 Are you trying to be annoying? Yeah. Yeah, it's working. You're welcome. Hey, welcome back to our stupid director. It's of course I'm Rick and you can follow us on Twitter. Feel it. Feel it. Subscribe if you haven't, please. Please. Get notified. Notified it and like it. Join us on Patreon. Because it helps the algorithm and what do we have cookies over there? What do you want? Most in life to help the algorithm. That's what you want. That's all I thought. Purpose of life. I want my headstone to say he helped the algorithm. That's a good one. It's a good one. It's a good way to go. That's what I am. Helping the algorithm. Why do you exist to help the algorithm? It's like a matrix. I heard a story that I don't know if it's true or not. I believe it based on Zuckerberg and the aliens that work with him. He, and if you don't know about that, have you ever seen some of the photographs of Zuckerberg and his crew? No. Oh my stars. It's pretty creepy weird. Like they don't smile. I'm not kidding. But there's this story circulating and I found it on the internet. So obviously it's true. It's clearly true. That they created two artificial intelligence beings that began to communicate with each other in a language of their own construction. And so they terminated the existence of the artificial intelligence because it freaked them out that they had their own communication skills in a language that they created. We're all gonna die one day. Today we're doing a movie of you everybody. And it's of the way. Oh, no, it flew to Badlapur. And it's 2015 film Badlapur. Yes. Directed by, which means revenge of the cat, because it's the purr at the end. Yes. Badlapur. Yeah, it's revenge of the cat. It's cat revenge. For the cat's movie. Yeah, for the cat's movie. It's a sequel to cats because the first one was so bad. So it's called cat's revenge. Did you ever see that one? No. But it's directed by, say his name? Forgive the mispronunciation, please, but we have seen this writer-director before from Raghavan. Andahan, specifically. And since I know some of you are new here, I know I'm saying it wrong. Egg, egg, egg. Yes. But that's what happened. What it will always be. Movies got carbonized. So if you hear things like that and Pashramani, what was it? Pashrami Mastanani. Pashrami Mastanani. Debra. Debra. Yeah, these are all carbonizations. But then it's starring Varun Dharhwan and then a little actor. Lessor known actor. Siddiqui. Siddiqui, I think it is. Yes, Siddiqui. Kind of like a Siddiqui, but a Siddiqui. Exactly. Noisudin Siddiqui. Actually, it says Deust, Nusdinsuaraki. And then a whole slew of supporting cast as well, including our hopefully future Dost, Radhika Apte as well. But then there's quite a few other people that I did recognize. But they were smaller roles as well. But it's a hundred percent spoiled. We came out in 2015. We saw it on Amazon. I feel like you go see it, go watch it, come back. Because this will be all spoiled. But I don't know the truth. This was another Khonwan that was kind of a mixed bag for me in terms of there was stuff I liked a lot. But then there was stuff I also wish was much better. Then we'll have a good conversation. What's OK? So what do you think? I loved it. You loved it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. In fact, I wrote among the many things I wrote and I was going to jokingly start off by by making a joke about the fact that giving the impression I didn't like it. Because I I anticipated that you would you would actually like it a lot. There was a lot that I really enjoyed. No, I loved it. I loved it. And my my the thing I wrote here was this. This was at the end of the movie. I wrote right close to the end of the movie. In my notes, I wrote, there's nothing in the performing arts that thrills me more or inspires me more deeply than watching great actors give great performances because of great dialogue, great direction and a great story they're telling. That's pretty much how I felt about the movie. Good. I'm good. So I'm interested to see what the things were that gave you the mixed bag. Well, we'll just get into it. Let's start with the performances. And that's actually one of the bit. My biggest issues seriously is he wasn't I'm not talking no was obviously. And for those who once again, who are new, we know who no was a density is. He is our dose. Thank you. We know who he is. We've interviewed him. He's our friend. We joke, we text all the time. We joke. But that's not what I'm talking about. Varun, I thought he was good. I just wish he was stronger. Really? I do. Yeah. In what way? Acting. I think somebody like our Dost Ali Faizal would have been perfect. Obviously, at the time, he wasn't as big as he is now, obviously. But yeah, it's just he. I wanted to believe his character more than I did. Wow. I you didn't have that problem. Not at all. OK, well, I'm glad. Yeah, I'm glad I enjoyed him. I believed him. I think he was fine. That's that's why I know I in