China Gate (1998)

We're in wait. Hello everyone, and welcome to the Bollywood Cinema Club, a biweekly show where we take a look at Indian cinema, be it Bollywood, Hollywood or Hollywood and well everything in between. I am your host, Chris dash You. I am the host of the Culture Cast, where this show spun off from. So if you want to hear more episodes of Indian cinema that aren't the Bollywood Cinema up, the Culture Cast would be the place to go.

Speaking of people that have talked about Indian cinema with me over on the Culture Cast. And here I am joined on this episode by my good friend. He is the host of his own insanely successful movie podcast, It is, It Isn't. There's a laster here. The laughter from you is is I don't know unwarrant.

David my good friend and soon to be yours if you've never heard him before, the host of the Projection podcast, Mike wa I'm so evil, I'm twirling my mustache literally, oh my god. And on this episode of the Bollywood Cinema Club, we're gonna be taking a look at a film from nineteen ninety eight directed by Raj Kumar san Toshi called China Gates. Film is like I mentioned, directed by Raj Kumar san Toshi, based off a screenplay by Raj Kumar san Toshi on Jaman Rajibali and KK Reina, and it stars a whole lot of people. It is an ensemble cast, friends, It is an ensemble cast of ten rugged, older, disgraced military men who take it upon themselves to save a city from the nasty mustache twirling decoit that is Jagira.

And yeah, right, it's like Chole with eight more people. It's totally Chowlady. Thank you so much for just putting that out there. It's just Chola with eight more people. Yeah, I mean, it's the seventh Samurai.

They actually acknowledge a Kiakursawa at the beginning of the film, not in the writing credits, but that was kind of nice that they had a little like for the late at Kiaksawa. Yeah. So, yeah, so, Mike, let's talk a little bit about China Gate. This is something that we've kind of been trying to do for a while because this movie is not exactly easy to get hold of at all. Frankly, even to watch it with English subs was an uphill battle because they were they were There was never a point when I was watching it where they were really SYNCD up very well.

So so this movie was kind of hard to watch, which is gonna it's gonna unfortunately affect probably are feelings on the movie. But that out of the way right at the top, because most of the time when we talk about movies, I can normally say Netflix or Prime Video or even YouTube, because this is on YouTube. But you're not going to have any idea if you're looking for English subs where to find them, because they're literally in one spot on the internet and they're not very good either. All that out of the way, Mike, what did you think about finally sitting down to watch China Gate, which you had to buy? I did buy this one.

I had had this one a long time ago. A friend of mine had recommended it, and it's funny because he also recommended Cholet, so he must have known that I'm a big seven Samurai fan. Was just like, oh, here's two movies that you'll like, right and China Gate very unusual film because there's only one song in the whole thing, which was amazing. I was just like, what the hell's going on? It?

Was like an hour into it. I was like, did I miss something? Did that buy the wrong version of this movie? There's no song in this and yeah, my version on DV the subtitles are probably better than yours, though they were in a seraphun which was kind of weird, and the picture was what they call it window box or something. It was like there was black bars on the side as well as the top and bottom, and I was looking for that feature I used to have on my DVD player where you could like blow up the image a little bit, because I was like, if he just made it a little bigger, would take up the whole width.

It was definitely encoded before widescreen TVs were a thing. All that said, I really enjoyed this movie. I do love the Seventh Samurai. I grew up watching Battle Beyond the Stars, that Corman version of the Seven Samurai. I think he might have done a couple.

But yeah, I liked this one a lot, though ken I missed the song and dance stuff, which was weird for me to say because that used to be the thing where it's just like, oh my god, here they go singing again. But now I kind of dig it. Mike is as a seasoned filmgoer is now more interested in watching them having fun. I want them to have a sense of joy in these There wasn't a lot of joy in this film. Well you know that's that is the thing you know mentioned It kind of feels unfair now to mention Chole because Chole is what do you say.

