 So we are going in to our first ever Sanjay Leela Bansali film in theaters. Never seen one. Hopefully on the way out we'll be like, I'm so glad we got to see a Sanjay Leela Bansali film in theaters. We're rooting for all of you. We really are. Let's go nepotism. Hey folks, welcome back to our YouTube direction. I'm Rick, and you can follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Twitter. For more juicy content, juiciness, think about it on Patreon, and also subscribe if you haven't and like this video if you just to help the algorithm out a little bit. Give us love. Shower us with your unconditional love. Golden showers. Today, we're doing a movie of you. As you already are, you know, obviously. Yeah, you know that. That's why you hit the play button. But we just came out, well we came out probably about 30 minutes ago. Yeah, now we're at the rainbows, we're gay. Oh, different kind of coming out. What? You said we just came out. Punch in the face. But yeah, we just watched it. Literally came from the theater round. Yeah, probably about 30 minutes fresh off of the film. Can you smell it? Can you smell the film? We watched the new Sanjay Leela Bansali film, Gangubai... I can't say the last word. I think they're just calling it Gangubai because it's easier for us. Gangubai? Us idiots. Kathiwadi? Gangubai Kathiwadi. But anyways, the... Written and directed by Sanjay Leela Bansali. And produced by Sanjay Leela Bansali. And starring Alia Bhakt. And this is basically her vehicle. Yeah. This entire thing. Then there's cameos. It's not a spoiler, they run the thing. But DJ Devgun, VJ Roz, and a few other people in our gym. But yeah, no spoilers. Those are in the trailer. So the way we'll do this since it's a new film, we're gonna do non-spoilers. And then we'll get into some spoilers if you want to. Because it's a new film. Some people haven't seen it. And so, well, this will be, I don't know, predominantly, but it'll be a good amount of non-spoiler. And then we'll let you know before we get into some spoilers. Yeah, since for you. Bunches of you probably have not seen this yet. Seen it yet. But, Rick, your initial thoughts, please. This is, for those of you keeping track and score at home, our 13th film of the year, our 137th Hindi film of all time, and our 220th film of all time. And here's my paragraph. As we were walking to the car to head to the theater, I said to Corbin, I have a bad feeling in my gut about this. He asked, why? I said, because I've seen, I've been seeing tweets from big names in Hindi cinema who've already seen this movie, and it reminds me of what I was seeing before 83. And those of you who've seen the 83 review, you know our review of that and some of the things that we disagreed with some of the accolades for it. Guys, you know how much we love Aliyah, and you know how excited we were to see this movie and still believe Aliyah and Sanjay are two of the most talented artists in this industry, but I will never lie. My love for the art form will always be higher than any love I have for any artist within it. Love Sanjay, love Aliyah, but I didn't like this movie. Overall, you didn't like it? Yeah. I can definitely say I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to, for sure. I can't say as far as I didn't like it. There's a bunch of stuff that I do, we'll get into that I didn't love. I think Aliyah was definitely the strongest part of it. And there's some, I don't know what, it's hard to really place what the issue is, but I guess writing and editing, maybe, not like editing in terms of like, it was beautiful, obviously. Yeah, that's a Sanjay Leibniz only film. Can't deny that. But those would probably be where I think it faltered in terms of like its pacing and what they decided to put on screen as opposed to who they decided to show you a blimp of every once in a while. Because really, like I said in the beginning, this is an Aliyah show. This is her. And then, like if you're going into CVT Ross, he's not in very much of it. Yeah, and like most biopics, it's very heavy. Like if you see the movie Spencer with Kristen Stewart playing Princess Diana, it's all about her. Which is usually the case when you're doing a heavy biopic, whereas that's standard. But anyways, so I wouldn't say I disliked it, but it would be more towards a C plus to a B minus of a film overall that my expectations were an A. Oh, I was expecting an A plus through the roof. And so that does, obviously, it is a disappointment if you're expecting an A and you got like a C plus to a B minus. Kind of great for me. Overall, I think the main reason you're going to want to watch this film is Alia doing the best she can with some of the writing that she was given. But yeah. Yeah, I've simplified my rating system as some of you know recently. For me, it's just basically am I in or am I out? And for me, I'm out. What would you think about Alia? Let's talk about Alia. Sorry, this is still no spoilers. Yeah, no spoilers. So I know very little about the woman she's portraying. Yeah. But what I do know about her, I have some questions about the casting of Alia to portray her. I think Alia did what Alia would do. Like she did the very best that she can do with what she's given. I just don't