 birthday. I wish I was hanging upside down right now. He looked like 75 cents. Welcome back to our stupid reaction, it's up for Rick. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you didn't see the Super Bowl halftime show. Where Curtis Jackson was there upside down. You should absolutely do yourselves a favor and watch that halftime show, especially if you love hip-hop, but even if you didn't, they nailed it at every level. It was one of the best ever. I know most of you don't watch the Super Bowl because you don't like American football, but the halftime show is definitely worth watching. Yeah, it really was. And everybody, Snoop, Dr. Dre, 90 Cent, Mary J. Blige, Eminem, everybody killed it. The dancers killed it. The set design killed it. It was awesome. Today we're doing a movie of you and we are still on romance month and this is the review of the 2009 film Jogua. Is that how you pronounce that? Jogua? Why not? Either Jogua or Jagua? Jagua, yeah. The Marathi film, directed by Rajiv Patil. Patil and starring Uppendra Lumet and forgive mispronunciations, ladies and gentlemen, especially a few artists happen to be watching him. Mukta Barve. Yeah, and those are the primary leads. Those are the two leads in the film. And this is too strange to be forced into a life of servitude to the local deity. They fall in love and went to start a new life, but the wrath of the highly superstitious communally will let them live in peace. That's a little too descriptive. I don't like that description. That gives you a little too much there. But anyways, this film has been requested for a long long time in terms of Marathi films that people want us to get to. I think this was, I think it was a submission to the Oscars in 2009, I think. I could be wrong. You guys can let us know. But anyways, it had to do with romance and all that kind of stuff, so I swung it into romance month to get us a Marathi film as well. But this will be a hundred cents for the review. If you haven't watched it, go watch it. You can get it on Amazon or I think YouTube. Or there's probably a bunch of other places if you speak Marathi that you can actually watch it, but with subtitles, that's what we got to see it. But Rick, your initial thoughts. Well, here comes the paragraph for our 11th film of the year, our 218th all-time and our 10th Marathi film. If you've ever seen people diving for pearls or digging for gold, you understand a very simple principle of life. We often have to love finding something valuable so much that we're willing and able to dive down and sift through some silt or dig through some dirt in order to find it. The same principle can sometimes be applied in the world of cinema. If you love cinema, the art of movie making and the hearts of those who make them, you ought to be willing and able to dive down and sift through some silt or dig around some dirt in order to find the more worthy and treasurable parts of a film. Sometimes we sift and dig and come up with nothing, but silt and dirt. But sometimes if you love the work of finding it, you can find some really valuable things in movies some others might throw away and that's how I feel about Jagwa. It has a lot of proverbial silt and muck you need to sift through, but if you love cinema and care to do that dirty work, you can't help but recognize a ton of sparkling little places throughout this movie that make it more of a gem worth keeping. It also helped me understand my critiquing of a film. I'm just keeping it simple from now on. I've got so many things I could do to grade and to score. But you know, sometimes we watch reactions and it's over and I'm like a trailer and I'll go, I'm in. So for me, the bottom line is am I in or am I out? Would I recommend somebody watch it that ultimately for this one, it finally won me over. I wasn't there. I was ultimately in in the end. In the end. Yeah. Yeah, I agree there. It's this is not a perfect film. And I think probably a lot of it has to do with budgetary. I'd imagine that's a ridiculously low budget when this was yeah, I'd imagine. But the biggest issues I have with the film are probably budgetary. Okay. And I mean, there are some stylistic stuff that I did have an issue with as well. Yeah, I do. I'll talk about my major issue. I think overall, this film is definitely worthy in terms of there's a lot of artistic merit and a lot of the performances, a lot of the songs and the cinematography and cinematography. And then obviously, the overall message in the end as well, I think is definitely worthy right with some stuff that maybe if there was different budget, it would have changed or that I would have just preferred to be a little different. But yeah, overall, I definitely think it's a worthy watch. If you haven't watched it, please go watch it come back. Yeah, let's we'll talk about it. Yeah, let's start with our leads, I suppose. I thought they both, both of them, Upendra and Mukta Mukta, both did really, really well agree. They had really good chemistry. And I was especially because it took me a second to figure out what was going on, right? Oh, yeah, absolutely. It took me a while. Yeah. Okay, okay, this is a cult, right? Okay, this is this is not normal. This is like a weird kind of thing. It took me a minute. Okay, why is he right? Not just that it's a cult, but that like family members can purposefully submit you to serve the rest of your life and submission to the deity, whether you wanted it to happen