I mean, Shole is just fucking amazing. Yeah, It's got everything that you want and it has Ami top box, so there you go. I mean it has everything. Fantastic villain, fantastic music, great charisma, but and and kind of chemistry between everybody, including the two main leads. It's kind of unfair because this movie really does live in the shadow of Chole, unfortunately in my mind.

But that being said, I did like this movie a fair amount, primarily because of all of the cast, the four the four main leads Ampuri, Amrishpori, Nazi Rudenshaw and Danny ding Zhongpa. I have seen them in other things. Obviously, am Rishpori for many Westerners is going to be known for it literally one's molarrama Doom. Nazi Rudenshaw I just saw him in Sarfarash, which was he was fantastic there, but he playing a very different character. And then Danny ding Zompa was in enthron Or Robo as the villain, and I'm trying to remember what I saw on Poor Ian, but these are like the big actors for it's their time all coming together, at least the first three.

Maybe not so much Danny Dzongpa, but the first three Ampori AMers, Poi and Nazi Root and show them three together on screen whenever they're on screen together is fantastic, And that, honestly, for me, feels like what the movie should have been really leaning on even more than it did, is those internet between the leads, because yeah, these are some of the biggest names in Indian cinema from the eighties and seven all together on screen. I was just so happy that I managed to pick up some of the things that are there. But that spelled out at least for a while, like the whole thing of the one guy being a Muslim. I was like, oh, like I for some reason, I don't know what tipped me off, but I was just like, he stands apart from these other guys and I can't exactly tell why, but there was something about him where there was some line or something where I was just like, oh, okay, it might have been like something about what he eats or something like that.

But and then him just getting tormented and having his house burned down. I was like, each one of these guys doesn't have anything to live for. This was like a very good seven Samurai. It was seventh Samurai mixed a little bit with and I hate to say this, the expendables, but I mean these guys are expendable. These guys are old.

One guy's on the verge of suicide when he gets that very faithful knock at the door literally dau Sax door knock, and like, none of them really, I mean, there's the one younger guy who's dad was part of this outfit that these guys were with. I don't think we necessarily do we ever really get the history of why they were all court martialed at because of the China Gate incident. They just left, They like abandoned their plate and it's kind of what they say. It's like I couldn't tell if it's because they abandoned it or they just weren't successful in what they were doing. Yeah, I wasn't sure.

I kept waiting for like a flashback about maybe two hours and fifteen minutes into this movie to tell what really happened and to make it that we even care more about these guys because of what happened at China Gate. It feels like that was a real missed opportunity. But to your point, it's a little paths of glory, like something happened and these guys took the fall, and you can just tell because they seem like very noble people, like they got the shaft, but we're not exactly sure why. And yeah, I really wish they explored that a little bit more. And I love that shot of a new Palm Cur at the beginning of the movie ripping om Purisa.

You just now, well, it's so good. You know, a new Palm Cur's not in the movie very much. It's a what they would call a special appearance. Obviously, he was in dd LJ. Played Sharu Khan's dad in that film.

Fantastic actor in his own right, but yeah, it's it very much. Is trying to remember the American movie that has like Ernest borgnine in it, you know what I'm talking about, where they're like, it's not dirty, doesn't but it isn't this again, this is like an ensemble. This is a Western, right, I guess Wild Bunch, Yeah, the Wild Bunch right, Yeah, that's kind of seven Samurai in itself. Right. Everything's kind of saying these kinds of things are all kind of just inspired by Seven Samurai, Right.

I mean the thing that I usually like about those, and like what I like about seven Samurai is the gathering of the team. We don't have that too much because all of these guys already know each other. Right. There's also the character who is the outsider, you could say, the Eshira Mafune character from the Seventh Samurai, And with this it's the younger guy, like I was saying before, and I like that he's kind of the outsider and the way that he eventually gets integrated into the group after he really lets the one guy have it when he's drunk. I think all of these dynamics work pretty well, is what I'm trying to say.

