's how quick and easy it yeah I want to quickly mention Amjad Khan's wig as Sunny sir

[00:34:35] like I think of all the wigs that we see in this movie his was the one where all the money was spent it looks so pristine like he's totally living that dream of the wiggery it's so good I what do we want to talk about

[00:35:05] Parveen Bhabi a little bit first or do we want to talk about Kalia's life of crime first let's do Parveen Bhabi I think we're motivated right let's talk about Parveen Bhabi who looks amazingly mind blowing in this movie she comes in very late I kept waiting where is Parveen Bhabi and it comes in one hour and something in yeah yeah yeah Amrita what did you think of Parveen Bhabi in this I love her I love her so

[00:35:34] much she's like a fairy princess when I was like a little girl and I was watching this movie I think that's also one of the reasons why I rated this movie also has an arch and she and Kalu actually have a partnership going she is not your

[00:36:08] flower pot kind of heroine she has a thing on the make hustling and then she is by his side he doesn't hide who he is from her even though he's lying to his bhabhi all the time she knows exactly what's up with him and she chooses him above everybody else even when Pran's

[00:36:38] character is trying to tell her and she is just like yeah but that's my man and I met Pran five minutes who's calling me betty suddenly you know yeah I love Palmeen Babi in this she like when she's wearing that red dress she looks like Jessica rabbit yeah like like

[00:37:07] you know I I mean my go to Parveen Babi reference is from Amar Akbar Anthony and this is a close second I think she's always gorgeous like it's very difficult for her

[00:37:37] not to look gorgeous on screen especially in the 80s and the 70s yeah she was flawless and I don't really give that much attention to what Chalini was doing and her story it was just oh it's Parveen Babi on screen and I love her yeah and almost that she can you know she can act she can emote she can do comedy like that whole omelette cooking scene is amazing physical comedy when you think about it right and she kind of

[00:38:07] gets dropped into this and I Amitabh is cooking the omelette upside down and Rati has to sort of narrate it and the Jagdeep

[00:38:37] car scene where he goes to the car dealership and then drives the car and completely ruins it I think we've seen that in Kurbani as well and I can't exactly remember there's another probably another movie famously Mr. and Mrs. Kilari as other movies and things like that you could also interchange

[00:39:07] that with Namakhalal the way he is there there's a lot of these things that are happening a fight in a lair so many movies right like from Shan to anything else so there's a lot of these things where they almost become interchangeable and that's why I couldn't remember what was part of Kalia and what wasn't yeah what I also like about Parveen Barbie is like she's funny but also she's like a badass like you know we were talking about in caravan like nobody does cardio

[00:39:38] she's running and then she does parkour or her body double who's a man with a wig both of them do cardio and I she's doing high kicks she does

[00:40:13] a lot and then she also just gets some amazing songs right which so the song that she gets with Amitab is the first romantic song when they actually fall in love but it's really funny because how soon do they fall in love because as soon as the children's problem of the school fees get resolved they're like oh this is my man he can take care of my baby yeah well the sequence is he's getting drunk in a bar and she's the

[00:40:43] dancer at the bar and she seduces him and then takes him home then he falls asleep and then which I thought was like it's quite like a bold role when you think about it right for that era I was like wow this is like I think even now like do you see Alia Bhatt doing a role like this I don't know you know I thought it was quite modern in a way to take

[00:41:24] poor girl right she steals the diamond like five seconds before her mom dies you know she gets home with the diamond mom died it happens instantly so timing was off but talent was talent timing was off yeah but I want to talk a little bit about the chapter because that's

[00:41:54] where they fall in was also the moment because we just had I think where I noticed how amazing their clothes are I saw I don't know Indian geography where is it it was Kashmir I think where the kids went to school

[00:42:24] yeah because I saw somebody on Twitter making fun of the jacket Amitab is wearing with the white fur and I thought that was a fire fit man I was like that looks amazing and Parveen Bobby with the like what is she wearing like a knee length skirt with like tights and boots and I

[00:42:56] there which is Amrita's favorite vibe of you know two generations being overtly affectionate in front of each other rocky and rani kind of things happening like these kids are just there we don't care yeah it's about it's about no yeah all the songs in this are like pretty great maybe the Bhero song I don't

[00:43:26] like yeah what were the songs that you liked obviously Jaha Teri Nazar is my go-to track whenever someone mentions Amitabh and you know Kalia and the 80s Jaha Teriye Nazar still is a jam like there's multiple remixes of this song but going back watching this

[00:43:56] movie I really enjoyed Tum Satho Ja Papne it's such a beautiful beautiful romantic song Amitabh yeah I have to agree with Sujoy like that I'd forgotten that that song existed actually and then I and then I remember like you know I used to I used to hum that song like all the time when I was a kid because it was just such a especially that part where she goes like la la la la you know it's just like

