 I'm not doing anything. You do it so much that the stupid family did a frickin' Instagram post about it. It was funny. Hey, welcome back to our stupid rigs. We've given you some Corbin. I'm Rick. And you follow us on Instagram and Twitter. Instagram and Twitter. All juicy columns. And it's juicy. You wrote some Patreon columns. Put it down for you though. I don't know what it is. It's a clock. Also on the personal YouTube channels, links right down there for you. That went far. I know it did. And today, we're doing a movie review. You sweet little chitlits. Yeah. Of our first Punjab movie. It's true. How exciting. It's true. And that's what I'm pulling up here is my notes. It took us a while to get here. We're sorry. But like I said, I've made a conscious effort to try to get to as many regions and try to represent as many regions as possible. But we can only do it so fast. But this one won the polls by miles. Yes. By miles. On Twitter, YouTube, Patreon, all of them. This one by a mile. But it is a Punjab, 1984. During time, political turmoil. A mother goes on a journey in search of her missing son who has been misjudged and labeled a terrorist. Yes. Directed by our Anirag Singh. Anirag Singh. Who, he did Qasari, that's right. Yes. He's the director of Qasari. And when was this again? This was 2014. So okay. So this was a five year prior. Yes. Let's see, hold on. And then, trying to see if there's any other notables in the making. But obviously, Deljit, this is our first outside, this is our first Punjab, obviously, of him. Which is where he's mainly known. But we've saw him in, I think it was Ota Punjab. Ota Punjab. Right? That was it? Was that the one where he was the cop? No. Ah, yes. I think it was. It is Ota Punjab. Okay. But he's the cop. And he's investigating everything and tracking them. Yeah. Full film where he's the lead. And we know he's a big star. So a hundred spent spoiler review, that's just how we like to do it. Yep. So if you haven't seen it, you know, if you want, go watch it and come back. And then you can be not spoiled. If you'd like to be spoiled, you're about to be a naughty little boy. Oh yeah. Rick, your initial thoughts. My initial thoughts, I didn't write down a paragraph, but I'll give you a semi paragraph version that I think this film is a movie that has an enormous heart, is passionately undertaken by everyone involved and has aspects of it that are lacking in cinematic discipline that disassociated me from the film on a technical level. But when it came to the heart of the film and the heart of the people making it, you cannot deny the passion and the authenticity. And some of the things, particularly about just weak expositional, if look up exposition and what it's supposed to be in terms of screenplay writing and how you're supposed to show, not tell and melodrama, I felt those were things that if those had been more mature in their cinematic discipline, this would have been a film I would have been raving about. As it stands, I liked the film. I love the passion and the heart behind it more than anything. Yeah. I was trying to figure, because I did not, I wanted to love this. Me too. I did, because you know how much I love the Punjabi people. I wanted to love this one. I wanted to be like, yes, Punjab is here. Right. We've made it. Especially our first review. Man, I would try to figure out why I didn't feel that way, because it wasn't, obviously there was no glaring, acting bad stuff in it. There was no, the cinematography was actually really not very nice. I actually loved the songs. I loved all the score behind the film. But it was something, I think it was the writing. It was, there were two aspects to it. Yeah. And I kept writing this over and over again in terms of exposition. I'm going to give you an example of poor exposition. Okay. It's toward the beginning when someone says, we've been locked up here without food or water for two days. I come here to pray for the well-being of my son. When you use dialogue for exposition, it never works unless it's narration. You can get away with it when you have a narrator. But in a moment like that, it's much better to let the audience try to figure it out based on what you show us. Because in real life, that's typically not what happens and you immediately disassociate believability. And that happened a lot. I'd like to talk about the stuff that I liked. Me too. I knew it was actually fine. I said that to Andrani after I watched it. I said, I feel bad. It's almost, it's like, I feel like they did everything they could to make the best movie they possibly can. And I feel bad giving a critiquing, but I love the art form, so I can't not critique it. So yeah, let's talk about what we love. I thought Dylan did a really good job. I enjoy him as an actor. I do want to know if that was his real hair or if that was a wig as well. Oh, God. Because when I first saw it, I was like, I thought he didn't do that. Me too. Or if he did it because of what they did to the character, he wanted to do that, but I also didn't know if it was also a wig or something. That was one of my favorite moments in the film when I saw