I agree some you're Sony as a Uditan Shu tadad the kind of the I'm just here because my dad's dead. It's which I love. I love that kind of character where it's like you are the stand in for someone else, but again, like you said, by the end of it, he becomes he becomes part of the group in a in a massive you know, I'm with you. You know. The thing about these kinds of movies is exactly what you said, the idea of like bringing a team together, all these different personalities big, small, and everything in between, and you get to see those personalities playoff of one another.

I like these kinds of movies, and I think this one is a very successful one in spite of some weird choices. Like you said. The thing with the music, because man Chauma Chama is such a well known songs, such an amazing song. It shows up in bos Lehmann's films later on. It's it's I mean, I would think in a lot of ways, Chauma Chauma has kind of exceeded the film in a lot of ways, Like the song itself is probably more popular than the movie is now.

I'm sure it still gets play today. I mean, it's it's a catchy earworm of a tune. It almost feels like it doesn't belong in this movie, like at all, So it doesn't like and I originally the way that it's shot, I'm like Okay, these are the villagers and they're having a little celebration, even though it's like not quite the time to celebrate. The bad guy is captured, but like bad guys get captured all the time, and these guys makes sure. And then all of a sudden, I'm trying to remember the lady's name, La motand Car who we just saw in Rangila a few right once or however long ago that was almost a year ago.

Now, oh my god, she says she's so gorgeous. I love looking at her, and she looks amazing this outfit and the song is fantastic, and I'm like, it feels like it doesn't even belong to this movie. Then all of a sudden, our soldier guys show up and I was like, oh, okay, this is shot for the movie. It felt like it was shot for something else, and they just kind of slid it right inside of here. Yeah.

And even then, it's like they don't do a whole lot of like dancing and singing. They're just kind of like standing around. It's not a real like she dances, she sings. All the people behind her dance and sing, but our main characters don't join in where it's just like boom, let's go and we're dancing and going crazy. No, they're just pretty like standing around.

Other than I'm Rish Poori who really belts it out. I appreciate that's true, and he just goes for it. It's I think Amish Poori maybe one of my favorite Indian actors period. I mean the look of him. Obviously I'm a little biased because but I'm also really biased because he is Kajol's father in d DLJ and that, and he's one of the biggest parts of that movie.

And one of the more memorable relationships is the relationship that him and Shah Rukhan have together in that film. And they're scenes together are elect and this is like a young shah Rukhan too, like up against Amrish Poori, who in nineteen ninety two he was Omrishpoori then a shah Ruh Khan was not SRK, then he was Shah. But Ambrishpoori and Ompoori in this movie elevate it a lot. I just yeah that I don't I don't know. I know why there's a musical number in this movie.

But now we see contemporary Indian cinema that doesn't have it like Sardar Oudham and hand Hun only has two or three songs, and they're more or less diegetic in the way that they're presented. I understand and appreciate the need and maybe the wanting of the filmmakers to include a musical number in a movie like this, but it's almost almost overshadows parts of me and how good it is. And again, the song alone ends up being so popular that again it's like a lot of things where people don't know what it's from. They just know the song and that's that's it. The fact that this movie is rather hard to find is in my mind, kind of an indicator of maybe where this movie is remembered in Indian cinema.

And that's unfortunate because when it came out, very successful, very well regarded. So it's not like this movie wasn't a successful movie. And at the time it was the most expensive Bollywood film ever made, so this was a big deal when it came out, so I guess they felt obligated to have a musical number. But the fact that it's like all box or the poster for the movie and it's one scene is a tad odd frank Yeah, because the way that it looks like she's in every scene she's the woman that they're all going to desire or something, and that's not the case at all. I mean, she is not the it's a mom to cal Karney or something, or the woman from the village who comes to them and says, I need your help because we're being terrorized by this village around here.

