 Okay, plot lines. Plot lines! After reading her deceased mother's letter, a girl tries to reunite her father with his college friend. We just saw this. No. Yeah. We have seen it, but not just. Then it's not what I'm thinking it is. After reading her deceased mother's letter, a girl tries to reunite her father with his college friend. Oh, maybe it's not what I'm thinking of. I don't remember. I don't know. Coochie, coochie, hold the head. I was going to say that. Idiot. Hey, welcome back to our stupid reaction to the Corbin. I'm Rick. And you can follow us on Instagram, Twitter. Him for more juicy content. It's so juicy, especially on Patreon. Am I right, peeps? Ooh, lick it. Nakedly. Thanks to the sort of supporters on Patreon. To all of you beautiful Patreon babies. Tons of exclusive content over there because we have probably thousands of things that have never hit the channel. True. Over the past almost four years. Yeah. It's probably in the thousands of things that will never be on the channel. Yep. But we have reacted to it. And so you're probably like, why have a driver? We probably have. Yep. All the good content is gone. No, it's not. But it's not true. But all of the juiciest of the juicy is on Patreon. Because Patreon spelled backwards is nortap, which means juicy in Swahili. Did you know that? I don't believe you. Okay. Okay. But today we're doing a movie of you. The newly released but not new film, Gali Kulian. Yeah. But apparently it also translates to In the Shadows on IMDb. Yes. Not to be confused with what we do in the Shadows. True. By Tekkawatidi, hilarious movie, if you haven't seen that one. Much more hilarious than this film. I know. Clearly a bad remake of that film. Truly. I mean, if they were going for a comedy here, they blew it. Oh, and Johnny, a daughter reads her deceased mother's letter and tries to reunite her father with her high school sweetheart. What's the movie? That's a plot line. After reading her, that was a no branch. She was like, oh, give me a hard one, Whitey. I thought that one was pretty easy. Anyways, this is a review of that film. It came out apparently in 2017, but I think it was just in the festival circuit for a long time. And I'm guessing they had trouble. Because I've been seeing Manoj post about it a lot and all that kind of stuff. But it was just released on Amazon to watch. So if you haven't watched it, go watch it there. So I just wouldn't do it like a normal review that we would. So it'd be 100% for review. If you haven't go watch it yet, go watch it and then come back before you get spoiled like a naughty, naughty little boy or girl or they them or whatever your pronouns are. For all of the above. Directed by Depeche John, written by Depeche John, produced by Depeche John. And apparently he has heavily involved in this film. Slightly. And then starring our dostiest of dosts, multiple. Manoj Bajpahi, Niraj Kabi, both Dost and Ranvir Shori is the other one as well. And then I guess the other main lead would be. Yeah, Shahana Goswami, Goswami. So once again, if you haven't watched it, go watch it, come back. Yes. Make your initial thoughts, please. Yes, by the way, this is our 70th of the year. Our 277th all-time. Oh, okay. 40, no we won't, 41st Hindi of this year and 170th Hindi of all time. How many films did we watch last year? 80. Okay, we'll probably. I think we're gonna hit right around. Right, that same number. The 80, I think, that was the number. Yeah, so I almost wrote a paragraph, but to, it's been a while, but to synopsis. And usually if I write a paragraph, it means that I have so much good to say about the movie and that's the case with this. For me, this is cinema, this is the difference between, there's movies and then there's cinema, which enter the realms of the highest expressions of the purpose of the art form. Like Avatar, two through seven. Exactly, which, did you not like the original Avatar? I don't think it warranted seven spinoffs, that's for sure. I think it was. Did you like it? I think it was a fun visual film with a very basic plot. He's like a politician, he won't say yes or no. It was fine. Okay, all right. Yeah, because I liked it a lot. I didn't think it warranted an entire theme park and seven spinoffs. No, it did merit a sequel, not 14 year, or however long it was later, anyways, go. Anyway, I have a lot of good to say about this movie and virtually nothing bad. I loved it. Yeah. Really enjoyed this one as well. I have very little gripes about this film and I'll get into, once again, my gripes aren't really artistic gripes, per se. I don't have a gripe. I mean, I wouldn't call it a perfect film, but it doesn't have, if it was a really, if I'm looking at a diamond and I'm a jeweler, I'm looking at it and I'm saying yeah, this is a really well cut diamond that has very few flaws. This is a really, really nice diamond. But if you actually looked at a diamond, could you tell? Always. Idiot. He'd probably say, I don't even know what a fake diamond is called. I'm not sure, Konia. Yes, I thought this film was fantastic. I