or not. Yeah, yeah, it took me a minute because I was like this is like a culture. No, this is like, this is really weird. This is like a weird, full on cult kind of thing. Yeah, that they were going through. And then there was also some because I think it has some like religious stuff in there. Sure, with the cult. But that sounds like is this like, this is not like Hindu stuff, right? This is like, this is like weird. I don't I've never I've never seen and then trying to piece together some of the stuff we learned from like, so I think that that Bengali film that with the reason would you know, go and get though, what is it called the he asked for when you go door to door when you went to arms, arms. Yep. And so I was trying to piece together all that kind of stuff. And so it got a little confusing. And then they kind of explained it. And then as it went on, but I thought he did a really, really good job at showing the emotion behind this ridiculously complex situation that was going on. Yeah, I agree. And I thought of the two taking nothing away from him because I thought he did with everything he was given and what he was required to do. I thought he did a very good job. She for me was my favorite part of the film. And she had some real strong. Yeah, she had some moments for me that were just beautiful. Yeah, some really tender moments. The intimacy moments when that came about, I just I found her to pretty much be strong for the moment. Yeah, she was great. She was really captivating on screen. Yep, they had some really beautiful moments. The cinematography all minus thing good disguise. You guys can let me know what the budget of this but I'd imagine it was ridiculously small. And what they did, it was kind of like, it was it was gorgeous. What they did not only with obviously there was a lot of score in this. Yeah, it was overscored to my liking. No, like I'm talking like song song and not the not the overdramatic. Okay, you're talking about the songs like songs I thought were incredibly good. I'm talking about those not the those that I do agree. We'll talk about that but the the songs were great overscoring of certain parts. I do agree. But the the the amount like when they when they were doing like the dance number and it kept going and kept going there was so many beautiful like silhouette shots. Absolutely. So many beautiful backlighting shots. It was gorgeous framing shots. So the cinematographer Sanjay Jadov working hand in hand with Rajiv Patel. Your choices of cinematography and some shots that were so there's a beautiful shot when they're sitting by the river and the camera comes up and over and sees them and frames them in between the branches and then there's another distant shot where they're framing something in a doorway and the amount of time and attention to that cinematography detail making me emotional when I when I was writing my paragraph I was explaining it to Andrani because I was watching it. She was asleep. I was watching early early in the morning and she asked me how I liked it and I said I have a lot of problems with the film just from a discipline aspect in terms of the actual undertaking of something like the overscoring and we'll get into that and there were some chunky editing selections and there were some things even with exposition done through dialogue versus giving it an imagery. Yeah. But the amount of care that these filmmakers went to everybody the amount of care that went into making this look right and feel right. It really felt like for everybody this was a labor of love for them to accomplish again. It's kind of like if I don't mean this as an insult in any way I'm giving this just as an example comparatively of your heart towards someone's creative output. If you have a if you had like a 7 year old kid show you their drawing and it's genuinely pretty for some in their age it's like way better than you could have ever done at 7. Yeah. But it's still not something you would put in the loop you know what I mean. It's not going to be at the level of what we talk about with elevated artistry and you can recognize they're outside the lines they're doing but you're really going to point that out when you can see the heart of what they wanted to make and that's that is exactly how I feel about this movie that is way more. But the sad thing is it does require especially from someone in the West and it's not just cultural differences. There are some things that if you understand the art form that will frustrate you and could really push some people away from continuing to watch. Yeah and I think the biggest ones I think you mentioned are in some aspects of the film not the songs because I think all the songs were absolutely phenomenal I think they were really really well done but some of the background score of when there's like dialogue are like K-3G over dramatic or soap opera. Yeah yeah yeah exactly and that's that's what I think K-3G. Yeah there were moments when they you know the music stopped and when there was a pattern music would stop two lines would be delivered and then the music would come back. Yeah and I was like we got to the end of the film like here comes two lines and there's the music cue music second line in. Yeah and so it's obviously for a while it was this style and this is 2009. Sure. Still a little late but it's just once again I think we'll always say it if there's a film like it that's just not our taste to have scores