 Holy shit! What in the wild, wild world of sports is going on? Actors stupid or actually need to have Corbin? But I made a shirt change, how about that? And welcome to our new setup. Yeah, we did a whole new setup just for Romance Month. That's it. We're going to do a new setup every month. And I know it's like the 7th or the 8th or whenever we're actually posting this. And you're like, you're just now getting to a Rome? For a Roman? Sorry, I was moving. I apologize. And so this is Romance Month. We're going to catch up though. We're going to watch all Romance films having to do with love. Whether it's a rom-com, whether it's stuff like Lunchbox, whether it's whatever, and obviously there's a thousand new films coming out this month as well. Yeah, that's a busy month. All that. But the first film in Romance Month we watched was Barley? Barley Keep Barfy. It's Corbinized. I'll take it. Is it Barley? Barley, how do you say it? Borelli, right? Oh, Borelli? Yeah, Borelli Keep Barfy. Not Barley? Not Barley. It's Barley Keep Barfy. Barley Keep Barfy now. Barley Keep Barfy. Yeah, it's a great soup. The 2017 film directed by Ashwini Ayer Tawari. I hope I pronounced that right. Oh, based off of a novel. Based off of a book. Based off of a book and starring just a couple of people. Just a few people. Nishman Karana, Creedie Sennan. Sennan? Yeah, Creedie Sennan. Rajkumar Raab, Pankaj Tripati, and... Our Dost. Our Dost. And wasn't there... Yes, there was. I have it on my list as well. As well as the narrator was Javed Akhtar. Yes. And there's also quite an extensive resume for... Where is she? Sema. Oh, yes. Sema, the mom. Yeah, yeah. Anyways, but yes, so this will be a 100 minutes spoiler review this Romance Month. So we're watching all films, Love and Romance. Yep. And this one is a comedy romance. Almost basically a rom-com, essentially. But it'll be 100 minutes for a review if you haven't watched it. Go watch it. We also on Netflix. Yep. Watch it and come back. Rick, your initial thoughts, please. Well, this is our ninth film this year, 216th all-time, 134th Hindi. And I have a little paragraph for this film based on the book, The Ingredients of Love. I said, a good romantic comedy looks like it was easy to make when, in fact, they're incredibly hard to pull off. And the bulk of that difficulty falls upon the shoulders of the writers. Thankfully, Beverly Kibarfi is not only a well-written screen play, but a well-crafted movie all the way around. While, at first, I was concerned about one aspect that really strained credulity, and it would change, or that the toxicity of these stereotypical guys was going to make the movie a bittersweet swallow at best. The brilliance of the writing and the strength of the acting made this movie get better and better with each passing minute, and ultimately, especially in the last 30 minutes. I believe if you're a hopeless romantic, you'll fall hopelessly in love with Beverly Kibarfi. Yeah, I really liked it as well. Yeah. This is insane. And there's, we'll talk about all the aspects of violence. I was probably the same as you. I was really worried for a little while. Yeah, I was like, please, don't let this just be a dick shot. How are you going to redeem it? Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And so we'll get into all that. But they, and it's, I think this is probably the most rom-com-rom-com we've seen. I would agree. In terms of like the stereotypical format of a rom-com, this hits all the buttons. You know they're going to get together in the end. Yep. Like, he's going to have some, or he or she is going to have something going wrong. They're going to have to redeem. Right. They're going to have to do all that. Right. You know, he was really a dick to Raj Kamar Rao. Seriously. So mean. But we'll get into that. But yeah, I agree with you. This is a really, right after it ended, I was like, I enjoyed that. Yeah. That was nice. Exactly. I enjoyed that film, even though I was like, I still think he's a dick. Exactly. They did a really great job in the last 30 minutes of doing some things that I legitimately was like thinking to myself, how are you going to, I was like, how are you going to pull this off? Yeah. So if you have one to get, if you have a watch, go watch it. Because we're obviously going to get disposed. But yeah, that was my thing too. I was like, okay, he's still a dick. Right. Exactly. He literally waterboarded his friend. Right. And we're still going to get less and less of a girl. We're still going to like him at the end and let him know. So what's going to happen here? Right. And so I, me and my wife did kind of figure out what was going to go on. I was still worried a little bit. I was like, now did you predict, because I never know these things and you did, did you guys predict that she knew the whole time? No. No. I figured that he told her. Okay. At