 dad dan dan dates we want that dubbing I don't want that I don't want that what the fu... so annoying Old man can't figure out technology Hey welcome back to our stupid-reaction it's Corbin It's not me figuring out the technology it's them not having on their site what They claim they have That's what all old people think Hey welcome back to our stupid-reaction it's Corbin You can false on Instagram, Twitter, Nummer... Thanks for the Patreon. I'll just turn down the subscriber. You didn't like fun. How's your dad doing? It's been a while. It's been a while. He's doing better. He's just being a butthole. Yes. By the apple doesn't fall from the tree. He's not eating his food. And they had to give him more than one enema. So once he eats and poops, they can transfer him back to physical therapy. So it's good advice to eat and poop. It is. It's not to confuse the two, which many do. Today we're doing a movie review of the 2018 film Mahanati. Yeah. Mahanati. Mahanati. Yeah. Mahanati. Mahanati. That's what he said. You heard him, kids. Mahanati. Mahanati. Mahanati. Yes. The 2018 film directed by... Directed by... And written as well. And written by Nag Ashwin. And starring... It's a big, big production. But your main... Yeah. The primary person is Kierthi Sudeish. Kierthi Sudeish. And then there's also Samantha Ruth Prabhu in there. Vicky... I can't say his last name, but I don't particularly like him. And then this guy as well. Those are the... Yes. Dulkur Salman. Yeah. Those are the main four that I'd say, but obviously it's a very big movie. But it came out in 2018, so there'll be 100 cents for it if you've been watching. We saw it on Amazon. You can go watch it there. Come back. But it's obviously the story of the biography of Savitri, the actress whom we've seen in Maya Bazaar. Maya Bazaar. So that's obviously where we know her from. Other than that, I knew her as kind of almost a Sridevi type, obviously a Sridevi was more Hindi industry, but a beloved actress of the time. Other than that, other than people that told me she was that big of a star and that she was in Mere Bazaar. Right. She knew absolutely Zilch. Yep. And I knew when we reviewed Maya Bazaar, I remember some stupid babies letting us know that her life had a tragic and early, and I think it was like 40, 43 or something. Something like that. Yeah. Some way too early. Yeah. Anyways, but obviously it's only 100 cents. Four of you, if you haven't watched it, go watch it. Come back. So I have a mixed bag of thoughts, primarily and overall. I think it's a good movie. I think that it's especially good for anybody who would be familiar with who she is. At least I think that's the case. Yeah. Yeah. Obviously we have no idea how truthful. I'm taking it at face value. Exactly. And you could tell us if there's stuff that was wrong. This is way, way different than me seeing Elvis because I know so much more about Elvis. Or that Judy Garland. Yeah. Any biography of someone from American artistry, way more familiar with it. And even though we're familiar with more Indian artists now, she is definitely someone we weren't familiar with. No. So ultimately it's a good movie that I liked, but I was hoping it would be a movie that I would love. So a good movie I liked, there's some things I have that are praiseworthy and there's some other things I have that I had problems with. Yeah. Yeah. It was about the very same way. It was a mixed way. I was actually, I was really worried about 40 minutes in because I was like, this is just not, not in the same way that like the first 30 minutes of Ega where I just think terrible. Right. We were like, if you haven't seen our review of Ega, go watch it because I love Ega. I think of Ega. We both do. It's a very fun movie, but the first 30 minutes are painful. And we both agreed. Agreed. Like start it at the 30 minute mark and we're great. So you could watch it. But were you feeling that at the first? No. I was feeling that in terms of, this is awful. Right. It was like, especially like the acting young, it just almost never works for me. Like a little, a lot of over the topness and maybe it's just I wasn't invested yet. After when she almost became an adult, I kind of got quite invested in her and in her charisma and in her story. And this was also a very unique biography because it's, it's not like if you were telling the story about like Judy Garland, obviously the one that just came out, even though you didn't like that one, it took a very serious approach to it. This took a very commercial approach, I felt. Very. Like it's not, it's not. An accessible approach. It's not digging too deep. Correct. It's telling a story that even though obviously we know nothing. Most people, especially in the Tolugu or Tamil film industry, probably know everything that's going on. Everything more. Of course. All the scenes that they did. All the everything. And would point out things that they realized