Dangal

We're in. Hello everyone, and welcome to Bollywood Cinema Club. I am the host of the Culture Cast, Chris Statue. On every episode of the Bollywood Cinema Club, we take a look at a Indian cinema film every time. Every episode, there you go.

On this episode, I am joined by my good friend. She is the owner and proprietor of Mondo Heather and a writer over at Dia Belique your friend and mine, Heather Drain. Hello, Hello, a mere con lover, Heather Drain. I am full on converted and that is thanks to you. Chris.

He is, he is something, and he is in this a whole lot. This being twenty sixteen's Don gall roughly translated as Wrestling Competition. So. The film is directed by Natish Tawari. It is written by Natish Tawari, Push Gupta, Shres Jane and nikkil Merotra, and it is based on the real life story of Mahavir seeing Pogot, a amateur wrestler who trains his two daughters to wrestle in the Commonwealth Games.

Though as US Americans may not know what the Commonwealth Games are, imagine the Olympics for all the countries that the British imperialist hand touched and you've got the Commonwealth Game. So it's essentially smaller Olympics, but on the same scale. And he trained his daughters, his two, his two very put upon daughters, apparently to be female wrestlers and know not the kind of wrestling that Heather and I initially thought when I pitched this movie. But that's okay, because well, Heather, I'm going to kick it to you first. What did you think of dongal?

Oh? My goodness? I um. And that's the thing because as Christos, I'm still very much as sort of babe in the woods within THEA cinema. And that's why I've loved, loving working with Chris on Odd exploring this because it's something like I'm like, okay, I know I need to learn more.

And so when he brought up this movie, I knew a mere Khan because he was in Ranguila, which you and I talked about and and we which I loved and he was great. And so my takeaway was this film. I mean, it was so good and a mere Khan is like the like the thriving heart of it, like his performance, his presence, and I mean everybody's good in this movie, Like there's really like, this film is such a really well made film. Like there's there's a there's a few a little issues and we'll get into those, but I mean it's a great film. It's very inspirational.

Um, it's proof that you can have a film that's almost three hours long. Which is the thing I've been learning is that a lot of the Bollywood movies tend to be very long. But you know, the ones I've been watching and that you've been churning me onto, Chris, like they have such a great pace to them. Like that's the thing. This film doesn't feel too long.

It doesn't feel bloated, it doesn't feel like it's you know, there's doesn't really feel like there's a lot of filler. Like it just has a good clip to it. Um. You know, it has a really great positive message. I think especially you know, yeah people, I think, especially us in the West, we tend to kind of get up our own bums a little bit and we don't get you know, we don't and and and defense like a lot of people aren't pushed to look outside their own sphere either in our culture, which is a shame.

But people maybe forget that. Yeah, there's still a lot of parts in this world where girls you know, because I mean that's the thing. This isn't said in the fifties, you know, I mean this, this is like this was said in the like these they were little girls, like what the eighties. Yeah, they were both born in like the late eighties, so this takes place in the eighties and nineties. And yeah, like you kind of mentioned ostensibly the modern twenty ten.

So yeah, so you so you know, you have a village where these two girls cut their hair, they're training as wrestlers. They at one point of wearing like, you know, kind of cargo length short pants right to trade in and like there it's like there are people you can see judging and mocking them, and it's like which is which is so much? Stop? But it's like yeah, that kind of mean we have sixes them over here, saints and plenty of it. But I mean that's not that degree.

The effective film even goes into, like you know that there's still girls that are married off at a young age, you know, and that's basically their role is to be like you know, to get married, breed, cook and clean and die. You know, and that's still very prevalent in our world. So this film is like it's such a great mix of like it gives you food for thought and has a positive message. The music's really good, the acting's great, and a mere Cohn, a Mere Cohn as my heart sings to the heavens and the angels above Amer Cohn. You know, I think the thing I would start this kind of episode off, you know, similar to something Jess Bayer said on an episode where we were talking about K three G a rom com.

I do not have any interest for the most part in sitting through a biopic, let alone a sports biopic, like you know, like those are like those biopics are a pretty far stretch for me to get interested in because normally they're very formulaic, you know what you're getting, especially music biopics. I mean, oh my god, and then Johnny Cash got hooked on drugs, and then he got hooked off of drugs, and then he performed and then that's it. Like, yeah, that walk Haard did a sufficient job making fun of movie based biopics. Sports based biopics have the same problem. It's just whatever the constraints of the sports film genre are those are going to be the kind of trappings of a sports biopic.