Oh the one whose father gets right exactly. Yeah, And she eventually becomes the love interest of the younger guy. So they've got that story going on, though not a lot like it really doesn't become very much of a love story. It's more of a have two young people that are here together, her father's dad, his father's dad. They would make a natural couple.

I found it more interesting the one character who was very concerned about the little girl who is selling like little animals that she was making, and her uncle was having her go out there, and her uncle's just this lay about and keeps threatening to sell her. I love that whole relationship that was going on there. And when they used the uncle to set them up with the villain, I was like, oh, man, so I really there's some good turns. And that was very emotionally invested in this film. I was too, you know.

And obviously it really does just go to the main cast of the ten. I know, we've talked about the big ones, but then you have someone like Tina on Don who plays the guy with the dog. Essentially, oh yeah, the guy with the dog is the only way to put it. But yeah, yeah, and they're like, again, it's not that they're minor characters, but they're not given as much time as again, I think Ohm POORI and Amershpori, and I would go as far to say Nazi Rudenshaw and Danny den Zongfa are the main actor and then everybody else kind of is a secondary or third even like tertiary. Even the tertiary characters out of the ten still get moments, even if it's, you know, right before they die, kind of what it feels like in Subway.

Yeah, which is this is this movie, this type of movie at a nutshell in a lot of way. But I do like how they do really give every single one of those ten characters a distinctive point of view and persona that unlike something like say the fantasy equivalent of seven Samurai the Hobbit, like those characters in that movie get Lost. They're not unique. And this movie can show you there's here's this is what too shy of that? Yeah, and there's and each of these characters is a unique character that has an interesting persona that stands out from the other ones.

And that's not easy to do. And that is I mean that for me is one of the biggest successes on Rushkamar Santoshi's part is the writing of Ye. And this takes place over a period of three hours, not nine hours, like those Hobbits where yeah, you got the old one, you got Duran or whatever the guy's name is, and then you got the one who's trying to make it with the elf. The rest of them, you got the fat one, the one with the beard. Oh wait, no, they all have beards except for that one guy.

So yeah, it's like, yeah, no, they definitely do a better job being more economical here introducing these characters, keeping your interest. Some of the things that we have, like the bus ride to the actual place that they're going while they're training, and then the bus and just how they're bickering and you can tell they're not a team at that point. How it takes all of these incidents to make them come together and finally be able to evil. And yet, to your point, evil is very difficult to that. It takes a few times in especially because there's corruption in the system and that one of the local policemen is home in bed with this guy, not literally but totally in bed with this guy to just be like, oh sure, yeah, no, I'm taking you to jail and let some go like okay if you go again to cause more havoc.

And he's a great villain. He is just total id the whole time. Like I said, mustache twirling, he doesn't really have a mustache's get that huge, big, great, big bushy beard. But he's just man, oh man, he's he's really enjoying being bad. Yeah, Mukesh Tawari is as good as the villain is.

And shol that this movie and Schole do have a lot of things in common, but one of the things it really shares is a just nasty bastard dirty like again, he feels like a what would be in like a Western, an American Western, like the Bondito's essentially like he hiding out in the rocks wade, you know, enforcing his will upon the villagers and ultimately, you know, just causing havoc. He it's it's it could have been a thankless role if the person doing it wasn't really going for it. But Mukesh Tawari just goes for it every time he's on screen. Yeah, he's fantastic. I was just saying, I was very surprised that he doesn't have more of like a second in command that is very recognizable, because that's always a trope or even maybe even a third you know, like you get your Ramon plus his two brothers and something like fistful of dollars and it's like, okay, you know, we know that what's going to go, and they're gonna play against each other or like trying to be the better brother doesn't happen here, but that's okay.

Well, I mean they have the cop right who is I guess kind of his second in command, But he never really gets his come uppance in a satisfying way, given that he essentially causes the death of Nazi rudin Shaw's character Sarfa Roused, So he doesn't I don't feel like he gets his com uppance. Unfortunately he doesn't. He needs a very painful death right given what ends up happening to Nazi Rudin Shaw just getting brutalized after Jagira is let go intentional? You know? And the thing that you mentioned about they're not being a second in command.