him like that. Because when you know what that means for the character, but especially if he did that for the character, I thought that was powerful. I didn't know, so you can let me know. But I thought he did a really good job. I did too. I didn't know he was in it, but our friend from, not our friend, but from the run one. Yes, from Run Bilka, Bagmakabang. Yeah, he has very distinct eyes, I think it is. Is it eyes or is it? It's a combination of things. It's the eyes and it's just the face shape. It's like the minute I saw him, I'm like, oh yeah. He, I really enjoyed it. I thought the mother did a fantastic job as well. I thought she was really, really strong. So like I said, it wasn't the acting. I thought most of the acting did really, really, I loved the score. Whoever was the singer of the, let me see, those composers didn't tell me the singers. I don't know who the singers were because I felt like we know that whoever the singer was. Yeah, and here's moments like this and this is why it's melodrama, like a soap opera. There were a lot of moments where someone says a line that's a like a punch to the gut and it's accentuated by the score going bum, bum, bum, and the camera holding on them and they zoom in a little bit. But I don't think it was meant to be cliche nor do I think it's a lack. I think everybody did the best they could based on what they know. Does that make sense? Yeah, I thought so too. But I was going, not to really the score that, because I had some of those same issues, but the songs, when there was actually songs, whoever the singer was, I thought, and there wasn't really any dance numbers obviously, but they had like three or four songs, I want to say, of the guy singing in the background while they were doing something. And I thought those were lovely, whoever the singer was. And there were some moments that like, one of my favorite moments of the film was when he puts the bomb on the bus and he looks up and he sees his mom is in the bus and pulls it out and has that realization as well as when they pull people off the bus and they line them up and he says, I'm actually bringing his mom's glasses. And when they chose to do the shot where he threw the glasses and then you wonder what's gonna happen. And then they chose to take a close-up on the glasses on the ground when you hear the bullets going off. That attention to wanting to make this as powerful as possible was like, when it ended I'm like, oh, I so feel and see the heart behind this. And knowing that the director also did Kasari, which we love. We love Kasari. Obviously you can see his growth for sure. And he's relatively young. And that's why when you said Kasari, I immediately said, okay, how many years back was this? Because the growth in the directing, but also you're right, the writing, that it's that exposition is critical. And bad exposition to writing is impacting to believability as is cliched acting is to acting. And any time that that happens, where somebody says, where's Diljit? Well, as you know, he had that problem with his mother. Yeah. Right? Stuff like that. Yeah. But more to like. Yeah. Right? Yeah. The other stuff that I came in with the name expecting to learn about the massacre of Punjab 1984. Right. I'm wondering if it was called Punjab 1984 just so people would come see it. Because outside of the beginning, right, this was not about that event that if you say Punjab 1984, right, every Indian knows what you're talking about. Right, like 2611. Yeah. Right. They know what you're talking about. It's what happened at the Golden Temple and around that. Right. They obviously made his father another issue because obviously you know the story of it, of what took place. Yeah. Yeah, at the Golden Temple. Yeah. Because yes, they were apparently a terrorist. Well, he was taking refuge in the Golden Temple and the government just decided well. Everybody, yeah. If we kill them all, we'll get him. Yeah. Yeah. But I, so one, I thought the whole thing was gonna be about that. And it was more about, and I enjoyed the end when they actually showed about all the missing people that went missing because of the false accusation of the state, part of the filmmakers. So I enjoyed that and you know, you get that. But I feel like, you know, one, I don't think they did the beginning part justice because one, it looks like that his dad who went out almost got shot by accident. And when he went to get the water. Yeah. When in fact, it was a lot more heinous. It was far more like the event that took place where everybody was. But it was done by the state. Right. And so I don't know if censorship happened. Right. Or what? Because I know it's a very sensitive, but I was hoping to learn and I enjoyed learning the little I did. Me too. But that's something, something as awful of an event as that. Right. I like a film to be as truthful and as powerful as possible with telling the truth of that awful event that happened. Right. Some of the stuff that like the end fight kind of threw me off a little bit. Well, because like one, he's not strong enough to bend rhubarb to in order to be able to choke somebody. No. And if