fact, one of the comments I said to Andrani because she really likes the movie, too. Is I for someone to be able to hold their own in a film that features Nawazid and Siddiqui and Radhika Apte is a testament to the quality of because with those actors and and Mukesh Chabra's casting, as always, he's always great. It's I I did not consider him a weak link at all. I considered him comfortable and I really enjoyed it. I liked a lot of his performances, but then there was others that I just I felt he was forcing it a little bit. I didn't fully believe that in certain instances of his anger or his sadness or his there was just there was moments that it's interesting. I was just I was really I was like, I want you to be stronger. I really want you to be stronger. I found a full trajectory, which was a credit to first of all, to the writing. Yeah. But I writing is I love the overall story in the message. Actually, I completely believed he lost his family. I completely believed he went through stages of grief as well as the fact that when we have the projection 15 years later that you watch him go go from go from grieving yeah to wanting vengeance to going full blown American Psycho. Yeah, we'll talk about it in a second. So no, I I really enjoyed it. Yeah, that that would that's my my biggest gripe with the film is that I just I really wanted the lead performance because obviously you're not going to get a not strong performance from the the rest of the cast. No, from especially the was and was and you're not. And then the radical husband, actually, what I do believe we've seen him many times before he was he was very strong as well. So strong. I really felt the entire cast. I've had it in my notes specifically to talk about the fact that Mckess Chabra consistently cast great actors. He's always really always soliding. It's probably why he's the biggest casting director. Yeah, thank goodness for that. But yeah, so that that would be my biggest gripe. The rest of them, Noa's got to love Noa's, man. Always. I I don't think it's it would be hard press for me to find three actors in the world that I think are better actors than he is. I'm going to be honest with you. I would are still acting that are still currently acting. Yeah, no, I would agree with you when it comes. We've said this to him before. And this is not his strongest performance by any like because we've seen a ton of great performances from Noa's. Yeah, but this was still a great performance. Yeah, that's the thing is the only like to me, the only thing that differentiates the great performances of great actors versus the really good performances is the memorability of things that you sometimes can't even put a finger on. Yeah. There's just the magic of the moment. Yeah, like the greatest example in modern history that we have in the past 20 years is Heath Ledger's Joker. Walk, Joaquin's Joker, when you consider what he had to compete with was pretty damn incredible. You've got Daniel DeLewis's Bill the Butcher, as well as his Daniel Plainview. The list just goes on and on. I we've said it before, we'll say it over and over again. You may have preferences of actors for whatever those reasons may be. There isn't a more gifted, believable, wonderful actor to watch or that other actors drool to work with than Noa's at Ensidiki. You're not going to get it. Nope. And I will say this as well. I cannot sing the praises enough over and over again of Radhika because she is like one of my favorite examples in this film. I talked about this with Indrani as well. I said she's not only one of the most charismatic, beautiful, interesting women to ever grace the screen and to watch her who's always believable and justifies everything that she does. But she's also so she's she again as an actor you want to work with because she's courageous. You believe that anything you throw at her is just going to be extra gold for her to use and throw right back at you. And there's this moment when she's talking on the bed with her husband and the way they had the camera set up. It's so fantastic. All she has on is her night shirt and panties. And the night shirt only goes to her thighs and she's sitting on the edge of the bed. And she's sitting there in such a way that makes it very clear visually that the camera can see every once in a while the way she sits and moves. You can see her panties underneath because she's sitting in her bedroom with her husband. There is absolutely no self-awareness of the actress on set with a camera on her. She is the embodiment of, it was either Catherine Hepburn or Betty Davis who was asked, it's some legend like that who was asked what is acting? And the response was acting as standing in front of a bunch of strangers completely naked while they stare at you and you turn around slowly. And that is Radhika Apte. She is fearless, she's always in the moment, she doesn't break, she justifies everything she does. She's as good as an actor can be. You guys