 What do you call a man? What do you call a man? With an ax in his head. With an ax in his head? Axe. Axe. Yeah, what do you call a man with an ax in his head? Dead. An ambulance. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Hey welcome back to our stupidでrexits of Corbin. You can follow us to Instagram, Twitter for more juicy content. Thanks to Patreon, followers for your Twitter account, subscribe to me, and like button. And, why? because it helps the algorithm, and that's what we all want in life, is the algorithm to be helped. You don't understand how important the algorithm is. You will in a few years when the robots are controlling the world. I remember a few years ago when my algorithm dropped. Lowered your voice, didn't it? Yeah, I did. It was a scary time for me. But the one thing that robots won't be able to do is comedy. They won't be able to do comedy like we can. True, comedy gold here. Comedy and sex. Today, speed of comedy and sex. Today, we're doing a movie review. And welcome back to Classic Month. It's Classic Month. It's Classic Month. Go tell your mom and dad. And today we are doing the 1981 original Umrao John Hindi film, the drama musical Romance, directed and written by Musa Far Ali. And I believe he produced it as well. Forgive if that's a mispronunciation. And first name, I'm pretty sure it's. Darring the incomparable Reka. Reka, what is her last name? Does she have a last name or did she just share? No, no, no, she, well, she's gone by the moniker Reka for years, but her full name is Amoreka. It's the Reka's the middle part of her first name. And then she has a last name and I'm forgetting it because I only know her as Reka. Anyway, but also the other one we know in there is he's a small sporting role, is then the sered in Shah. And then a whole bunch of other people, but this is Reka's film as well. She is the titular character. Titular character, Umrao, if you will. I'm probably saying that wrong. But anyways, obviously it's going to be 100% spoiler review, this came out in 1981. If you haven't watched it, go watch it, come back and once again, this is the original, not the remake that was in the early 2000s. I believe it was a Swaraya Rai that replied the role of Umrao John. But anyways, Rick, your initial thoughts, please. Well, first of all, whether I liked it or not, I absolutely did. I really liked the movie. I thought the story was great. And two things about Reka, man, we've said it before. I don't know. If someone said to me that she is the most beautiful woman ever captured on film, I wouldn't argue. She's, if she's not the, she's one of the most staggeringly beautiful women ever captured on screen. She upstages everybody just simply by being in frame. And then equally beautiful for me was her acting in the film. So I really liked it. Yeah, it's actually one of my favorite classics that we, it's not my favorite, like Maya Bazaar. No, it's not there, but it's... Are at the top for me. But this is, I mean, I could probably put this in my top five of classics. I would agree. I mean, I'd really have to sit down and... Me too, but it is in the conversation for me of my favorites of all time. It was, every part, it was very intriguing. It was captivating. It was very, and our version wasn't the best version in terms of quality that I've seen. So I bet there's a better, more restored version out there somewhere that I think would like. And also, the songs weren't subbed. Don't understand. And they felt important. Even if it's just an item number, which none of these felt like they were item numbers. My suspicion is that one of my favorite things about the film is the script. The dialogue is beautiful. Very poetic. I'm sure the lyrics were beautiful too. And you can tell at certain points in the thing, they're essentially singing, but they're talking to somebody very emotionally. Or singing something that's poignant about the moment. There were times I could see by the look on her face. And she had some long songs. Yes, she did. But I could tell from the look on her face that things she was saying meant something. I just... Yeah, absolutely. And it's easier to sub songs. The vowels and consonants are lasting longer. I don't even understand. Cause it happens, we've told you with classes especially, they'll sub the movie, and then they're like, yeah, you don't need to know this with a song. What? Why wouldn't I need to know the subs for the song? If words are coming out of people's mouths on screen, we probably need to know what it is that they're saying. I don't even care if they're saying. Whether it's being song or spoken. Roti, roti, I love roti. Tell me, I wanna know how much they love roti. Let me know. God, it's so infuriating. Anyways, but yeah, so let's just dive in here. Let's talk about the story first and then we'll get into Reika, right? This one starts off immediately and you're like, oh, oh my word. Yeah, this is right from the get go. A little girl is stolen, basically. Yeah. Sold into slavery essentially, right? Yep. I mean high end. Sex trafficking. Yeah, sex trafficking. Yep. Which is a hard hitting subject for obviously 1981 Hindi film. Well, and it comes from an Urdu, forgive me if I'm mispronouncing that, I almost always do, but it comes from apparently a book. I don't know when that book was published. Was it published in 1840? Because that's when this film begins, is in 1840. But it's from that and it's very obvious. If you adapt a screenplay properly, it's gonna be obvious that it came from a book because they're so well written. Yeah, so it's clear that the story is really well put there. It was very captivating from the opening because it opens with a song, right? Which was subbed. The first song was subbed after that, no. I don't need to get rid of that again. But it opens with a song and she's getting married and then basically the next thing you know, she's being abducted, sold and all this stuff. And the actors who played her when she was younger, I thought did a fantastic job. Yeah, I did too. Both of the girls did. All of the ladies, in