 And on this big computer screen your face is like life size so I'm gonna have nightmares tonight. I hope so. Yeah. But don't dream of me. At least I don't have to smell you. Yeah. Yeah. I smell delicious. Hey, welcome back to our stupid rakes as of course. I'm Rick. And you can follow Instagram, Twitter, and more juicy content. Thank you so, so, so much. I'm Patreon, follow us on Twitter, account, subscribe, and like button. And it helps the algorithm. It felt, it feels wrong to do a mom joke in this review. A little bit. But obviously we are on Skype right now. Rick is a little sicky sick and I don't want his disgusting germs in my face. So, but obviously this this movie just came out and I wanted to get this review out because obviously it's a new film for all of you and we are doing a movie review. Rick, you can do your thing. Of the new 2023 film, Gul Mohar. How do you say that? How would you say it? I'm looking at the spelling of it right now. Hold on. That might be that might be close enough for hand grenades. Gul Mohar. Yeah. Yeah. Where is it? There. Good grief. Yeah. Gul Mohar. Okay. Directed by Rahul V. Chittila. He also wrote it as well. And then starring our Dosti of Dosts, the incomparable Manoj Bhojpayee, along with 10,000 other people. This is a big ensemble piece. And so if you haven't seen it, please go watch it. And this is going to be mostly non-spoilers. If we want to get to some spoils, we will get to it later on. We will tell you before, just since it's new. That's the only time we ever do a non-spoiler one is when it's a new film that everybody has not seen. In India, you can see this on Disney Hot Star. If you're in America, you can see this on Hulu. And so please go check that out. And we will get into the review right now. Rick, your initial thoughts of Gul Mohar. My initial thoughts are mixed. And a lot of what I want to talk about is going to be in the spoiler section because the mixture is mostly related to story and writing aspects for me that are going to fall into the category of far more technical. So that being said at the outset, I will say I think there's going to be a very large difference between people who just like to watch movies and don't know the intricacies of screenwriting and everything else that you and I would critique at that level. I think anybody in that category is going to probably really enjoy the movie. I think it'll be mixed like me. You may not have the same opinions I do when we get into the spoilers about some of the only real challenges I had with it at all are related to story and how things were justified and unfolded. The cast I thought was uniformly great. I believed this was a family. And he's probably one of the better actors at giving you believable nuances that other actors would do and it would look like either indicating or pre-shaping. It's not an easy thing to do, for example, to just this is trying to not give a spoiler right now. But let's say your character has a particular kind of intricacy of behavior, a tick of some kind. It takes an experienced actor to pull that off and make it believable and just he does it. So for me it didn't I had higher expectations based on the trailer. I still enjoyed watching it but ultimately for me it was kind of a mixed bag. I'm interested because I really loved this movie. So I'm interested to hear what you have to say with what you didn't enjoy as much. But I thought this was a beautifully weaved story of so many different storylines very similar to like a monsoon wedding or yeah good comparison. I guess Kapoor and Sons I would enjoy this much more than I enjoyed to Kapoor and Sons though. But I like how they weaved it all together. There's a lot of storylines going on and I felt them all and it took it in a direction that I just wasn't expecting. I thought it was going to be a lot more about her leaving. And obviously it was because we saw that in the trailer, it's not a spoiler. But they took it in a much different direction at times than I thought it would. Yeah I agree with you. Absolutely agree with you. I did enjoy that. But let's start with our Dosti of Dost, Manoj Bajpayee. One of the greatest actors India has ever produced. One of the greatest actors acting right now in the world. He's so flippin' good. Just like and he's so versatile. He really is. This character is nothing like any of his other characters that I've ever seen him play. He can play one of like Noa's villain. He can play a like this kind of meek kind of gentle older man father figure. But he plays this with such honesty and such fragility. But with also like you could tell like he was like a more let me not a strict dad. But like he also commanded that presence over his kids and he was a patriarch of his family and all that. But he brought so much that there's how we get into it later. But there's certain scenes in this man where I was just like absolutely heartbroken for this man. And he played it so incredibly. Like if you give this to a non-experience actor that that person as you said would be indicating all over the place. And he just he just plays it with such honesty and such he's a master at what he does. He is he is a brilliant great actor and he was on full display in this film. I agree. He is right up there with Pankaj. Based on the body of work that we've seen from those two actors are without question some of the most malleable and versatile Thespians. I've had the pleasure to watch in recent memory who can take any particular type of story genre character and not just make it believable. But they have the the magnificent and what every actor should strive for ability to simultaneously create a being that's never existed before yet simultaneously they're always putting all of themselves into the character which is what gives it its innate believability. There's no they're just moment to moment honest believable. And again the the the delicate nuances it's it's why people want Manoj Bajpayee to play this kind of character and it's why an actor like Manoj Bajpayee wants to play this kind of