I think my only complaint or biggest complaint if you want to put it that will teakee with the movie is a little it. Yeah, it's it is a two hour and forty seven minute It's it's a long movie, and I don't know if it justifies two hours. I was. I was up for it just because I remember the original Seven Samurai takes about three hours through, I think. But I was surprised because I was like, well, it's an Indian movie, there's gonna be five dance numbers at least, no, so that's the expectation.

Yeah. So then when it was an hour in and I'm just like, no singing, no dancing, what's going on? And I was like, really, is this gonna be three hours with no music? This is kind of wild, because yeah, I'm us, you know, all of these Indian films are very long. Usually.

I don't think i've ever set there goes three hours? Maybe y l J. Baby, it's three hours in like twelve minutes. I didn't I see d d l J. I don't think so you should.

I mean, it's it's it's one of the bro It's if you're gonna watch one romantic comm in Indian cinema, it's going to be either DDLJ or couch couch hoota Hi, which is essentially DDLJ spiritual sequels. So I don't. I don't know if you've seen it. I wondered. I always kind of wondered if you had, because it feels like something someone would have told you to see at some point.

Yeah. No, I'm surprised I need to see it because I know you've brought it up several times over our recordings and it sounds great. Oh, I'll definitely check it out. Is that it went on Netflix, it's on Prime Video, Okay, Yeah, And that I feel like again like I really can't stress enough how fucking hard it is buying to me, like that would almost be for me a disqualifier in a little way, like and that you know that's on me as the person doing this show and programming the show, because I've never I never wanted to make this show where people couldn't go out and watch the movie, because the point of this show, one of the police, is you can go watch these two and you should. And there's absolutely no way to watch this movie, which is a shame, and that's a problem.

And it's more surprising than anything else, given the amount of star power on screen, not just the caliber. Yeah, I felt bad frankly when it was this hard to find it? And why why is it this hard to find? It's not a bad movie, it's a great movie. Is it just the lack of songs?

Is that what happened to it? I have no idea. I don't understand. It was again, really well regarded when it came out. The reviews at the time are about how good the writing is and how Raj Kumar really lands, you know, the direction of this kind of movie.

Not that he had made this kind of movie before, but he was kind of working all over the place, would make action movies and dramas and comedies. But then, I mean again, this is the biggest budget Indian film Bollywood time, so a big expectation here. It is surprising that, like even that qualifier alone doesn't make it more popular, or the fact that the song alone being so popular doesn't cause people to ask where did this come from? What movie is this from? But then again, like we've already kind of mentioned, you can watched the musical number completely out of context and get get the same out of it that you would if you're watching it in the context of the film.

Right, Well, I was surprised. I was surprised it wasn't on Eros now or again. Almost all the movies we've ever done on this show are on YouTube, but most of them don't have subtitles in England. There are some that do, and we'll be doing episodes on some of those movies because I've we've already kind of I've already looked ahead and programmed them. And there are some movies on YouTube with perfect English subtitle.

This is not one of them. There's not even a very good copy of this on YouTube. I mean, the one copy that's out there is decent. But none of this should be this hard for a movie that came out post nineties, even in India, right, yeah, it should be right there for us. But yeah, I was very surprised.

And the version of Leather out on YouTube, are they dubbed or are they original their original language? Okay, that's good at least, yeah there's yeah, there's no dubs or there's no dubs or anything of this. So that's kind of the only you know, other than the length of the movie being just a little long in the tooth. But that's because again I was expecting. I was expecting more spectacle of a different kind, right like you said with the musical numbers, and again, musical numbers aren't guaranteed in Indian cinema, but they add a flavor to the film that is again, like we said, not expected, but it's definitely like yearned for when you're watching a movie like I watched another film, Sardar Oudham, which came out last year, and it has no music, but it's more or less very it's it's contemporary Indian filmmaking based on, like, you know, a lot of Western ideas and Western ways of doing things.

