 Ewww, uh, Coronavirus. The **** Hey, welcome back to our stupid reaction to the It's Corbin. Coronaviruses! And you can follow us on Instagram, Twitter, juicy content. Thank you very much for supporting us on Patreon. Patreon, we appreciate your patronage, and following our official Twitter account. Ring the bell to be heard notification squad. Bang! To get all those sweet notifications. Ooh, he's banging. And follow us on our personal channels as well. There's different stuff going on there. Yep. Hopefully Rick's link is working. We'll see. Yep. Sometimes it's working, but it's always in the description. Or just search Rick Siegel if it doesn't work. That's all you have to do. Anyways, today we are doing a movie review of our fourth Millalium film. Hey, have you been keeping track? Huh? You've been keeping track of our fourth? Well, yeah, because we've got the biology nights, virus, the last one, and then this one. The last one, which is pretty good luck with that one. I'm not saying that one. But also, I know I mispronounce Millalium every single time, but I never remember how to say it and then I'm sorry. Every single time? No. It's not Millalium. I don't know if you're saying it right. I know I say it wrong every single time. Anyways. But this is our first venture into the legendary actima of the industry. Say his name. Mahonoh? Is that the correct pronunciation, guys? Because I'm not 100% sure. But I think we've seen him actually in some trailers, I believe, I could be totally wrong, but I think we've seen him in trailers. But this is our first venture into him. This is actually one of the first movies we ever received from a stupid baby. They sent us this one and then we got to see, notice the, we did the reaction to the Dancing Eyes. Remember that one, Rick? I'm 100% knew, which was from here. Yeah. And now I feel like Lucifer, I think he was, he was in Lucifer and we reacted to that trailer. Anyway. Yeah, and we've been getting tons of requests for a long time from folks saying, please react to him, he's a legend. He's like the big B of South India. So we wanted to do it for his birthday because today's his birthday, so happy birthday to you, sir. Happy birthday, sir. But so this will be 100% spoilers. We came out in 1999, if you haven't seen it, go watch it, come back, please. Thank you so much. Yep. But it's called Vana Prastham, right? I think so. An illicit relationship between Kaothakali dancer and a young woman from an uppercast family results in an illegitimate child. He faces hardship when she refuses to let him see their child. And it's directed by Saraji in Karun. And I believe, unless it's the, yep, it was composed by the wonderful- Saraji Sakhir Hussein. Saraji Sakhir Hussein. And when I heard those little sweet little fingers on those tablets, I knew exactly who it was. Anyways, so Rick, initial thoughts? I'm actually trying to find it. I've got, there it is. I was looking for it to make sure I'm looking at all the right credits on IMDB for him, especially for Mohanlal, who please help us if we're mispronouncing the legend's name. So on the one hand, I feel like she was maybe 75% of the film. I couldn't even begin to appreciate cause I'm so ignorant to all of the richness of what they were referring to with all of the references to the characters of Arjun and the story behind Krishna and what the director, I am sure, and what Saraji Sakhir Hussein were doing and what was being done by the actors in terms of being reverent to it or doing something. I really felt on the one hand, I need to come back in 10 years after I have a deeper, better understanding about all of the richness of that history. Even something as simple as being able to recognize his portrayal. We said this in the reaction to the trailer. We know nothing about that art form of that style of acting and performing so we don't have anything to compare it to other than to say, looks believable to me, you know what I mean? But on the other hand, putting that aside, I really enjoyed watching it. I enjoyed watching him. I thought he was very believable. I thought the ladies who played opposite him were very believable. I had like most films we often see with a lot of the supporting people I didn't have a great time with but the majority of the leads and especially him, I'm pleased to say I could see what people were talking about in terms of his emotional availability, his believability, I didn't see indicating. So on the whole, I really liked it and looking forward to the day I love it which will probably be when I know a lot more about the culture and the references. Does that make sense? So yeah, 100% and I agree with you. I really actually enjoyed the film. It was a very artsy film. It's what it felt like. It almost like a French film sometimes. Great example. Yeah, you're absolutely right. Almost like a French film in terms of- You're absolutely right. It's very slow and it's all about these small nuanced performances of the actors. And he was, I felt like really beautiful in this. I agree. I thought he did really nice work. He gave me, one, he looks, not his acting style but he looks like John Belushi a little