[00:44:25] it's so lovely I love it this is like distilled R.D. Berman goodness you know with Majra Sultan Puri writing oh so good yeah and like Tumsatho has also my favorite trope of singing a song in front of people that are pissed off you know like Praan is just really mad like rubbing it in and they're like ah this is our party we're gonna do whatever you want yeah I do like Jahan Theri

[00:44:55] Nehzer just because also just because the song is so fun but also just the setup of the let's set it up though right like so there's a like this common 80s criminalities happening you know smuggling and go downs fights and all of that but in the between

[00:45:25] we also have it's the Kohinoor right like that's what they're probably kind of using as a template for it and this princess is carrying the diamond on her neck and she's going to a party where in the party which is in some weird discotheque they put a table on the platform and she's eating alone on that table

[00:45:55] and everybody's partying and Shani said Amrish Puri just comes in like 80 year old dude Amjad Khan Amjad Khan sorry did I say Amrish Puri I wish everything was with Amrish Puri yeah he comes in and he's like let's dance baby he starts rubbing her back it's so creepy imagine the princess man she's like 16

[00:46:25] it's really weird and then Amitab flies in and judo chops Amjad Khan yeah takes the diamond takes the girl and then takes the diamond and puts it in a watch which I thought was the coolest thing ever having like a little compartment in your watch where you can put the whole kohidur in there I thought that was such a cool thing and then Amitabh is brazen about it he's just telling everybody he's just like opening it showing kahara khaai diamond

[00:46:54] this is the size I'm putting it back in this watch that I'm carrying here close it down with the snap and that's it you know 80s ka crime masterminds you know masterminds they were yeah any any other random thoughts that you had about Kalia anything that we've not you know we need to talk a little bit more about Bhabi I think let's talk

[00:47:24] about Bhabi what do you want to say about Bhabi yeah like is this the first time you've seen Asha Parak in something awesome as a kid yes I mean I just saw her in Karavan right yeah yeah yeah oh my god I get them confused man like they were all old ladies when I started realizing you know but no no no I I think as a kid this was probably the first time

[00:47:54] but also with Praan you know like when I went back and started like watching his older work I didn't know that Praan was some debonair man you know that was like a romantic foil to the heroes like for me he was also this always this old guy who was a villain and kind of like upstanding villain with a weird haircut because he had every time a weird haircut right so same with Asha Parik I've never I don't even think I've seen more of Wahida's work than I've seen of Asha Parik to be

[00:48:24] honest and this is the only movie that Amitabh and Asha Parik have done together yeah yeah but there were like nine days difference you know Amitabh clearly didn't want her as a hero right but it does it does like it's funny because we just saw Karawan right and when did that come out how much Kalia was 81 and Karawan was 71

[00:48:54] yeah so 10 years ago but it feels like a lifetime ago it feels like 30 years ago something like that I know but it is that thing where even like Katrina Cave sometimes struggle with where or Sunakshi even struggled with Sunakshi Sinha where she because she came in young then she starts working with older male actors and then she can't work with contemporaries anymore because her film age is higher than her actual age and

[00:49:24] you know where she would start with a contemporary and you would almost think she's like an older heroine where she's not and maybe that's something that happened with not only Asha Parikh but a lot of her Rakhi I think kind of the same thing she's playing Amitabh's mom later on in a film so in Shakti for example and she was her heroine that happened a lot with Amitabh Bachchan's heroines like Vaheetha Rahman was one of those

[00:49:56] wait who played oh Newton played his wife in that Raj Sri movie never mind yeah it's funny because like I generally like when Asha Parikh began her career she always played a sort of like Audrey Hepburn Ingenieu you know like

[00:50:26] very westernized anglicized sort of characters and that's how her like her first movie was like Love and Simla like you know like very anglicized characters and then throughout the 70s as she began doing character work she just became this very like people like this Barbie you know like very patriarchal very like kind of characters

[00:50:55] and I think that's just like a really great example of how Hindi film writers write women characters you know where like it's okay to be progressive when you're like young and sexy but the moment you become an older woman it's time for you to become like the matriarchal figure who cannot possibly you know be I think it's not even getting older it's getting married the

[00:51:25] moment you're married I mean I don't know it's this weird male accessibility to sexuality you know like because she's married or you know there's like now straight away and it's I was thinking about actresses lament that they

