 I'm doing I'm doing well. I want a glass of wine. You're more than welcome Should I give us a glass of wine? Sure. All right. I'll be right back. Okay. I might back with wine or whiskey I haven't decided yet Ooh, you got whiskey there Yeah, oh yeah, we did a whiskey ginger. Well, thank you guys so much for coming on the channel For everybody who doesn't know this is Monica and Jonathan They are a lovely couple that I know here who actually took me to my first Indian wedding That I ever went to that Yeah, that apparently I heard a bunch of songs that I've now grown to love that had no idea Would ever be a part of my life. So thank you And Monica is a wonderful chef I I'm expecting some bread soon Indeed that olive bread is so good. Anyways, but They watched Kahani the 2012 film star directed by Sujoy Josh and written by Sujoy Josh starring Vidya Balin and Noa Zedin-Siddiqui and a couple of the people Suswata Chatterjee as well Jonathan I know Monica you you grew up in an Indian household. So you you saw a lot of classic Indian films That's what you've mostly seen, right? Correct. Not a lot of more modern films from India, right? No, in fact my my family Kind of poo-poo's on the modern films I remember when Slumdog Millionaire came out and my mom was so offended a Lot of Indians were And Jonathan you just know it through she's shown you some classics, right? Yes. Yeah, that's I'm starting to become More familiar. Actually, what was the one that we watched where I Was like, oh that they ripped some Terminator 2 music. Oh, that was Dawn the original Dawn though with Amitabh Amitabh Bachchan I was all about that one man. That was like pure like 70s like cop action like yeah, I haven't seen that one, but I hear about it a lot So I need to I need to watch it. But what did you guys think of this film? I? Dug it. Mm-hmm. I was feeling it. Yeah, I was feeling it But I'm like I'm like into like born identity kind of movies So for that reason I would like sucked me in you know it had that as being a thing going yeah, uh-huh Monica Did you like it? I? Did I did you know I thought I was going to miss all of the songs because that's such a big part of Watching an Indian movie. Yeah, and when I first I mean before we even started watching it. I was like 90 minutes I know where you used to like You're used to committing your whole day and night to it. Yeah an epic, you know Yeah, we just watched a three and a half hour film just the other day So yeah, it's it's quite short for for for an Indian film But I loved what the director did with it. So let's talk about you. Were you familiar with a video? The delete actress No, what do what do you think about her? He's the lead right? Yes. She's yeah, yeah Well, I hadn't seen her before Okay And what'd you think about her? I thought she was great. Yeah, you know, I thought she was super believable too In all the different stages of her throughout the film But I thought she was super believable and she was good at playing like the subtleties like Like how she wanted to keep the room clean and she was just like You know, like that's just who I am and then you find out later like what that really meant like she was cleaning off like Fingerprints and stuff like that in case so they couldn't figure out who she was I really like the subtleties of the movie. Yeah, well, she and she was also she was great because I Was definitely like sympathetic, you know, she really pulled off the The strength but vulnerability balance like I very complex like I dug that I thought she did a great performance to The the Durga festival and that goddess and like she was you know playing that role. Yeah But we didn't realize it the whole time, you know But I'm obviously I figured that you would pick up on that whole element of obviously the Durga Pooja The element of it, but how how soon did you figure out the twist? And for anybody who hasn't seen this film, obviously, there's a big old twist there at the end They got us they totally got us, you know, yeah, I yeah, did you did you should did you Put out a like a equine. She got kicked in the stomach. Oh Totally, yeah, I was right along with her man Since I've seen so many Indian movies like they're not above kicking a pregnant woman Sorry, not they we I'll kick a pregnant woman So they it got you there at the end, right? Yeah, for sure. I'm so glad that's I When I watched it, I I didn't I caught on to it probably I Can't remember exactly when but it was just before it happened, but it was still like absolutely shocking When it happened, what did you think of the other supporting character? You saw one of my favorite actors? Ever in this film. His name was no was it in Sadiki? He played mr. Khan on the other the really badass Agency guy who yeah, you thought was a bad guy for a while And so would you he flops right so