bit. You're absolutely right. Like in, what was that movie? The party one. What is it called? Animal House. Animal House. It almost looked like him just with long hair in Animal House sometimes. Not the actor, that guy's a comic legend but they just look like him. But his acting style reminded me actually a lot of Marlon Brando and James Dean a little bit. Yeah, I would agree. His acting style, very small and nuanced. But you could, there was always something going on behind his eyes. Behind the eyes, yep. And that's the mark of a great actor when you can tell something's going on and he doesn't have to do anything. He's not indicating I'm sad or stuff like that. That's my favorite thing about his performance is the fact that I saw, like I said a second ago, there was zero indicating, there was zero cliche. It felt deeply grounded. It felt like his process is very much rooted in method or as Shia says, method adjacent. Method adjacent, yeah. And the kind of acting that we like, the kind of grounded, even when he was doing the art form which what we know about it is very, it's facially exaggerated. Yeah. I could see what was going on with his character. Like when he said, I'm not gonna play characters anymore that are soft and emoting soft emotions. It's now gonna be powerful emotions from now on. Yeah. And he started to do that. I could see the rage that was going on inside the man. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I totally agree with you in terms of there's just some stuff that I, in our young ignorance of the culture and this felt deeply in the culture of Malolium or I believe they were in Karnataka most of the time, I believe. I could be totally wrong. I don't know. But obviously in that art form and everything like that, it felt deeply in the culture of it. And in terms of the way they talked about religion, about stuff like, and honestly, it took me a while to figure out the reason that they didn't want to be, it was because of cast. It took me a second. I thought it was like, I thought it was something else that they- I figured that out, I figured that out unfortunately by reason of I thought, I thought both of the ladies, his wife that he has, I thought she was just a beautiful, beautiful lady. And I thought she did good work with what she was given. And I saw just in a lot of things, I could tell that that was an arranged marriage that he had been put into and that it was from a lower cast and that the other woman, his love interest, Subhadra, that she was wealthy and was from an upper cast. What I didn't pick up on initially was that the reason he hadn't seen the child for so long was by her choosing. And I actually, I wanted to know so much of what was being referenced that I went, I looked up the histories of Arjun and all of the story behind that. And from the original Sanskrit and this, there's just, it's encyclopedic, the amount of information that's in there. It felt like, I don't know, you remember when you were a little kid and the adults are talking and you know, it's important. Yeah. And you wish you knew what they were talking about but you can't wrap your head around it and you want to be one of the adults at the table. I felt like that watching this. I was like, I want to, this is important. And I feel like I should know what this is. And I'd have no idea what they're talking about. Yeah. And obviously we could appreciate the norm like the human aspects of it. They have like, they're in a relationship and he's having an affair with a person. I actually thought what the director did, one with, and the cinematographer with a lot of the cuts was genius. Really nice. I like, there was a ton of cuts in this that were just so good. Like the one with the flames that it kind of went back to the flames but then it kept going back to them. And then I thought it was beautifully, like I had to figure out for a second. I was like, okay, wait, what? When they had sex, but she had all the green stuff all over her face. I thought that was genius. Beautiful. Uh-huh. Yeah. The influence and the way they did it to indicate that's what just happened. I thought it was so, so good. I thought both the fact that his colors were all over her and also the way she was reacting, her response was so, for lack of a better term, her response was so overwhelmingly post-coital warmth and like luxuriating and almost drunk and basking in what she got to experience. And I also thought it was a beautiful, it was simple but a beautiful thing the director did when she's watching him perform and he has the woman character with him and he slowly turns and then comes around and it's her. Yeah. I thought that was really delightful. Yeah, they had a bunch of cuts and shots in this that were extremely beautiful. I thought the scene where they weren't even talking to each other, they were moving through the motions to show this connection. Yeah, that was a great, I didn't understand well obviously what they were saying but I was like, this is quite beautiful. Won the shot and the symbolism of it all. I thought was genius and I thought that actress throughout the film did a phenomenal job in