fact, the whole cast except for a couple of little tiny spots but for the most part, all of the important players in the storytelling I thought did an excellent job. And it was just such an engaging story and you cared, obviously, it was obviously pretty easy to care for this character and feel for her and everything like that. It had some twists that I did not see coming. Yeah. Like when the prince or the king or whoever he was came in and I was like, oh, shit, no, no. Yeah. Did you see that coming? No, I did not see that coming. I was like, oh, this is such a beautiful moment with them together. I also didn't see this coming. I didn't see this coming. You want to step outside and fight? You can't handle me. Yeah. I didn't see that coming. Very Indiana Jones. Yeah. Yeah, he bled. He got out the sword. I had multiple moments that I was like, oh, my word. Yeah. Not predictable. The lady who played the girl that was also abducted when she was older with Rekha, that whole scene and song. I mean, every song that you just had a close-up on Rekha was just drooling of how beautiful not only the song was, but obviously Rekha and her beauty and her acting and you saw the emotion and it was just such a beautiful moment and the next moment comes in and you're like, no, it's such a tragedy. It is. It's a tragic story. Yeah. And then in the end, obviously when her parents came and then her brother who was there when she was abducted was like, go kill yourself. Right. Like, bro. Like she could have helped being who she was in the first place. You were there. Yeah. Like, what the fuck? Go kill yourself. Seriously. Could you imagine a brother who forget the fact that he was there, right? Let's just say a brother finds out that his sister had been kidnapped and sold into sex trafficking and then she finally comes home and his first thought is whore. Yep. What the crap? Yeah. It was, obviously it was a time and that's just how people thought about it in that day. It's ridiculous, but that- It's a great story. That whole moment. And then I loved how it ended as well in terms of the, it was just her going back and wiping off the mirror and looking into reflection. And it's what I always tell you. It's a very strong ending frame for a film and obviously a strong message as well. Yeah, it really does. It says a lot in that last frame of how throughout everything, it's both sad and optimistic in one frame because on the one hand it's talking about the tragedy and the brokenness of her life and how anything and everything without having anything to do with her, everything around her just falls apart and crumbles. Yet she retains her dignity and her beauty throughout the whole thing. So that even in the end, in the midst of all of that she wipes off the mirror and you still see that beautiful face. Yeah, I love the ending. Yeah, and Rekha, obviously I wanted to get to at least one Rekha film. I want to see everything she's ever done. And obviously I know this is one of her most famous roles, if not her most famous. And so I knew I wanted to watch this one. It was kind of hard to find, honestly. It wasn't on any streaming platforms or anything like that. But her performance, just right when obviously the change happened in the song and it transformed into a time jump, her as an older woman, you're just like, holy shit. She is one of the most gorgeous women ever. And she has such a uniqueness, I think, to her beauty. She's very, I don't know if it's called dark and dusky or whatever the term is, but she had the darkness of what the makeup they put on her eyes. Yeah, I honestly, I've been thinking about it a lot since we first saw her. And then when we saw her presence in that horror film that we recently watched, I've really been fascinated by her. And this film, I've never seen an actress more stunningly beautiful on film. Which is why I think I've seen the remake, obviously, but Ashori Rai I think would be a good... She's the only one around. But also it's very different. Reka has almost a danger to her look a little bit sometimes and like an edge. Ashori is just drop dead gorgeous. Just one of the most beautiful things you've ever seen. Yes, and she can be a playful innocence. Yeah, and I think she had innocence, but just her look in general conveys a little more danger, a little more maturity a little bit at times. But obviously what Ashori did in PS1, I mean kind of... Oh my gosh, she can do it. I don't think she can't do it. People in both camps have an absolute... It's like talking about who was better in sports when you have those conversations. But performance. But if somebody were to say to me, if someone put a gun to my head and say, who's the most beautiful woman you've ever seen on film? An actress on film. I would, right now today, I would say, it's gotta be this woman. Tom Hanks and Bosun Buddies. And the other thing, one of the reasons, and I don't say this as a, I'm genuinely honest about this, a huge reason why she's beautiful, aside from just the physical perfection of her face and her arms and her body, everything. She's just an absolutely beautiful, beautiful woman. Is that I can tell by the way she acts, especially in 1981 in Indian cinema, that this was a woman who took the craft seriously and she took the role seriously and probably has spent most of her life having to fight for her right to focus on just being an artist and not being just. I mean, she absolutely should hold the banner high of being a gorgeous sex symbol. 