he's he's a bad guy then you're like, okay cool He's on our side and then no, he's not. Yeah. Damn it. What side are we on I actually yeah he He's really pissed off that guy You know What's he so pissed off about? So is what so is mr. Chatterjee, right that like the fat lead cop. He's really pissed off. What are these guys upset about? Yeah, the yeah, they're like really agitated, right? Yeah, I loved both of their performance Bob the Swasata Swasata Chatterjee, I apologize. I always miss my nose his name. He's a really famous Bengali actor They're actually yeah, they're doing a sequel to this film Or I don't know if it's a sequel or a prequel, but it's it's about that character the Bob character Which is weird because I have questions about Bob. Okay, okay Here's a guy who's supposed to be a very fearsome Killer, right? Yeah But then when he's confronted And he's armed mind you with a pistol. He's like running away. Why is he running away? And the other thing? That's weird. Okay, is that as he's running away? He seems to start to have this hallucinatory Like you guys noticed that like he starts to hallucinate in the alleyway and I like what's going on with this guy Like there's this weird unexplained like is that why he's so weird because he's prone to hallucinations I didn't catch on that part Yeah, he has this I Just I guess no, I'm just because I was really mindful of what they were doing with the editing Yeah in that scene so he starts looking up like in the alleyway and They start to you know Make the footage look trippier and stuff like he's having some it basically puts you in like this first-person POV of like Almost like he's on drugs or he's hallucinating, you know It was a weird unexplained moment in the movie, you know, and so I kind of latched on to that but I was kind of like fascinated with the Bob character anyway because he was just they They they made this guy so strange. Yeah, you know, which worked for me up until the point where I had trouble with He's confronted and he starts to run and suddenly he said like dude you you Have the the spine to go and assassinate people in these, you know, like he's really brutal and cold, right? Yeah, but why is he then running from this like? Lowly cop that he could easily shoot. I don't know so that I had I had trouble with that Okay, but everything else was like Totally cool. I could see that totally Yeah, it's that the sequel I believe is either it's a pre-chorus I don't know for sure, but it's actually directed by this director. Sujo Josh's daughter. I believe he's nice He's having her direct this sequel. We actually got to interview the director of this film He's a super super cool guy super nice guy But yeah, the the other character in the was it and Sadiki who plays the inspector? Yes, I love him. He's one of my favorite actors Just not just Indian actors just actors in general You don't yeah the full scope of what this guy can do in this film But yeah, he plays one of the greatest villains you'll ever see in your life I can I can totally I can totally see that because he had such an edge in in this performance even Yeah, what was the movie where he played the villain that you like? Oh a bunch There's like the big There's a film called gangs of wasp her which is about five and a half hours. So normal Film we it's actually broken into two ports, but it's it's by a director named on your Akashia It's it's I think one of the greatest gangster films of all time It's so it's a it's a very Godfather-y style story, but in India Martin Scorsese actually watched it and and and loves this film It's one that you might if you like gangster stuff, you'd be really be into this film But he's also done so many other films where he plays a villain He's a film called ramen Raghav 2.0 where he plays a cycle a psychopath So he but he also does he does everything really really really well There's a film called the lunchbox with Irfan Khan where he just plays this normal dude And he plays it so well. So he's he's just he's one of these kind of yeah, he's so so good I love him well what I love when he first shows up in this movie What I love is when he comes and he kind of takes over their local police station And like the presence that he commands in that in those moments is really cool And he's really edgy and like I was buying that all the way how the other cop Like the local cops were like afraid of them and they he kind of just came in and took over Mm-hmm good good stuff. Yeah, Vidya Vidya the lead actress is also a really really good actress who We have we haven't even explored her enough, but I like her a lot Normally I ask because I've done this with other Americans usually they have never seen any Indian films You guys obviously are used to the classics But obviously I would normally ask was there anything culturally you