background score like that and and then there was just a few actors like the mom was a little over dramatic for me at times yeah but apparently that's just how moms in India are because that's like a common theme in films is for the moms to be this over dramatic mess. Correct. And so maybe I'm still just not there with the right right right. Yeah it's just like everybody else is like real grounded real nice and then the mom comes on like it's like it's just bothersome still to me yeah and then the other part I do agree is that the editing is extremely choppy. Yeah. Very very chunky spots which is one of the budgetary things it's like you don't realize how how like it cost money to make a film look as good as it does not only with editing but with color correction but with the the I guess the score background score behind it with the cinematography with everything it cost a lot of money to make it look good yes and so I don't know if that's what it was or if there's just they the editor didn't do a good job. Yeah it can be an experience in editing I don't know it just that was one of the things. It was a very clunky. Yeah it was the editing selection was clunky so that there wasn't a real fluidity but I will say there were moments that there was some in fact as we got toward the end there were some musics where there were some moments I meant that blended well enough that I thought to myself I wonder if this director really likes Mel Gibson because I love Mel Gibson and I could pick up other people who are inspired by him yeah and there were some selections of musical choice and flow and using nature that remind me of apocalypto okay and which is a high compliment and then there were other segments that were just like like I don't know if they were whatever don't want to harp on that but the other thing I mentioned earlier and I'm going to give an example for this for those of you who may not know what I'm referring to so a huge part of storytelling and it doesn't matter where you're putting it in what format is is exposition where you have to explain some of what's been going on prior to now yeah here is an example I'm gonna give you two quick examples of and then nothing from the film I'm just giving you an example of this here's good exposition and bad exposition for the same topic bad exposition two guys are walking down the street at the beginning of the film by a river and one turns the other and says you know Bob went to Finchwater and he's been missing for two days that's bad exposition that same element telling the audience Bob's been gone for two days will be more would be better done where you see an image of a woman standing outside of her house and it's almost full nightfall and she's looking out in the woods and she's worried and then it pans down and you see a little girl holding on who looks up and the mom looks down at her and says he's going to be okay that immediately makes you realize someone's out there someone's in danger and we haven't been spoon fed everything it's considered weak writing to just tell us something through exposition and it's a common thing that happens and it happened at the outset and a couple of spots in here but if you haven't been trained otherwise yeah you see it happen enough that it's something that's easy to do especially if you don't want the film to be three hours it's difficult to put exposition in action form and not verbally yeah I agree and so probably those are the biggest gripes I'd have with the film but overall there's still a bunch that I think is way more way more to celebrate like I think the writing of this film outside of some of the clunky nature of in what he was saying I think it's a really unique script incredibly you know because one it took it I'd not seen a story that was telling a style of film of a town whose very has the culty kind of deity kind of thing going on and then the family can force a guy to do this thing and obviously this girl comes in and she wants to join the trope and then what they have to do to get out of that and the end is obviously the best part yeah of this film and it's a great climax it's a great really builds and it ends how I like films that kind of just like a yeah that was it that was it done which I I enjoy no no like two years later kind of stuff going on but I think there's I did enjoy the writing of this film quite a bit yes story yeah how how unique a great story and in the climax as well I thought it was I wrote down in my notes watching it I I loved the fact that this was an inclusion and I'm so glad that you chose this and that was recommended to you because this may become the most unique romance film yeah that and I would recommend it as a romance film and it is but beyond original it is it is so unique I can't think of another film I've seen that has a story quite like it yeah and I believed it took me a long time because of the clunky editing the overscoring some of the exposition and these things that can really turn you off and are expecting that as just to be at a certain level it took me a while to care for them yeah but once I did care for them I gladly was rooting for them and really liked that culminating prospect and got credit to them as well I really didn't know what was going to happen because up until that point this film didn't make me think the creators were gonna give us a happy ending so when they're dragging him off to kill him and throw him in the well I thought they