 The problem with my email, I don't know, I must have been hallucinating. There's nothing wrong with my email. It's like, yeah, I know. I got, like, 25 emails from my dad yesterday. That's not enough. I'm not being hyperbolic. I'm exaggerating. Oh. Hey, welcome back to our stupid rank sheet in Subcorban. I'm Rick. Classic Month. This is our second year of doing Classic Month. Actually, if Classic Month had a theme, I think it would be the theme to show Lay, probably. So iconic. That was excellent. I'd conic. But anyways, yes, this is the start of Classic Month, and we watched a film that's been highly requested. Forever. Since Big B came into this. I think, what was the first Big B thing we saw? Pink? Polly Pink. I think we saw Pink, and then it was like, show Lay. Show Lay. Obviously one of... Which he filmed simultaneous to each other. Came out the same year. Talk about a year. He did day shoots on show Lay and night shoots of D-war. Which is crazy. Insane. Anyways, but yes, came out in 1975 with Amitak Bhakjan. Directed by Yash Chopra, one of our, I think, the second film of his. I think you're right. Right? We know his name. He's done tons of stuff, but I think we've only seen two. And also starring Shashi Kapoor. Yep. Lots of Kapoor's. Roy and a whole bunch of other people. Yep. But a 1975 action crime. Could you do Rama? I kept seeing Ren beer from like, here up in her face. Especially when she turned sideways. All I could see was Ren beer. Who? And... Who? His mom. Shashi. That's a guy. No. Yeah, I'm sorry. Not Shashi. Shashi's like, get out of here. His mom. Neetu Kapoor. There you go. Thank you. What's her name, Neetu Roy? Yeah. I mean... Oh, okay. Neetu Singh. Oh, okay. I actually didn't know that was his mom. Oh. Yeah. Who was? I know that because I'm married to her. Anyways. And did you recognize from Amarok Bar Anthony, Big B's love interest? No. I didn't make the parallel. Yeah. We had talked about how beautiful she was. Yeah. Anyways, but obviously a came out in 1975. This is going to be a hundred minutes worth of you. If you're Indian, you've probably seen this film. Many, many, many, many times. It's just one of those films that it's about. Also, this is Classic Month, so before we start this review, let us know what other films we should watch. During Classic Month, we need to be pre-1980 and before to qualify for Classic Month, so let us know down below and I'll vote them so I can see what you guys want to watch. Rick, your initial thoughts. Well, I want to thank the people who did the prop work, particularly the blood in Amarok Bar Anthony, for also having done at NDR. When I saw it, I was like, oh yeah, Rick's going to love my part. It was exactly the same orange blood. But if I were going to write a paragraph and I was debating on if I should, I would basically, I would say this, for all of its flaws, and there are many on the technical side of things, you cannot deny several things about DR. First of all, that Amitabh Bachchan is just a freaking stud actor. And that, I don't know because I did some research. I don't know how you can not, it's like, is there a more important film for Indian cinema in the 20th and into the 21st century than DR. I think that's probably arguable. So even though I found, I had, this is probably the most flawed film I've ever really, really liked because ultimately this has, I feel like this has a really special place in my heart in terms of just not just Indian cinema. I think just cinema as a whole, because if you understand the history, we'll get into that in a little bit. But I really, really liked it. I liked it as well. There were obviously stuff that I would say dated. I would be more the word. Especially like, you've got to give it a broad place of acceptance. But there was also stuff that I thought was like 70s chic. And I was like, I really appreciated the 70s feel of it. I watched for the first time Sean Connery's Bond a couple months back. It gave me some of those similar vines in terms of how dated those films were for the time that they were. But they were basically those made the films after that. And that's kind of the style that Hollywood stuck with for a while. And so a lot of the music, the costuming, some of the acting in some of like obviously the story to go along with it was dated. But it was like almost like endearing like 70s chic. And even the mistakes. Yeah. So like, I can't fault, that's the thing. I don't remember what movie we saw recently where I felt the same way. Where it was like, there's all these blaring mistakes. But I think they did, I think I could feel how much they were doing. Everyone was doing their best. And given what they had at the time and what they could do. I just, it's one of the most flawed movies I've ever really really liked. Now there's no, I don't find flaws in the story. I think the story is excellent. Yeah. And I did read that it was based off some film that we've never seen. But also it took inspiration from Mother India. Which obviously makes it. Makes a lot of sense. It's basically a story of two kids who love their mommy. Essentially it's what it is. Yeah. But this is the Amitabh Bach Chan Show. It is