 Okay, am I supposed to all the way down Jowda, huh? Let's see. Oh awesome now. Those are gonna disappear See it's closed little What are you doing How can you do this? Bad names for amusement parks nipple land Yeah, yeah, that'd be actually a good name SRK would be the nascar I'm in a salami nips. I have a ride called salami nips. Oh, I have a ride called salami nips. Wow. We're already off the rails. Wow. Today we're doing a movie review of the, I believe it's a 2020 film. It is a 2020 film. But it just dropped on OTT platforms. So it's been, it was been, I believe in the festival circuit for most of last year. But it's a Malayalam film called Briyani. It's on, and if you haven't seen it, it's on the OTT platform cave, I believe is the name of it. But it's directed and written by Sajin Babu. And then starring, let's just, I believe that's her, Kani Kasparuti who's the main lead. There's some others. Yeah, but obviously she's the, her film. Yeah, this is the main, she's the main part of this film. I struggle with how I want to do this. Because obviously it's a new film. But there's a bunch of stuff going on in this film. And so, we should treat it like it's just a released film that people are going to watch. And so we're going to do the first half without spoilers and then do spoilers next. Okay, let's do a short little non-spoiler review at the front. And once again, it's on the OTT platform cave, it's about 90 minutes. But I'd give two preferences. If you like escapism, don't watch it. If you are a fan of censorship, this will make you very upset. Those are the two preferences I'd give it. Just both the film and probably what we're going to talk about right now. Yeah, so, yeah, those are the two main things. If you're any of those things, don't watch it. You're absolutely going to hate it. Rick, your initial non-spoiler. Non-spoiler thoughts. We'll give a little bit of non-spoiler and then we'll get into the meat. A couple things. It was better than the trailer and I thought the trailer was fantastic and I was excited to see it because of the trailer. Yeah. Number two, please somebody like Anya Ragh or another person in a position of clout who has connectivity to OTT platforms that are more prevalently readily available, like Netflix or Amazon, please get this more visibly available. And three, I know why it wasn't, but this should have been your Oscar submission, India. Yeah, so I really enjoyed it as well. Actually, I hesitate to use that word. It's just one of the ones. It's one of those films, I don't know if you can enjoy, you can appreciate the hell out of it, but it's kind of like Schindler's List. You can't enjoy Schindler's List. You can appreciate it for the art that it is and the fact that it goes so intense and it's so well made. This film made me uncomfortable. I can't tell you how many films have actually ever done that. It's very rare to make me uncomfortable in a film. And it did it. Oh boy, did it do it. So yeah, I'd say if you haven't seen it already, just that I don't want to give anything else away. Just go watch it. It's okay. I think $1.99. And you need to know something before you watch it. And please go out of your way to watch it. It deserves the support. It deserves to be spread around for people to see because it's an important story. It is, in my opinion, the quintessential example of what cinema is supposed to be about. And I'll explain a little bit more about that in a second and why my particular viewpoint about film is the way that it is. And do not have kids anywhere in the room. This is a film for mature people. There's a lot of adults who aren't mature enough to watch this. So you need to be very mature and you need to be very okay with real life being depicted graphically on screen. Very graphic at every turn. It pulls zero punches. No punches. Literally none. After basically it's how it starts. So basically how this film starts is how the rest of the film kind of remains. Yeah. And it is. And I meant that. I know why but I don't know why. And until the people who make the choices about what gets submitted are willing to submit a film like this and I don't know that that's going to happen anytime soon. Oh no. This is the kind of film that needs to be submitted to the Oscars. Yeah. The Oscars would love this film. This, for me, I saw all of the nominated films for the international category and then some of this here. I saw films that weren't even, they didn't even make it to the Oscars. They were just part of the conversation. My favorite international film is still The Man Who Sold His Skin. But this had a shot of beating that. Yeah. And I would have been rooting for this above The Man Who Sold His Skin because this film, and we'll talk about her in a minute, but it is an important film. And for me, like everybody in Hollywood who was jumping up and down and screaming about promising young women, this is your promising young woman right here. Oh jeez. This, I mean, if you want a film that talks about the way women are treated universally by men, not just India, not just in the world of Islam, not just anywhere in the particular, but historically what is wrong with the world, with the way men treat women and the issues women have to face over and over again. And no matter how much they say something about it, men continue to treat them the way they treat them, it's an important film, I think. So go. In a different way than say, like, whereas we left parched in Hellerow for that reason, parched in Hellerow are kind of like, and I don't mean to demean them because they're great films, but they're very innocent. Oh, compared to this. Definitely in comparison. Yeah. And they both have their place and I don't love those any less. No. I actually love those more because I could watch both of those way more. Those are way more watchable, but if I wanted someone to be impacted in a way, when you see a film that sticks with you and you think about it for days because it was so gut-wrenchingly true, that's this. So once again, go watch it. It's very short, hour 90. Sometimes it might feel a little longer because you'll probably be very uncomfortable. It was really, really smart to make it that short. But I have so much to say about this