think everywhere through performances, writing direction, like cinematography-wise in terms of the feel of the film and the color correction of the film, I thought it was all really, really pretty. I'm betting they were trying to, they were shopping it through festivals for a long time because they probably really believed in the film. Absolutely, how could you not? Which is not shocking, if you've seen the film because it's a very well made film. Let's just start with the star of the film and our dostiest of dost, Manoj Bajpayee, dost. Is that you? Yeah, he's dost. No, is it dost, Manoj Bajpayee or Manoj Bajpayee's dost? And Johnny would know. Grammatically, is it Manoj Bajpayee dost or dost, Manoj Bajpayee? Dost, Manoj Bajpayee, yes. I've already said before, I think he's one of the best actors alive. Agreed. Not just in India, just alive in general. No, agreed. This is one of his finest performances. Agreed. And I would really love to talk to him again because I texted him after I was done finishing it and I said, did you sleep deprive yourself? Because it genuinely looked like he was... He's immersed. And he didn't go into specifics, he just, there was an entire process that, and I saw, I've seen him, and we didn't talk extensively, but I've seen him post that he said he was almost losing his mind while doing this. Not a surprise. I'd be really interested in how in depth he went in this film in terms to get the feel of the character, the look of the character, what was going on. He was immersed enough that I think there's a moment where he holds the phone up to his face to make a phone call. And his nails are long enough and unclean enough that it was either spectacular makeup, which I wanna say something about the makeup in a second. But my suspicion is I could smell him through the screen. I have a feeling... You smell good. I have a feeling he, like, as much as he could without disrupting the art of other people he's working with, did as much immersive work that was probably, well, I've read as well that for him, he nearly had a mental breakdown and it doesn't, if you're doing this kind of a role properly, it would take a giant toll on you. And then when you're done, you should probably be really grateful it's over, but also proud of the work. And he seems to be, as he should be. He really should be very proud of the work he did here. For this style of film, once again, it's 100% spoiler. Please go watch it. If you haven't watched it, it's worth your time. Really, please do. Please do not spoil the review. So please go watch it. It's on Amazon. I think you have to rent it, though. And before we spoil as well, real quick things that I'll elaborate on, when you watch it, if you have surround sound, that's great. If you don't and you're watching it alone, connect your AirPods so you can listen to the beautiful sound design that was done by the sound team. And when there's a moment, there's small makeup. I love small makeup. Like when the Revenant was nominated for makeup. Really small eyeliner? Yeah. I wanted the Revenant to win the Oscar because it was so, so the most of the makeup was so small and intricate and easily missed and Revenant won the Oscar. I took note of the beautiful makeup in this and it's not a surprise that the makeup artist is Kamalish Shindi. If I've mispronounced that name, forgive me. But if you look at Kamalish's resume, there's a reason the makeup is so good in this movie. So. What you done? Like Hollywood or just India? Everything. Everything. Ghost protocol and then stuff here, just like Life of Pi, it is an impressive resume that showed in some of the small detail. Especially in spoiler point. We're in spoilers. We're in spoilers. Like I was just saying, if you're still here and you haven't watched it, this is all spoils because I was gonna say something since, once again, go watch it if you haven't watched it. Since this film is all about in the mind and what's going on, Manoj had to really go to a certain place to kind of make you feel that he was, like something was going on, whether he was going insane, whether he was mental breakdown, all of the above, whatever it is, right? Sleep deprivation. You had to believe it. You couldn't just like not prepare and show up on set for this style of film. This role can't be portrayed by someone who's not an experienced and well-trained actor. It just, it can't be done. It's too difficult a role. Because there's so much going on behind in the entire film, because obviously the entire, and I will talk about the entirety of the film and what was happening. There's so much symbolism, yeah. But I thought he did such a stupendous job and he's had so many great performance. It's hard to really pick the best Manoj Bhojbhai performance. Satya, obviously, is a really high up there, phenomenal performance, his performance in Family Man, his performance in really anything. He's like, I think if, especially in Hindi cinema, if you take like the Mount Rushmore of the current actors, it's probably Manoj Bhojbhai and there was Pankaj, I mean, maybe