So this is as far from the kind of movie as I would normally watch. Just yet, getting that out of the way right at the top, I say all that because spovie was fantastic, right, No, that's the no. I mean that, that's such an excellent point. And same because you and I talked about, yeah before we start recording, about how if this was film was made in Hollywood, this is an American film, I would not watch it. No, it would have I would have I would have negative interest in watching this movie.

This would not be on my radar, even though it is a wrestling movie, I still would have no interest. Yeah, yeah, and you know, but I think especially because though we you know, like you said, beat for beat, what what ride you're going to be in for? So why even bother? You know? And that's that.

But that was kind of the fun journey with with with the Don gall By saying it right, yeah, you are you are, you are, you are, you are, but um, because you know, here it was getting to take a you know, a journey where we're gonna see things that we weren't totally prepared for, even though like you know how you know, I mean we both probably went into it knowing how it was going to end, because obviously it's based on true story and the facts checked things, you know, but they must have been successful enough to have a movie made about them, so right, But but still, but the way everything is presented and handled was new, Like it felt new enough. But but I also think this would film like if you had somebody that you know, if you're listening to this, do you have a friend who's like very much into Western cinema and they're kind of more on the like like mainstream side, Like they're very much they love Disney films, which, by the way, Chris Statue is the magic Man.

Nobody else could get me to watch a Disney film. The mouse touched the movie Chris, and that's the crazy thing. I mean. This movie was essentially created by Divya v Rao, who is a part of Disney India's creative team, who read a newspaper article about Mahavir Pogat and was like, this would make a good story. And so Disney went to Natesh Tawari and was like, write the story for us, and that's how this came into being.

So this is a Disney kind of joint from the get go, and that was so crazy to me, but at the same time so amazing to watch this movie and have the Disney opening play over it. Like if that does not smack of the times, ar chain and things are becoming more accessible and more expectedly accessible. I don't know what does other than a Disney film that is completely based in India, Indian cast, Indian director, Indian everything. Yeah, that was now. I heard that Disney Eye did music and I was like, I literally like was like what like way Of'm like looking behind me, like what's going on?

Like what did you send me? And then I'm like, oh wait now it is done. Goal Like for a second, I was like, oh God, is this the right movie? Yeah? And um, but you know what, kudos to Disney, Like kudos to Disney for giving money to this film.

And it's funny because you know, we're talking about this film like it's a cult film and it is probably for us and for maybe you know, any sort of America, like a lot of Americans maybe listening to this this film outside of the UFS did crazy box office? Yeah, like this is any sage block. But I mean I think did I read Christmas? Was? I think?

I'm Wiki? So mileage may very this outgrows like Wonder Woman and one of the Spider Man movies, I think in either India or China. Yeah, and this is the seventh in the nineteenth highest grossing sports film in the world. What up against things like some of the things that are on the list, though I'm not sure I would agree Hunger Games, Fast and The Furious Forrest Gump and how those aren't sports there Gladiators not a sports movie either Wikipedia. But okay, it's a blood spot.

Yeah, but but it made twenty two hundred crore, which is a lot of money. I mean that's two hundred and fifty three hundred million dollars something like that. That's a lot. It's a lot of change. That's a lot of money, A whole lot of a lot of scrill as the kids scrill, get all that scrill, a scriller that's that's very popular in China.

I mean, it took in two hundred and sixteen million dollars in China. Well, and the other the thing like reading about our man Amer Khan oh as like the Angels, keeps thinking because it's some of your Khan. Apparently he's so popular in China that he is responsible his popularity is responsible for like sort of helping softening the relationship between India and China. Yeah, that's insane, that is how popular he is. Yeah, he received an honorary title in China in twenty seventeen, a year after this movie came out.