film. Go watch it. Created as directors. Spoilers from here on out. Yeah, we're going to spoil from now. So if you want to get spoiled or you've seen it from here on out, we're talking about content. I want to talk about her. I love her. I want to see so much more of her. And I think we have seen her before, but we didn't know it. No. Okay. She's an okay computer, which we haven't seen yet. The series with Avijay Varma and Radhika Apte. She's in cocktail and other stuff, but I would love to see more of her. She reminds me of Tillatama a lot, right? Yes. In the terms of how raw she is in her acting. She doesn't do any indicating. Oh, my stars. Yeah. She's just, she used her numbness so well in this character. This character was so numb to everything going on because of what she's been through. And then it's also a huge story of sexual awakening of actually finding out what pleasure actually is. And then also dealing with a bunch of awful stuff. Motherhood, that child leaving, and then we'll talk about the end in just a minute. But I loved her. She is one of the reasons this film is so amazing is because of her performance. Absolutely. She does a great job. She carries it even more than Radhika carries parched. Man, I hope you're watching and you can hear us talk about your work because I described it to Andrani as... Is she what? No, she didn't, but she's going to. She'll love this film. Yeah. And your performance, your work in this aside from being impeccable just from an acting standpoint, but the other level of it, you did what the most celebrated performances in Oscar history or just the conversations that happen when you point to a role and you go, that right there is what it means to be an actor. It was the way I can best describe your work in this is that you were beautifully soul bearing. I felt that you shared with us the most personal places of yourself in the portray... And that's the way this role has... If you don't do that, if you're not willing to go all in on this role, don't take this role. Not a lot of actors can do this. Radhika Radhika, they could do this. Yeah, I'm sure Tillatama could do it. Tillatama could do it. It's a very requiring role in terms of... Out of vulnerable you have to be. Being as vulnerable as you are... You really have to strip yourself down to essentially one of the messages of the film, being a piece of meat, which is a very awful place to have to take yourself, but you have to be able to go to that place. And this is unlike... The first 10 minutes of this film, you instantly know, okay, we're not in Kansas anymore. No Indian film I've seen on OTT platforms or anywhere else is as just raw. Right at the get go. I think I was told Netflix and Amazon were afraid to pick this one up. Well, I'll grow some balls. Yeah. And actually, let me use a better term, get a vagina. Because... And I mean that, and this is... Betty White made a joke about that. She's like, I don't know why they use balls as the quintessential example of like being brave and strong because if there's so... You just let the slightest flick and you knock the guy out, whereas a vaginas take a beating throughout life. I understand from the little that's out there to read about it, I understand that cinemas in India, a lot of cinemas were refusing to put this in their theaters. That I understand. I don't agree with it. Yeah. But for Amazon and Netflix to not pick it up, come on guys. Yeah. I mean seriously, you have enough stuff on there that like the only reason you wouldn't do that is because you're being cowards. Yeah. So put this on your platforms. Basically the first what I say 15 minutes, they smack you in the face. Yeah. A bunch of times. With both what you see and why you're seeing it. Yeah. So obviously it opens with the credits but all you hear is the sound of sex. Which at first you don't really, you're thinking, is this food being made? Yeah. Or is it? Yeah. And so that's how it starts. But obviously it opens on her and he's just using her basically as a piece of meat. It's not something out of love. It's basically something she's like, I'll get beat if I don't. Yeah. He clearly is only in it for one thing for himself. He just gets up right after he's done. Yeah. And then she tries to pleasure herself. He gets mad at her for doing that. And says a line that is many of you may know this if you don't know this, but he says to her when he gets up, he says they obviously didn't cut your clitoris well enough. And that's legitimate. There are in certain areas that practice Sharia law, Islam, it's called female circumcision where they purposefully mutilate the woman's clitoris so that she cannot feel pleasure during sex. Yeah. It's awful. But then after that, you get one of the most uncomfortable scenes I've ever seen is a circumcision. That was unbelievable. Oh my God. Because I'm assuming you've seen it. If you haven't seen it, you're going to watch your kid get circumcised. I think it was real. I promise that was real. Just like the goat was, which yeah, that you can't do in American cinema. No, they literally kill the goat. Yeah, you watch the goat get his throat slit with blood spattering everywhere. It inseminate a cow. You see a guy sticking his hand up the cow's ass. Yeah, that wasn't a shock to me. No, no, it's just, this is for 15 minutes. The circumcision part, I'm like, dang, they actually got a kid who it was time to circumcise and filmed it. And then when they did the goat, I was like, okay, it didn't, it didn't bother me because I, I have hunted and I killed animals where I've cleaned them. Yeah. And I know that's what happens when you kill goats and just see it. It's just, that's not the, you know, when they say on films, no animals were harmed in the making of this film. I don't think that doesn't qualify for this film. No, at all. So that's basically, I believe, the first 15 minutes, those four things, if not a couple more that I'm forgetting, just right off the bat. And so you're like, this is, this is what we're in for, right? Yeah. Yeah. And that continues. And it takes you on the ride of not just the experience that can happen because the story itself is a very real story that happens all over the place where not only the way women are