 Saif Ali Khan Back to our 2-bit reaction video, it's time for Corbin. I'm Rick. And Nicole Paulson. Instagram and Twitter. Or juicy content. And yes, we got some movie review action coming out too. Right now, the trilogy we have finally finished it. Is complete. In the absolutely most incorrect order, you can finish it. Pretty much. Header 1, which is 3. Overestimation. Big Bull 2, which is 1. And then Omkar 3, which is 2. But hey, we got it done. We do everything wrong. But yes, Omkar, the second in the Shakespeare trilogy, I suppose? Yep. And I hear rumors that you might be doing a fourth of... Midsummer, right? I think it was a mid-summer. I can't remember which one it was, but that's exciting. If you need white, white boys. We'll be your dumb white boys. Great shirt. Yeah, I'll be your dumb white boys. Oh no, that's not a good shirt. But anyway, you know what a redneck's famous last words are, don't you? Hey, y'all watch this. Omkar. A politically-minded... Minded enforcers. Enforcers? Yep. A misguided trust in his lieutenants lead him to spect, his wife of infidelity. And it is the adaption of Shakespeare's Othello. Which I am probably the least familiar with in terms of, especially compared to Macbeth and Hamlet. Yeah, I think we said that at the outset that we admitted that going into this, Hamlet was... Nothing compares to my understanding of Hamlet. And then Macbeth was next. And then Othello is actually of all of Shakespeare's works. Othello is the one, I mean I know of it, but it was the one I was the least intimately aware of. Like, he could have quoted some lines from this that would be very well-known lines from Othello and I might have missed it. Whereas in Hamlet, I'm not going to miss a thing. Yeah, and it was obviously directed by Vashal Bardwash, written by Vashal Bardwash. Music by Vashal Bardwash. The genius who... scenery Vashal Bardwash, you know we love. And starring AJ Devin, Saif Ali Khan, Karina Kapoor, Nisera Nisha. Nisera Nisha. And come on now. Yeah, Konkona Sashama. That was his sister, right? Yes, no that was... That was Saif Ali Khan's sister. Correct. Yeah. And the other actor from... From Gangs? From Gangs, yes. That's it, Pankaj Tripp. Obviously he had a very small part in this. Right, a recognizable face. And I'm sure there are other people in it that were missing, forgiveness. And we could talk about obviously a lot about this, but the first thing I want to talk about is the greatest performance I've seen from Saif Ali Khan. Yeah. For me, even... I loved him as Sartaj, but that even took me a little bit. Like right when he came on screen, I was like, that doesn't look like Saif Ali Khan. Yeah, this is a completely different role, I think, completely out of his wheelhouse almost. Exactly. Out of his wheelhouse because he did it. And he did very, very well. From where he was in his career at that time. That's what I mean to know about. And this was shortly after Dil Chahat the High. Yeah. Couple years. Couple years after Dil Chahat the High. See, seeing it now in light of Sartaj and some of the other things we've seen him do as he's expanded his, what we refer to as the Fespeanatic Muscles, it's not a surprise. No. I think if we had seen this at the time everyone in India did and watched him, it would have been revelatory. Yeah. It would have been a common thing for critics in the United States to say about somebody who does a performance that blew their mind. They'll say something like, Saif Ali Khan is a revelation. It's a completely different, I haven't seen the film yet, but what they're saying about Adam Sandler and Uncut Jim. Yes. That's what I essentially would have assumed that would have been. Well known name. People said that when Robin did Good Morning Vietnam because Robin was Mork. Yeah. And when he did Good Morning Vietnam and got nominated everybody was like, we had no idea. Well, people who knew Robin personally and were huge fans like me knew he was a Juilliard student. So he was first a Fespean. And then he was a stand-up comic. But I think he did so, so well. As did Karina. Yes. This is probably every single character in this of the people we knew outside of the last person. Pankaj Tripathi. Very small role. Right. My favorite performance of AJ Devan, we've only ever seen one thing. Correct. So it's not really fair. I liked this a lot more than I even though I thought he did really well in Trisha. But I think this is even was even better than that. Saif Ali Khan, obviously Karina Kapoor, I thought his sister was one of the best characters. He was very good. Everybody was very good. And I think it's kind of what we say. He's similar to a Quentin in terms of he is good for actors. Yes. And bringing out the best in actors. Correct. Which is something that's not all directors have. Not at all. Some are just, do your work. I'm going to do my thing. Like Ang Lee, he directed a bunch of stuff. Broke Big Mountain and a bunch of other stuff. But he doesn't say a lot when he's directing. He just kind of lets you do your thing and he keeps taking until he finds what he wants. Correct. And that's a style that you can go with and whatever. But I think he's like a very hands on helping somebody get to where they need to go. It's all so, so