the Amitabh Bach Chan Show. And this is one of my favorite performances of his. Agreed. I liked him more in this than I did Sholei actually. Yeah, it's different. I like the overall film of Sholei. There's nothing wrong with him in Sholei. In Sholei gives me a better feeling. Agreed. I like the film Sholei more. But this gave me a lot of vibes of James Dean breaking out of the mold of other actors. That's what I got to say because we're going to talk about Big B, right? Yeah. I just was shaking my head a lot while I was watching him. Anytime he was on screen. Anytime he was on screen. Because we understand the trajectory of cinema in India compared to the United States. And the grounded acting that comes from the method which was pioneered on film first with Brando and then a lot of other people did it and are still doing it today. The grounded nature of that really didn't start to become a whole in the industry until many, many years after this film. How Big B did it then? Yeah. When no one else was really doing it at that level. He was iconic in this role. And whenever he was on screen, I was captivated. Captivated. And I was like, this is great. I love this. And then when he's not on screen, I'm like, when's he coming back? Bring Big B back. And it might be obviously he was opposite Shashi Kapoor, who I thought did fine. I agree. But it was very funny because it was like the two very different styles of acting. Agreed. And like you can see his natural kind of like very charismatic. And I'm sure Shashi does an amazing work. And I don't know if this is like what the director is wanting him to do. But he did a lot of like the Shakespearean look off to the side. The stage lines. Yes. And all that kind of stuff. Like, okay, obviously this is something of the time, but Big B is like, I'm going to do my thing. No. And it could be direction. But I don't know. I don't know. Because I know, for example, I read somewhere that the moment, and granted, we're assuming you've all seen it. So the moment he lights the pyre of his dad. And you see the tattoo on the arm. That was Big B's catch. It was originally shot for him to be list lighting it with his right hand. And he turned and said to Yash, I think we should shoot this with me doing it with the left hand and you show the tattoo. So I think a lot of those choices were him. Yeah. 100% Big B knowing just either through his training or his intuition, which are both stellar, what works dramatically. And he just has the it factor. He does. There's certain people that it's something that you're born with. You're born with the it factor. It's what happens that you can train for. We've said it before. It's what happens when you see Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro on screen. They can just be sitting there, flossing their teeth, and you're going to be riveted. Yeah. And he has that factor. And he obviously has the talent of acting to back it up. But he has charisma. And you want to know what he's doing on screen is these amazing eyes that show such a range of emotion behind what he's doing. I thought at the, this is one of the most amazing iconic scenes I think of any actor we've seen, but his monologue in the temple, agreed was so good. Agreed. It was so good. I was captivated by him just talking to the statue. Agreed. I don't know if it's a statue. I apologize. I'm not trying to offend anybody. But when he was in that whole scene, it was just, this is it right here. That's why, like for example, in the ending sequence when he's running and his brother shoots at him and there's so many continuity errors on the blood markings on the white jacket, which oh, the fact that he was having to wear a white jacket with all the blood and the orange blood. All of that still didn't distract me from the epicness of this final moment. It didn't distract me from it. There's some small moments to kind of segue a little bit to the directing. The fact that the door opens up and here's this guy who was of the two brothers. He embraced the bad side, right? But it's a very Shakespearean character in that he's just not an antagonist. There's elements of this guy that you understand why he is based on nature versus nurture. But like when the door opens up and he takes his shoes off in the midst of he's dying. He's bloody and he's running from the cops. But he still has this goodness in him to recognize I'm going to take my shoes off. Another great direction moment when his brother finds out that the dad died and he's with his mom and she's going to put the cindor on her hair and he grabs it and drops it, which tells her your husband's dead. That's probably one of my favorite moments in the film is that moment. I thought he did really, really the direction of it. I thought it was really nice and the way they kind of all weaved it together, even though it's a long film. But I expect all the films that we watch this class month to be long. Three hours. Three hours. Minimum. It's basically how it was made. Yep. And so I'm expecting it. No apologies for the length. Could have been shorter. Of course it could have been. Yeah, of course. But that's the time it was made in. Right. They