 Got there, I have some trivia. You have some trivia in a box? Some Bollywood trivia. What? What? Ready? I'm ready. What actor plays the role of Dr. Cliff Patel in Silver Linings' playbook? I thought you said this was Bollywood. It is. Silver Linings' playbook is Hollywood. I'm guessing he was in it? You know who this is. I'm gonna guess it's Irfan. Anupamkar. Okay. Yeah. Actually. That's a poignant. Did you choose that specifically for this intro? I just saw his name. Just randomly, you just opened it in fact. Yeah. Wow. Hey, welcome back to our stupid direction, it's Corbin. I'm Anupamkar. It's actually Kair, I've been told. It's actually Kkar. But you know, that's Samantha. Yeah. Not to be confused with Samantha's. Samantha's? Yes, Samantha's and Samantha's. What happens is Samantha goes hiking and then she comes back covered in ticks and so it's Samantha's. It's me, Jessica. Welcome to the internet, boys and girls. You are my Sonia. You are, You are my Sonia. Classic. Today we're doing a movie review. And we're doing it over the 2009 film. What? Sid? Seriously? Do you know what time it is? It is. It's movie time. Movie time. Directed and I believe written by Ayan Mukherjee, right? Great last name. Who is also the director of Bra Mastra and Yaijuani, Yaijuani. I wonder if they were talking about Bra Mastra back then. 2009. Not yet, not yet. He says it was a 10 year process. I believe this was his director debut. So probably not yet. Maybe he had it in the back of his mind, but probably wasn't. I'd imagine planning the biggest, most expensive movie ever yet. No, but that's how far back they go. Yeah, yeah. He only likes to work with Ranbeer. He is exclusive Ranbeer. They have a contract together. They're the Scorsese and Leo of Bollywood. But it's obviously starring Ranbeer Kapoor, but Konkanasen's Sharma, and then Supriapathik and Anapom Kure. Or Kare, as my wife would say. Kare is that Bengali? Yeah. Kure. Anapom Kure. Because you're Bengali. No. You know she speaks Hindi. No, she doesn't. It's Ranbeer Kapoor. Yeah, Kapoor and Konkanasen Shomal. I don't know why I'm doing this. But she's Bengali. Yes, and that is the wonderful actress, also known as Shay Kapoor's stepmother. That's how she wants to be known. Maybe. She wants to be known that way. I don't know. Maybe she's very proud of being. Do you think? Konkanasen's Sharma? Yeah, I don't think so. No, she's not her stepmom. Yeah. Anyway, obviously this came out in 2009. Almost all of you have seen this movie. If you haven't seen it, wake up! Sid? If your name is Sid, let us know down in the comments below. We're off the rails already. I'm sorry, guys. But it'll be 100% for all of you. You've all seen this movie. So if you haven't watched it, Netflix? Netflix. It was on Netflix. At least here in the States. You can go check that bad boy out. Rick, your initial thoughts, please. This is my kind of movie. Hold on, wait. You're a Ranbeer hater. No, I'm really not. I don't know why. Is this justice for a Ranbeer? You've hated every single Ranbeer movie. No, that is such a lie. All times! Lies. You've never lied. Did you think he's ugly? Lies. And you think he has a small wiener. I don't say it. I didn't make that up. That's all you. That is all you. It's so funny. Because I had the initial response that I did and then went back and revisited and realized I was wrong. Something you never do. I'm never wrong, Nick. Is to discover that, no. This kind of film is already gonna be, it already has a win for being like a rom-com because I love them so much. But it also could have gone wrong in a lot of ways. In fact, we were watching it and the primary thing for me is why it works is just because he and Kankana are just so good together and it's just a really feel-good, lots of fun. I enjoyed it. I believed them throughout and it's not one of those films that is intending at all to be like this award-winning cinema. It's not that kind of movie. Not trying to be in the slightest. It's the kind of movie that makes you feel good and I really liked it a lot. Right when I was done, I texted the team and I said just watch, wake up, sit and they said please tell me what you thought and I said, I think, I don't know because I have to, it's difficult. I said it could be my favorite rent beer movie. Oh! It could be but also, because obviously the other two in the running are obviously going to be Tamasha. It doesn't surpass Tamasha for me. No, Tamasha and Barfi. Both of whom, artistically, obviously better films. Yes. But though I- Agreed. I was like, I would never tell somebody 10 Things is one of Heath Ledger's best performances or best movies. But it's going to be one of my favorites regardless. I will watch 10 Things I Had About You which has the same kind of cliches, almost dated stuff that's going on but it's such a feel good movie. I will watch that over better performances and Broke Out Mountain or different performances like that of his that I really, really enjoy. It's different because those like Broke Out Mountain is a really dramatic film as opposed to Tamasha which is still a really fun film and a good film like that and Barfi as well. Great performances. But I agree with you. But this is one of the ways, it's an easy watch. Yes. And you're just