realistic. This one, it took me a minute to get into the film. But I think that's because from the other two, like Hamlet and Macbeth, you're kind of looking for characters, what they're doing. You know what's going to happen. Yeah. I didn't know very much outside of there was some racist stuff in the original. Like I had a lot to do with racism. In a fellow? In a fellow. It's massive. And so that's basically what I... It's central. What I knew. And so I was kind of just watching this film. So it took me a while to figure out what's happening, what's going on. But then when Saif Ali Khan decides what he's going to do is when I started to really get into the film and enjoy what was going on on the screen. But I think what they did with that, because they didn't really have the racism aspect, they put the caste aspect clearly as opposed to the racism. Because half-casts, there was a lot of talk of half-casts and all that kind of stuff. But it really was almost secondary. The politicalness and the racism or whatever was kind of almost secondary to the story as opposed to what Saif Ali Khan was kind of making, like his web basically, his long game of... Also, I didn't realize Bahubali meant general. I didn't mean that. They kept saying Bahubali and I'm like, Oh, that's what that means. That means general. You probably told us. Sorry. They kept saying Bahubali. I didn't realize it. We're the new work today. Well, that's cool. For those of you who knew the channel, we watched Bahubali like 10 months ago. Long time ago. But yeah, the... But I think it's another thing that's so genius about his writing and able to adapt such an old screenplay, just like he did with McBeth, just like he did with Hamlet and making it contemporary for one, but also in a completely different setting. Yeah. And he... Where did you place these? If you were to rank them as far as the ones you enjoyed, as far as one, two, and three, obviously headers number one. So of the next two. It's tough because I think... Because the issue, big issue I had with McBool was the quality because it was so long ago and so the video quality wasn't as good. But I think I would actually still... I would put it probably header McBeth and then slightly under his umkaara. Just slightly. Yeah. It's not... I really enjoyed this film. It's just, I think the familiarity I have with the other stories is something that just resonates more with me. I think I like those stories better. Well, yeah, the familiarity you can't deny that that is an impact in terms of... When you know... When you know what the director has taken and is applying it, you have the capacity to appreciate the gifting and the genius of the person because of what they're doing. Yeah. I... I felt... You know, I don't... I have knowledge about the... Enough knowledge about the salient points of the story to know that of the three, this would be the most... Where it's not even so much an adaptation as it is a... Like it was inspired by a film. Yeah. I mean, it has some direct things. The ultimate ending does see certain characters die who are supposed to die. But... I would imagine... I would imagine Shakespeare purists don't like this and people who don't know Shakespeare, especially Indians, really like it. I think if you have no exposure to a fellow and Shakespeare, as it's just a standalone film and you're Indian, I could see this being a film you really, really like. I personally, for me, it's definitively the weakest of the three. And... Even though the acting is really strong, particularly with C. Ivali Khan and the most grounded performance by Karina, even more grounded for me than Udapunja. Also Nasseridin Shah. He's always amazing. This is such a different role. Yeah. I really enjoyed that. I did too. I thought it was such a... Right when I saw him, I'm like, oh, that's... I like it. I did too. I felt... I felt if you're to take the comparison of Shakespeare's Othello and Omkara as far as the main points and what happens to you watching the story, the comparison would be Othello's this Cabernet and then Omkara took eight ounces of Cabernet and added eight ounces of water and diluted the power that's in the tragedy. Because in the tragedy of Shakespeare's Othello, what you get at the end, or at least you should get from what he wrote, would be deep, tragic loss where you would be so heartbroken that Othello is killing this woman he loves because Iago has so deceived him and that he kills himself because he can't live. It should be left with like a Romeo and Juliet kind of how did these two people who should have been together get so confused and end up dying? And this one's even worse because Othello kills his wife, who's supposed to be this woman he absolutely adores and he's somebody you should have a lot of empathy for because he's been maligned by reason of Othello's telling he's African, he's black and he is extremely prejudiced against, except by the woman that he loves. And I found that Saif Ali Khan's character while definitively manipulative was actually just more opportunist in that he saw circumstances arise and he went I'm gonna flip that circumstance and I'll flip that whereas Iago is straight up creating circumstances that are insidious. I felt