you can have Nisheer Dinsha. Nisheer, of course. You can see in there. But it's those male actors that really just, if they're in it, you're like, this is... Yeah, well, and it's gonna be elevated. Same with Niraj, who's supporting in this. Niraj is that caliber of actor. Niraj, yeah. Once again, our dost, dostiest of dosts. But he was, he's always so good, right? And I think he has, have you read his book? I've not, I almost registered for one of his classes because he has a class that he teaches. And I know he has a really unique approach on acting. Very interesting. Which is so fun and interesting to listen to different actors in their approach because none of it's right, none of it's wrong. It's all whatever works for you. Exactly. If it's really there, it's the right process. Exactly. As long as it's not hurting other people. Exactly. Their performances as well. No, and a good acting coach will tell you that. A good acting coach will tell you, this may not be the place for you because this may not be the process that works well for you. And that's why I love talking to actors so much is because not everybody's process is the same. And it's not always the same necessarily with each role. I mean, there will be some foundations, but there'll be some alterations as well. Well, we've talked to our Dostaraj Kumar. He's like, sometimes there's lots of preparation. Sometimes I just show up on set. Exactly. The roles don't always require me to do that much. Exactly. Like extreme prep, this does. This is extraordinarily requiring. I would say this is probably my favorite of his, but that's hard to say in the same way. Yeah, because of how hurcly, this is a really difficult part. And what makes it so difficult is how subtle the difficulty is. Yeah, for sure. He makes it look easy and there'd probably be a lot of people who aren't familiar with acting process or technique and training who would see this and think he was doing a good job and look natural and that's what was so hard. But in the same way that, for example, when I think about my favorite Daniel Day-Lewis roles, not one of them is better than the other. Gandhi's better than all the other ones. But my personal favorite is Bill the Butcher. Same. I love him as Chrissy in My Left Foot. I love him as Lincoln. I love him as Daniel Plainview and the list goes on. Same thing with Meryl. I have a ton of Meryls. Sophie's Choice is kind of my favorite. And this may become over the time of watching his films, this may become my favorite. Yeah, I have no doubt it's easily up there for me. There's just so many that he is. It's like picking your favorite Noir's or Bob Goddard's performances. Yeah, that's just, you're getting gems. Yeah. And they're all so different and it's hard to pick. Which Rolex do you like? Yeah. They're all Rolexes. I like them all. Oh, Rolexes I don't give a shit about. Apple watches, though. I don't have one. But Niroj as well. He's always so good, right? But he brings such a, he can be so intense and so intimidating like in this role at times. But then, you know, in Ship of Thesis or whatever it's called, he's like this meek, mild little man. Sure. Like he can transform himself and his body and his mind and how he's looking. But then, he can also be this intimidating. But another thing I loved about his performance in this was that he wasn't totally vilified. Obviously he was vilified. Which is a credit to the great writing in this movie. Obviously he was vilified and he was not saying he was a good guy. But like certain times you would just show him like he would be a dick and he'd be hitting his son or he'd be yelling at his wife or in the next scene trying to murder his son or whatever. But then like you'd show him like tenderly hugging his wife and like. Of course. Obviously I think he's a terrible person but then they don't just show the terrible sides and I think that's a testament to the writing. It's a great writing. Niroj's performance of these, fleshing out a full character as opposed to just making a villain. Exactly. Making it like. Real human beings. Enduring moments. Even though he's just, he's basically just an ass and just an awful person. But he has his moments. He apologized to his son. He's like, and you think, I don't know man, are you actually sincere? I don't know what's going on and you don't know where it's going but I like that they fleshed out his character. Me too. Just as opposed to being an asshole dad. Absolutely. The writing, they did such a great job. The writing in this and we'll talk more about the acting as well but since we brought up the writing you'll hear us talk about poor writing which is most exemplified with exposition in the first few minutes where they're telling you something versus showing you. And if you wanna see good writing that doesn't do just weak exposition, what? In the first 10 minutes of this thing you're immediately educated as to what's going on without being told. It's just, and throughout. And I'm so, it's obvious that the writing and the directing are the same person with this