I mean, can we think of a current Hollywood star that has that kind of cloud to soften political relations Well, and that's and that is the thing that I've like I've mentioned on this show before, and it is hard to kind of reinforce to you know, non Indian cinema watching westerners like you really can't comprehend anymore. I mean, like you, they or even I can't really comprehend the level of adulation that someone like a mir Khan or someone like Rajni Khan gets their fans, both in India and abroad. Like they're venerated. I mean, that's the only way to describe it. You're You're completely right.

There are no actors that anyone in this country would be like, oh, I'm glad that they ease tensions with Russia, Like, yeah, that's not a thing. No, No, I mean, and that's nobody can agree on anything in this country. We don't have a general consensus that we want someone representing us, but a mere Cohn. Yeah, like yeah, all right, like that speaks volumes. Oh my gosh, I know, and that's yeah, God, that's sad.

Yeah, people in this country like argue over who has the best chicken sandwich. It's like, well, they have to know the answer. We have to figure out what the answer is to that question. Lives hanging the ballot straight right. But I mean, obviously, you know, like you mentioned, the last time we did an Indian cinema film, we did run Gila Over on the Culture Cast, and that was the first time you'd seen an Indian cinema film.

That was my first one. I wanted what an entry that was so like, you've got me hooked, Chris, Like the more, the more you're kind of given me, the more I'm just like, you know, yes, give me more. I want to. I want to learn more, especially because it's like it's so exciting because it's a I think even like with cult film or you know, film writers, people get locked into grooves of just like you know, and it's I think it's dangerous to do that. I think it's a little dangerous to just be like having a steady diet of American directors or European directors or you know, you'll have a few sort of criterion approved directors, you know, from like Asia, but that's it.

And it's like, no, there's a whole world. There's a whole other world out there. And and you know, I think even Bollywood tends to be something that seems to be the more learning about it very like people. I think Americans just think it's this one little thing like oh, crazy dance numbers, and it's like barn oh, that's like that's like saying, oh, Hollywood films, it's got seeded. You know, it's got a dude with the pants on, Like though, there's way more to it than that, and Hollywood it Heather Present, Dude with the pants on.

That's our new podcast. Stay tuned for that pants But I mean, like now with Indians settlement, it's a whole whirld. The breadth of what's going on in India from from beginning to now is just is sort of to me, it's sort of inspiring, like and I definitely want to learn more and just keep learning more about it, and the fact that you've gotten me excited about something. This is mainstream as mainstream can get and pretty much yes film, and it's fucking great. It's it's funny that you mentioned how mainstream this movie is, though, because in my mind, you know, like you said, in my mind, obviously I understand how mainstream it is.

It's it's it's really, like you said, about as mainstream as it gets in India. But yet it's it's on you know, it's on. It was on Netflix up until just recently. You could just watch it on Netflix. What happened Netflix?

Why is it not on Netflix anymore? I don't know. I think it must be like a Disney maybe it's like a Disney plus thing, because it is technically a Disney movie. I hope it's not. Because I've been trying to get seriously, like this is what I'm actually trying to get like my family to watch.

But I think, like I'm like my mom would love this movie, like this is kind of a really great Gateway movie. You know. I think people you know and um and plus like the whole cast as much as I'm praising a mere con and who who who everybody should praise he's amazing. The whole cast I think is really great. Um.

And I was actually impressed because, like the actress is playing the his two main daughters are really good. Like but all the actresses are because you see them when they're when they're pretty young, and then when they're like young adults. Right. But I'm not the biggest fan of kids in movies, as Chris snows for any of you Gammera fans, I call it the Kinney factor, which is basically like kids and kids as protagonists movies can get a little precautious and a little it could be a bit much unless unless you just have a really talented kid actor with good writing, you know, which which does happen. It does happen.

But a lot of times it's just like, oh no, not children in movies, please. Um. But the kids, like the two young actress is playing uh Gila and Babita uh were great. I thought they were very like, very likable, very charismatic. Um.

I thought if I fect in some ways almost like are the younger ones almost more compelling than they're older versions? Like, well, that's you know, that's the thing about this movie. And it's it's kind of come up now. In several of these Indian cinema films that we've been watching for the show, there are flashbacks or time jumps or you know, unique kind of framing devices where they allow for either a role to be recast with a different actor or recast with an older actor, or something to that effect. And I was actually wondering the same thing because because like you said, I for the most part can point to every time a child actor is in a movie, the movie is either lesser because of it or lesser than the other movies in that series because of it.