know that she was right for this part. I can think of several other actresses that in my mind were part of it. I guess I'm ready to admit that a big chunk of this could be just my own perception of her. You guys tell me if you have the same perception. But some of the weightiness and gravitas we saw that was in the trailer, I feel like that was kind of all that was there. And for the believability factor for her to be a hardened woman was difficult for me to see through everything that she was doing. I believed her emotional availability. I believed her when she was talking to people and she's in the moment. I didn't believe the totality of her being this person. I felt that there was an affectation that was happening in some places rather than an incarnation. I took it more as, because obviously you could have taken this character in many different ways. I don't know this character at all. I obviously feel outside of what they showed you in the thing. And so if you're obviously, yeah, obviously you could have put like a radica in this if she could have played like a younger, the younger. And she could have, she would have been... That person, somebody who would be able to play, because as well we only, I don't want to get into any spoilers. I'm not going to get into any spoilers yet. I understand what you're saying. I took her character more as a woman who was kind of obviously taken from her youth. And so she's trying her best to be as tough as possible, but she's still a little girl inside and that kind of came forward a bunch of times. And for the most part it worked for me. Her worked for me. The rest of the film was a little choppy for me in terms of them cutting forward to further in life. There's a lot I have to say about the story. A lot of these little things are like little blimps that I'm like, I wish you would have focused on more on that. It was really interesting to me. Exactly. And so those things... I enjoyed Ollie's performance. That's not really the issue I'd take with this film overall. That would be more, I'd say, in the writing and editing, but I do agree if somebody else was in it, it would have given a different portrayal, but I didn't mind her portrayal of this character. It did work for me, and I thought she held her own when J-Roz was on screen. She definitely holds her own. I thought she did a very good job in that aspect. I just... Maybe I'm just wanting more of a gritty on-yrog. Well, and that begs the... We'll get into spoilers. Some of the stuff I have about story and script for me, I would say if there's one area where I take... I have three areas of exception that didn't meet my expectation. The first one would be script and story. The second one would be some of the things I was expecting director-wise. And then last, it was Ollie, but again, and I'm not saying this because I need... Like I said at the beginning, I would do the art form more than do artists. If I thought she sucked, I would tell you, wow, I'm so sorry, Ollie, that you sucked. It wasn't that she was bad. It was that I felt like she did the... Very different film, but you know when I talk all the time about Daniel Day-Lewis in 9? And it's like, I'm watching him in 9, and I'm like, I wouldn't cast Daniel Day-Lewis in 9. I don't think that was his... For me, that's his weakest thing. I would never recommend Daniel Day-Lewis in 9, but you can't deny that. Yes, as I was watching it, I couldn't help but thinking about the different actresses that I felt could have portrayed the character base, not just also on what we saw on the screen, but the little I know having done a little teeny bit of research for the character without getting spoilers as to who this woman was in history. And that's the other thing we can get into story without giving away spoilers. I'm trying to comprehend what it is about this story and about this woman that was so compelling it needed to be told. I don't have a problem with the story in terms of them telling the story. It's a story of, obviously, a girl who was sold into prostitution and came up in that world. I'm fine with that. I like gangster stories. I don't need a moral to the story, even though there was a moral to this story, obviously. I'm not going to give that away. I guess because we can get into spoilers. It's not so much that I felt that this is the way I should better phrase it. It's not why was the story needing to be told. Why was the story told this way? That's my biggest exception I have. Because based on what I know about her, I don't want to give away anything yet. As opposed to a more gritty telling. Let's just say that. But for now, I'll get into it in the non-spoiler section. I guess it's just to... I have to go back and watch Padma Vaat in terms of Padma Vaat in terms of how gritty they went. Yeah, they're not. I think it's just his style. But comparatively, storyline-wise, this begs for that style of film. What I know about this woman, I get that. That might be one of the disconnects in terms of why I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to. Because I wanted that. I wanted the animal to be unleashed. And I think she did sometimes but I really wanted the... Exactly. And I really do feel this. If people just want to go