like and again I guarantee Vishal Bhardwaj did that on purpose and it's his prerogative to do that and I tried to be more forgiving and say because headers straight up it takes everything that Shakespeare brought to it and contemporizes it. This I felt like Vishal took aspects of it and then kind of flavored it into something palatable for the Indian contemporary mind. So as a Shakespeare purist adaptation this is the least favorite but I find it to be as I could see some Indian audiences liking this more than header. I think there are a lot and I'm not a Shakespeare purist I enjoy Shakespeare you know a lot more about Shakespeare than I do like I said in the car is probably the one I know the least but I enjoyed the end not knowing Shakespeare I knew somebody was going to die Shakespeare tragedy some people going to die and somebody's going to kill himself it's essentially what Shakespeare does in his tragedies somebody's going to die and somebody's going to kill themselves and so I knew that was coming and so I did enjoy the end and how it all came together I wasn't really comparing it to something original you were able to really see it was a stand-up that's really how I saw it and I enjoyed that like I said I still would probably watch it just because I think I enjoy those stories a little more and maybe just because I know them more maybe I also enjoyed the other films just more I mean header forget it that's not even in the same galaxy as most of the films we see but even in terms of the performances and the Shakespearean-ish and again I would come at it from a more purist standpoint so I'm understandably biased I think my least favorite thing in terms of the watering down of the power of the original Othello versus this was I'll ask you when we reached the climactic point in this and Amkara Omri was the Othello when he kills her did you feel badly for did you have any empathy and compassion and was Othello somebody that you had a sense of rooting for and liking and rooting for their love story you know at times I did I think obviously you felt more bad for him when you knew it was coming that he was going to find out that she didn't actually cheat on him and so when they came to the door and he found out actually what happened then you felt worse for him but I don't think they were gone I think they were going for more realistic Indian that's the point I can't blame Vishal for that I think that's what he was going for more gangster vibe which is the other aspect of this is that it's a political one versus gangster but I think Vishal was making some cinematic choices based on the audience and contemporarizing it in a way that he has every right to and I totally understand why he did I just for me whereas Hedder takes what Shakespeare intended in terms of the punch to your soul and Hedder keeps it as did I felt I felt like of the Three of Fellow was the one that if you're looking at it from a purely translatable power this one was the most watered down in terms of Shakespeare's powerful essence of hitting you in the gut with this tragedy I didn't get hit in the gut with the tragedy but what did you think about the songs though? I thought the songs were actually some of the most fun of the trilogy I would agree lots of fun although I will say as beautiful as I don't know the actress's name who's the dancer in the songs I found her to be a very pretty girl but I didn't find her dancing I didn't think she was an extremely good dancer compared to other dancers that we've seen was she supposed to be? I thought she was supposed to be a good dancer I thought she was supposed to be like a Helen or a Sridevi like she was supposed to be or even like Priyanka and Ramleela I thought she was supposed to be like almost a stripper well she did do a little pole dancing that's what I I don't know about the actress even then I found that her and this is just me nitpicking I found that her dancing because I thought she was supposed to be kind of like stripper-esque lacked some of the inhibition and the sensuality that I just I don't, if we looked at her I bet she doesn't have a lot of dance in her history. She wasn't a terrible dancer I'm not saying that I just, for the character, I thought she was a very pretty girl who didn't exude the kind of sensual charisma that a Helen or a even for her cuteness Sridevi can come across with or Priyanka I thought she did in Ramleela I didn't get that vibe at all but no I enjoyed all the songs I thought that one was great his music is always great Saif Ali Khan dancing, the party one when they were all dancing before everything hit the fan it was really good and then his background score as always because he's a composer that became a director and so his first love I believe is music 100% and as much as this would be the weakest of the three in no way it's still I've seen other adaptations quote-unquote of Shakespeare that are trash this is by no means it's not like I disliked it I just found the purest in me found it to be watered down comparatively if that makes sense so if you told somebody to watch a trilogy would you tell them to watch it in order or would you go even give them a header first no no no it would depend if they know Shakespeare I would