treated, what can happen when you have guilt by association simply because you are either a Muslim or in her situation, you actually have a family member because this happens where, especially if you live anywhere near or in the Middle East, or like this section of India that has a predominant number of people that can easily get to the Middle East, that you find out a family member has been recruited and it was a part of some terrorist organization. Like this guy was, her brother was in ISIS. And then the guilt by association. But the larger picture isn't that even though that's part of it. The larger picture is obviously, it was more for me than just the way women are treated, which is important. It was how many of the world's evils can you point to past, present and future that you can summarize in one word, men in religion, led by men. Yeah. Yeah. Because the global world religions and the precepts of them were created by and are driven by all this once again, men, not just talking about this Islam. No, this is all every single one. Correct. Driven by the teachings and the doctrines and the leaders are men. Yeah. And the way that they treat the women is I want to talk about some of the other ones too. I thought the mom did a superb job. She did. I really enjoyed her performance. I did too. I thought she was she was incredible. I thought the the guy that she ended up having a very unique relationship with the kind man, kind man with the the the goatee. I don't know his character, but that's how I would refer to him in the film would be the kind man. Really good. And I thought it was extremely. I loved the filming and hats off to the actor who played the character that there's a moment if you've seen the film, you know what it is where she looks in to see if he's there and she catches a masturbating and the actor laid there was masturbating on camera for us. Once again, another like you just don't see these things usually. No. So it's it's it's quite shocking. And I think a lot of it was obvious, of course on purpose, but it was to send a message, I believe one of the overall messages about basically women and a bunch of stuff is just our meat. Yeah, that's a big man. I mean, even on the circumcision part, you can't really see like it's just they're cutting a bunch of meat is basically what it looks like. And then you obviously kill them a goat. And then so there's that huge message. Obviously, the bigger message is just all these men look at this woman as a piece of meat, the cops, the husband of just this random guy, this and she returns the favor by giving them what they consider it to be just a piece of meat, which is extremely did you see that comment? Yes, me too, which I'm a little upset because I don't think they need to call it. I think it's called browning the taste of flesh or something like that. The flavors of flesh. I think you could take that part out. Yeah, just call it Briana. Just call it Briana. I think that gives too much away. Because I was looking for I was like, we haven't gotten to Briana yet. So this is probably the logical step that we're going here. And it's it's it's incredibly shocking. I knew to that it that it would happen that they would show that I thought she was actually like I was like, I was like, is she going to cut this thing and put it in? I actually thought I thought when we were getting to that, I thought this director might do that. Yeah. So did I. That's why I was I was like, oh my God. And I love that I was that I was afraid of that. I thought this director might and it was a everything that he did. Yeah, you phenomenal director. What an absolutely every choice you made as a director. The the choice, for example, to forth. We didn't get directors. I love this about the world of directing. And that's one of the things I hate because some directors force you to see stuff that you didn't need to be forced. This movie, he forces you to see things that you ought to be forced to look at because the whole basic message of this film is how long are we as a collective humanity going to turn our eyes away from the stuff that is. I don't even have enough words to describe how horrible they are for the treatment of other people. And he forces you to look at them in a way that if all you will walk away from the film is, oh, he shows a guy masturbating, you you just you don't understand art or the point of art. You just completely miss the point. I really enjoyed the end of it when obviously she she obviously feeds these this to these people and which I love because that's the only thing she felt like she could get back at them with. But and even still her sense of dignity percent she doesn't include the crowd. Yeah, I thought she was gonna do it and I was like go girl. Yeah, and when she did and I was like even still the goodness in her heart is still there. Yeah, like I because it's an entire message of obviously she's just the only way she felt like she could either get revenge, get justice, get whatever, get back at them. I think I think even because when you understand some of the things about what the Quran teaches about cannibalism, I think she was probably hoping she could somehow inadvertently get these guys to commit a sin that they didn't know about and therefore didn't confess therefore when they died they would have unconfessed sin but that's that's not how it works. In the Quran you have to be conscious of the sin. But I love that he left it open with questions because obviously right at that the good man with the goatee he said does it one wrong make a does another wrong make I forget the exact line but two wrongs don't make a right basically is essentially what he says right he's very upset by it and then you see her jump off the bridge right and sounds like she's drowning right and so then the but the very next scene is her I believe with her ex-husband it's her and the ex-husband but now she's on top and so she either so my theory was that she kind of she because she told herself in the beginning of the movie that she wasn't brave enough to kill herself and so I thought she was like I'm just gonna live my life and I'm gonna take control of it now and obviously her being on top which for all the people who don't let their