character. They're complex they're intricate they're emotional they've got a lot happening in and around them and so yeah he without question is the star of the film. Yeah and but everybody else I thought did a fantastic job. Yeah the whole cast is great. Like obviously the the mom in it I thought she did a really good job. I'm trying to find her name because I'm pretty sure she's a legendary. Is it Shamila Tengor right. Yeah I believe that's absolutely correct. She was in the world of Apu which is where we saw her originally I think. Yeah. She did a really really really good job. I really enjoyed our guy our guy from Farsi. Farsi yeah. Who had a really interesting character but played it with such honesty as you would expect a veteran actor of him of his caliber to do. Yeah and one that you don't really root for in the slightest but you know you have to have those actors to play that character honestly to make the story go where it needs to go. Yeah. The all the the children I thought did a good job. I don't know who his brother was in this but I thought he did a really manosha's brother. Yeah. Who that guy I was just talking about was his son. Yeah. I thought he did a really good job. You know he was more of a much smaller role in this. Yeah even a little a little smaller than supporting. Yeah. Yeah. I thought he did a really good job. The the the daughters the because it's hard to keep track of all the names I'm bad with names. Yeah it's a lot of characters but they're without giving anything away of any of the characters. I thought all of them did a really really good job as a really strong supporting cast. I agree in this film. I agree in fact I'm looking on IMDb here because I want to give credit as always. When when you see a good cast put together it's ultimately up to the director and the producers because their decisions final but hats off to the team of Sanjeev Maria Dilip Shankar and Prashant Singh who are the casting directors credited on IMDb because I felt like the casting uniformly. I'm the most important thing with acting's believability and I believed all of these people had these relationships with with one another that they had. I wouldn't have thought of any other person to put in their roles. I just thought it was it was really wonderfully asked and they were they were really wonderfully compatible. Yeah. His Manoj's wife as well. I thought did a really really good job. Very good job. The help as well all of that there's so many people in this film. It's a big big ensemble piece. Even even I don't want to give any spoilers away but there's a character toward the end of the film who you'll know what I mean when I say as across the street. Yeah. Small role but it's a great job. Does a great job. Does a fantastic job I agree. And overall I thought the the the story it touched me once again it took it in places. I mean there's there's and we'll get to it more in spoilers spoilers about the specifics because I really don't want to give anything away because it's obviously the crux of the the film essentially. Yeah. But with like you said some some surprises you don't see coming. And some stuff that is really like whoa. Yeah. Whoa. Yeah. Agree. What in the hell. Yeah. Kind of moments in this film and then I thought the score was really nice yeah film as well really subtle a lot of times very pretty they did have a few songs in this that were that were nice very pretty songs. Overall I think it's a really well done film. I thoroughly enjoyed it and everything like that. What were what were some of the you just said without giving anything away. What are the some of the issues that you had with it without going into it. Yeah. Yeah. Just so the non spoilers. Yeah. So for non spoiler papers and please I wouldn't I would encourage everybody to watch it because like I said I would say I would say probably at least 75 to 80 percent of the audience who watches this is going to walk away happy they did. I really do and anyone else and I wasn't unhappy at the end. I just had challenges for me where I thought man I wish it had been fill in the blank as far as story or screenwriting is concerned. Gotcha. And again like you and I I may point those things out and you you will I'm guessing you'll say oh I can see why you saw that but I disagree with you it didn't bother me. I bet that's where we're going to go. It's simply it's a matter of in a word there were certain aspects of the storytelling that took a turn based on people's decisions or what they said that for me lacked a deeper justification for me to believe it and I'll explain what I mean by that it really comes down to certain things and there's one particular scene that I'll mention that I thought lost some of its efficacy and power by reason of the way the scene was shot. Again audience members who don't think about those things I could feel would be totally absorbed and never have a problem with it so that's that's it in a nutshell. Well for the non-spoiler people this will be the end of the non-spoiler review so if you haven't watched it please go watch it once again it's Disney Hot Star or Hulu. I think you'll you'll really really enjoy it probably even more so as an Indian who can relate 100 percent to the style of family dynamics because it's a very even though I felt it was really well done in terms of I think a lot of people can appreciate this story regardless because families are families but obviously there's different cultural and different ways certain families run that are very different obviously like in India and so this is a very Indian story. Very Indian story but I think almost everybody can appreciate a lot of aspects of the film so let us know this will be the end of the non-spoilers so if you haven't watched it please go watch it and then if you'd like to be in the spoilers section we're going to start that now. Okay so this is for everybody that has seen the movie yeah seen the movie because let the movie tell the story. Yes yeah obviously the big the big and I I I teared up not at the actual thing but it's