some point. When we found out is basically when he was like, the engagement is set and we need you there. Okay. So you knew early on. Yeah. We were like, clearly, clearly we think. I didn't know because it was getting really late into the film. And I was like, we still haven't. Right. That was part of my. What are you going to do here? But it was a really sweet reveal and what they did. Agreed. And I feel like, even though he's a dick, I feel like he ish redeemed himself ish. He realized. Yeah. That's the thing. They got him to a place where he went, you know what? I've been an asshole. Yeah. And we needed that. Like to like, like big time. Yeah. The writing, I think, why it was well done in that aspect is I think he was a guy who never thought of himself cool. Right. But he wanted to portray that he was a cool person. Right. That he's seen in films of young, I'm going to talk Bachchan. Sure. Or villains. Right. Like all those type of villains and he wanted to be that style of person. Of course. Because he thinks that's what girls want. But in real life, he's this sweet guy. So he's like putting on this front. Right. And that's why he's still, I still wouldn't have wrote it this way. But like waterboarding Rajkumar Rao. I was like, I was like, what are you doing? He was, I feel so bad for Rajkumar Rao in this film. I know. So bad. But even he, he at a point, it's like, even though he was the sweet guy that was being manipulated, he too started to get it up. He got it up. Yeah. He figured out why. Exactly. And then it just became about, I'm watching this sweet girl and her sister being played by these douchebags. Yes. I'm like, please don't let this just be a movie about toxic masculinity. Yeah, yeah. Somehow the guy gets the girl on the end. Yeah. Don't just make it easy. And so it's, it was, if you like the romcom genre, I think you'll enjoy this. Love this movie. It's, it's, you, you feel good in the end, even though it takes you a minute to get there. And like, even though, I think the entire film is, I feel good, but you're, you're wondering like, how how are you going to redeem him? And that's the biggest question. And thankfully, while you're thinking that, you're not like so detested by him that you're struggling through the movie. You're enjoying the movie and you like it and it's lighthearted, but you're thinking, okay, if you're going to turn this into a good movie. Wow. And they, I thought that's why I think the writing was brilliant. Writing was wonderful. Brilliant. And I thought all the actors did amazing. I, I chalked it up to, it was like early, like in all their careers, because it sounded dubbed most awesome dubbing. Yeah. Specifically, the ice cream segment was dubbed. And it was like a lot of the actors, it was just, I know it's a thing in some Indian films, budget reasons. Not all of it, but a lot of it. You hear some, like, you could, like, clearly that wasn't on that day. Right. In filming. And so that always throws me off. I'm not going to hold it against it. Me too. It's kind of that. It's part of what the industry's done. Whatever I just wish they would get away from it. But I thought all the actor, I mean, how could you get away from it? I think Rajkumar, once again, to have Rajkumar and Pankaj in the same film with Ayakwet Rajkumar, a young Pankaj. Yeah. He has this innocent lovable. And Pankaj has this, this, obviously he has an intensity, but he's also has the lovable John Candy-esque feel about it. Yeah, but you know, you probably have the same thought while I'm watching him and I love him in these roles, because this is kind of a similar role to the role he played with her and Mimi. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And if you, if you added some energy and some comedy, it's kind of like how he was in Stree, but they're very different, right? But as I'm watching this, I'm like, okay, this is the guy in Mimi, this is the guy in Ludo, this is the guy in Stree. This is the guy who does this in Merzifer. That weight, that dramatic power. He can just turn that dial all the way down and play just this kind of meek, mild mannered kind of. Yeah. That's amazing. He is, he might be, if you go by like how much an actor can do, he might be the best actor. He's so versatile in Indian cinema. As is Raj Kamaral. Yeah. They're very versatile actors. Versatile actors. Great versatility. But the fact that Pankaj can do, and I know Nawaz, we've only seen a little bit of comedy with Nawaz, and he did a great job in that Salman Conville. Right. He was a party, he was hilarious. And I know he can do it, but the fact that, obviously, Danny DeLewis might be the greatest actor of all time, but I've never seen him do comedy. No. I agree with you. There's a versatility aspect that's very different from other actors. The like with obviously Robin Williams. Right. The fact that you can do so much. Great