 Oh Like Where actually it's of poor I would I would never lose my place. Why would you want a pheasant I really I really have more what year it was was long ago long ago That's a long ago, and it was in Europe. It was some guy who was going to do something unnatural with the pheasant. I'm Rick. I love pheasants. And stuff. Take it and you stink. Subscribe if you haven't, hit the like button please, that's how I'm here. Idiots. I mean, I love you. I've gotten messages before from people that have said, I think you should ask Corbin to stop calling people idiots. You do know our channel is called our Stupid Reactions, and it's an endearing quality of us to call you stupid and idiots anyway. Yeah. I don't know why I always just started. I call them day one. Hey, idiots. I call people names. Great shirt. It's a great shirt, and I call people names. But it's usually people that I like. True. Only. If I don't like you, I'm going to call you way worse than an idiot. Exactly. But yeah, ask all my friends. There are none. Anyways, today we're doing a movie of the 1986 film Merch. Is it Merch? Yeah. Merch. Merch. Masala. Merch. Masala. The of the parallel cinema. Universal. I think we're one of our first in the parallel cinema. We've heard a lot about the parallel cinema, but it's directed by Kitan Mehta. And starring Smita Patel, Neciedidh and Shah and Om Puri. Which I did not know. I didn't either. Me too. I saw his name pop up and I was like, oh, Om Puri, cool. I knew the other two were in it. And then obviously a big supporting cast as well. Correct. Those are the three main leads. And we know that Suresh Oberoi, he apparently I read in some trivia that the talk of his performance expanded some of the acting categories and some of the awards that were done in India. Yeah. Because they weren't sure what to do with him because of the supporting role. But anyway. We saw him in Kabir Singh. Really? Wouldn't surprise me. What are you playing in Kabir Singh? I've actually... Oh, yeah. Was he the dad? I'm going to probably start a list, another one now, of actors alphabetically to put the actor, their name, and the films we've seen them in because now I'm recognizing so many people and I can't place where I've seen them sometimes where it's just going to be so much easier to just go, okay, there's the actor's name and these are the films I've seen them in. I just keep track of how many... Because we asked that, how many Kamal San movies have we seen now? If I had a list that went through, oh, ten of them, I'm going to start at some point here. I'm not good at lists. But yes, there's going to be 100 Sponsors that came out in 1986, if you haven't watched it. We saw it on MUBI. You can go watch it there or there might be other places in India that have it. So you can go watch that. But Rick, you're on the show. All right. So this is our 25th of the year, our 144th Hindi film in our 232nd all-time. Here's my paragraph. What do you call an imperfect film that conveys a perfect message? March Masala? Admittedly, there is more than one message conveyed via representative forms of symbolism in this film, like the two India's pre-independence, but to me, the preeminent and most powerful one is exemplified best when Om Puri's Abu Mi'an declares, quote, not one of you is man enough to help a woman, unquote. This is the Me Too movie that was made before the Me Too generation was even born, cinematically asking us when will we see that blaming a woman for a man's lust is as stupid as blaming dry grass for a brush fire, and how many lives will be lost, homes destroyed, and hearts broken simply because a man didn't get what he wanted, and nobody was man enough to stop him. I really, and I said at the very beginning, it's an imperfect film, but that doesn't bother me. The dubbing problems I had and everything else, I really liked it. Yeah, I will go, I loved this film. Absolutely loved this film. And the issues you're talking about, I mostly chalk up to they did not have a lot of money to make this film. And they didn't have technology, which also takes money. And so those issues that I had, because I knew that this was a parallel cinema, so it was not, it's basically the indie film of the Bollywood industry. So they're going to be struggling, but obviously it requires just the dubbing, right? If somebody isn't aware of this, that it is parallel cinema and that it is a budget constraint and that dubbing was a pretty common thing to do and still, they just started getting out of it in some of the regional areas. I could see how me included. I think if we had seen this early on, I would have written it off because of the dubbing and that's a shame. I'm glad we saw what we did. The dubbing didn't bother me as much. Obviously, I noticed it. But yeah, I absolutely adore this film, everything about it. The performances are incredible, especially by, obviously, the Saradan shot, the main three, but Shemitha and I thought Ompori, which loved his performance in this. I loved seeing a Saradan shot in such a different role in this film as well. So we'll talk about, but let's talk about the one we haven't really seen of her yet, but we've heard about a ton. She's basically from what I have been told, one of the greatest actors ever, but she died at the age of, I think, 31. Yeah, I heard she didn't even get to see the film that released, that it came out after she passed. That's