going to enjoy yourself. I would, I have to be in a particular mood to watch Tamasha and Barfi. This could come on at any time. Yeah, yeah. It almost gets that feeling of a Shahrukh Khan movie of I'm going to sit down and I'm going to enjoy myself not as almost whimsical I think as a Shahrukh Khan movie. Yeah. Those are their own beasts I feel like especially the 90s ones and all that kind of stuff. No, this is like Dildo Hock Nado. It's like that just everybody's really good and when it's over you feel good and you really like the message. You know what's going to happen in the entire time. Of course you do. Like immediately. When I said go run after the girl, he obliged and he ran after it. Right when he talked about the rain in the beginning of the monsoons. Me and my wife were like, that's how it's going to end. That's how it's going to happen. And it did. Nothing surprises you. You don't care. When I was talking to the group, they said yeah, it's not the best movie and it's a lot of cliches. I'm like, this film's supposed to have cliches. Exactly. Like you're not looking for like something to invent the wheel, the new wheel in these style films especially obviously it's 2009. So it's like what almost 15 years old even. And so you're just looking to like have a good time. You don't care that it's cliched. That's what these films are for. No, but the thing about it is that even though it is cliche and even though it's going to be predictable, the writing and the acting are done in such a way as is the directing and the score. I want to talk about the score that's done in such a way that everybody's committed to the believability. And so it works. They're not playing the cliches. They're not looking to do this in a way that's anything other than just grounded and as believable. This isn't Shakespeare. It's not supposed to be Shakespeare. This is supposed to be this kind of film. I believe these guys were these people as well as their friends. I believe the people in the workplace and you just wind up walking away thinking about this as a believable story. And we're Americans and we've related to this film on many levels but I'm sure as Indians, especially young Indians growing up. If you've obviously know somebody who has grown up very entitled or just had everything handed to them. Or also you're trying to find your own path in life that doesn't line up with everyone else's which is very relatable I think to anybody in the world. Which is also with Thiem and Tamasha. Yeah, it's yeah. And that's one of the things I really enjoyed because I was nervous because I was like, are they gonna make them try to like get like, this is not like I said, this is not like a new inventing of the wheel. Movies have been made about immature people that get go in and like they're childish and then they're like, oh, I got a career now. But sometimes I'm like, not everybody fits into that career mold. Don't put this guy who might not wanna be in a traditional office space. He wants to do something a little more creative. Let them do that. I'm glad that they went that avenue that allowed to show cause obviously in India, it's even more taboo than it is here. I mentioned that to Indrani which is something I knew going in. I just, she confirmed it was how many, how many, has she seen this? Oh yeah, that's what she wanted to watch it again. She loves it. So we watched it together and I said, that's really common, isn't it? And kind of rhetorical question where a son who would be born into a family and when he's through college, he still isn't really sure about the direction he wants to go. Then it's just a foregone. You are following in dad's footsteps. I mean, that is the expectation. And sometimes that's the expectation from much, much younger too. So one of my favorite things about the story that I thought was really great was adding the element that his, adding the element that his dad has had a love for photography too. I thought that added a really nice aspect in their relationship that would have made this film less lovely without it. That's one of my favorite things about the film. I really enjoyed Anupam Kerr. Oh yeah. Obviously, I think he's a fantastic actor. He's a very good in his comedic roles but then I also, I think he's an underrated dramatic actor because he brought it and normally we've seen him as the corky dad in a couple of things. He was a strict, straight forward dad but it also wasn't the stereotypical in my dad either. He wasn't an asshole. No, he obviously had his principles and what he wanted and stuff like that but he also loved his son. Yep. The beginning, I was like, you're gonna give him a car for working 30 days? What the hell? Right, exactly. What is going on? There are rich people that do that. But then you saw his justification. He's like, I wanna work with my son. I also wanna help him get going in life and so this is how he thought he was helping and then you had that moment and you kind of understood the dad. Sure. When they had that big falling out, you're like, which is good writing. Yep. You wanna understand both sides even though oftentimes you're not supposed to understand Ranbir side because he's a spoiled brat. Yeah, he's very spoiled. Absolutely. And he doesn't really