wives do this you're missing out but the fact she's taking control of it but somebody else I saw put said that she might have died and this was her heaven was that because it's like hey get 74 virgins right when he goes to heaven and there's nothing for women yeah this was her heaven that she got to take I don't know which one of these I like that it left it open to for interpretation because you don't really know yeah because you kind of confuse you like it sounds like she drowned just now and you can walk away with either interpretation and beat let that be the ending which is kind of like many films the one that comes off the top of my head is the three billboards yeah yeah that where do they do it or do they not do it yeah and either ending is right I personally go for based on everything else we had seen that she does die and that this is her last thought that the only way she could find any sense of justice in the world was in her imagination because in the real world women just are meat and die yeah and I was saying earlier about this being the quintessential example of what filmmaking is and it's my favorite kinds of films is because I'm very everything about me is purpose driven I believe that if you want to know what your purpose is it's very simple look at the design I'm not going to pontificate long about it but design reveals purpose I've said this over and over again I've taught this that the chair I'm sitting in all you have to do is look at it you know what its purpose is it was made to be sad now you can use it outside of its intended design but the farther you get away from its intended design the more likely you are to be hurt yourself or hurt somebody else so whenever something is used within its highest purpose which is revealed by its design you're going to derive the greatest blessing from it there is a design to theater which is film in movie theaters all theater is storytelling and the purpose of it is encapsulated in Shakespeare's line in Hamlet where he says the plays the thing where and I'll catch the conscience of the king storytelling at its core is conscious conscious catching it's intended to have a moral to the story so that when you leave the story didn't just entertain you and stir your imagination but you left with a message that taught you a moral lesson that made you a better person for having heard it when it's all said and done and I cannot think of a more powerfully and well depicted way to tell a story that has a message that ought to reshape not just the way you think but the way that you behave and sadly like us or his other one Jordan Heal oh get out get out I remember especially us we all left the theater looked at each other and said the people who need to see that film and understand it never will and never will understand it that's the sad thing about this is that the people who need to see this film and it touches everything from the way women are treated to the way I loved these news clips yeah just in your face about the issues that are real and the real problems that it's like Libya man it's like the genocide in Africa there have been these constant humanitarian crisis that and hopefully we won't be saying this about COVID in India even though it's shaping up to be that right now yeah where a bunch of places in the world I remember in the first 10 years of Libya looking around and going anybody care about what's going on over there right now yeah the the the famines in Africa that are politically created and literal genocide going on in Africa and the rest of the world's just I feel like that's the other message of this film in the end is that how many stories like this happen and just women all around just abused left for dead and everyone else just goes on their merry way you know yeah it's an incredible film very powerful film incredible film so once again hope you're not here if you haven't seen it and if you have let us know your thoughts on the film what you think the ending was what basically because this film has a lot to say and there's a lot of stuff you can take from this film and which is another brilliant thing the director did so I want to thank all the creators of the film you did a great film and bringing it to our attention you guys because this is a very small small film very independent film I'd be shocked if the budget was I'm glad you said this because I thought about this when I was talking to Adrani about it this film is another it's a great example of we talk about this all the time the measure of great movie making is not box office or popularity no in the same way great artists are not defined by how well known they are some of the greatest artists they have or how much money they have some of the greatest artists in human history weren't celebrated until they were long gone so in their day no one was really paying close attention to them this is one of those jewels like many artists out there that the world doesn't even know exists Van Gogh Van Gogh never sold a painting when he was alive never sold a painting when he was alive and I'm telling you some of the greatest artists are living amongst us and nobody knows who they are the greatest actors the greatest writers the greatest directors the greatest singers and musicians have yet to be seen and that I'm so glad we were able to pick this one up and that's why I want big OTT platforms and as many as possible to share this with people because this is this is in my top favorite films of all time I've added it to my list as far as absolutely as good as it gets in movie making and her performance I haven't been as impressed by an actress who I hadn't really seen before the last time I saw somebody and went holy crap where did she come from and give an Oscar performance was uh uh Bri um Larson no uh from the Florida project oh gotcha she's never done a thing and it was like she'll Oscar level work even more so this beautiful subtle gorgeous this is our I believe 14th or 15th Malayalam film actually so let us know what the next Malayalam film that we should watch Malayalam always pushing the boundaries I feel uh doing great great work and this director this director let us know more from them and the next Malayalam film we should watch down