[00:51:55] didn't get the roles that the actresses now have you know like an Alia Bhartar but I was thinking like who is the one that like when Deepika comes back she's going to do exactly the same roles that she was doing before it's not going to affect her career taking a year off or two years of Anushka Sharma you know whoever else has gotten a baby she got married she does exactly the same now but this wasn't the case in this era of you know and all that that didn't change even till the 90s you know

[00:52:25] yeah well funnily enough you know for whom that was not true like there was this exactly one actor for whom it was possible to have a career kind of like what the women are having today and and I think the reason why has to do with the fact that she just she wasn't your typical Hindi film heroine and she had

[00:52:54] a proximity to privilege that was completely separate from her film career work it was the fact that she was married to Mansour Ali Han and like you know she was like a begum and like all that kind of stuff and of course she's you know a Tagore and like all that kind of stuff but you're right like a lot of these women were forced into those roles

[00:53:24] where you know like Asha Parekh's great film and Newton's also was like from the 70s was this movie called which I don't know if any of you have seen it yeah it

[00:54:01] like what happens to the families like a tear jerker sort of a thing but that's the kind of nonsense that women were supposed to do if you still wanted to act in your and you didn't want to do your bhabi ma roles and you mentioned Sharmila but I think the second after Sharmila is Bebo Bebo is the one that changed it you know like where she absolutely didn't care and she was going to do the roles she wanted to do and again she was kind of

[00:54:31] above any of those tropes and I her contemporaries I think and Bebo actually

[00:55:00] credits Sharmila with showing her the way she is very open about it but it makes me wonder how come nobody actually followed Sharmila back then yeah this is maybe an uncooked thought so I haven't really thought of it right but there's also a lot of these like Aruna and Rani we were watching in Caravan and in Cars and Helen we discussed a few times right where

[00:55:30] both of their roles are very vampish like very focused on sexuality and then you strip all of that away and you make them a ma you know like in the Raja Babus and the betas and stuff like that with Rorani and it's like you're taking away their key skill you know and it's what's left is like you know so it's kind of an interesting swap I don't know if I think maybe for like Waheeda Asha and all of these

[00:56:00] even Raki the roles just weren't interesting like because they were such big actresses and things like that where if you're just going to be partly I don't know do you guys is there another reason you think I have no idea it's just something

[00:56:30] that I've always wondered let's talk quickly about the finale of the movie which is such a complex setup because Shani said has like an enter the dragon kind of layer going on too so he has a chess board first of all he's sensitive yeah touch sensitive and I think it's purpose built to just annoy Kalia like when else is he going to use this

[00:56:59] chess board it's not multi purpose it just does one thing you know and then if he steps out of the chess board then Bhabi is in a room with those walls that compress and he's going to crush Bhabi or he's going to crush Munni right which I feel again we've seen this in Namak Halal too right when they're also like in like cabins of something

[00:57:30] I mean who are these engineers who are building these no but the problem is like you know it's like the Taj Mahal thing they cut off the arms of the people that design it like we never know how it works but the problem that I had with the chess board is that Amirabh has quite long legs he could just jump over like that's my problem that I was having is it but I think all of this is to set up the poetic justice

[00:58:00] of Shani Seth losing his arms in the compressor yeah in the compressor I don't know if because what are you crushing man like he doesn't have one compressor room he has two so absurd yeah would you build a layer like that Amrita would that be the design you're looking for I I

[00:58:29] am partial to a more like you know Shan vibe Shan vibe yeah you know what at the end of this series let's do a layer ranking and I think we should invite Beth for that though yeah you know eminent specialist on layers so yeah I think that discussion is one that needs to be

[00:58:59] happened and we need to kind of you know like you know any other random thoughts anything else that we haven't discussed that you wanted to kind of talk about so one of them is you know Praan was totally against Kaliya because of his crime career and he like every time he was like you're never gonna be you know lead a good life and you are not worthy of Shalini or whatever but at the end when he gets to realize

[00:59:28] his story and then Kaliya is like I'm gonna go and rescue my baby and whatever Francis if you have had some shirni milk then I didn't no such a random ass line how hard is it to get shirni milk though yeah

[00:59:55] what is that underground market they don't even have the dark web in that time how do you get it in an offline world where do you get shirni and one of the irl trivias is that this movie took a lot of time to get made because tinu annan was just running around telling the story to everybody so that he could cast the main guy to play kalia

[01:00:19] and he infamously approached vinod khanna and vinod khanna was literally on the tail end of his career because he was totally into osho at this time and like he said no because of that and he was like finishing shoots for other films that he was shooting for and like it was like he was not going to take a new project because he was totally high in the arms of osho

[01:00:44] interesting i mean these stories about vinod khanna are like a plenty right like he just didn't want to work like i'm gonna do this i totally like understand totally hard relate with the osho part or not wanting to work for not wanting to work if i had enough for kalia if i can just find a cult to join you know amrita any any uh random thoughts that you still had about kalia