when I started to think about if I if this happened to me obviously of like when the will came out right um and you you you see Manoj who just dropped an amazing performance that he gave right um and he starts reading it and you're like okay he's gonna not gonna have the house but then to realize that the mom knew signed signed off yeah on this thing that said since I have no real son yeah I was like holy shit and I yeah and and there was and you you can't fake what Manoj does in that scene it's it's just from experience of an actor who knows how to be in the moment maybe substitute I don't know how much of that needed to be substituted for him because he's so good yeah but I could see you know the way this particular character would read that letter is going to be very very different than the last film we saw him in yeah or because this character so does not like confrontation so does not like to upset the apple cart you know like his wife said you don't kill cockroaches yeah and you can I could visibly see I almost felt like Manoj himself was close to throwing up he was so nervous and so upset in that moment and had an anger that this character would exhibit he's not the kind of guy who would come into the room and say what the hell is this yeah he's the guy who's knowing I've got to share this because I can't this is wrong to do but I'm it was just yeah it was a beautiful phenomenal and I teared up not at the thing but is when I thought about like if I hadn't adopted son like if it wasn't adopted child and for him to for me to think if he would have ever read something that said I don't have a real son that made me tear up I was like I because I can't even imagine or like it's a different emotion that would come out if somebody else told Leland that he's not my real son that would be a different emotion that would come out of me and extreme anger that I would just beat the living shit out of whoever said that right that's wrong he is my real son being adopted doesn't make you somebody's not real son right adopting them makes them your real son like yeah like so that whole scenario and then the fact that she was like ever thought it would be something about the house like like he was upset at the house yeah that's not the issue no it's that his mom signed off on something that said I'm not your real child like what the fuck yeah it's like one of the most infuriating things you can think and one of the most hurtful things you could ever think and you completely understood why Manoj was reacting the way he was reacting sure he was like of course you would react this way this is your mom when when it when it was revealed what was in the will I made it I said out loud wow wow how painful that is yeah that's it's just absolutely awful yeah to ever hear that from your from your mom it's and I knew it was gonna happen in the end and it wasn't as egregious as some other films but the fact that she never really had to atone for that which I said in the group I was like you would use just love forget like your your mom could literally do the worst thing the world murdered the rest of your family and the only remaining son will still forgive the mom in the end right it's just obviously Indians are like it's the you know the complete respect for elders and moms we have and I'm like yeah I get it I come from the south we have the exact same thing but also I feel like it's at some point in it like I said and there's other films that are much more egregious than than this one that I didn't have as much issue with this her you know getting forgiven by Manoj in the end yeah but it's just it's like I wanted a scene of like them really sitting down and having to like you like to hash out how much she hurt him what she did like she literally signed off on a piece of paper without reading it and she could say that you know we had a good argument after that I'm like okay but still I don't know yeah that that was one of several aspects for me that fell into the the non-believability for me oh I will in the story believable for me because it's Indian I don't think there's anything not believable about it would be unbelievable in in the United States because I think there would be a different conversation had but it's completely we've seen it a billion times in Indian films that's just and I talked to the group and they said yeah that would no that's that's completely and utterly believable that's exactly what would happen in this scenario yeah I don't know yeah I don't know then if this was supposed to be a cautionary tale or if it was supposed to be a this is what families are like yeah I I don't know which one it was because it felt at times it was supposed to be a cautionary tale and then suddenly it would be this is just this is just how we are um yeah that I think it could be both but this film was obviously it had so many different messages in this film oh it had a lot yeah it had a ton of including one that I didn't because I thought this film was going to be a lot more about the mom leaving right like that whole thing and and it really didn't come up as much in like in the beginning and obviously I had to move out and all that but I thought that was going to be like the whole drama of the whole film is she's leaving but it was really kind of a small part but in the end I did enjoy uh because obviously the the the daughter of uh of one of her granddaughter was obviously um a lesbian and that loves uh um story and also the dynamic of her boyfriend at the time uh and I enjoyed that whole thing but then bring it back in the end you realize the real reason she's actually leaving it's because she wants to be herself and she felt her entire life she can't be herself even around her family right now she because she gave the wink at the at the end because they said you know he could be with this singer and she turned to him he's like oh no she's going to be with a woman she wants to be with a woman down in Pondicherry yeah and so that I I enjoyed that aspect of it um because once again I don't I feel like there's