say watch Omkara, McBool and Header and I'd give them a disclaimer about Omkara I'd say don't look for a this is the least literal of the three if you're looking for a literal adaptation please allow Vishal to take a lot of liberties but you would go Omkara before McBool I mean McBool even though the order is different and I agree with you the film quality is much lower on McBool yeah I just figured that came out years ago yeah but I feel like because McBool has with it the inherent power of McBath that Shakespeare intended to ask the punch, it's like the un-watered down Cabernet the wines is the best way I could do it here you go I would say if someone were drinking wine and they weren't introduced to wine yet I would say here we're going red so I'm going to start you off with just a table red this is a mixed red start with that awesome now I'm going to give you a Pinot Noir now I'm going to give you a Cabernet that's the mixed red is Omkara and then McBool is the Pinot Noir and then the Cabernet is the header I wouldn't start the other way around because I feel like you get reversed in terms of the impact both of what Shakespeare intended being captured in the contemporization as well as the quality of the two I even found performance wise I was more attached to and cared more for the characters in McBool through Irfan and Taboo than I did say there were a lot more especially Othello I didn't care that he was I was like kill yourself I don't care I think there's a reason for that because McBeth there's a lot of good characters in McBeth in good to fun characters they're good people not a lot of good people in this and I think that's Vishal most of these people are bad true but here's what's interesting I felt like Vishal took Othello first and took Iago and made him better than Shakespeare's version in Shakespeare's version Iago is an absolute evil prick is Iago from Aladdin named after probably but he is a selfish evil manipulating bastard that you hate and Othello is somebody that you are hoping will wake up and realize he's being deceived because you can see the writing on the wall and you can see he's being tricked and it's awful because Othello and his wife love each other and you don't want Iago who is basically like the devil incarnate in the thing poisoning this pretty relationship and I didn't get that at all in fact I felt like especially when Othello kind of snaps at her and hits her I'm like yeah kill yourself you pig really didn't care that he died at the end I was kind of happy he was going to it's like you deserve that you're you totally just took this guy's word and didn't even get any kind of verification from her and just assumed she was cheating I think you were supposed to like that he died at the end in this version in this version right that's why Vishal gets to do this the way he wants to do it yeah yeah because I feel like you were supposed to be like yeah you should probably kill yourself right which is where it's a twist on versus the punch of the tragedy you see that's where you see the differences somebody who knows the story and then somebody who doesn't really know the story outside of that it's racist it's still it's still cool that it's 2020 and people are talking about William Shakespeare yeah and Vishal you're a genius yes you are I can't wait till if you do do another Shakespeare that'd be very exciting I would like to see his take on Romeo and Juliet I would too I'm about to say something amazing you know I'm about to say what I think he has the ability to take Romeo and Juliet and make it even better than Shakespeare intended yeah and it would be interesting because that's probably my least favorite Shakespeare as we've talked about before it is for a lot of people I don't know a lot of people love that no some do but a lot of people of all of Shakespeare's stuff there'd be many who say it's kind of simple compared to some of his other tragedies yeah and adolescent both in their expression of love but even it's still it's still Shakespeare why hasn't Nawaz worked with Vishal Vardwaj? Or has he? I don't know because that seems like a pairing that would be made in heaven to me I would love it I don't know how he could do it I thought about this watching this I'd love to see Vishal do something extraordinarily militarily epic like Henry the 5th well we've seen a trailer of his where it was a military thing I don't know if it was a hit or how it was I can't remember I mean he could do the tension between England and France he could do the tension between India and Pakistan there's so much he could do and take the St. Crispin's Day speech especially if you had someone like Nawaz Nawaz is getting a little bit too old now to play Henry the 5th but he could still do it if he had enough time I would love to see if it's an Indian adaption he could do yeah I would love to see an Indian adaptation by Vishal of Henry the 5th that would peace interesting let us know what film we should watch and review next now that we're done with this trilogy finally took us a little while but we enjoyed it thoroughly what next of Vishal should we watch and also just in general what should we watch and review next upvote what you want down below that helps us we'll do it