because the script, like the direction, is extremely lean and that's a compliment. There's no fat on this script at all or this film. It's the exact right runtime. The pacing is a credit to the editing with along with I'm sure the director choices of when to edit along with sound design and scoring. I thought the score was fantastic. Just everything, the whole creative team feels like it was a unified whole and what they wanted to convey. And I thought all acting, I even put a note in here when he goes to the doctor to find out what's going on with him. Whoever played the doctor in that scene, that was a beautiful scene with those three. I believed every single moment between all three of those people that we were watching what was happening. And the makeup, the beauty of that cut on the hand and the stitching of it. And then when he took the bandage off a few days later and it had that raised white soft skin on it, I can't jump up and down enough for how good the makeup is on that hand. As was just a scratch on the head, just pretty consistent makeup wise throughout. Yeah, I 1000% agree that cut was, it was beautiful, it looks so real. And it's so symbolic. I mean, we can spend some time talking about the symbolism in a minute, but let's also talk about, the two other mains, the mom and the boy. Yeah, well, and also Renvier Shorrie. Yeah, I remember Shorrie, who we've seen in many things. Yes. I thought he did a really, really good job. I liked his chemistry, I liked his character. And they didn't really explain their relationship a whole lot. You kind of just assumed what it was, a testament to the writing again, of just, you know, they've known each other a long time, they didn't give us exposition of their backstory, but you kind of just, you're gonna kind of get what this relationship is. Exactly, you're gonna know what you need to know. And I liked their chemistry together a lot. But yeah, the kid, I thought, this director and casting director, Dilip Shankar. Yes. Fantastic job at finding this kid. But also, this director must be just really good at directing it. Finding good actors, one wanting to work with good actors. Yeah. Clearly. Knowing how to direct them. Clearly. I don't, I think he had an easy job in this one. Yeah, absolutely. And you're just copy, and Manoj Shabashbhai just kind of sit back and let them do their thing. But it's, once again, I think at least a testament to him and the casting of getting these good actors for this film. Yes. And just focusing on artists and good storytelling. Yes. And as opposed to, you know, I don't even know if this went into a theatrical release or anything like that. I don't know. If I wanted to make a film, he's like, if people see it, hopefully they do. Yeah. And with all of those people there, I'm sure there was a lot of encouragement from Manoj and Niraj. But that, he, a lot of the film depends on that young man. And he clearly either instinctively knows this or was trained or both to know acting's not about performing. It's not about presenting. It's not about indicating. It's about being real, being in the given moment, about creating the circumstances that lead into the senior portraying so that it doesn't feel like a scene begins, but that we've come into something really happening. I just, I felt he was engaged. And it says a lot in a film that has heavyweights like Niraj Khabi and Manoj Bajbhai for him to hold his own with as much screen time, if not more than them. And then Shahana Goswami. Phenomenal. I just, but I, the acting was fantastic. Yeah, she did an absolutely great job that this scene, oh, it was really heartbreaking when she was giving birth. Yep. And then she asked to bring that kid over because she had to take care of her other baby. Right. And my wife was watching, I was like, can you imagine? I know, but that would be instinctively what you're doing. Your thoughts would be on both babies. And then the fact that she basically couldn't even mourn right, her baby that she lost because of everything else that was going on. I thought she did a Phenomenal. Her performance was really great. Agreed. Loved her performance. My only gripe with the film, and it's not really that big of a gripe. I thought it was a little predictable. Really? Did you not pick up in the first 10 minutes that the boy was Manoj? Oh, I don't think that was predictable, but if the goal and only our director, Ryder, could tell you this, if the goal was for us to be clueless until he wiped the dust off, they failed. Yeah. Because I knew. I didn't know if that's what was intended or not. I don't know that it is. It felt like it's written that the audience, I think the audience could figure it out in the first five minutes. I think the audience could walk away and never know. That'd be difficult because of the end. It could still. Gotcha. Because I've seen what's the meaning of the ending. That's like, there's an article, what's the meaning of the ending of this film? And the meaning, exactly. The meaning of the ending of this film is pretty, there's only one thing