So something like The Mummy The Mummy Returns is a lesser movie, not just because there's a child in it. But he doesn't help, you know, Star Wars episode one, it's not a great movie, but actively not a actively not a movie worth checking out because the children actors in that movie are so awful. I mean they really are so Yeah, to your point, like I was wondering the same thing, I think for me, I found the first half of this movie to be more compelling only because the first half of this movie is less formulaic than the second half. I agree. I didn't think of it in those terms that I actually one hundred percent agree with that, and especially because you did have more of a sort of dynamic were Yeah, because the girls, you know, even though they're natural fighters as their as their father discovers, which that was great, the whole a deal.

You know, um, you know where he you know, he's just all bummed out because he didn't have any sons. It's like the wrestling lineage will die now. And then all of a sudden he finds that his two little adorable moppets or little bruiser weights over there, but they didn't want to be wrestlers. And there's definitely almost there's points where even you and thing as a viewer is like, man, this is this even ethical? Like should you really be pushing at your kids to do your dream if it's not their dream?

You know? But I kind of liked the fact that the film puts you in that headspace because I think that's the difference. I think if this was more Hollywood, it would be a little more pie I, it'd be a little bit more like you know, we you know, oh daddy, you know, And instead you have these two like two kind of like independent not independent, but the two girls that are very much. They're a little people as independent as they can be a children really exactly. And you know, I liked that.

I like that it kind of I feel like it kind of humanized him a little bit because you don't think he's an asshole, you don't think he's an awful person, but you do kind of be like band as he pushing them that hard. Um. Also, this is a side note, but did they give him like prosthetic ears because it looked like he had cauliflower ear, which is something real like if you follows a lot of wrestling, like if you get hit and your ears enough like you see like you'll see like old wrestlers with battle scarred looking ears like brock Lesner. Yeah, Bracker, it's on. Even it took us twenty minutes to get to that point.

I figured one of us would would drops up then before this, I think they must have given him ears. I mean, Amir Cohan does have a distinct kind of silhouette or profile, I guess with his rather large ears. But I think they did give some like scarring on his ears or something because it looks it looks like it, which is a great touch. It's a great small detail to really reinforce. Yeah, I thought so too.

And and speaking of the details, can we talk about the mister Raging Bull over here with that physical transformation? Oh my god, just I thought it was a deep fake, to be honest, because I was like, we see him super young, a jacked, like jacked, my jacked jacked. Why Like he's like looking at like Wolverine, say hold my beer? Yeah, like super Jack too, like like sexy Dad bond I could. I was looking online to find like any information about like the physical transformation he went through, and I found shockingly little Oh, I found a video.

I'll send you the video. Okay, most of it is an Hindi but a little bit of it's English. But they actually interview I'm your con and they have footage of him like like from like each point, like him training to get super jacked, of him eating what he wanted to when he was playing the older version of his character. But I guess that was all him. That's amazing?

Is that not? And he got in that kind of shape in five months? I mean, if that's all you're doing though, yeah, no, I know, but I'm like, I good on him. Gives that amount of discipline and I mean eat spicy pickled or oily foods. You can't eat it for you And and I mean, and he's only jacked in the film for like what five minutes if that, if even that, Like he did all that work for five like for like not even probably five minutes.

It's like one wrestling scene and then like one further flashback and that's it. That's it. And the rest of the time he's just got like this wonderful He's got love handles and everything. When they shoot him from behind, he like the look of him is just so funny because he looks so different from a Meer Khan in anything else I've ever seen him in. Yeah, I think I think it was a good look.

Personally, he pulls it off. Yeah. I was like, hi, Hi, So, I mean, you know he Amir Khan looks nothing like the actual Mahavir seeing po god, I mean he just know. They show a picture at the end credits and you're like, and I chuckled. I'm like, oh, this is like this is you know, you know, the real life guy was probably like, Oh my god, they've made they they cast this hot ass guy to play me.

That's awesome. That's air Con is playing me because you couldn't have gotten anybody better, Like, yeah, that's that was. I love that. It's such because the actresses like look reasonably kind of like the real life equivalent. It's like the daughters.