made long films. People wanted to get their money's worth. It was one of those things. Do I think you could cut some stuff out? Of course. But that was the standard runtime of a movie back then. I can't really fault classics for being what they are now. But Shashi, I thought, did well. But it was one of those things that it was the time it was like he was either told or he did a lot, a lot of just delivering his lines, looking off screen. And I'm like, I wish you would just have a moment with me or him. Right. Or just not look off to the side please. Stop giving me theatrical affectations. Yeah, it was very Shakespearean play. But again, how he would do it. And that's why I give it a broad birth because at that time Big B wasn't the norm. That was. That was. That was the norm. Which is why I love actors like Marlon Brando or James Dean because they broke the mold of the time and they did stuff that was different. He did well because it was how he acted at the time. Exactly. And it was how he did well. But also it was just I wasn't as interested in his character. I mean, it might just be me. I'm always more interested in villains or anti-heroes. He's like a Captain America. Even though I know you love Captain America. I love Cap. You know, I hate Cap. Cap's my favorite Avenger, guys. You know, just the I'm good. Everything's black and white. I'm always going to do the right, wrong, wrong. It's just not my thing. And so it's I'm never going to be as interested in those characters as I am of a character like Big B's who's a much like. A rare character so. And you know, that's once again, not his fault. It's that's how the stories were written, even though this one was written very different than a lot of stories at the time. And I do think if he had been more of the kind of actor, and this isn't fair to say, it's like, why couldn't you have been more like Big B? Well, it's like asking basketball players, why can't you play more like Kobe Bryant? I think it was written with enough dynamic. I did see in the story some of the struggle. There was a moment where he is wondering about, have I made the right decision? Has my brother made the right decision? It was in the script. It wasn't in the portrayal as much as it could have been, but I saw in the script. It's one of the reasons that the story is so good that in the midst of it, that even he was questioning and why he hesitated so long to go after his brother. It wasn't just because he loved his brother and he can't go after his brother. I think he was having a mortal conundrum about, did I really choose the right path or did my brother choose the right path? Because he's right, man. He basically said, fuck the man. I'm going to go get what I'm going to go get. And obviously, I don't know how old each of them were when their dad went away. But obviously, Big B was older. And so he felt that rejection of his father just leaving, right? Yeah, and I got to love that part of his character. Like when they first throw down the coin on the ground when he's a little kid I don't pick money up off the ground. Yup. And then he did it again later and he throws it on the table and was like, money's handed to me. A bunch of iconic lines in this. Oh, yeah. Including, there's one that's in my intro for my personal channel, because somebody made it for me. The jittery job today. Do you know what line's in my intro? On my channel? It's from Dwar? It's apparently from Dwar. And it's a Big B line? I think it's because of your father. Yes. Oh, I think I know what line it is too. Here, watch. I'll show you. I'll go to my intro here. Oh, that's Leland. Hey, Leland. This one right here. Oh, Leland. Not that one. It comes at the end. Which one was it? Oh, well, there was one in there, because I think they put a bunch in there, because I didn't make this one. Stupid baby did. But there's one, I think it was from at the end when they're under the bridge, I think is... We had reacted to that scene, which was great scene. Phenomenals, yeah. But I think the line at the end is in there for my thing. But yeah, there's a bunch of iconic lines in this. And the writing of this was... I know it's also been referred to that a lot of the inspiration for Slumdog Millionaire, I know a lot of people don't like that film, but it's brought up and this is true that the creators of Slumdog, because it's a very similar kind of a story about two brothers in that there's actually in Slumdog, that line I think you're referring to is actually quoted in Slumdog. Oh, is it? Yeah. Because this is such an iconic film. I'm sure this is quoted in tons of Bollywood films after this. It has to be. And I also did... On Your Rock bring up this film, and we talked about some of his favorite films, because this not only, I think, was groundbreaking on a number of levels, because I know it was. Like, for example, the fight sequence that looks comical according to the day when there's a big B in the... At the beginning? At the beginning? Oh, I loved it. I knew you would. It was very Amorakbar Anthony. Oh, I loved it. But it's the first time... It was of the time. Well, it was the first time in Indian cinema history that they