versatility. Are you technically a better actor if you can do everything so well? Like Meryl Streep. Yes. Versatility. As opposed to just one thing. Right. And so, he's so impressive. I love him so much. Me too. Raj Kamar, I thought did a great job in terms of, and he's always great. He's always, and he has the same, he can be so intense, but he's always this meekness about him. Yeah. And he's so innocent. He's so innocent a lot of the times, but he also, when he flips the switch into being this douche. Yeah. And he does it so well and so naturally. Yeah. He's one of the best parts about the film. Creedie. I think she's, I really hope, I think she's signed on to a film with Anyard Cascio. Really? I think, I think I heard that. That would be wonderful. Because I, again, I enjoyed her in this as much as I did in Mimi. Yeah. I just, I think she's a really wonderful actress. And I'm looking forward to whatever else she's going to be working in, because I just, I, she has a likeability. She has a charisma. She has a great screen presence. She seems to be a pretty well trained actress who's got the believability down. She doesn't do anything with indicating this whole cast. Yeah. I, I enjoyed this film as much as I enjoyed Mimi in terms of the whole cast. The sons. Yeah. The couple in Mimi that. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, she, I think she did a, a super phenomenal job in, in bringing the level. I thought it was kind of weird in this film how they kind of shifted gears in terms of who was the leading actor. Right. Yeah. Because in the beginning it's her. Yeah. And you're like, this is her story. It's her story. And it switches to a Euchman. Right. And then it almost switches to like it switches a few times. It really does. So that ultimately it kind of becomes the narrator's story. I feel like it's going to be her film. And it's going to be her story. But it really gives you her perspective. It gives you Euchman's perspective. It gives you Raj Kumar's perspective. Yeah. It even gives you a little bit of Pankaj's perspective. Pankaj's perspective. Yeah. And Euchman, as always, he's such a good actor. Such a good actor. He's very versatile as well in terms of he can do a lot of comedy. Yeah. This role doesn't, no, comparatively with Raj Kumar. Obviously Raj Kumar is playing the character role a little more in this one. Exactly. But I think he did, he's always believable. He's one of my favorite actors. The nice thing about this, and it's part of what I meant in the paragraph, when I said it's really hard to pull off a good rom-com. This one's really hard. In script, I would have been, I would have had some concerns about, are we going to be able to pull this one off? And it'd be believable and entertaining. But the thing about him is, is that he was able to get me to continue to root for him when he was being a dick. Yeah. I'm like, please take us to a place, not just for the moral of the story, but for this character. Yeah. Please bring him to a place of realization he's been a dick, so that he can ultimately be heartbroken and win her in the end. And that's a testament to him, the actor playing the role. And what you want to do in rom-coms, because it's its own genre obviously, and it's a very specific genre. You know the format and people like the format. They like to sit and be like, I'm going to watch this movie, it's going to be fun and it's happy in the end. Yeah. Exactly. That's the genre. And I thought they did a phenomenal job at the end. I did too. And with his great job. With obviously, you know, a lot of people might not have caught what they were going to do. Right. But I loved the way they did it. I did too. The fact that Raj Kumar, I don't know who I was looking at, clearly he's faking that. Right. But then they let him, and I thought he did a phenomenal job delivering that speech. And she did a wonderful job listening. In a chemistry between him and Raj Kumar. She's like, yes. And then he was calling Raj Kumar to come out. And she was like, nope. And I was like, that's a very sweet moment. Very sweet. It's one of those moments you have to have in a rom-com of, like, this is the feel-good moment of the film. Exactly. And the fact that everybody knew and was putting on this thing. Pankaj was like, I just figured out a few days ago. Yeah. But they're so happy that. And I assume we don't have the benefit of being able to tell what was about taking that. But again, one of the challenges not just in rom-com, but it's very difficult to adapt a book to film. Very, very hard, because there's so much you can't include that in the book is imperative to the story. So you have to decide what are you going to leave out and still make it work. Yep. So I, yeah, I thought, and I thought also there's the composers of the score. Oh yeah, the score. Were multiple composers working together as a