terrible. That's terrible. But yeah, she gave me, it wouldn't shock me if Radhika Apte adores and she's like, because she gave me Radhika Apte vibes. And you know how much I love Radhika Apte, I think she's, in my opinion, she's my favorite actress in all of India currently and probably overall, just in general in the world, she's my favorites. But she gave me such of those vibes. It wouldn't shock me if she was a big inspiration for Radhika growing up to become an actress. Or even if the makers of Parched were inspired by the totality of the film itself, wouldn't surprise me at all, even Padma Vaat or Hela Rao. Yeah, Hela Rao, all of those that have the antagonists going after the women. It's very, very similar, but I agree with you. I was utterly blown away by this actress that makes me so sad that we don't have a lifetime of work from her because this in and of itself was enough to make me go, who is this beautiful soul and where can I see her work somewhere? She is everything this character needed to be. She just was being, her screen presence has powerful screen presence. My goodness. And she has a beauty that is my favorite kind of beauty because, wow. And most beautiful women like Anishwarya or Deepika, they also have this quality internally. It animates the physicality, right? But there's a beauty that comes through who she is. And it also helped with the role she was playing, a strength that can't be created simply because you're an actor. It comes from the actual human portraying the character. And I found her to be one of the most profoundly strong performances I've seen by somebody when I went. I've never seen them before and why haven't I seen them? Yeah, and I know a lot of you are like, I told you. I know, I know, it takes us a while. It takes us a while. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But yeah, she gave me, and she's one of those actors that she's kind of similar to Irfan. She just, it's pretty natural. Yeah, yeah. Didn't feel like she had to. Not at all. She wasn't really acting. She was kind of just being this woman and she didn't have a ton of lines either. Didn't need them. Yeah. She didn't have a powerful performance like that. But yeah, she, she, I want to see everything I do that she's ever done. She's just off the bat just with this one film. She's already one of my favorite actors I've seen. I agree with you. Just off of this film. She's, she is, she was by far the most surprising simply because we hadn't seen her before. She is interesting. You know, she reminds me of as far as the impact she had on me and it says a lot because who I'm about to compare her to is very different in terms of the amount of time on screen, right? She's as important to this movie for me as Nargis is to Mother India. Even though Nargis' character is so preeminent on screen throughout as the lead, she wasn't as preeminent, but her presence was no less foundational to the strength of this movie for me. Absolutely. She's wonderful. Please let us know what her films we should watch next. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to see all of them. Next, I guess, let's just talk about the, he's next on the list. necessarily. What can you say about the one of the greatest actors I've ever seen in my life? But this was also so fun because this was a very different role than most of the other things I've seen him play. Purely, purely negative role. Yeah. And it's wonderful, not him, he was terrible and I hated him, but the character he was portraying obviously needed that, but he gave him these nuances and these little quirks and he obviously always wouldn't, I don't think he'll ever play a character dishonestly, but he always plays him from an honest place of he thinks he's in the right. He thinks like, why can't I have her? Like he has this toxic masculinity mentality. Obviously, this is a big theme of this film. And he could have easily gone into a place of overboard just characterization and made him the quintessential, you must pay the rent kind of villain. And he didn't because he's a theater actor who believes in the creation of beings, not just characters, and everything he did felt justified. And he wasn't just, I disliked him. Yeah. I really disliked him and I loved that I disliked him. And then Om Puri, part of the reason that was so great is because first of all, he is who he is. He's a great actor, but the writing for his character, he's the moral center. Many people might say that she is, but I think it's without question. He says the things and does the things that are the moral center of the film, which makes the role, he must have read the script and thought, oh yeah, baby. That's a fun role to play, such conviction. He's one of the actors that we haven't seen. We've seen him. Yeah, we know who he is. But it's mostly been supporting or it's been like later in his career. We haven't got to see him in a style of role like that, that he really gets to shine. Obviously we know his reputation. He's basically just like Nassaritan Shaw's reputation of a theater, thespian actor that we've looked forward to. But this is one of the first big things we've seen him in, that he plays a pretty crucial role and a character that he really gets to shine. And basically this film obviously takes about an hour to really get going in terms of like they set the world up for you. It reminded me of Satya Jirai, the first hour