know what he's doing and it's kind of his whole story but I liked the arc and the way Anupamkara portrayed his, and obviously I don't wanna just call her shade stepmom. I wanna know about him. I'm sorry. Cause I love that actress. I've loved her ever since Ramleela. Yeah. Supriya Patha. As well, very different performance. A much more subtle. Oh yeah. Still, she brought that weight to it and she's one of the, I think, better underrated actresses in all of India. And again, great writing. The fact that when he goes to see her, he, all he does is, it was very obvious that the mangoes couldn't have been from anyone but his mom. And she thought she could maybe just, you know, don't tell them they're from me. And he's like, yeah, I know my mom. Yeah, and it was so interesting how they wrote these parents because obviously when she went, she wanted to see where he was living and she wanted to give her money to her cause she knew her son probably wasn't gonna have any. Wasn't gonna pay him. Of course. But then at the end when she was like, I don't want you to get the wrong idea. We're not, we're just friends. But she didn't actually say anything which I thought was way better than like, her actually like them coming to like this under, she just touched her face. She, you don't know if she believed her. You don't know if she didn't believe her. Exactly. She's like, I don't care you're taking care of my son and I wanna thank you. Yes. I like that representation of, even though they're parents and they want their son to grow up and obviously take responsibilities. Right. It's still their son. Exactly. And they care more about him than they do him in any certain avenue. And assuredly would not approve of him living with a girl. But that, I agree with you. Not scripting anything, just having her touch her face is way more powerful. It wouldn't surprise me if that wasn't written either. Yeah, absolutely. With could have just been in the morning. With an actress like her, it wouldn't surprise me at all. Rand Beer, I wanna talk about obviously, he's the lead and that's why we got a little off track here. His character was relatable in a lot of ways, but also obviously not relatable in certain ways. Obviously, because it's fun. Like when he was making the eggs, when I was dating my wife, I did not know how to make eggs. I'm not even kidding. I had to call, when I was, I lived in San Diego when I was probably 20, I wanna say, or maybe 19. But I had to, I wanted to make some scrambled eggs. Wow, forget, like over easy, you're talking, you didn't even know how to make a scrambled egg. I don't enjoy cooking. Like there's people that, like my mom apparently tried to teach us all, but apparently we showed no interest. And then all three of my brothers left. They all showed interest in learning how to cook and doing all three of my brothers. I still hate it, I still hate cooking. It's maybe it's the ADD, ADHD, I just, I can't focus and even though there's recipes I can make, I still have to, I have to have the recipe in front of me and I have to know what's going on. I can understand that with you. And so it was very relatable. I had no idea how to make eggs. Were you as excited as he was when you finally figured it out? Oh, I was very proud. Oh yeah, but I've also burnt eggs. Apparently it's hard to mess up eggs. I've burnt the shit out of eggs. Yeah, that's tough. It's real bad. It's real bad. I know how to make eggs now, I don't have shit. I'm much older than I was then. But it was very relatable at that point. Not the rich parents, never had. No, I can't relate to that at all. I was working for my age of 14, because my parents were like, if you want money, you're gonna have to work. Yeah. Can not relate to that. That was not relatable, but it was, I liked his trajectory arc. Ranbir's a fantastic actor. Of course. I mean, obviously this is not one, like the rock stars or the Tamashas that was really asking him to give a really Oscar-worldly performance, but he did a fantastic job in what he was supposed to do. No, he, you know what, he's very relatable. He doesn't remind me of the actor I'm gonna reference. But his capacity as an actor is comparable to this guy. Tom Hanks. That's an interesting comparison. Because Tom Hanks can do, Maybe young Tom Hanks. Captain Phillips and Castaway, but he can also do Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail. And it's because he's himself in those moments and in those places. And he's a very lovable person, but he is an incredible actor, so he can do, or saving Private Ryan, he can do drama. And so it's the depth and the breadth of what he can do as an actor because I could tell he was taking this very seriously. He was putting in, I feel like he probably puts in no different kind of focus as an actor on a film like Wake Up Sid, as he would something where he had to be far more in character and like in Barfi or Rockstar. And it shows in his work and he has a quality about him that's perfect for this character because there's an innate likeability and a naivete he can convey that like, not as strong as like the one who can do it the best for me in all cinema. I can't imagine anybody playing naivete more aptly than Amir Khan. He plays characters who are naive and