incorporated, which was the Hong Kong style of stunt work. It wasn't Hollywood stunt work, it was Hong Kong. And that's another great thing about this film that is in my evolution in appreciating Indian cinema is to recognize how much of Indian cinema was influenced through Asian cinema. And this is a great example of that. They made choices that I can't judge according to what the Hollywood standards were of the day, because they weren't making it based on that. It was a standalone moment, and they actually incorporated Hong Kong stunt work. That... In fact, it was the first time that was ever done. In fact, this was actually made, I think, in Hong Kong. Remade in Hong Kong. Was it? In a film. Yeah. But that fight scene reminded me of... a bond. Oh, Sean Connery's bond. Sean Connery's bond. It's interesting. The fight scenes aren't great in that. If you... No, they're not. They're not. And there's a moment when... It's funny you're bringing up Bond. It was very Bond-esque to me. Well, there's a moment when he was walking by the pool when he was going to go talk to... Is his name Santar? Mm-hmm. When he's going to go talk to him and he had his suit on, and it occurred to me, I went, Big B could have been Bond, man. Oh. But, I mean, he kind of played one. Don is... Yeah. It's not... But like we've talked about who could play... Of the day? Of the day would have absolutely been Amatuck Bachchan. Nobody else, but Amatuck Bachchan. 100%. 1000%. And I believe this is the film that gave him that stamp of the angry young man. Yeah. This is the first film in that. I think he had done a couple before, but this is one that kind of, I think they said it cemented him in that role. Yeah. And I thought, have we seen a bad performance of Amatuck Bachchan? Of Amatuck Bachchan? No. I think it's like Pankajar and Nawaz. There's just... There's no... Well, there was that one Gulabo Sotabo. It wasn't a bad performance. We just didn't... We didn't like the movie. We didn't understand the film. But he was fine. Kind of bored. But it was... His performance was good. He was believable as the old cranky old man. Yeah. You know, there's a certain level you get to as an actor where you are so good at what you do that even in trash, with a trash script, you're still... You're still... I don't have a problem... You may not blow me away like you typically do. Like, whenever Meryl does roles, most of the times I'm shaking my head going, this woman. You know, same thing Tom Hardy. Sorry. Tom Hardy. I shake my head. And we talked about that. Venom. But Tom Hardy's good. I didn't like up in... Don't look up. But Meryl... Even... It's very... It takes a big stretch for like a Mark Rylance to not do well. I don't know that we've seen Big B do anything that isn't... Good. And I wish we could do like a Big B month. I just... I would feel bad because obviously they'll all be Bollywood. Yeah. I like to mix it up for all different regions. Yeah. But he could... He can warrant... I mean, as many actors can. Yeah. Kamala Sons, you know, Russian Kants, you know, all those people. But he... Like, there's so many of his films I just want to get to because he... I think he's so good in his roles to it. And so, yeah, I thought this film was was absolutely fantastic in terms of just entertainment value and what it meant at the time. Yeah. And I think it, like I said, it hasn't stated flaws. It does. I thought it was like... I thought it was charming. So, there'd be some of you who might comment and go, well, I thought you guys hate melodrama because we brought that up about it. Oh, they just definitely asked them. For sure. We brought that up with 83. Well, that's because melodrama it's no longer acceptable in the same way that hairstyles from 40 years ago aren't acceptable. That's a very joking kind of a comparison. There's just certain things about it, but in this, what I would ordinarily, like if a film did today, I'd be like, guys, really it's not working. Unless you were doing it in Nacho Libre or Anchorman, these moments where somebody says something like Big B, Big B's, he's told you're going to go and you're going to bring these guys with you and he says, I'm going to do it, and then there's four different guys like this that go That's what I was talking about. The dated quirks are just endearing after like if you watch it in 2021, you're just like, that's funny, but I love it for the time. Exactly. It's like watching Old Batman. Yeah. You know, the original Batman series, it's so bad, but it's endearing. Yeah. So yeah, again, if it was on, I'd be like, this is, I'm going to sit and watch. In terms of like how much I enjoyed it, Amirik Bar Anthony is I think hilarious, but this is obviously much better film overall. Yeah. But in terms of like one that I could just sit and laugh at, I know you can. That I could. Amirik Bar Anthony's Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun. even in Indian cinema at the time. Absolutely. So let us know what you thought about this film and what should be the next classic and the next big beat. I think we have them all. Yep, back here. Yeah, we have them all. Oh, there's Duar right there. Hey, let us know down below.