about this that's left open to interpretation, but I think it's pretty heavily leaning in one direction and that is what happens to Minoja's character in the end. I have a very strong. I mean, he got out. You think he got out? Of the maze? Yeah, yeah. You do. That was, that's what I am, because obviously the Renvier, am I saying his name correct? Because it's not spelled the same as Renvier. And I don't, I wanna make sure I'm not saying his name. Is it Renvier? I think it would be. It's still Renvier. It's just an alternate spelling. It's just an alternate spelling. Obviously a couple of scenes before, he says, I don't believe you'll ever get out of here. Correct. So I think it was implied that he did that to me and they did that expanded away, which was great, obviously. I don't know if this is like a slum or what this is, right? See, I think, what do you think happened? Well, I think it's the opposite. You think he died? I think he killed himself. I think he killed himself. Well, where is he though? It's very possible he killed himself, but he still got out somehow, because he's not in that house. I think that's the out. What? You think he's floating? No, as if the spirit is ascending away. I think that's his, and here's why I think he's dead. I thought that was just showing the expansiveness of the maze. No, I think it was showing the unending, inevitable hopelessness of the maze in the midst of so many people wishing they could change the cycle, but that cycle is as permanent as the buildings. And the reason I feel that it's that way, that coin was his hope, his whole life. His mom had said, this coin was just worth pennies, but over years, it became very valuable, which means even something that was only worth pennies can be worth rupees someday. And he was holding on to that in the hope that his life could someday result in that, that all the things he was hoping for could result in that, that maybe he could get his mom out and their little penny life could become something worth rupees. But he puts the coin down under the picture of his family and leaves it. And for me, that represented, he's given up hope. I can see that, because I thought at that as well, I didn't know if it was going to be implied that he was, if he left, which was what I came away with it as, but I didn't pick up on the coin being left as well. So it's very possible that that's the interpretation that's correct. Did you also notice there was very, every once in a while, there were rustling of things very gently. There was like the rustling of the pages of the book. There was rustling of the edges of the sheets. Every once in a while, there was something particularly caught cinematically for just a moment that gave you a sense of wind blowing on something in the midst of this very stifling, which again, I think was that, even in the midst of all this, there's still, if you look for them, it's these mixed signals of there's hope, but even in the face of hope, you can feel hopeless because it's not enough hope. It's just the symbolism was out the wazoo. Even the cut on his hand is representative of the fact that he's hurt, which our character, Manoj, definitely is a hurt man. But he's hurt and doesn't even know how he got hurt or what hurt him. He just knows he's hurt and he's trying to self-care for himself. And I love the fact that it's such a wonderful psychological thing of he's really trying to save himself. He's trying to save that inner child that was wounded, but the wound is festering and he can't seem to get at it. So aside from just the physicality of being the poor guy and dealing with what he's doing in the reality of just the physical space, Manoj had to get into the psychology of a man truly imprisoned by his own hurts and wanting to save himself and not even knowing he's doing it on the edge of losing his mind. So I, monumentally hard roll. Oh, yeah. It's very few people that I can feel could have done this role as well of Justice as Manoj and a couple of them were probably in this movie with him. So overall, I thought it was an absolutely fantastic film. I think I gave it four out of five stars, I think. Yeah, it's one of my favorites of the year. We're getting close to the awards of what we'd say are the bests, but this has so many good, this has, the writing is exceptional. Again, make up and score, but the big one is for sure. And a phenomenal song number by Manoj. Yeah, which was really strange in the midst of all of that. To go into that, I'm not my son, which was just over and over, I'm not my son. And then the ones that the parents were cheating with come in and dance and sing with them, almost like they're having a foursome. It's really strange. If you miss that part, it's in, stay at the end of the credits. It's at the very end of the credits scene in this one. Fits really well. Anyways, let us know what you thought about this film. Did you like it? Did you love it? Did you hate it? Are you an idiot? Yes, you are. And what should be our next Manoj Buzhpai film that we should watch? Let us know down below.