have heard me sing the praise of Radhika Apte since I've seen her on screen for the first time. And I still think she's the best actress in India. She never disappoints. The only person that can compete with her, in my opinion, is Tabu in terms of her consistency and greatness. And in the world, once again, I can't think of three actresses. I love more than I love Radhika Apte. Any actress anywhere. She is right up there in her age grab. I'm not talking like Meryl Streep with her, you know, laundry list of... Yeah, you can't compare because you have to have a lexicon of work to start to compare yourself to Meryl. So people of her ilk that have been in the industry for a while but are magnificent. Legend status. I love Radhika Apte and I dream of the day I get to interview her because she's one of my, and there's no shock that her and Noa's just love working together. Oh, of course. Of course. Even though they didn't really have... They had one talking scene together. Maybe one little moment together. Yeah, I love her and her husband. I just, it was like sitting in, a lot of this movie in many places for me was the same joy I get no greater pleasure in artistic expression, none, except for actually doing it myself. Then sitting in a theater group or a theater class and watching scene work and watching two people who have fully committed and you just know you're watching great work. It is the most and makes you want so badly to work with them. Yes. Just the acting. I felt another really beautiful thing which is a tribute to the acting is something I wrote on my notes that I would refer to as intimate violence. And I don't mean like rape. That's not what I'm referring to. There was that in there. Yeah, I'm referring to violent scenes that have to have stunt work that is one or two people or three people and the camera's unforgiving and you have to believe it's actual violence taking place because too often it fails. Too often you can tell someone's holding back or someone's waiting for another person to do something and I felt like the direction of the intimate violence and the actual participation, especially the Varun Nawaz scene when they were fighting with the toys on the ground. Great scene, by the way. Great scene. They were fully invested. I didn't see anybody holding back. I really felt like I was watching these two guys fight and then I loved both the writing and the deliveries of that scene between the two of them. The other action before we get into the writing. I liked the husband a lot and I forget his name. He did a great job. I feel like we've seen him before. We have. What was his name? We have seen him. Was it Harman? No. Yes, yes, yes, Harman is the character. Yes, Harman was the husband. That was Radhika's husband was Harman. Vinay Pathak. Why does he look way older? I don't even, that's a weird picture, but I bet if you go to his page, but the character was absolutely Harman. Okay. I feel like we've seen him. Right? He looked really familiar to you, right? Absolutely. Something tells me we've seen him in a series. Like Patholok or... Maiden Heaven. Ah, there, yeah. He was in Maiden Heaven. In seven episodes of Maiden Heaven. Yeah, that was where I really felt we had seen him was from some TV show. You guys can let us know. He was great. Specifically like where we see, but I really enjoyed his performance. I thought the cop did really, especially at the end when he was yelling. Tell me you didn't do it. Tell me you didn't do it, tell me you didn't do it. I thought he did a really, I thought, overall I thought the cast was really, really good. It was just, that was my biggest gripe is that in my opinion, I wanted a stronger actor to, and maybe it just wasn't fair of me because you have Nawaz and all these other people. Yes, and that for me, I felt the opposite. I felt like he held his own with them. Well, yeah, you guys can let us know what you thought about on that one. But anyways, the writing is, I really enjoyed the writing of this because, Great writing. It kept you guessing. And it surprised you a whole bunch. Because obviously it starts off with, a child getting started. Once again, spoiler. A child getting murdered and then somebody getting shot in the face. What an absolute and incredible start. And so it hooks you right away. It makes you sick to your stomach. From the moment the little kid falls out of the car, then she's shot. Then he's in the hospital and she's going blind and dies. And then he comes home to his empty place. I lean back and I went, this is awful. Yeah, you hate to think about stuff like that. But then, yeah, and then you're wondering where it was gonna go. And then he, because you're like, Varun's our hero, and then he rapes somebody. And then you're like, are you trying to get me to sympathize with a rapist? Right. And then it kept, it kind of bordered the line of, like, you're gonna feel sympathy for this guy. You're gonna hate this guy. He's going too far. He is not