were so good about it and complimentary and therefore elevates their level of appreciation of the film. Yeah. Can't help that. But it was very much, it's much more commercial. Yeah. So it took like a, we're just here, we're going to have a good time and we're going to tell this, it's a celebration of her life almost. Yeah. As more of a, I think a strict, how we in the western ill of biography, right? Correct. Yeah. I put that in my notes that it was very clear several things that it was clearly made with love and respect for her. And it's clearly a story that they wanted to be acceptable to all age groups. Yeah. That this was, we want to find the broadest audience we possibly can. And not just in age groups, but in sensitivities. We don't want to do anything into the story that's going to cause audience members to turn away from it. We want it to be pretty accessible. Even though I would have loved that. Of course. Well, it's real life. And I don't like, there were some things, for example, when you're talking, we'll begin with just story. There's so much we don't know about her, but because I wanted to know as much as I could. I loved it no more. I read some things about both her and him and the fact that like, I don't know why they changed, and maybe I misread this, but it was my understanding that he had three wives, not two. My wife looked that up as well. Yeah. That he had three wives, not two. But those are just small, picky things. Overall, like some of the things I love the most, and then we can get into the specifics was that it's beautifully shot. Mm-hmm. Yes, it is. And it's the scope of the production design. Insane. Incredible. It was top notch. You can't really do it better. The undertaking was absolutely massive in scope and scale. And if there was anything I was going to say about it would be, okay, if you want to see if this industry can do something on the level of like, gone with the wind, or you name it, that isn't a action special effects film. All pretty much practical stuff that makes you think it's practical. Yeah. That puts you in an era and they want to show you the bigness and the details. Yeah. That was the most impressive part for me. The production value was absolutely insane. Top notch. The reenactments of Maya Bazaar. It was amazing. We're incredible. Obviously, I'm sure all the other ones were just as enjoyable for everybody else, but obviously that being the only one that we've seen and we love that film so much. It was just so enjoyable to like almost relive it. Yeah. It felt like it was behind the scenes. It also felt the casting and the guy. I thought it was him. Him, I know. I was like, there's no way that's actually him. It really felt like we were watching behind the scenes footage. It did. I was so impressed. They got every little nuance and I'm sure they did that with every other film that she was going through. Let's just talk about her, the main actor. I thought she did a really, really good job. I did too. And she's really the reason for almost the charm of the film and how I got invested into her character because I thought she did a really good job. And I thought even though there's some stuff that, like in terms of like there's certain writing dialogues that I was like, it's kind of cheesy or cranky. Sure. But also I didn't know if like that was, they're trying to put you in the same kind of dialogue and verse that back in the day. In the films and back in the day. And so I was like, I don't know if that's what they're doing. Right. I can't really. Can't judge that. Those were some of the hurdles I had to get over. Me too. Especially in the beginning of like, some of this dialogue is just, ugh, I don't love it. Yeah. But also like, it very well could be that's just like, this is taking place in the what, the 60s or whatever. And this is how the movies talked, right? Correct. And so I didn't know. But I thought she did a phenomenal job of bringing the emotion out. And I really got invested into her story. Knowing nothing. And so everything that came on screen was a surprise to me. Correct. And so I was like, oh, they did what? Right. Especially with the husband. I was like, this is, this is, this is scandalous. Yeah. Very. What is going on here? Yeah. It sounds like she had such an interesting life. Absolutely. And then that's why like, and I'm talking like, if it was done like, I would love, even though I thought this was a good film, I would love a story to be done of like, that digs deep. Like it really goes into the nitty gritty of her life. And of everything. So I feel like for a movie that had the runtime that it did. Yeah, it's almost three hours, right? Yeah. I felt like, and this is after doing research, after watching it about her, right? Yeah, yeah. So I felt like they touched on the majority of things to give you a basic scale of reference versus, and the way they could have done that, I think was because