to the movie and be entertained with a story that's going to touch on subject matter that they typically wouldn't even go near, they're going to enjoy this a lot more than somebody who wants to see realism. And especially if you're doing a biopic about somebody, I'm trying not to say stuff to give anything away. I think there's a lot of films. There are films that have an audience and you say you love the movie, more power to you, I'm so glad you went and had a great time because that's what I wanted. We don't ever go to the movies not wanting to enjoy it. But yeah, for me, I just wanted... The other stuff that I did enjoy, obviously it was a very pretty film. It was a Sanjay Leib and Sally film. He used the color blue a lot and obviously I think that was important, similar to how Zoya didn't use blue. He also had some really, in the early part, really beautiful, like a pink working in the twilight moments. You can't deny... If you want to go just to watch that as well, you're going to enjoy it. It's a Sanjay film. You're going to get your Sanjay fix in terms of the visuals for sure. And the cinematographer, I don't want to su-deep-shatter you. But you won't get, and I don't think it's supposed to be that, just letting you know in advance, if you're expecting Bajramastani or Padmavat visuals, you're not going to get that. It's not supposed to be that. No. It's still beautiful. It's still beautiful. He's striking. He's still the painter of light. Yeah, yeah. Symmetry is his game, man. I thought the songs were nice. There were none that were amazing, I don't think, in terms of like... I enjoyed them. I enjoyed all of them. Yeah. But none that like... I think my favorite was the one we were acting to probably. Agree? That's still my favorite. I still think that's my favorite. That one comes the closest to me for like some of the other numbers we've seen from Sanjay films. Yeah, from Padmavat and Bajramastani. And even around Lila to really enjoy. Yeah, yeah. Those are great. The supporting cast, as little... I mean, the ones that were... the big ones we're talking about, like Vijay Raj. He was amazing. He's not in it very much. Let me tell you that, guys. Yeah, that's not a spoiler. You just need to know that if you're expecting a lot, like we were kind of expecting a little bit more of him, but he's not a lot of them. Dev Gunn was nice. He's probably not the most of the supporting people. Correct. Jim in the second half. Oh, in the second half, Jim, our Dost, he's in it quite a bit. I actually thought he did really well. He was a very different character than even what we just saw, which was nice. And Ajay did a very good job. Ajay did a very good job. Yeah. And so overall, in finishing up the non-spoilers, I think the main thing is just... I think a lot of people will enjoy this film. I... I... It didn't live up to my very high expectations. No, and I... For sure. What I was mentioning at the beginning... I still like it. Here's what bothers me. I didn't like the end, actually. I will say that. Here's what bothers me. I really hope folks that are big names in the industry that tweet and use words like masterpiece, beyond spectacular, I hope that's not being done because that's what you're supposed to do because it's the business that really makes me sick. It happens. I know what happens. I'm not naive, and I know there's people that do it. I'll never do it. But granted, I never thought that. That's my hope. That is my genuine... I've already... I hope so. I've already had Stupid Babies reach out to me and say they feel the same way about this film. I've had Stupid Babies tell me they love it, that it's a wonderful motion picture. More... I have no argument with you that it impacted you that way. I can see why somebody would go and see this and enjoy it and not have a film critic hat on and walk away and enjoy it. It's just really tough for me to see, like, when a movie comes out, sometimes movies, and it used to never be this way, but critics and people will rave about something, and then people I know and I will go see something and go, I don't know what that's about. Yeah, but I don't know if that's the case with this movie. I hope not. Because I think there's enough that certain people might feel like this film would be a masterpiece for some people. And not for me. It's not a masterpiece for me. But as opposed to, like, because, like, we were disappointed with probably two of the other films that came out in theaters, with 83, and I'm not as disappointed in this as I was with those two. I will say that. Because I, especially Pushpa, Pushpa was obviously excruciating. Yeah, it's equal for me. Like, all three for different reasons. And the reason for this one is because of the three, this is the one that had my expectations in its highest place. But there's certain things in this. It didn't fall as far away from me. But this thing, I could actually, there's certain things in it that I can praise. That's true. There's some things in 83. Some things. But not as much as this. This has much more appeal. You're right. You're right. I would say that I can see why this would have more appeal. I don't. Like, there's certain people that will, obviously Ollie just has haters and I'm not