Yeah, they especially um, the actress that plays grown up Babita, she looks a lot like the real life Babita. Yeah, oh you know, she really does. I mean they almost could be twins. Like it's uncanny. But um, but when it comes to the dad, now we need it's a mere conf Yeah, it's well, that's and you know that's the thing about this movie is obviously it really is.

It's an a mere con vehicle. And then American would American would will win the eighty sec excuse me, the sixty second Filmfare Award, which is their equivalent of the Academy Awards. This film won Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor as well and Best Action, which is a thing that we should have but it's not, which is pretty We have that because we're too up our own ass as a film as a film industry, well, Awards awards are problematic and American awards are super deeper. Just I don't know, that's all our own ass just like it can't have a movie that wins the Oscar can't be fun. Oh no, but it can be.

It's just just a specials contrived if not more so than an action film. Right. But but it's serious and that's what's crazy. This is this is the movie that wins the sixty second Filmfare Award. This film, this movie would maybe get nominated if it were a Western film.

Maybe not, like maybe not. Actually, I don't know. If they made this movie in the States and this was a Disney movie and it was made with whoever you know actor in the amir Con role, when two female actresses were then you know, whoever the fuck plays the older versions, would this movie be as good. I don't think so. I don't even know it be.

I don't even think it would be worth talking about. No, No, agreed, Agreed, it would just be you know, uh yeah, I'm trying to I'm trying to even think of, like, what's the last kind of type of film I saw that's American that has like a sort of you know, did you see Box Catcher? No? I think it was cool Runnings. I was when I was watching this, I was thinking a little bit of Fox Catcher, the movie that was like Steve Carell and Mark Ruffalo and Channing Tatum about um the DuPont guy who'd had the wrestling the American Wrestling team and then he murdered.

Steve Carell was nominated for an Oscar for it. That's the only reason it kind of jumped. The only reason it kind of jumped to my mind is again it was kind of like again, kind of an important, critically acclaimed movie, Right, Okay, you could tell that's how much I pay attention to Oscar. But that's why. I mean, that's the thing.

It's it's just I'm I'm with you. I don't. I don't hold the Oscars in very high regard. No good reason. Yeah, no, nobody should, because it's it's just it's basically just like student council.

It's just a it's just a popularity contest for a very small group of people that have the most boring taste, and they pick what's to be expected and what's quote unquote respectable. Yeah, and I do wonder you know, again, obviously we're Westerners viewing the Indian kind of filmmaking landscape through a Western lens. I'm sure they have the same problems over there. I'm sure there are people that are probably super cynical about someone like amer Khan, super cynical about someone like Ali about you know, there are people that are cynical about the big actors. I'm sure because you know, again they're the big actors, and people in this country are cynical about the big actors in this country.

I don't know, I'm not a super huge fan of Tom Cruise. I'm just not, Like, I'm sure there are plenty of people that are not big fans of Amir Khan. I'm sure not everybody loves him as much as we do. That they should, but again, like that's you know, yeah, but again it is it is hard for us. I mean again, it would be like someone like hearing me say I'm not a fan of Tom Cruise, like if they saw a Top Gun or any of the other multitude of movies that go across the pond and either direction.

I mean, those movies are massively successful because of who's in the movie. True, well, and still I mean yeah, I mean like Top Gun two, is that what it's called or is it called top guns? It should be called top guns, topper guns, to tops guns, it should have been called top Gun Bottoms only. That's a different is it, though? I mean I would probably bump bump, Yeah, I'd be more inclined to watch that movie as well.

Oh man, Jeff Striker, Stephen Jeffries, Stephen Jeffries would be in that movie. Oh my god. Oh now I'm touring because I love him, But I don't. I'm like, I don't know if I can if I evil ed in the role of playing Tom Cruise's uh second mate, long goose. Okay, now I would watch it, damn it to warn you, I try to warn you.

When was the top guns bottoms up? Top top gun bottoms only? Bottoms? Aren't you? But if there's something but bottoms, nobody's gonna get top.

But there's only one top gun. Oh, that's kind of boring. First, they're all first bottoms, Okay, just a bunch of slings And how far we've strayed from God's loving life. How do you personally feel about sports movies? Um, I don't like most sports, to be honest, fair, So you know, I mean that's the thing, like, if a movie is about a subject matter that you're not pulled to organically, then you're pulled to watch that movie is gonna lessen I think quite a bit.