not enough LGBTQ stories uh even though it's a more of a subplot in this film yeah um than anything else what do you think about that aspect of the film yeah well I I thought you know going back to I don't think you can be both a cautionary tale and an observational tale because they're counterintuitive to each other and I think they undermine the message um if you're if you're gonna be cautionary the things that you highlight that we ought to be cautionary about if you then are no longer cautionary about them it's a contradiction in signals it's it's should I be is this something you're telling us that we should be cautionary about or is this something you're telling us this is just the way it is and oh come see come saw example there's a big cautionary message about don't hide things from your family it's unhealthy it will hurt your family it will hurt your relationships be truthful and honest with each other she's no one but the granddaughter knows why she's going to ponder cherry there's there's another bomb that's going to blow up soon because she's hiding it so what is it is it cute that she's hiding it or is it just because it doesn't come across as that's a dangerous thing to do it comes across as kind of a wink wink nudge nudge oh grandma you silly lesbian when and previously we've been told be bold live your life be honest especially with your family so I don't know how you can have both well I didn't I didn't know if she was completely because she I don't think she knows that there's a woman she's going to find out there either so I mean I think she's obviously a little more bisexual than lesbian uh because she did say she fell in love with her her husband and no but the the signaling is that's why she's going to ponder cherry I mean that's what it winks about um but I mean she doesn't know inside I I I don't agree that you can't be a cautionary tale and just uh this is kind of over how are you awarded that I think you can be both uh you think you can caution people about yeah you ought to be honest with your family and at the same time be dishonest with your family but some people aren't and so like it's just the story of the film so like so you don't share everybody everybody doesn't share everything with everyone even their family I I'm sure I don't tell of my family a shit to the things I'm just not that kind of person right it's it's it's my life it's you know I get you're my family but it's just I'm not my staff but like my immediate family of parents and siblings and all that kind of stuff some people are just a lot more private even like especially with their with their sexuality and with the way it is in India and when she grew up in India she probably she still has a lot of reservations about actually sharing that with people well I I'm I'm sure she does it's just when you wrap it up in a bow of a holy celebration where we're all one big happy family that seems transcendently dysfunctional not something to be happy about as an ending and and I you had mentioned before it may be an Indian thing but it just didn't seem justified that something as monumental as what happened to him has no resolution other than it's holy or whatever his thinking process was to come back and reconcile with his mom I didn't see anything that justified the reconciliation other than something unhealthy I think you're like you said I think you're just missing the Indian aspect of it that's I've seen that we've seen that in films 10 billion times now it's just it's it's literally that's why I say I think it can be both it's just it's how they are as a people like the respect for their obviously parents and elders and all the kind even though I think at times that can be a fault to to a certain extent obviously and I get I get what you're saying I just I I don't think I agree with it and you know you're an idiot and you're wrong okay I do want to talk about Manoj's arc though with with his father and everything once again this is in the spoiler section because I did really enjoy that that part of it because I thought he was going to come and I thought they were going to have a complete do you think he knew that he was a son because he said some things that not because I don't even know how he found out that was his dad that was another justifiable thing for me that made no sense is that we never found out how he knew a man who abandoned him there was nothing that the audience was given to explain how he suddenly knew that this man happens to be nearby enough that he finds out who he is for years I'd assume it was ancestral or I don't know what they have in India for that kind of stuff yeah but that's the thing the audience is left to come up with a lot of assumptions about something that's pretty remarkable I mean he was just left there the odds of him actually finding his biological father are extraordinarily high and it would have been lovely and I think helpful to the storytelling if we had at least known how he came to know that okay I didn't I didn't see an issue with it but no I did I enjoyed their meeting immensely that actor whoever that actor is he doesn't show up on I'm to be here oh what a shame but he did a good job I I really enjoyed his performance I enjoyed their scene together because it was a lot of Manoj's wanting you know his father but also anger of why why'd you do this and also why haven't you tried to find me kind of kind of thing yeah it was a lot of unspoken but you know I it was well crafted in the writing in terms of what he was saying it wasn't like a direct like I'm your son why didn't you try to come find me it was a lot of subtle messaging and all that and like what his life would have been differently if he if his father would have been you understood why the father gave him up even though you're also like and you understood why Manoj would be pissed off of why his father gave him up and stuff like but you also like Manoj is like if I was if you didn't give me up I would have probably been here to helping you in this whether it was a tea station I don't know exactly