they took the amount of time they did with the other story going on at the same time, which was the woman, our actress, Samantha Roosevelt. Yeah, Samantha, her character and her story. So that was in her woven. If you took that out and did this pure like biography, you could get into some of the things I wanted to know a little bit more about. Yeah. I wanted to know more about why she was considered such a brilliant actress other than she could make a tear come out of her left eye. I wanted to know more about her philanthropic endeavors and her generosity because it's my understanding she was such a generous person that people took advantage of her and she let people live with them and she gave to so many people and to see the depth of that. They showed that generosity, but they didn't show the... But not the depth of it and not the usage that people took advantage of her good heart. You got that she was a great person with a kind heart who was also really innocent, like so many people who are great artists, they're used by the people in the industry that are the business side and the snakes and they end up go down the list from Judy Garland to Marilyn Monroe to Elvis Presley to Michael Jackson. They're the people that really have a beautiful heart and people with ugly ones destroy them. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. So that was, I agree with you. I would have liked to have gone deeper into those parts of her life. Obviously that's not what this film was trying to do. It was going very commercial. Correct. And so I adjusted my thinking very early on because I was like obviously they're not doing the normal, as I know it'd be, biography. Yeah. But I thought she was definitely the strongest actress in the entire film. Yeah, I agree. But let's talk about her husband as well. Who I thought did a good job. It was just, it was such an interesting, it was, it wasn't like a unique story, his story. No. Outside of their marriage and that was, that was unique in terms of him wanting to be with her but being married. It's like, it's weird, dynamic. Yeah. For a while I was like, is he just marrying two people at the same time? Right. And then obviously you found out he left his first wife but they never went into the third wife. Right. Or the cheating. And I want to know, because they make it seem almost virtuous in that he explains to her at the outset of their relationship that the marriage he has to this first wife was when he never wanted ever in the first place and he's never been in love with somebody except her. Now you can look back at that afterwards and say, oh, that's the line he used with everybody. Which may be the case. But I felt that there was, and it may have been in the writing, it was, I don't want to say it's shallow. That's a bad analogy. It was more on the top of everything. Surface level. For sure. More surface level. The whole film. Surface level. In knowing versus diving deep, deep down into who this man was. Yeah. And so yeah, and that's where there were points where I felt I wasn't able to connect more deeply than I would with a different kind of telling. Yeah. Absolutely. But I thought he did, I thought Samantha obviously. I thought it was super interesting what they decided to do with Samantha and Vijay in terms of how they wanted. It's not a new telling. Obviously there's been many, many films that go like, oh, I'm trying to find a story. And then the story is told. And the story is told and they actually are connected because of the story. They're writing the story and you're seeing it through what they're writing. Right. That's not new, right? But they added like this love element so they got their own kind of love story on top of that. Right. But I thought she did a good job and so did he in kind of their small little niche role that was kind of almost a side movie in and of itself. Yeah. Her best moment for me is one of my favorite moments of the film and that's her last scene when she's talking to her there in the coma. Yeah. That monologue she has, I thought was very nice. Yeah. Very believable. I thought the wedding scene was funny. Yeah, I did too. I thought it was good. I did too. So I thought Vijay and Samantha both did well in their roles. Yeah, you never know if that was actually like necessary like that entire, the telling part or you could literally just told this story without having to. I, again, with that runtime and the lack of the deeper depths like I would have, we saw her race her car for like a blink of an eye but apparently she was a huge collector of vintage cars and loved to race. I would have liked to have known a little bit more about that side of her. And again, the thing I would have liked to have known more is what was it other than popularity that made her such an incredible actress. Yeah. Because she's considered like the, that's the name of the movie. Like she's the actress. She's like, well, it's