innocent because I think it's just part of who he naturally is. And that's one of my favorite attributes of his character in this is that I believed and I liked, like I felt bad for him when she said, and she was being honest when she said, I wanna tell you this, it's gonna hurt your feelings. No, no, no, tell me. She's like, you're too childish. You're a boy and I need a man. And I was like, she's right, but all. Yeah, and once again, I wanna go back to the writing because obviously you knew what she was talking about in terms of he's not really responsible. He takes, and for a second, I was like, you're wanting him to like just like grow up really? You don't want any of that. And in the end, she was like, I'm a little childish too. I kind of like, I don't want somebody who likes, even though I love jazz, I don't know about that. Jazz is fantastic. I love jazz. But she realized in the end, she was like, I kind of like somebody who has a little child. And obviously he needed to grow up in certain areas. Yeah, so the difference between childish and childlike. And it was as he started to gain responsibility and respect her space more, he didn't lose his childlikeness. And that's why I think she was able to fall in love with him because she realized, you know what? How much of this is being just irresponsible childish versus a whimsical childlikeness that most men lose, that he has, which makes him so endearing. And I thought she did a, I 100% believed she was falling in love with him. Yeah. 100%. She's fantastic. Yes, she is. She also has such a beautiful, unique look to her. I like. Conkana. Conkana. Such a beautiful look to her. I agree. I'm also partial to five foot tall, dark skinned. Well, why don't you marry Conkana? God. Bengali girls. And obviously we've seen her before in a couple of things, but I've always thought she was extremely talented actress. She's very good. And it was cool seeing her in this kind of like. They're fun together. Cause I feel like she is, she likes more heavy duty roles oftentimes, based off some of, she was in Okara, she was in, she's the lipstick on my burqa, which you know, I have not seen that one yet. Let's talk about her deriding, directing Death and the Gunge. Death and the Gunge and the Tolvar. She's formidable. And then there's, there's a couple, oh, this one. Oh, she was in Seven Kun Moth? Yeah. I totally forgot that. And she was obviously in Ithidaian, which we saw last Halloween. I totally forgot she was in Seven Kun Moth. So I feel like she likes a little, even though she does commercial stuff, I feel like she likes a little more kind of intense. I do too. Roles, but you know, seeing her in this kind of will they, won't they kind of movie? Rom-Kami movie. But also I like the writing a lot because it set it up immediately. I'm not gonna sleep with you. I'm not gonna sleep with you. I just want you to know that. But then your entire time you're like, they're obviously gonna get together. But then this movie kept going on. I'm like, there's not a lot of time left. No, and I love their friendship. But even though love their friendship. In the back of your mind, you always knew. It was like, you're gonna get together in the rain. I know you're gonna get together in the rain. I literally, what point was it? Oh, it was like very notebooky. Shh, he wasn't getting the fact that he was being a slob and disrespecting her new place that she designed. And I straight up, I wasn't being silly. I yelled at the TV in the moment and I said, come on, what are you doing, man? Wake up, Sid. We were dying. We were dying. Speaking of which, you don't want to talk about the soundtrack. I do. Wake up, Sid. Okay, so yeah, my wife was singing every song. She knew every song. Oh, she knew every song. I used to listen to it like while, you know, my friends drove and like long drives. It used to be like on the- A soundtrack? Yeah. Yeah. So here's what I want to know. If you can check, I didn't check. There was a point in the scoring that was so beautiful. It was toward the latter part when he's about to move away. And he doesn't pick up on the fact that she's fallen in love with him and your heart's going out to her and you're thinking, come on, kiss her already. Let's see this, come on. And I thought, this, I bet money that the composer or one of the composers did Laos sing Chata. But I haven't checked yet. Shankar Mavanan was always a singer. Music. Kaho Nahao, my name is Khan. My name is Khan. Music. Amit Trivedi, my name is Khan. Man. Amit. Amit Trivedi was the composer of this movie. I don't know who wrote some of the, but some of the moments in it. Hard non-bar. Were as pretty as the score in Laos sing Chata. And I also loved moments where the score is playing and then somebody says something and it stops and there's silence for a minute and then it picks back up when the mood re-established. I thought that was a very nice use of scoring. Where was Kalki? Huh? She credited here. She's Aditi? Did you see Kalki in this? No. Sorry, I'm a little distracted here. I was just looking at the cast of the film and it says Kalki, was she like, was she cut? Is she in a party scene? Sid, maybe it's, no, that's a song. Yeah, I don't, that's weird. Yeah, it's, maybe it's like the Alia thing