[01:01:11] it's like just like barbeen babi is just so good at comedy you know like i like everyone talks of i mean i'm guilty of it too like everyone's just so focused on like how she's so pretty but uh she's actually like really good at at like physical comedy as well is she a bad dancer though yeah yeah yeah she can't dance because i was like when she seduces him and she gets him in the hotel

[01:01:37] room she's still doing dances i was like i think my sexiness would be dropping watching her do what she's doing it's like please don't do that if you have watched namak halal you should like go back and like watch her dances from that film because the songs are such bangers and my god she is so she's like the equivalent of amitabh bachchan when it comes to dancing yeah but i think the thing with

[01:02:04] amitabh the choreography was adapted to her she's just like flailing her arms like that all the time it's like a very arm heavy choreography she always got um but yeah no she can't dance but who cares she has that face card yeah parveen can dance new t-shirt dropping on our barren bubble

[01:02:29] uh i had a few random thoughts that i had um whenever kalia goes to america he brings sari for his baby from america yeah and he teaches parveen how to wear a sari yeah exactly and uh i think uh jiski mere angne me is playing in the background yeah yeah yeah that's what i'm saying like a lot of these things are from other movies and stuff like that and callbacks and things like that but yeah all the bhabis are asking asha parveen kisadi khan se khariti

[01:03:07] the whole car destroying scene that you kind of discussed um what's his name jagjeet right jagdeep jagdeep yeah yeah he's uh he was really the johnny lever of that time no yeah he comes in for a thing he's like so much he's so much it's hard it's hard to sit through those scenes um baby raza murad is prosecutor guys did you see baby raza murad that was kind of cool

[01:03:33] um and also thought that you know uh so uh kalia got his education in crime in prison i feel he skipped the chapter on fingerprints because the moment where shani sits frames him for the murder kalia is just not like he's just putting his arm on the knife he's like licking the body he's like leaving dna prints everywhere the bhabi didn't even need to testify they had all the

[01:04:02] proofs that you know kalia did that so yeah that was not very smart move to skip modules you should finish your course you shouldn't finish your course be like mac mohon in kars follow the whole course so you can figure out you know the morse code yeah needs to figure out this um yeah um final thoughts

[01:04:26] amrita and kalia um the songs are still killer but yeah this is not a movie that you necessarily need to watch so joy yeah nostalgia dhoka deti hai kabhi kabhi yeah it's it's it's a it's like i get why this movie is not talked about because it is a

[01:04:50] mishmash of a lot of other movies and a lot of sequences a lot of move uh you know moments that we've seen in other roles uh in other uh movies and the ones that kind of they never also um supersede those other ones right like that's the problem like there is no in like um original mark yeah of of kalia like these this drama could have been like elevated in certain ways and i don't think

[01:05:19] the skills are lacking basically if this was a man mohan desai movie i would i think there would have been more oomph to it but it's very much like a template filmmaking of things that have happened in various other movies yeah i also feel it just needs another edit like you know like it needs to be shift like certain changes need to happen because yeah the songs are good the costume

[01:05:45] is good there's a few fire lines in there for sure um so there are moments in there but there's something about the screenplay that just like haphazardly put together which kind of like jangles basically when you watch it and it you have to like force yourself to commit to this movie right and i think if you are detached from the 80s where you're not in that era and you're not like you know i've paid money to watch this movie and i'm a huge amitab fan um uh you know even then you would have

[01:06:14] probably admitted that it's not as good as kuli or namak halal or yeah even later on shahinshah unless i revisit it and change my opinion but i think maybe shahinshah even had the same problems probably when you think about it right like certain key moments key looks that are kind of very iconic but when you watch the whole thing it's gonna get end up becoming quite jangly you know so yeah that's uh

[01:06:39] that's kalia um amrita where can people find you online uh you can find me on twitter and on blue sky at amrita iq so joy you can find me on twitter instagram tiktok blue sky at 93k and you can follow khandan podcast on all our socials at khandan podcast i'm alas and bernie if you join patreon you will get access to these episodes slightly quicker than the main feed and you will all not also not get

[01:07:07] any annoying ads plus it's a good great way to support us um join our community this series would not be happening without patreon anyway so we really want to thank everybody that kind of contributes and helps us there um i think the next episode is going to be earth earth if i'm not uh if we don't mess up with schedule because that's going to be the next one a movie i've not watched so let's see um but yeah thank you for listening and we'll be back with a new episode soon

[01:07:48] khandan podcast from the epiglottis papa are you podcasting again khandan podcast from the epiglottis papa are you podcasting again