were gonna I thought he was gonna die or he was gonna when he was flailing his arms I thought he was gonna accidentally flail and cut her open and she was gonna die as well so the fact that I was in that place of you know like when you're watching Thrones and anybody's game yeah you know I yeah I love that part of it and I didn't really enjoy that obviously it was kind of a slow build-up to their relationship but when they actually did get together I thought the montage of them actually I loved it falling in love and like and you know having sex or you know just their whole relationship actual building together I thought that was a really nice and then basically from there on I thought the film was really really nice and then go all the way to the climax yeah where man that was that was here's here's something that I don't know about tell me what you think hmm I think you'll agree with this and then I'm gonna ask you a question it's it seems to me that this story is actually rated our content put into a PG format hmm do you think it's best in the format it was in or do you think they could have presented some of the things more realistically graphically and to grab you by the proverbial shirt collar as it were in terms of the depth of the severity of some of the things that we were witnessing in this do you know what I mean yeah no I always prefer the slapping people in the face with the reality yeah yeah cuz life is rated R yeah but kind of it's Indian cinema and kind of 2009 Indian cinema right in Marathi Marathi cinema which I know they're more known for more artistic films and we've seen a lot of artistic films from them but it's still Indian cinema of course and so you got the censor board that you still have to deal with and you got all this kind of stuff and I think there's also a big difference I could be wrong but I really do think Indian cinema from all regions really does draw to as many participants in the theater as possible and they want families to come because it's a larger group of people coming to see your movie and so if they're gonna make edits it's not just to appease the censor board I think they're gonna try to make things more universally accepting for a broader audience not just for the entertainment value but for the dollar value it's more seats and you know tickets exactly but I I would love to have seen and maybe someone could do it to take this exact same story because it's worth having different retellings of it yeah it could be done a lot of what I really love to see two aspects that part maybe a little bit grittier and then I'd like to see and this is difficult to do but for example if you're watching sci-fi they have to do this all the time they have to make you aware of their cultural things very rapidly and they don't expect you to just accept it so if you're learning about Vulcans and Star Trek they don't just expect you to know it or at least just not think about it you know you eventually get to the point where in Star Trek that means something if you're watching you know Black Panther that means something because they teach you while they're going I'd like to see that and I don't I know it's a difficult task but I would love to have known a little bit more I got some ideas like when they blew the turmeric in his face the meaning behind that there's just some of those things I know that went over our head yeah my bet is that this would make more for an Indian audience certainly and we we've seen that I get I get people like if you're from Marathi probably like obviously we know what that means right we know what I mean you know what all this means and obviously two white dudes from California are going to be as privy to a lot of the information but yeah I do agree I think like if this was retold I think you could actually keep a lot of the the the actors and you could keep a lot of even the the filmmakers maybe up the budget a little bit to help with maybe some of the editing I think you keep the exact same composer because I loved all the songs I think all just pulled back on the underscoring yeah I just a bit because it was still nice it was too much yeah songs were great songs were all and muscular doubt sounded beautiful of course she did of course she did but I got the for me the biggest standouts are the story yeah her and him yeah gotta give him credit to but she was a little higher for me and then boy oh boy for them to accomplish what they did cinematography wise India doesn't cease to amaze over and over with the consistency of what we see in cinematography yeah I absolutely pretty pretty amazing it's consistent yep it's amazing anyways let us know what you thought about this film while we're idiots in the comments as you always do and let us know what the next romance film and Marathi film I would like to get to a lot more if you say we only had 10 10 yeah this was our 10th we've seen quite a few that we've really liked yeah I went I double-checked on the place well I guess it would be obviously hindi has the most of course but then I think it's Malayalam Malayalam damal and then damal and then I think to lugu and marathi you're like neck and neck neck and neck I think so those two and then uh poor bang uh Punjabi and well yeah Bengali Bengali is pretty high too but Assamese Gujarati Canada we understand we need to get its accessibility is a huge huge factor for us but anyway let us know what the next Marathi film that we should watch is down below