you look close enough, he's not choking. Yeah, he's not. And the stunt work was, the heart was there, but the technicalities were extremely weak. So was the makeup. It just, you know, the fight choreography was not done well and it wasn't executed well. But the heart was behind it. And I remember seeing that opening sequence and knowing and reading up a little bit about the history of that event. We've been in the Golden Temple. I just, it's really hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that that happened. Yeah. And that's something that happened in that place. And obviously it's not the film's fault because that's not the story that was dry-tailed. And it's okay, but that's the story I really want to learn about. Yeah. Because that's an event that, you know, we should know about. That's an awful, awful thing that happened. And I think there were also some things in this that would be definitively appreciated and adored by Punjabi people. Yeah, like we can appreciate him with his hair exposed, right? But even when he said statements like, I'll make a bet. If I scream when you torture me, I am not the son of my father. But if I don't scream, you're a bastard. Yeah. And that warrior, just like in Kasari, the whole sick pride and courage and warrior mind, I felt like that was oozing throughout this. Oh yeah. You were Punjabi. Exposition, makeup, fight choreography for you would kind of be way to the side because what you're getting to see is my culture and my people and my values up on the screen right now for all the world to see. And I would be proud of that if I was Punjabi. I would, even with all of that, I would be like, you know what, I'm proud of the film. Yeah. Right? Yeah, probably. Yeah, obviously with everything, there's probably a bunch of stuff that we could not really with. Absolutely. Of course. We completely miss. But that's, you know, that's just what it is. I came away with wanting to love it and I was just like, I like certain parts. But for the most part, I was like, you know, yeah, I probably won't ever watch it again. Right. And I wouldn't necessarily recommend it. Yeah. Yeah. But it doesn't mean I, again, I mean, no ill will toward it in any way. And the biggest thing is I see the heart and the love and the passion behind it. It's almost like, and I don't mean, in this comparison coming to my mind right now, I'm not trying to degrade the film to the level in this example. But I feel like if you're, if you're, if Leland were to come to you in two or three years and show you, Dad, look what I just made. Everything inside of you would be overflowing with joy over his creation. You're going to nitpick the fact that it's not up to the standards of creative expression that you would expect on a page. And you know what I mean? I feel the same way about this film. I can see the, the technical things that I, that are not right, but the heart of the creators behind it, I almost feel bad saying anything about the film that isn't exemplary because I feel like the heart behind it was so, so right. Yeah. And if there's stuff we missed, please, please let us know that we're idiots as you, I know you will. Yeah. But you know, it's not even a tour of me from watching another Punjabi film. No, and again, I agree with you. When you said about the acting of everybody in there, there were no problems. His mom, I thought was wonderful throughout. She was solid throughout. I thought he did really well. All the supporting people with everything that they were given, especially in light of the editing with the music and things being melodramatic. I don't know how it was directed while they were working, but everybody seemed to be pretty grounded. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's, it's the writing in the, some of the technical aspects that was basically what throws you off a little bit when watching the film. And then obviously it being two and a half hours long. Yeah. You can probably heighten some of the problems. It did for me. It would have been much easier to swallow some of those things if it had a much shorter runtime. Yeah. But anyways, that's it. That's our first Punjabi review. Give us more. Please give us more. I know, what is it? Rangroot, something. Rangroot. Rangroot in the name. I believe it's still, I believe it also is Gilgit. Hold on. Wouldn't surprise me. I think, no, maybe I don't know. Or something else entirely. Also, if there's like a documentary or something, you can send us about Punjab 1984. Yeah. I would love to learn about that event. I would too. So if it's like an event on YouTube or if it's on Netflix or something, please send it our way. And even we've done reactions to stuff that's just about Punjab. If you had a five or six minute thing about, here's some history about. It was great. It was a moment when they said something about Amritsar. And I was like, we've been there. Yeah. Delicious food. And we've been at the Golden Temple. Yeah. Good job. Yeah, let us know more Punjabi film we should watch next down below and upvote the ones. So I can see it, I know it, and figure out which film from Punjab we should watch next.