And again, when you think of Indian cinema, a lot of Westerners think of just you know, women dancing and songs and that's it. They can't even fathom that there are movies like this an action or and I don't know, it's it's weird to me because when people think of like Japanese cinema or Chinese cinema if they even do. Unfortunately in this country so ethnocentric about Western cinema, at least where they only speak English. I wonder what the other stereotypes are for those cinema, Like what's a Japanese cinema stereotype? Like I don't even what does that even mean?

But for Indian cinema, the stereotype is there's gonna be musical numbers. To the point where every time I've hand someone on this show, we end up having a variation of this conversation. And it's always interesting to hear everybody else's kind of perception going into something like this, because everybody's perception is eactly what you've said. I was expecting there to be X in a quantity of why, and there was X in the quantity of much less than why in a way that now it's it's X more acceptable and kind of understood now, But at the time, like the again, the musical number is good, but at the time, like I can't help but wonder, like, yeah, the people that went to see this may have been kind of disappointed, right, Yeah, Yeah, I remember when I watched Zinda the Indian version of Old Boy, there were because I was just like, oh my god, ha ha ha.

Old Boy was song and dance, and there are songs in it that are somewhat featured, but they're more like you were saying, more diegetic at points, or like a guy's rushing across to get from one place to another and there's a big song that's playing. It's not like there's any sort of choreography when it comes. There's no dancing basic I mean, yeah, exactly exactly, which they're actually like, that could that could have worked, and it works. It really works well in don Gall like I didn't. It's not the in that movie.

I wouldn't have liked to have the characters, you know, doing a musical number together, but the way that they do it through the montage, it totally makes sense. In the kind of the narrative that they're telling they could have done that. They could have done something similar, because we do have essentially ten opportunities to have ten different kinds of songs or one montage song of them all coming together. And I don't know how that didn't happen, because that's that for me, is like a weird thing that totally should have happened. Well, yeah, can you imagine if they each had like their own type of theme or something and they started to blend together as the characters are going you know, yeah, I know, yeah, you know the movie, the movie that's seemingly we would have.

I guess it's it's weird because again, they're so interesting and they're all such fun characters that you want to see kind of the more not fun side of them, but you want to see them doing less things. Directly it related to plot of Jagia dealing with the town and being a nuisance. You want to see them just like you've already mentioned, just kind of hanging out with each other. Those are the best parts of the movie is when they're just kind of all together training because they end up having to train at one point because you know, old dudes in their these seventies, I guess, completely out of shape after the military. They're all having to go and run around.

There's another opportunists about how they're all out of shape and beaten up. Like movie like your two hours in forty seven minutes long. Yeah, we are trying to help you out. Yeah, And that's the thing with something like this you know, if you think about it, five musical numbers. Those musical numbers tend to be three to five minutes.

That's almost twenty five minutes. Sometimes even half an hour of your movie is musical numbers. That's why I was expecting this movie is as long as you said. Fuck me, I guess me and my expectation. I think the movie does a bad job of setting your expectations just with the poster, just with what that is like it.

It should be all of them on the post like that you can see, not you know, Umila Mondakar doing the little doing her hand like it's great. But I don't know. I I'm glad that I'm seeing more Indian cinema that is challenging me to not just say, oh my god, this is amazing, I love it. I want to see if I'm glad that I'm seeing more movies that are kind of not as success as some of the other ones that I've seen. This one, I think, though, is still pretty success even in spite of the length of the movie.

I think there is enough there with those just interacting with each other. I mean again, like the action scenes, I don't know I did what what was it's an action movie. What is your what was kind of your thoughts in the action? I was hoping that they have a little bit more. I was hoping that they would have, like, right when they get to town, that something happens.