talking about those people. Exactly. But like, in terms of, at least in my opinion, I don't think this is a bad film. It's just, it didn't live up to the, and it was almost impossible to not have the hype, obviously, aside of filming Ollie. Yeah, of course. And so, maybe my expectations were way too high. Admittedly, that could be the case with me too. That may be the case. But I, even still, I don't think, in my opinion, I don't think you can call this a bad film. I think it's, I think it could have been edited down some in terms of the length. I think it could have been edited in terms of how they, how they weave the story a little better. And I think some of the writing could have been a little, in terms of, I'm just keeping it saunty. Yeah, if we can get, if we can get it. Not talking, not, not, not talking like giving it to Onyrog and making him his film. It doesn't need to be. I mean, come on, just because it's gangster movie, it doesn't have to be Onyrog. Exactly. But yeah, so, you can let us know what you thought about it in the, if you're still here, but we're going to get into little spoilers here. Spoiler time. So if you haven't watched it, go watch it, and then you can come back and we'll talk about it. So, if you have, I didn't like the end at all. Me too. Absolutely. I did not like the whole procession. It was almost like, It was like a Disney parade. Yeah. Like curtain calling. I did not like that at all. Me too. And the students there. Yeah. Yeah. That part was probably my least favorite of the entire film. It summed it up for me with a ribbon in a way that there were aspects of it that I was like, I, if this is a story worth telling, then it should be told the way it happened. Mm-hmm. And this lady, as far as I know, wasn't just a prostitute and a madam, but she was a mafia queen. Yeah. And she made sure people got murdered. Yeah. I was hoping they could... And there were drug deals that were, I mean, she was... I was hoping they were getting into that, like some of it. I thought from the, that was, that's probably my single biggest disappointment in this film was like, when it started, I was like, okay, cool. This is what I expected when they did the girl. Everything. I'm like, okay, Sanjay's going to take the gloves off here and he's going to tell us a gritty story about a real woman who did some pretty awful stuff, but still had some qualities about her that made it like this weird paradigm. Didn't go anywhere near that. Yeah. I thought, I thought like at times when, once again, when it's boring, like when the person was trying to interrupt her after she was drinking, I thought she was going to flip a switch, turn around like, shoot them, stab them. Something. All she ever did was really slap people. It was like, I don't know if that animal to be released. And maybe that's not who she was. She wasn't the one killing it. I could be wrong, but what I know about her is that she was a mafia queen. I know, but I was saying maybe she wasn't the one that pulled the trigger. Well, yeah, but then let's see someone pull it. Yeah. So, yeah, that's one of the thing. I just wanted that side of that character, because I, but some people it's, it's not a, it's not a pretty profession. Well, I do, there is an, I absolutely agree. I believe that there are people, if she is what I've read, if this lady in history, she may have done some things to get some rights for some people and things like that in nature. However, the context in which all of that is happening, she is a, she is a woman who was a prostitute and then became a madam and then became a prostitute who present for the masses a presentation of this person from history that doesn't really show that side can easily turn her into a hero rather than turn her into a very complex person who had a broken life but still had some traits about her that wanted to get equal, right? You know what I mean? I wonder why they didn't go into that, that side of it. And there was, obviously, like I said, what she could with the script that she was given. I agree. I think that she did the best with what she could with what she had. I just, I think I think have cast her in the role. I don't know, but even though there's a thousand actors that I could tell you that would have done a great job as well, I don't fully agree with that because they also had to portray her really young and all the people I'm thinking of cannot do that young that they were trying to portray here would be the exception of Radhika. That's the only one that I can really think of that might have been a good choice, but also Radhika's not a big name. And unfortunately it's a business. And therein for me lies that I don't give a crap. Regardless, I don't agree that she should have been casted because I do think she did a good job and I just think if it was written differently, they could have made her performance even better, obviously, because obviously great acting could do another level. It's the script, obviously. Script is king. And just like when they were kind of shallow portraying her character, some of the dialogue was a little shallow at times as well. Not all the times. No, no, no, no. No, there was some gritty scenes and cliche at some point. There was a