portraying it. Yeah, I'm like you though. It was like, parts of it is just our young ignorance. I don't know the culture as well as we'd like to. And so obviously if we did, I feel like we'd pick up on a lot more and we'd like it even more. And like I said, we like this film, I believe. I believe that you like this film as well. It's just, obviously this is one that I feel like you will appreciate it even more if you know the stories. So like most of the times the story that they were talking about, we had no idea what that story was. This is kind of a, it's maybe a lame comparison or maybe it'll work. But it's almost like, you know, growing up you love Looney Tunes cartoons. And then when you're an adult, you look back and you realize, oh, no wonder I didn't recognize what those jokes were. Those are for the adults. Because there's a lot of jokes that go way over a kid's head in the Looney Tunes stuff. And then when you're older, you realize, oh, that's what they were doing there. That's funny. Yeah. As a kid who's saying score, I thought was, one of my favorite things about the score was how hauntingly distant everything sounded. And he did for the score, it reminded me a lot of the way Satya Jitrai, and I don't know, we reference him a lot, but the way he used music so simply and so atmospherically, this had that feeling. It felt like they were going more for an ambiance and a sense of you being immersed in this world and this place. And it also helped that this art form is dependent upon so much of the playing of instruments like that. Yeah, I felt multiple times in this like it was almost Satya Jitrai-esque. I felt multiple times while watching it, and that's a compliment, because it felt almost like you were watching a fly on the wall sometimes, which is really a great form of film that you can just sit and watch and be fully entertained and also just like watching great performers perform, which is a wonderful treat to behold. And so I'm glad we got to watch it, even though I'm sure we missed so much of the film in terms of like what exactly they were talking about and the little nuances of it, just because we're dumb. Yeah, and it encourages me to get to know more about the stories and over time, I absolutely, I really mean that. And maybe five years to revisit this and after having learned so much more. And the walk away from me, because we've been hearing so much about Mahanlal and the legend that this guy is. So I think we came in with freaking high expectations for this guy to knock it out of the park. People, because every single time we watch a Malalium film, sorry, I don't know how to say it, a film, and we especially like we rave about Fahat Faseel and we think he's a phenomenal actor. And then people like, Fahat Faseel is a kid compared to, I think this is a quote, Fahat Faseel is a kid compared to Mahanlal or whatever his name is. Like that's, you're setting the bar really, really high. That's one of our favorite actors or at least one of my favorite actors that we've seen out of India. And I think he's so, so talented to call him a kid compared to somebody else. I don't know if that is the correct assessment of that. I know what you're saying. Well, it is as far as his resume, that's for sure. For sure, for sure. But yeah, he's a phenomenal actor. I would love to explore him more. And I know there's, she has so, so much work. And so down below, please let us know what his next film should be. I don't know, because I think this one was recommended to us the most, but I know he has a ton. And so- Yeah, he's got a huge resume. His resume is as big as, I don't know about John Man. It's just massive. Yeah, so let us know what else of his we should watch. Next, what is his best performance? What is his best film? Because obviously sometimes those two don't coincide all the times. No, but you gave him about as, for those of you who wouldn't know, I think the majority of you would, and I wouldn't disagree at all. Corbin gave him about as high a compliment as you can get in terms of his naturalness and what's going on by actually putting his name in the same sentences Marlon Brando and James Dean, because that's about as natural as it gets. Yeah. Yeah. And then again, just as a closing point, I hope I pronounced her name right. So Hasini, who played Subradra. Ah, phenomenal, yeah. Yeah, I thought she was, I was waiting. This is a role that she could have easily, and it's a testament to the director as well. It's a role that could have easily gone over the top and cliched. And I didn't feel that she did that at all. And I got the fact that she had become infatuated with the character more than she had become in love with the man. And I got the heartbreak she felt at the end without it being some kind of a cliche. So those lead actors were for me and the directing and the score were what made this thing so enjoyable. And I can't wait to watch it again when we know a whole lot more. Yeah, so let us know down below what next Malolim film and also his or her films that we should watch next down below so we can explore the man and the legend more. Happy birthday also. Happy birthday. Oh, shit.