just like Sri Devi. Yeah. It's like, so what were the, I mean we knew we could dance, she could dance and she could sing but if someone were to make a movie about Sri Devi and we didn't get to see all of who she was as an artist, I would feel gypped knowing what I know about her. Yeah. So I think this is one of those things where nobody would get offended by it and no one would be disappointed by it yet I think there's a level of, there's a lot more I would have liked to have seen and there were a couple of things that were bothersome for me like the pacing at times with the length of the film. Yeah. Three hour film. It was big and I couldn't help but think is one of the reasons for the three hour runtime because we have to have a three hour runtime because that's what audiences expect and that's what the theaters expect us to do which I understand a business standpoint but that's for me a never good reason to justify a runtime. If your runtime is based on, we got to keep people in their seats because that's what they expect and they got to make money at concessions that's not a really good story. Yeah. What's my motivation? Draw this out. You know what I mean? And the other thing I noticed and it was fresh on my mind because of the SS Rajmouli and Russo Brothers interview. Remember he asked the question and they said, okay, story character, story character, story character, that is what is compelling to us. And he agreed but then he added a third element which was in motion. Yep. And I felt that here. It's the same industry and I felt many choices especially with score but with acting, with direction, we're specifically driven by we have to get them emotional. Yeah. It's an interesting, not just about Telugu industry but it's Indian film industry. Some do it more than others. Right. But it's especially back in the day. It's just that that is an element. Yeah. That has been part of the Indian film industry. Right. It's considered a valid tactic. Yeah. Right. Because people want that emotion and they call films an emotion not a film. Right. So it's just, it's a unique aspect to Indian cinema. Right. So you need, I'm not saying there's anything right or wrong with it. It's just it's a different take that It's a very different approach. Very different approach. It didn't bother me too much in this one but I can definitely see that. Yeah. But I kind of gave it a little grace because I knew I was like this is very Yeah. Any time you do a commercial film it feels like they do that a lot more. And it wasn't anywhere remotely close to the controversy. There's, I'll finish that sentence. There's a big difference between these comparisons. This to me wasn't egregious. I could see that that was part of we have to have a great story, we have to have great characters and we've got to get them emotional and that that is part of the DNA of storytelling in Indian cinema. However, when it becomes so egregious that it borders on and then surpasses just downright manipulation like the stuff we saw happening in 83 where we were like, okay, that's modeling. Stop already. Time out. But even that for a lot of Indians it's so much a part of what they've grown up with and known they do not have a problem with it. And you are absolutely 100% entitled to saying that ought to be what is done that way. I won't ever see that as a useful tactic in cinematic or theatrical storytelling because for me, it doesn't reach the higher level purposes of what you're doing in the art form. But that doesn't mean that we have to agree. Yeah. But yeah, I think overall I enjoyed this film more than any gripe I had with this film. Oh, I also want to talk about the score. I thought the score was wonderful in terms of like the songs. They were like almost La La Land, some of them, right? The staircase sequence. It was amazing. It was straight up reminded me of the Griffith Observatory sequence in La La Land. It was amazing. It was gorgeous. I was watching it thinking that is worth the price of admission. That number alone. Yeah. And I'm actually really, really glad we didn't see that. Yeah. That was left as a surprise in the film. Yeah. Because that blew me away. Yeah. And there was I think a few songs in this film. That one obviously being the showstopper in terms of just the visual awe of it. Yeah. But I thought all the songs in this were really, really nice. Really, really enjoyed it. It added to the obviously commercial feel of the film and stuff like that. It happens. You're like, we're not taking ourselves very seriously. Yeah. I feel like here. Yeah. And so it kind of gets you a little more relaxed. And so as the film went on, it took me about 45 minutes to really get invested. Obviously, you got two hours after that. And so it's a whole other film to really get invested after I wasn't invested yet. Yeah. Yeah. In the story because it's a three-hour film. Yeah. And something, you don't always feel it. I feel