100%, she should own that. Yet, I would hope that she's equally, if not more respected for the quality of her work and that's part of what makes her so beautiful is you can see the essence of who she is as a person. Good actors do that, you get a piece of them in every role and I felt like we got a big, big piece of her heart in this film. So, I love this lady. I thought her performance was really, really good. I really, really enjoyed it. And like the scene when the king came in and you realize that that's what they just had this beautiful, beautiful scene together now there's this whole other element involved that obviously it's none of the woman's fault. He's a king, I guess he can do whatever the hell he wants. But right when he came in, you saw the devastation on her face for multiple reasons. She's all so much going on behind her eyes and she didn't say anything in that moment. She doesn't have to. She says so much with her face. Once again, the mark of a great actor was just being able to convey that much without saying a word. And she had so many moments like that in the film. That's why I can list so many models or actresses who are also model who are really beautiful ladies but they're terrible actors. They just, there's nothing there when they're on screen. You can see them in a photograph and on screen, you can say, oh yeah, she's absolutely beautiful girl but there's no depth of soul. Yeah, put like Gal Gadot in this role and it's not gonna be the same. Yeah, no offense to Gal. She's a beautiful lady and she can do very solid work as an actor but this is a special lady. Yeah, and I thought her dancing as well. I mean, I'm a novice obviously or less than a novice, I'm an idiot in terms of the knowledge of like how good she actually did but it looked like she was a professional dancer to me. There was never a moment in this film where I didn't believe she was Amrao John. I believed we were watching this woman in these situations doing what she was doing. I never saw her indicating, I never saw her looking to do something just because it was something she needed to do and the most important aspect is for a woman who undoubtedly knows she's a pretty lady, I saw her focusing far more on the inner work and the inner story of this character and that's what made the movie. So she carries the film. Yeah, and obviously it's composed by... Oh, the music was beautiful. Kiam, and if I've mispronounced that, forgive me, but the music was beautiful. Yeah, the music, I mean, I once again, I wish we had subs so you could see the beauty of the lyrics. You can tell just like the rest of the film was very poetic. And so I'd assume that the songs were also like Gulzar style lyrics, right? Yeah, we're Tagore. Yeah, so many of those but unfortunately we didn't have the subs. But yeah, all the songs, I mean, there's just so much beauty about it because you get the visuals of either the dance or the performance and then you get the sound and then you get Reka with her performance and her dance. And I'm thankful for the quality of the subs because I guarantee that the English translation no matter how good it is is not going to be comparable to the original language of the poetry. I know it never is, I really felt that the subs did a good job of making the poetry make sense, at least get some of the heart of what was intended. And one of my favorite things about the film is the script. Mr. Herdyn Shaw, also he had a small role but obviously he always knocks it out of the park with his roles. I thought he was gonna have a little bigger role. Yeah, I did too at first. Because I thought he was gonna be the one she fell in love with. Right, I did too. But then obviously his character, and that was another twist of that whole, when they try to bring her back and abduct her back and all that kind of, I didn't know if it was gonna end with her killing herself or... I was anticipating that probability or just dying that she would die. But again, the ending surprised me as did many things in the story. I was not able to predict a lot of what was going on. I don't have to have a sad ending. I just need a strong ending. And so this is a believable ending. Yeah, I mean, this isn't really, I wouldn't say it's not a sad ending, it's nice. It's mixed. You know what you get? It's the weird, you get the sense of that it's so sad and everything's broken, but she is, no matter what she goes through, she's gonna hold her head up. That she's got this resilience. Which if we know anything and we know a little bit about Reika's life, I'm pretty sure that's one of the reasons she's so good in this role. Yeah. I mean, cause the stuff that she would go through in her life is gotta have a pretty strong core of who you are to walk through all of that and come out. I don't know if you saw her. She recently went to a premiere of a film just a few days ago in a white sari. The woman is still astonishingly beautiful. She's 67 years old and looks every ounce the beautiful, mature, gorgeous superstar she is. I wish she was still acting. I do too, and I know she's pretty reclusive and quiet and doesn't talk. If anyone anywhere has any connection or sends this to her in some way, shape or form, lovely lady, rest assured that we would speak about you, about artistry and movie making, what your favorite roles are and what you've done. If you see in our interviews, we don't go in the gutter like a lot of places do. This is a very safe place for an actor of your caliber. You know she's in Krish? I did not know that. No, I saw her IMDB. Rithik Priyanka, Reika and Nisir had no idea of first Krish. No, and her last actual film credit on IMDB is 2018. I'd love to see her work again. Yeah, I'd love that. But now also, obviously we've talked about a lot of it, but the directing, I thought was, and I've not heard of this director before, but I thought he did, the pacing of the thing was great for a two hour classic film. Man, it kind of flew by for me because I was engaged the entire time. Yeah, it felt like 90 minutes. And all of the things, they're endearing. All of the edits and the things that are done that just don't work, they work because you know the limitations they probably had with budget, the limitations they had with equipment, especially in some of the action sequences where it technically doesn't work, but you get the heart of the filmmaking and that's why it does work. Yeah, great, great film. Really, really enjoyed this one. Glad we finally got to some Reika. What should be our next Reika film that we should watch? Please let us know what that should be and what should be our next classic that we should watch. Let us know down below.