You know, we've we've got the establishment of how bad our bad guy is. But I was hoping almost as soon as they could town that there was some sort of demonstration of just how awful is even maybe if they lost the guy right off the bat or something, that would be something, because of course, you know, nobody can make it through this. You know, there are very few people that make this through this movie alive. And to say half of them. Yeah, I think it's five or six people on that bush.

But even then one of those people might might be the girl. So it might just be the four of the guys make it out. I don't know. It's a alm POORI almish POORI and Danny dings Dingsong put make it out and then I and then samir Sony does as well. I think the guy with the dog does, right, tinu Anhon does as well.

That can't kill the dog. That was one thing I almost looked up. I almost went to does the dog die dot Com and see if he makes it out. Good thing. It was the the guy with the cancer.

He ends up making it out, and I'm just like, wait, no, of all people, he should go right. Nope, No, that was very surprising. I think that's what it was. I think it was something to do with the blood of the Muslim guy, because there's the blood of the guy because they need a transfusion. At one point, there's the guy with the cancers, like I can't give him my blood, and that's a very big moment, and I want to say that it might they might say something about the Muslim guy at that point.

Did you recognize Viju Kote the Gunner as one of Gobar seeing one of the dudes Gobar seeing Kills in Chole when they're doing the Russian roulette scene. No, yeah, which is so funny that he's one of like the one of the ten guys in this movie. But I'm pretty sure he's one of the ones that doesn't make it out. Okay, Yeah, but I just even cracked me up because I had like go and look and I was like, I'm pretty sure that's the guy from Chole Gobar seeing just like Kills in that and that the kind of one of the more memorable scenes of that movie, the Russian Roulette scene. But yeah, yeah, it's some of the choices are kind of strain, you know.

I know why Nazi Rudenshaw's character dies because he is a main care character, but I like Nazimnshaw so much as an actor that I didn't want to see him kind of not make it to at least the climax of the movie, but again to up the stakes and to really hammer home how bad of a kai Jagira is as impaling people on things and cutting their heads and arms and Shi's there's not a lack of bloodshed in there, and like body parts getting rendered from their human owners. I mean, Jesus Christ, Jagira just goes, goes and just makes so he cuts one guy's hands off, he cuts another dude's head off, and then Nazi he just like shoots him. It's only like two times, but it feels like it takes much longer to kill him, and a rather extended death scene that I mean, at times it is a little hard to watch obviously because they're just fucking playing with him, playing with their food.

But it's not a movie without blood at least kind of gory frankly, h yeah, which was a little surprising for me because I'm not used to that necessarily. Well, it just feels in a lot of ways, Indian cinema is just a very matter of fact, like, yeah, you cut someone's hand off, and blood's gonna shoot out. Yeah. And in a in a Western movie, you would probably depending on the rating, right, your hand gets cut off. In a PG thirteen movie, you don't blee wrap it up or you don't show it or something.

And here it's just a very matter of fact. Dude's running, I gets said, I get sands. That's just it. It's kind of strange, but it works tonally with this. But they kind of do get into hot water sometimes where it'll be in a movie that like it tonally doesn't make any sense, Like in p K there's a scene like a character gets blown up in a bomb in this movie about I'm your con playing an alien, right, and it's like completely comes out of nowhere.

I know you've seen it, and it's just like such a strange story. But again, it's so matter of fact that it's just like, yep, and that's what happened. And that's the way it is, Like I kind of get the sense and get the feeling that like that's a that is for me has been a recurring theme with Indian cinema of just we're just gonna sometimes just kind of show you the way it is, not try to stylize it or I guess very sanitized because they don't have to show they don't have to show all the blood and gore in this movie they choose, which is perfectly fine. It's just it is kind of just weird. Yeah, it is.

It feels a little out of left field at time. I don't have a whole lot more to say about it. Oh I don't either, and like I'm kind of disappointed by that because it's just it was, Oh, it was a okay movie in a lot of ways. That probably is three or four notches hired, just primarily because of the act. You know, like this this plot, this story is not anything unique again to the point where it's literally paying homage to seven Samurai and the credit.