I'm not and I'm not saying I'm opposed to watching something like I know there's a lot of good sports movies out there, but I haven't seen like The Longest Yard. I haven't seen The Longest Yard. I'm talking about the Originals, not the one that has Stone Cold Steve Auston and Bill Goldberg in it. Wait, are you serious? And they both in that they're in the Sandler one.

I'm talking about birth versions. Then. I didn't know stone colder than that. That's yeah, Chris. Chris's Stone Cold impersonation gives me life.

I need I need that as my new ringtner. It's just be a lot. I can't do it. I was waiting in this movie for because they do. I mean again, you know, the wrestling that you and I kind of have bonded over has its roots in obviously real amateur wrestling.

So when they were doing some of the moves in this movie, I couldn't help but chuckle. Oh my gosh. I know well, and I like some of it. It's some of the stuff I was getting into. I mean, that's the thing.

Even if you're just a yo. If you're more like the professional wrestling like Chris and I are, there's still like the matches, like some of the matches are so good. I mean I got into a lot of the action where I was like, yeah, you know, like you could get that and that whole like flipping people over, well that yeah, well that's what I was gonna say. Like, I know nothing about amateur wrestling, the kind of wrestling like you mentioned where you score points and you flip people on your back, and I knew nothing about it going into this movie, and by the end of it, I would watch wrestling on ESPN, I would be tempted. I was under the illusion that a lot of it was just grappling, which, in my opinion, grappling a lot of grappling is can get kind of boring.

Catch just catch can as they might say, b it's just like it just looks like they're hugging, which is sweet, but it's like, okay, like come on, like, oh y'all, y'all hugging out there, y'all hug come on, give him, give him a smouch, give him a little smouch, a little pad on the beeht. But I'm like oh, dude's diamond cutter. Well, that's the thing. I mean, there is some of that in here. I mean, that's the thing about this movie is even though it is amateur wrestling, not professional wrestling at least not the kind of professional wrestling that's w W E and a EW do those wrestling scenes at the Commonwealth Games are so entertaining and so well shot that you can't help but get invested.

You can't help. But I'm sure that when this movie was playing in theaters, people were jumping out of their seats and you know, screaming and yelling. It's so well done that yeah, you, like you mentioned, you do know where this is going. They're going to win. There's not a question that they have to win.

They're not changing the narrative, but they do a good enough job of ratcheting up the tension and amping up the suspense and giving you, the viewer, just enough doubt in your mind that wait, they you know, maybe they won't win. But I mean, again, like it's hard to give a movie that's based off of real life stakes, but they managed in those wrestling scenes. They really do, oh my gosh, absolutely well, and especially because a lot of like the people they cast as opponent are like, I don't know if they're if they cast people that are real life, you know, wrestlers, because I know the actors were trained by a wrestler, So it's like you have actors who were trained to do that, not the way around. But but their opponents look fears like they look like you're like, oh, Especially my favorite was the h the girl from Nigeria.

Yeah, because her guns alone. I was like, oh shit, like this like this that's what I was like. Oh god. I actually was like, maybe she's not gonna win this. Like even though I'm like you, I knew, like we know how this is going to end.

That opponent, I was like, oh shit, is she gonna be able to beat this girl? Because she was like, oh she was ferocious. But then you see all the strategy, you know, put into that, like it's like a chess game. It's like, oh, this is so cool. And and that's the thing too, is that it really this movie did a great job of getting you to appreciate the psychology of the game.

And I think that's something you and I are used to with professional wrestling, right And because that's saying a lot of people that aren't into wrestling just assume, you know, oh, it's just two people throwing each other around and underwear, which it can be that, and there's nothing wrong with that. For the rest period it is literally and technically that, yes, but there's there is a psychology even a professional wrestling which is still real guys. I mean just because if just because it's predetermined doesn't mean those moves are fake, because they're not. But as I sound like that guy where it's like it's still real to me too, it's pretermined like that that I feel like, like you're totally right, Like the term predetermined is the term that should be used, right, Like, yeah, that the outcomes are predetermined because they're telling a story.