where it just puts you in an emotion and does not feel compelled to engage you in any way other than to just show you a place. And then it's the shit hit the fan really at one point. And then the story really gets going and you really feel what's going on. But when he, that whole basically last hour of the film, it's all climax. And what a wonderful climax. Yeah, it was absolutely wonderful. He did a fantastic. I want to see a lot more of Omporio. Obviously I want to see a lot of all three of these actors. All three of them. The other couple of actors that I do want to highlight, I thought obviously, you said him. Yeah, Suresh Oberoi. He did great. I thought his wife did phenomenal. She had like two scenes specifically, that one when she stood up to him and did that the whole thing. I thought that was really powerful. And then obviously when she was just banging on the window as well, she was trapped in the house. Yeah, both those were difficult scenes to do because she wasn't really doing any lines. She had to convey everything. The last lady ensemble, and that's what this reminded me of a lot, not just because it felt like it regionally with the kind of people we were talking about with Village Life, but you mentioned Hela Rao. Good job. Yeah, those ladies in Hela Rao, some of them had a lot more lines and screen time than these ladies, but I felt that these ladies were exactly the same level of this, which you needed in the film, the camaraderie of feminism that was believable. Even at the end, there was the climactic part. And I don't remember which of the ladies it was, and all she was doing was expressing with her face, the fear that they were going to be breaking in. And she was looking back at one of the other ladies and looking back. And I thought each and every one of these women is doing a very solid, solid job. Yeah. And on the overallness of the film, I obviously the story is fantastic, but I thought the way the director and the cinematographer. Oh, I have a lot to say about the cinematographer. The quality of this film for 1987 or six is impeccable. Really, it really is. I don't know if they did Restoration. I don't know what. It looks like it could have been made last year with how clear and crisp and beautiful everything was on this film. So hats off to that. But man, the way they used color in this specifically, obviously red, obviously those chilies are a wonderful backdrop for a film. Oh, yeah. Oh, my goodness. That's just wonderful. But, yeah, what they did, and it wasn't like, once again, it's not like a Sanjay Lee Bansali kind of beautiful. It's more of like a natural, gritty, beautiful that they did with this film. Yeah. It's absolutely amazing. The cinematographer, sorry. The cinematographer is Jehen Gochoudri. There were two things about the cinematography in addition to what you just said. The first one being there were several times where they did a zoom out that was extraordinarily far. It was like we got the big zooms that we've not used before and we're going to use them for all their work. There was one where they were riding in on horse and they started to pull back across the field of all of the chili peppers and they just kept going and kept going and kept going and kept going and kept going. And I was like, okay, you guys got a super zoom lens that you went. Do you think it was that or they had it on the wire? I think it was a super zoom. You think it was? I do. The other thing I loved and I loved it for a couple of reasons where I saw so many wonderful attempts at framing that weren't breathtakingly picturesque where you go, look at that shot. But what I did go at was the vision. It wasn't fully captured in perfection, but what made it perfect like in the Mike paragraph was like the one shot where they do this thing on the inside and then you see Om Puri on the outside through an internal window that wasn't perfectly framed, wasn't magnificently lit, but they did the best with what they had. And it's as good as that was ever going to get. And another shot from below as he came walking in that wasn't magnificent, but the attempt was magnificent throughout. It's just such great, great works. The writing and directing of this, I thought was really good because one, like I said, it takes about an hour to get really the film going. They kind of just let you sit in this world and kind of understand these characters and the whole dynamic of the village and him as what the tax collector essentially. Which I thought this film could have been called Lagan if there wasn't another film called Lagan. But the way they kind of wove it and this, because you knew what was going to happen because obviously he was like I want her and you knew what was going to be like, there's going to be a bunch of guys who are going to sell out this girl so they wouldn't, of course, on the village. Of course. That'd be their rationale. And then he was like, well, what if it was your wife and he beat up him? Because even he just suggested that mere notion. Yeah, because it would be wrong if it was his wife because once it becomes personal, then it matters to you. Yes. And then, but it wasn't only that. It was the women that turned on him because they believed in the misogyny of the village. Right. It's kind of, a lot of people think the misogyny is just a man thing, but obviously women can perpetuate that because of the society has, they fed