So these movies only really work if you can cast the right people. Case in point that what was that movie that came out the year you and I were uh tiff that remake, the remake of one of these, was it the Magnificent Seven. Yeah, Like that movie came out and the only reason anybody would go see it is because of who they would cast. And they cast like, you know, Chris Pratt and blah blah blah, all these big name actors. This is the same thing.

You're coming to see this movie for who is cast in it, not what they're doing. And I think this movie does a good enough job of keeping you engaged throughout, but some of the story beats don't really pay off. And like the thing with the guy head, like some of the stuff with some of the village people. I think they maybe spend a little bit too much time with the police. But it and I only say that because of how lacking and wanting I was with that payoff with that secondary villain.

It just kind of it feels like they put all their eggs into the basket of Jagia, which makes perfect sense. Fantastic performance, but if your movie is two hours and forty seven minutes, you gotta give us another conflict or a flashback or something more just to up the stakes, because again, the chemistry between the characters is there. I just think the story. The story is not as exciting or as interesting as the actors interacting with each other, at least the main ten. And I think that for me is coupled with the fact this movie is hard to find.

Not say this movie is not worth checking out, but you want to watch something like this, just watch Shole, which is either on Netflix or Prime either one. But it's it's going to be there forever because it's one of the pillars of seventies Indian cinema. This movie again, Tama Chama. That's that's probably what most people, contemporary Indian teenagers and Indian people my age and your age, probably if they've never seen the movie, they had one hundred percent heard the song. Because I heard the song without seeing this.

You had too, especially if you've ever watched Hulan Rouge. It's front and center in that movie. Frankly, so, yeah, I think if I had to put them head to head, Chile would, But I think China Gate's got a lot to offer. But yeah, as far as like going as far as we went and ordering the disc or downloading the movie and sinking up the subs and all that kind of stuff that you had to go through, No don't bother like if it's if it's available on Netflix or Prime or Arrows or any of those, I would say, yeah, it's worth your time, but don't go out of your even if you could rent it for two dollars on Prime Video, because exactly one of the later movies this month is I found it, but you can rent it for two bucks on Prime Video too, and you know with SYNCD up English subs and that you know, again that might not sound like much if you're listening to this film or you're listening to this podcast and you can speak Hindy and you don't have to worry about subtitles.

But the fact that it's hard to find these movies dubbed is a unintentional stumbling block to finding some of it. Because I get It's not that I didn't anticipate it. Obviously, I had been dealing with it for the last three years. But I had been making sure in the last three years that it was Prime or Netflix or eros. And the moment you deviate away from one of those is you kind of just jump into the deep end and hope and pray that you can make something work.

This is the first time I've really gotten frustrated trying to find something for this show, really like going back and searching multiple times and trying to find different websites or different subtitle tracks or something like. That's never a good sign for an episode to start with. But the movie ends up being good enough that Yeah, I'm with you. I wouldn't suggest it, but if when hopefully it gets a re release or something, or somebody makes it available to be rented, definitely worth checking out. It's just just a little it's one step too far in the able to find it category.

Even something like Charoo Latta, a film that's from like the sixty is easier to find that granted one great tier, So Mike, until the next time you're on the Bollywood Cinema Club, where could people find you? Well, Chris, you can always find me and a whole lot of other great shows over at Weirdingwaymedia dot com. It's the place to be, the place to get your entertainment, all free, all great stuff. Yeah. I'm not gonna plug Weirdingway Media because you just did.

But Bollywood Cinemaclub dot com, like rate and review on iTunes and Spotify, that's all you need to do to help us out and Dora follow us on social media. There you go, Mike, thank you so much for joining me. Chris, thank you so much for having me. I always appreciate you talking to you about these films. Maybe the next one we watch won't won't be as hard to find one, can hope and h Yeah, we'll catch you on the next episode.