when in ugly Alia. She's in like a clip. That's strange, but if you know the answer to that. Yeah, why is Kalki? It's Kalki Keklin on there. Credited on INDV. Credited actress in the film, I don't know. But yeah, I thought the score was nice. It was fun to see all those lovely songs and sometimes it's in certain films and I don't know why this is a run time too. Sometimes I don't know why some of the English dialogue seems cringy sometimes. I know. Do you know why? I do, why? And it always does. And I think it's just because it's so, there's an affectation in the way most Indians when they speak English in a rom-com and when they're saying things in like a party way, it's just like, I think this is the best way to describe it. So Indians will regularly say isn't it at the end of a sentence but it grammatically doesn't work the way we use isn't it. Right? I think that's the same thing. Especially if they're like college-aged party-goers, there's just something about the way they say it and the way they phrase the words that is so different than the way we say them that you question the actor's authenticity in speaking the lines. Well, obviously it's not an issue because it's in every single thing. But it is a little cringy. Yeah, and I wanted to figure out why exactly it is. And it's clearly something with my ears because it's clearly a very normal way Indians speak. Yep. But it just went like when they're speaking English essentially sometimes and they say certain things and I'm like, oh, that was, it does. It sounds like they're trying to give an affectation to the phrasing, but that's just the way they speak. It's just strange. And it's because it's so different than the way we say those things I think it hits English speakers who that's native to them and the same way that if we tried to say stuff in Hindi it would always sound weird. Do you think Kieran Johar had a big influence on this film? I'm sure he did. Because this had a lot of heart of a Kieran Johar film. I mean, he's the producer. But I feel like that's something he's really, even though obviously he can write stuff that's cringy or he can do stuff that's way over the top but he also always brings heart in his films. Oh yeah. Every single one, which is something we said about Kaohonaho that it lacked, I felt, the warm heart feel which apparently people said that he actually regretted not directing that film. He apparently handed it off to somebody and he later said he regretted not doing the film. Yeah, I think you'd have to find out as well because just because it says somebody's producing or exec producing doesn't mean they're necessarily fulfilling those roles the same way in every film. And some films, if they're producing, it's a far more collaborative thing for them and in other times, all they did was write a check. Yeah, and it's, so this, Ayan, the director. So we've seen what, three films of his? Yajwani, Hajiwani, this and Brahmastra. Brahmastra. He can't have done it a lot because he's probably been working on Brahmastra for ever, right? Yeah, wake up, say director of debut, I'm pretty sure. Oh, oh no, it's just a special thanks. I saw luck by chance and I was like, wait a minute, that couldn't have been him. He was an associate director on Swadesh. Hey, wait, wait, wait, writer, Swadesh? Associate, writer screenplay. Wow. Which is funny because I thought one of the weak things in Brahmastra was the screenplay in terms of the dialogue writing. And that was a very common, it was, I didn't feel that, but there were, you weren't the only one. It was a common critique of the film that the dialogue felt very forced, which is something that I feel like is not in this film at all. Definitely is not in Swadesh. Yeah, and I agree with you, it's not in this. I felt like everything was justified and was really well done. But clearly he also likes love stories. That's like, that's one of his driving forces, I feel like. And I think that's the heart in all of Karan Johar's things eventually, because I think he's a big believer in love stories. Why do you think he's, I don't think it's just gossip. I think he genuinely loves and gets so happy to see people get together, and that's why that's one of the topics on the couch, is who are you with and what's going on? Because I think he genuinely just gets thrilled to hear about love. Yeah, yeah. I think he did a fantastic job. Some of the critiques, like some of the supporting cast, I didn't love too much, didn't care too much though. And nobody was awful, thankfully. Yeah, nobody was awful, just some of the supporting ones weren't as strong as others. I agree. So that would be a critique that I can say. Other than that, I'm not really gonna critique a lot of it just because it's this genre and like some people said it has a bunch of cliches, I like the cliches. Me too. When I go into these films, I just want to feel good. Yep, and if you did that, you did your job correctly and what can I critique? If that's what I got out of the film, right? This is exactly what you were expecting and I would watch it again in a heartbeat. Absolutely. So let us know what you think about this film, which will be our next Ranbir and Konkana. Yes. Films that we should watch and clean up after yourselves.