the hero. Oh yeah, he was very gray in this, obviously. And then total evil at times. Yeah, to me, Noaz is the hero of the story. And that's one of, I think, the great parts. Obviously, I think the whole message you could tell me if this is the same thing you got is that, is revenge worth it? Like Thar? Yeah. Very much the same message and a different story about the poison of revenge. Because he, even though, in the beginning, you're like, All right, I get it. Go get it. Go kill these guys. Right, I get it. You killed your wife and your kid, go get them. But then obviously he, he'd be just, like they said at the end, he becomes worse. Yeah, the Noaz. The smartest, most important part of the story's writing is pushing it 15 years later. He waited this entire time, he could have had a whole life. At this point, I mean, it's a tragedy, but at this point, it's, dude, you've got to heal and move on. And there's something, there's very much something wrong with him. He's getting help. Exactly in that scene when Noazadin says, get some help. I'm the one who killed your wife. But what happened was the boy just fell out and then I panicked. You have premeditated the murders of innocent people. And rape on top of that. Yeah, rape. Which of us is the bad person? Yep. Yeah. I love that, I love the writing of that because obviously you're making the hero this almost evil villain but he's still the main character of this film. Love it. But you don't wanna, obviously Noaz does a phenomenal job at just, because you sympathized with him a lot. Yeah. He's a great actor, so it's no shock. I always say this, is that you should, if you're done correctly, you should sympathize with bad people at some point. Yeah, because they're full complex human beings. Unless, Unless what you're playing is an absolute true, like no country for old men. That is a sociopath. Sociopaths have no redeeming qualities. Pure sociopaths. But like if it's just, I even say this, if they've ever done a film about Hitler, I think you should relate to Hitler in some aspects or feel bad for it. Doesn't mean you're like, I think he's justified in what he did because obviously that's fucking stupid. But if they did a film like that where they would never, I don't think they'll ever do it. But if he was the main character and you go through his life and you're like, Oh. Yes. He's a person. I've said that to people before. And you should feel bad. And part of that is because my buddy Rich, his dad, because all German children back at that time had to be, he was part of the Hitler youth, the Nazi youth. His dad has since passed away. But one of the things about Hitler is that I would not surprise me and I would love to see him depicted this way. That if you didn't know anything and you just met him at the heyday of his rule before we knew what he was doing and you were at a dinner party with him, you probably would have thought, what an incredible guy. Great sense of humor. He's charismatic. He loves his country so, so much. Yeah, yeah, I agree. So yeah, so it's great that obviously characters like that. But then the way the story weaves itself, it just shocks you because you walk in. American psycho, man. He murdered Radica. That moment? No! Everything about that moment is so well directed because first of all, before the minute you see the plastic, your thought is he's not going American psycho. He can't be. He's staging this like he did the rape. This is a staging. Then he just comes out hammer swinging you are like, I sat back through my arms up and I said out loud, I went, what the hell? And then there are close up on Radica and the blood just starts to pour from her head as she's looking at him with this look that we're feeling and she drops and you're like, he has gone. And then when the husband comes in, he just doubles down and just bloodins him to death. Incredible. Yeah, I really enjoy it. And then I thought after he was having sex with a therapist person, I thought he killed her. I thought that was like her in the bag. I did too. For a second, I was like, oh, he killed her too? Yeah. And then obviously you find out that he just. But I also love the play on the fact that you hear the ugh, ugh, ugh, and it's him pushing the bag. That was great. Yeah. So I liked a lot of that the way this twists and turns and then at the end, they kind of just left it open. There's like, you get a second chance and the audience is like, I don't think he deserves it. Exactly. I don't think he deserves a second chance. I don't think he deserves a second chance. No, you know who, the one who deserves a second chance is Nawaz's character. That's the guy who deserves a second chance. He just made a really bad mistake. On top of obviously. He didn't have premeditated evil in his heart for nearly two decades. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, obviously he was the bank robber and then he killed someone. So obviously he did his time, which it's always shocking to me in India how long people get for killing people because if somebody did that, they'd get life in prison here. Right. It'd either be death penalty or life. It's just a foregone conclusion. And then other countries, it's just like 20 years and I'm like, oh, okay. And by the way, I will say something about the direction just for the, you'll know the funiness of it if you've been around a long time. I will say I really do appreciate the director's choice when the guys were playing the guitar in the restaurant. Shut up. They were really playing the instruments and the sound matched their hand movements. You know, who else was really playing? Anyways. The other issue I had is, and it's just a personal preference, I would have preferred this to be less commercially looking and more as far as just like art direction and production design. Even though it was nice and they were going for that commercial feel, I think to please more people. That didn't bother me at all. I always prefer like, cause everything looked really like pretty and nice and I would, I always prefer on your style of really gritty, didn't bother me at all. That's just a personal preference thing on top of it, but those are my two biggest gripes with it. I also love this. I've had this in my notes. Thank you so much. This is a credit to the direction of, and by the way, for all the joking of underhunt, if you watched the review, I watched the movie again. The only thing I really hated underhunt, that was the only thing I didn't like about it was that moment, but the rest of the film I really did enjoy and I've watched it with people before as a recommendation, and it's not true. But one of my favorite things about this, both in the way it was directed, the way it was edited, the way the actors performed and the way the score was done, there's just consistent moments where you let the thing breathe. There wasn't hyper editing to keep our attention span connected. There were moments of stillness. Like even from the opening stationery shot, I was like, oh, is this gonna be like court? Are we gonna have a lot of stationery shots? And moments where the actors just got to sit and think before they say something. And even in the score, there's a beautiful moment where it's nothing but piano playing and it only hits a couple of notes and then completely stops. Few seconds go by and then a couple more notes and it stops. So that breathing aspect gives you a sense of just believability and like it feels real. Feels like a real moment every time somebody's doing something. So yeah, I love the movie. I would give it four and a half out of five. The only reason I don't give it five is because that for me is like all time greatest list. So come on, it's not everybody's gonna be that. But I highly, I like this as much as I liked Thor and Love Hostel. Yeah, overall movie-wise, just because the main guys, the main performance that I, like I said, I'm not saying he's bad at all. That's not what I'm saying. I just, I wish he was a stronger. You hate him? Yeah. Yeah, totally do. I just wish it was a stronger. So if I was to give it a score, maybe out of a hundred, because that's the format I like better, I'd probably give it around an 83. That's low. I'd give it a 95. 95? Yeah. I'd give it a very, very solid A. Nice. Very solid A. There you go. Yeah. And this one was highly, highly requested. Long time people, because this one's a very, very popular. I'm really looking forward to watching it again. And one of the reasons I would watch it again is just, like I said at the outset, it's a joy to watch great actors doing great performances with great writing and a great story. I just, even something as fun as just watching Nawaz watch a movie, I love that. Fun fact, I did, I was like, oh, that looks interesting. And I looked up that song, because I asked Siri what song is this? And I was like, maybe we can react to this one. It's T-Series, so. Oh. But I did look it up, because I was like, oh, that looks like a fun thing we can react to. It's T-Series. Okay. Anyway. But anyways, let us know what you thought about this film, what should be the next film of the directors, Varun's, obviously Nawaz and Radica. Everything they do. Everything they've ever done, but specifically. But we still haven't seen much of the Mountain Man, and that has both of them. I know, and we wanted to see that the moment we saw the trailer, and that was three years ago. Yeah. That was a long time ago. So we probably need to get to that this year. And Radica, please, I'm begging you. We so wanna talk craft with you. Please. We so wanna talk craft with you. Obviously, Nawaz too, as well. Of course, we would immediately talk with Nawaz again. Over and over again, we could sit and talk with Nawaz about craft. But he's already our toast. Yeah. I wanna add to our toast. Exactly. And her name, Thine Radica Opte. Let us know what you thought about the film, and what should be the next film we watch down below.