didn't understand But I'm pretty sure the answer is no to that one Well, was there anything that you didn't understand No, I Know this one. I was I was I was like locked in with it and I was following culturally as well Yeah, especially I don't know if Monica explained it to you But obviously the the whole Durgapuja event that was going on that whole festival that they have that was obviously a big character In the entire film the goddess Her name is Durgapuja. That's that is the goddess, right? Durgas the goddess Durgapuja is the festival see even yeah Yeah, just like a like a prayer spiritual like Gathering it's it's not a yeah The it's separate from a festival like you can have a puja for anything Like if you just prayed to Dargah, that's doing a puja too. Okay. I didn't know that I Learned stuff every day. Well, I'm glad you guys enjoyed it. Would you guys be interested in watching more Indian films? Oh Let's yeah, let's keep doing this And I like I like watching it this way because you're introducing me to stuff that is familiar Yet different because like the whole dynamics of the cops like You might have you've said a few times like what are they so angry about what are they so salty about like? But that was familiar to me because Indian cops are always depicted that way like there's the like lazy local cops and then the like, you know important guy who's like skilled and competent. Yeah, you know, that's typical and I do I do think that Because I grew up watching Movies from before my time But also as I was growing up and my parents always watched whatever was current So I also watched the like 80s and 90s type of Indian movies, too which really Romantic and drawn out and stuff like that. Yeah, and During that time period it was really It was it was like Indian culture was trying to mimic American culture But they were decades behind. Yeah, and I feel like with this movie Like they were able to find their own voice. Yeah, for in a more stylized fashion that wasn't Specifically Indian or specifically Western. Yeah, and I found that really refreshing. Yeah, because it felt true to the situation and and and where they were Rather than trying to be somewhere else. Yeah. Yeah in Indian cinema. I think currently even though they would I think From what I've learned the Golden Age, you know people always debate on when the Golden Age of Indian cinema was but obviously the 90s were very overdramatic Shah Rukh Khan Romance over the top But now they've kind of come into their own and there's so many great films that have come out from every different Region of India as well. Not just because obviously this is from Bollywood but there's all the other language even Punjab we've only seen one Punjabi film But like Malayalam industry Bengali industry Tamil All those industries are doing and Marathi as well. They've just like they're putting out Oscar worthy films So it's it's it's quite insane how well they're doing but how like here in America, obviously we just don't know because they're they're not The the reach that they put out in India doesn't get to us or at least we don't listen to it So it's right. It's one of those. Well, they you know, they like to say in Hollywood, you know, there's this concept of Because now there's all these different genre Bollywood films too, right? So in Hollywood, they like to talk about oh, you know, which filmmaker is is doing the most to Advance a given genre, right or like further a genre. Well, they're doing it in these Bollywood films Like this is you know, like a there's a espionage like Jason Bourne element to this But then it's its own thing too. Yeah, and so It seems like the more classic movies are like taking inspiration from and sort of like you know following in American film footsteps, whereas Films like this are so cool because they're like Going ahead and like pushing the genres further. Yeah, you know for sure and like And we have to catch up with them with some of these, you know, because they're breaking new ground Yeah, there's some films that I could show you that that would blow your mind and Yeah, the amount of artistry that that comes out of India It's it's quite in there's a film that I could recommend to you that that will piss you the hell off Ah, it will be so amazing if you want to watch that film. It just that though it It's it's called a great Indian kitchen. It's about the patriarchy in in parts of India and how this this woman is Subjected to it in her home. That's all I'm gonna say But it's absolutely brilliant Yeah, so it's just her normal life but It's it's incredible. It just came out this year actually came out in January. It's a really good film But I'm so glad you guys liked this film What let it let us know down in the comments what what film we should let them watch next and Have a great night guys