team. And they did what you need to do. Again, very, very tricky because you need a lot of music to drive the storytelling in rom-coms a lot of the time. Mm-hmm. But the risk is it can be overscored. Yeah. And you can be like, shut up enough. And I didn't, I never felt that way with the score. I thought the score was really nice. Yeah. I liked the score a lot. I loved all the songs, creedy, with, yeah, we got Pankaj dancing. We did. We got a little, we got a little musical number of him strutting his stuff a little bit. And I loved it. My favorite's like Manoj or Pankaj or Nawaz dancing. I'm very happy because I think they deserve their own attitude. Songs. You know, we talk, we talk also a lot about, you know, all the actors, the directors, the primary figures that are responsible for the bulk of the creative moviemaking. But one of the things we talk about often what it needs to be is the casting and Mukesh Chabrah who does he's the big zillion casting. Great casting. He's also the director of the, the last Sushant film. So he's gone into directing. Oh, I didn't realize that. Yeah. But he is probably the biggest casting director in India. Yeah. And I, it's just one of those moments where I recognize and I put down on my notes who are the key people that I felt were responsible for this being so good. And in addition to who we've already mentioned one of the groups of people who typically doesn't get heralded in reviews are the casting people. Yeah. We've, I think the last casting was the consistency with which we saw Abhishek do his casting. Of course. And there's a consistency with if you see Mukesh Chabrah's name on something you pretty much are guaranteed you're going to have a pretty stellar cast. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I also thought the story was really kind of I don't want to say progressive because obviously we're this was 2017. So, but the fact that the dad he wanted what was better for her very true. Obviously the mom was like, I just want you married and I thought the mom did a great job playing that character. She did. But the fact that this is a story about she was all these people turned her down because she wasn't a virgin or all these idiotic reasons. Exactly. That if this isn't an arranged marriage that the guys can just turn you down. Yeah. That conversation with her and Pankaj of why is that this would be different if I was a guy and Pankaj was like this is the society. Yeah. And he said it raised her as a boy which it really wasn't that he raised her as a boy it was just he was more progressive and non-letalistic in things. Oh, and before I forget because I had said there was one thing that kind of strange duality for me. The one element I would have maybe changed and it's just a maybe changed was the fact that Ayushman's writing about her was just happenstance that all of those particularities were so specific that she thought the book was about her and she had a secret admirer was just happenstance I was waiting for the shoe to drop and would have liked to maybe have included the prospect that he really had been and was too terrified to admit it. And then I thought it was more just she doesn't see stories of girls like this in India and so I think that and that's why for me it's it's that it's very very I assumed it was just she doesn't feel like she fits in society and finally somebody wrote a something wrote something about that of a girl in India that kind of fits her but yeah I understand but overall I'm very happy with our first film I was where I was finished I think I me and Steffo said that was nice I enjoyed that film and that's always what you need because you're not going to get like Oscar worthy stuff in wrong but that's what you're looking for you're looking for to have a good or been introduced to Shakespeare like what should I start with Shakespeare I always say go to Romeo and Juliet go to Romeo and Juliet because that's the one that doesn't have the weightiness of all of the other ones it's the more accessible it's not considered I still think it has a lot of artistic merit but that's what you get when you have rom-coms you have a very particular formula and a feel that it's supposed to do but very rarely is it awards it doesn't have to be but let us know what our next film should be it just has to be about love overall it doesn't even have to be a comedy it doesn't have to be a rom-com honestly, if there are more rom-coms like this because I said this is probably the most rom-com-ish rom-com we've seen if there's more of this please let us know because this is we haven't got a lot of this in a new film no, like a star is born would qualify for love and that thing ain't no rom-com technically, Lunchbox would have qualified there's an endless amount of Indian films that I have to do with love love is the theme just let us know what should be dumb, dumb