It is a narrative, and that's where the psychology can come in with professional wrestling. But like the idea, like I never would have thought about psychology being applied to amateur wrestling, maybe because I never really thought about it, but this movie does a great job of getting you to understand that. And I think that's the other thing if this makes this such a good movie even if you're not into sports, because I think some sports movies if you're not into sports you're already just kind of like not there, and some movies don't make an effort of kind of bringing you into it, right, you know, of helping understand the game. I agree, I know, I actually agree one hundred percent. That's the That is the other thing about this movie that is kind of crazy.

I mean, yeah, this movie is you know, one hundred and sixty one minutes, so it's you know, two hours forty five minutes, just shy of three hours. Right. The fact that they're able to tell two rather compelling stories and outline in a non expository dumping way the rules, the basic rules and tenants of amateur wrestling, or at least competitive amateur wrestling, is surprising because most of these movies would never waste any amount of time doing that. They assume that you and there you go. Yeah, And I wonder if there's a cut of this movie where they didn't explain that, if that was the thing that they had to go in and add after the fact.

I assume that it was there the whole time, because not everybody knows professional wrestling, or at least professional amateur wrestling. So I really appreciate that the movie does take time to explain everything without getting bogged down in it, like it totally could have with just a you know, we're just gonna exposition dump for you know, ten minutes, and it kind of does, but it does it in a way where it's paired with a montage, so it kind of just works. It does, it does, And that's the thing, Yeah, because it doesn't feel like a dumb No, it doesn't. It's it's it comes and also comes so late in the movie that by the time we get to Amir Cohn explaining kind of okay, now you're in a more structured kind of wrestling.

It's not just mud pit wrestling. Now you're expected to understand how to score points and how to protect a and someone scoring points on you, and you have to be in this circle as opposed to a square. By the point we're at that point, the movie has been on for like two hours. Yeah, yeah, no, it's it's it's crazy. But you don't even when you're in the middle of it, you don't even think of it like that because you're just like so locked in to just how everything's unfolding, which is what a great movie does.

Like, and that's the thing is, you know, because I feel like sometimes with like especially kind of this trend right now where there's it almost feels like it's expected for every mainstream Hollywood movie to be almost three hours long or three hours long, and it's like, not everything needs to be that long. Like I think some movies, Um, some movies ninety minutes perfect, eighty minutes perfect, but then some movies like this, like three hours and there are and there are Western movies that are three hours long that are great too. I'm not being super elitist, it's just like, yeah, I just always think it's a danger of being like, oh, it has to this is what's expected, so we'll do it like this.

Well, that's how you end up not making interesting movies. The minute you lock yourself into any sort of like codification of like this is what we do, I'm lost and and you know, and the spirit of fairness. Does that mean that's that's not the case over in India? I mean, I'm sure it, you know, maybe it is, and it just doesn't feel it waits us because we are American, you know. But but this film does feel I don't know, it did feel fresh to me, and it didn't feel because I feel like a Hollywood movie too, because we see a scene where like a grown up Gila ends up fighting her dad because she's learning new techniques.

And I feel like a Hollywood movie would have had him have a heart attack, because I almost was suspecting that at one point because you see him kind of losing breath and I'm like, oh shit, if he could have a heart attack, And then I realized when he doesn't, I'm like, oh God, that's what my brain is trained to expect, right, you know, because that's like, you know what we that's what would have happened. It would have been even more like polished. I mean, and obviously there's celebrities can with this version. I mean, I would say the film's biggest weakness. And you know where I'm going with this, I think so I think, so, oh yeah, well anything to do with that third act is just oh my god, the coach.

Why why didn't they just call him snidely whiplash the coach? He was? They even they even had a sound effect. Did you notice that when you find out his dastardly deed, you hear a little like rattle noise that you like a little They they're audio stingers are that's a thing that like shows up a lot in Indian cinema and there's not a lot of one to one with that an American cinema. Like that's not that's just you know what I mean, Like it's it's not I don't know how to explain it, but that's not a thing that American directors are doing is putting in like little like audio stingers with like lines of dialogue and stuff.

It's very different in a in a good way, but it does kind of in this movie. It almost feels like the third act fell into the trap of the biopic too in a way that definitely stands out. And it's still it doesn't doesn't hurt the movie as a whole. Now it's a great movie, but it does lessen it a little bit because, like especially the reveal of like the coach has the has this guy lock the dad at a closet? Yeah, like are you sure?