like a lot of times the pacing was good. But there was sometimes you definitely felt the run time. Yeah. Yeah. You had to be, I mean, RR did it. But you'd have to be like a really, really insanely good film to not feel the run time in a three-hour movie. Yeah. Because like we didn't have a, I don't think, if you look back at our view, I don't think we had a problem with the Lagann run time. And that's insane. But it's three and a half, right? Because Lagann is that good. It's nearly four. But it's because Lagann is just that good. And that's where the difference for me in this film, as to why I would say it's good and it didn't enter the great realms for me. Because like I said, that number was great. Yeah. It had great moments. Yeah. But as an overall film, there were parts of the run time and the pacing that began to drag for me. And then there were some points where I saw, like, I wished it had been different in the depth, but I can't hold that against it. Yeah. However, there were moments where I was like, okay, that doesn't make sense to me. And it wasn't a fantasy moment, like when he jumps on the hood of the car and he does what had happened to, you know, he reenacts the moment of jumping on the car and telling everybody, I love this girl. He jumped on the car, but it took a full 60 seconds of screen time before the driver said, hey, get off my car. And all I could think about was why has the driver let him do that to his car? And there were several moments like that. That's a weird thing, Rick. No, that's reality. I know, but it happens in movies, man. Well, it happens like in a movie musical when it's very clear that what we're doing right now is a stretching, but that wasn't articulated. What happened was the guy was just driving along and he jumped on the hood of the car and it took a full 60 seconds. And then even after he got off the car, there was no, there was nothing. And there were moments like that, that weren't a fantasy moment and weren't overly dramatic that had moments like that. Any time I start to question what, that doesn't seem authentic or real, it gets away my suspension and disbelief. So that's all very, very personal, slightly picky stuff. It's all good. So overall, I think it's horrible slap, you know, there's like a slap sometime you're like, yeah, they didn't really slap them. Yeah. So overall, I like the film. I think it was, it was a good film. There's a lot, a lot of points that were really good. Some really great things production design, some performance, especially our lead, did a really, really good job with some intermittent stuff there. But yeah, you guys can let us know how authentic this film was in terms of, did it stay true to her story? It's a her person into her person. Yeah. Is there, I would love if they would, do they ever really do this in terms of taking a beloved person and not commercializing it in terms of just telling a nitty-gritty of her life kind of story? Or maybe she doesn't have a nitty-gritty life. Maybe, maybe it's, but obviously you could go into more depth into certain aspects. Alcoholism is a gritty aspect of somebody's life. It is. I'm thinking about a good person and they kind of did it in Elvis. Because they didn't do it in 83. Obviously that was very dramatic. I'm thinking about American films that are biographies. One that went into my head about one that got real nitty gritty is Monty Dearest. But you have to do that because Joan Crawford was crazy. Yeah. Have they done a Sri Devi one? I don't know. I don't know. But see, the thing for me was just the deeper aspects of who she was as a generous person, a collector of vintage cars and an incredible thespian that we didn't go deeply into. I felt they did a substantially good job of why she began to drink and how drinking became a part of her life. And the financial problems she got into that were really mismanaged by those around her, not so much her. Yeah. And it's very hard for somebody who was pretty squeaky clean like Elvis, the Elvis biography. Elvis didn't have scandals, man. He, I mean, the one thing he did do was he Come on. He was philandering. And we know that it's one of the reasons why Priscilla left him was because he and but everything else about him, he really wasn't, he was a good person. So there's not much drama. Don't ask his ex-wife though. No, I think she would say that he was a good person. Anyways, let us know what you thought about the film, what should be our next Tolugu film and her as well. Yeah. Talking like Savitri. Yeah, Savitri and some of the other people who told us what it was that made her such a magnificent actress. She did a lot of different industries. Yeah, she did. I think not just Tamal and Tolugu. Mind boggling. She did, I think some Bengali and even some Hindi as well, I believe. I could be wrong. And other biographies. Yeah. Let us know what you thought about the film. People we should know. Down below.