what it was I think it was just the chai chai station or something like that yeah but I liked the way the scene was done and I liked his performance a lot too yeah I liked his performance I liked um the way that that they showed us it was his dad simply with the hand tremor yeah I thought that was really nice I just from the writing standpoint I didn't think it was necessary for us for him to find his dad I thought it was far more important and may have been even more palpable for him to be without ever finding his dad because that's more likely than not in real life and it would add to the depth of the pain he was already feeling about the fact that his adopted family did what they did to him in the will I felt like I just didn't I enjoyed the scene and I thought it worked for what it was but it too was something that I didn't necessarily feel needed to be in the story and the other part the other thing that I had mentioned earlier that there was a scene that I felt when the reading of the will took place and everyone was sitting together that was set up for so much the suvious like explosiveness dramatically with everybody with such a good ensemble and it began that way when he drops the bomb and everybody's talking and then out of nowhere the uncle stands up and says I'm late for an appointment I said what I was so engaged and I felt like Manoj leaving and going out to the car and continuing the scene outside weakened the moment because when he told her to shut up and leave there had been a de-escalation intention by the physical leaving of the room versus if it had stayed in the room from reading of the will to shut up mom I felt like that would have been a far more effective dramatic device in terms of making us take a deep breath at the end of it and go holy crap that was a big deal that just took place that was that was again my my perspective on a critiquing directing the scene aspect is all no I didn't see it all I thought it was a powerful scene um yeah that's interesting yeah no I I didn't I didn't see anything particularly wrong with that scene um I I thought it was very obviously I don't think any of the kids really spoke because it's more of the yeah patriarchal system that they were kind of respecting you know the elders were kind of talking right of course all the elders of course yeah yeah at the time um yeah no I didn't have I didn't have that issue that's interesting another subplot that I would like to talk about is the the I don't know what because I don't know their names but the the help storyline which I thought was a beautiful kind of subplot of the film as well very uh monsoon wedding with vj yeah and exactly great comparison which I think that that's probably the most similar film to this one that I that I've that I've seen um it was that whole love story of like the help falling in love with kind of somebody of a lower caste I guess yeah a little less uneducated yeah um which is once again a very Indian dynamic to the film yeah um and and I also feel like and I know it's just the culture but sometimes I feel like Indians are really mean to their help yeah like the way they talk to them I know and I get it's like it's just how the culture is and how like they don't see anything like they just that's how they talk but I'm like you just seem like you're being a real meanie to this uh no it is I know I know of things that happen that are that are real in real Indian households with the help that are that really bother me and it wasn't like egregious in this film but I've seen it in a ton of films and I'm like all right it feels like you could be a little nicer to this person yeah um I agree yeah but I did love that that what was probably um for me that was the most uh fulfilling in terms of I felt like everything was fleshed out and justifiable and I was rooting for and uh really was a really thoroughly thought out storyline was was that storyline I did also enjoy the fact that the grandma was extremely progressive uh for a grandma uh Indian film because that doesn't happen doesn't happen a lot no grandma is the one that's set in her ways or you know you will get married to this person blah blah blah she was um outside of the big blunder of signing something that says your eldest son is not your son uh yeah but it's obviously a big blunder yeah but it did in that in that fight scene I thought they did a good job of her explaining why she she did what she did at the time and that that wasn't something she did from her heart it's something she did out of a point of just I'm just I'm such a big skeptic I never believe that I'm like you're a liar you're you you were just caught you're lying right now if you believe she's a liar who just got caught how can you be okay with the simple rectification of their relationship well no I I wish it was a bigger that's what I said I wish there was a bigger like come to Jesus meeting per se yeah you did say that between them because I feel like that was a really big bombshell yeah say like for your son to find out that you signed off on right that I feel like there needed to be a more of a there's a there's a saying can call to come to Jesus meeting exactly that's a really intense like conversation of basically that I wish would have happened yeah but it's just you know it's how Indians as a society are they just they're they're somebody and somebody in the group said our love for our mom our dad doesn't even get that benefit of the doubt a lot of times it's it's really only the mom that gets like immunity 100 of the time which is you know an interesting aspect of Indian culture anyways I thoroughly enjoyed this film it looks like you enjoyed it just not as much as I did but obviously I will see everything Manoj ever does absolutely he's just such a phenomenal actor and I think everybody in this cast should be very proud of this film it's a good job I thoroughly enjoyed it so let me know what you thought about this film in the comments below did you like it did you hate it what did you think about it in all other aspects down below