into the society's notion of, yes, I'm basically a vessel for my husband's children. Yeah. And I would like to touch upon, because this ties into a moment at the end that I really, really loved. I do believe, like I said in the paragraph, that the preeminent message is the one that we're talking about in relationship to men and women and the rights of women and things of that nature, but I did see another symbolism conveyed about the two different Indians pre-independence because that's when this is taking place. And the two different Indians being the ones who felt like it was time to rise up and have a revolution and become independent and those who may not have been so sure that it was possible and had been conditioned to believe that it would be better to just appease the oppressor than to try to overturn the oppressor. And while part of me wanted to have an unhappy ending, there was something really patriotically beautiful and scores that secondary symbolism of the two Indians by the fact that the very weapon that was used against the oppressor came from the land itself. I loved the symbolism of that. Yeah, and that was a great ending. I was hoping that they were going to slit his throat if she was going to slit his throat open. I knew why they could obviously. They definitely didn't have. Part of me was wanted to see him take her away and very sadly because that's happened a lot. That's happened a lot. Yeah. But I mean, they've kind of left it open to your interpretation, which I'm fine if you don't have the budget to actually show her slitting his throat while she's writhing in pain because this insane masala is in his eyes, nose, ears, mouth. And I think it's obviously a lot of pain. I would have just loved to be able to pull his hair and fade to black. I would have loved it. I do like the fact that ultimately it's the land. India itself will repel the oppressor. Yeah. So I like that messaging. Obviously, there was technical stuff. Obviously, the fighting and like I said, there's a lot of this is budget. They didn't have the money to really have stunt people. So this was just actors. You could tell they were just play fighting. Right. And even some things that you're like, okay, I don't know that that would have been believable. Okay, whatever. Yeah. Obviously, if they would have flung masala into the air, everybody would have been having it in their eyes. Yeah, it's not. Yeah. But yeah, it's one of those things that if you know going in, they didn't have a lot of money. It's basically an independent film. You forgive independent film for some faults. Especially old. Especially an older film. Yeah. Obviously, today it would have been a little easier to do. But what an extraordinary message. We talked about this early, like right when we saw pink. The messaging of films. The messaging. This was from 1986, man. Yeah. That's really, really remarkable. And the other thing that I wrote down on my notes of one of my favorite things of everything was the score by Rajit Dalakia. I guess is that correct, the composer? Yeah. Rajit Dalakia. I thought the score was beautiful. All throughout. I loved the score. The one big song when they were all kind of just dancing was one beautifully shot. Because it wasn't done like a Bollywood film. It was done like this person was there. Right. While they were doing this kind of ritual or celebration dance. Yeah. And it was kind of shot almost guerrilla style. Yeah. But I liked it. I liked it a lot in how they did that. But yeah, the song was gorgeous. The overall score of this entire thing was really cool. I liked all the nuances Noseridim had of like, he just liked to show off in front of all these people. Oh yeah. Just like he got off. Got off. On letting everybody know that he's better than them. Yep. And not just in a physical, but like you said, I have this record player. I'm going to play it for you. And I love when they ask them. He says, what happens with the voice when it's captured? He didn't know the answer, but he just... I know all things even though I don't know the answer to that question. Don't look behind that. Don't look at that man behind the curtain. Because it's all ego stroking. Yeah. 100%. Yeah. And that's why this film is wonderful. I really, really enjoyed this film. I thought it was a masterpiece for what it is. Even though there's some technical stuff, but I feel like if you would have given this film money, I think they could have solved all those problems. And it deserves and gets extra credit and big plus marks and everything else for the fact that this is parallel cinema. This is rogue, rough trying to film the film with a pure motivation from everyone involved of just high level artistry. Yeah. Especially from all the actors, especially up top. I would love to see more. I think they've done more films together, I think. Good. I really do. Obviously, Ompori, we've known about and want to see more of his work. Maseridin goes without saying. I so would love to see more of Smita Patel working. And I'm so sad that she left us as young as she did. Because we might have heard her name a lot sooner. And she's just really, really good. Yeah, absolutely. So please let us know for all three of them what their next film, whether it's together separately, we need to see a lot more of them. And also parallel cinema as well. Let us know what the next parallel cinema film should be down below.