cringe line for me when she's talking to the priest and said that the kids know their alphabet because they hear those sounds. I was like, really? Spoilers. I loved VJ. I thought when he came on screen, the tension was so amazing and the scene was so good. I wanted so much more of that character. And I was like, okay, we're getting into the nitty gritty. And that was another part. And then it went away. I don't even know and this is editing and screenwriting. I don't even know what kind of a threat his character played for Gungobai other than she needed to win the election and didn't like her. What did his character do? That was such a threat. Yeah. I don't know, do you? Yeah. I just wanted them to go deeper into those, like, you could have focused for an hour on their relationship and I would have been absolutely thrilled. Yeah. Just why their combatants. Yeah. And I think that would have been an amazing tension because the tension was there immediately. We had, for me, my favorite part when Vijay walks into the room and sits down beside Alia. At the dinner? At the table? Yeah. When he's been calling her and she's not going to meet and he finally walks in and she has the food in her hand and he says, I don't need a plague. Yeah. That for me, that is the movie for me. If they had done more of that, I would have been jumping up and down, waving. Obviously how amazing Vijay Rodgers is. And the dude is, ah, he's so good. He brings the same as like bankage, same as all those heavy weights of just immediately when he walks on screen, he brings this weight and presence and like, we step up and not. Yes, absolutely. And I understand, I understand when people want to make a story more accessible to a broader audience. There are certain times I believe that needs to come into play. I just don't know why this woman's story wouldn't have been told for all of the raw red light district reality that she came from. It felt disnified. Yeah. Yeah, and then let's see. You talked about Jim. I thought Jim did a really good job there at the end. All the girls, we should give a shot at him. Yeah, I think all the girls did well. All the prostitutes. I agree. I thought they did a really good job. I thought they, the one at the beginning who reminds me of I should hit his mom. The madam running the madam. I thought she was good. I think Shade's mom could have also done that role as well. Yeah, she was amazing as well. Any heavyweight role like that she did. But she did. She did a good job. I thought she did a good job. I don't know, man. I guess I just, yeah, I think my biggest issue would probably have been just how they presented everything. Yeah. Right as you said that I was looking at the picture of Alia there and I felt like, man, it's almost like serving milk in a whiskey glass. It's like, I love milk, but I wanted whiskey. Yeah. Yeah, and maybe our expectations are way too high. But I think it was almost impossible not to be. How could it not be? Yeah. It's like anytime Spielberg does a movie for me. How's my expectations not going to be through the roof? If you have a film coming out that has Anyard Cushyup and Nawaz and Pankaj in it, there's no way my expectations are not going to be through the roof. Anything Zoya does. Yeah. My expectations are going to be through the roof. So if it's a big Santsilu Benzali production with Alia Bhatt. Yeah. Yeah. It sucks because I mean sometimes I'm raved about a film and I said, yeah, I think this would be minus film and I was more happy about it. Right. More happy about it. Yeah. So maybe I think maybe that might have been one of the big issues is that my expectations were just massively through the roof. And obviously I'm sure your grades if I was forced to give it a grade overall for me since I'm out I wouldn't recommend it then I would be giving it a C. Because it's not a failure by any stretch of the imagination. It's just a disappointment and I feel like the primary difficulty I have and I probably would have appreciated Alia's casting more if I hadn't been given milk in a whiskey glass but had been given straight whiskey. I had been hoping that we were going to see Alia portray a mafia madam who was going to do some really fricking Nawazid and Siddiqui with Anyar Aghasya stuff and we didn't come anywhere close to it. Again maybe I shouldn't have had that expectation but with this lady's story why not? And with Alia. And with Alia. She's a phenomenal actress. She's a phenomenal actress. And I still think I mean I still think this is actually one of her better performances not even though I might be more disappointed with the film I think it could have been her best performance if it had been had it differently. I think it had been I think it's still one of her I think it's still one of her better performances so if this makes any sense it could have been a legendary performance. I think it could have been too. Now that hurts. So you guys can let us know what you thought about this film and why we're idiots or what you agree with us or whatever. Get mad at us. Whatever you want man. Whatever you want. We love you Alia. Love you Sanjay. Yeah. Really love you Vijay. Yeah. Very much. Very very much. Let us know what you thought about the film down below.