It's like what like the boy like that? And that's where I got taken out of the movie a little bit because I'm like, Okay, that's a bit much. That's a bit much, And I couldn't find anything anywhere that addressed whether or not that actually happened, because I think we all know it didn't know. It's such a it's such a it's such a I would say, just go as far as I genuinely feel it was the worst part of this entire movie. It's so unbelievable, like, oh, who, that's crazy.

It's like, no, it's unbelievable because I genuinely don't believe that there's any way that that could have happened. Now, the way that the movie it feels too much like a movie. Well, and especially the way I mean it's it's funny he pops out around the corner as we see the dad being taken off by this guy, you know that's the decoy and a little smirk on the coach's face, and then the sound the little I can't do the noise, but and it's like I'm like, oh, are you kidding me? But then I was thinking, well, if the dad wasn't there to watch her this absolute climatic moment, what would they say like he had like he had some intestinal issues, it was stuck in the toilet, you know, like I can't think of another I mean, I was like, well, if they're trying to distract him from being there.

It's kind of hard to come up with the dramatic thing that isn't farcical. But but oh my god, there had to been something better than him getting locked the cause it's just it comes out of nowhere. It's like it's from a different movie, not yeah. Yeah, Like, this is a movie that has a fair amount of kind of emotional weight to it, especially with the you know, the back and forth between Amir Khan and Fatima who plays Geeta, the older of the two sisters, and there's a fair amount of emotional tension and weight between the two of them, and it kind of feels like the movie robs you of it of the emotional climax of the movie in a way by having him locked in that room, Like it all of a sudden introduces this idea of like save yourself, and it shows a scene that like we never saw up until that point.

Yeah, yeah, it was very strange. It was like a deleted scene, right, because all of a sudden it shows her drowning in the water. I'm glad to know I wasn't crazy. I thought that I had missed a scene in the movie. Yeah, no, no, it was this was like only in that scene right, I'm not crazy.

It was just that scene where we see this this scene that they referenced for the first time, and it should have totally been the second time they referenced it. Yeah, now it was. It was weird because the closest we get to that in the first section is we see him training them over the bridge where I'm assuming that she jumped into the water. Oh, and he's like there is a scene early on where they're like no, no, no, and he's like jump, you know, basically tell them to jump in the water, but we don't see them swim. The next scene is a cut as the as the mother handing the towels to dry while they're shivering.

We don't, right, we don't see that scene at all where he's like forcing them to swim, uh, you know, swim on their own, you know, to save themselves. So yeah, that was that was random. Well, it's just weird that they like come back to it and they give it such weight when they kind of just pulled a David Chase and cut away from the important part before we saw it, which is a stylistic choice, but that's not there's a payoff for a setup that didn't happen. And that's a problem because they needed to have the setup, they needed to make it a little bit clearer that whatever theme or idea they're trying to get across in that scene they were introducing there, they introduced it in the last five minutes of the movie, and it just kind of falls flat.

The climax of this movie for me, fell really really flat, which is super unfortunate because I enjoyed this movie. I enjoyed this movie immensely up until about two thirds of the way through the movie, and then by the end of the movie, the final ten minutes was just it felt so corny. Frankly, it just felt so it felt like a lesser movie took over. Somebody took over this movie in the last ten minutes. That's kind of what it felt like.

It was the mouse that was where Disney came in. It was a Disney move. I wonder, I mean, I mean, i'd be a little facetious, but it did. That was the one thing in this movie that did feel like of you know, like if if if anything felt like a Disney, like an American Disney biopic, right, it was that villainous coach. Yeah, you know, and it's like that's I'm sure their coach didn't like him, but or maybe he did.

They wouldn't have gotten to that point without their dad training them. I mean, that's one of the big kind of points that the movie makes. Yeah, so it's just like, we don't in this movie. We don't need a villain, and if there is a villain, do more with him than they did. Because that's the other thing about the character, the character of the coach Pramad At the National Sports Academy that they go to after they become essentially national athletes, they don't even do anything and there could have been this interesting kind of back and forth about the old ways and the new ways and can they coexist, and they don't even touch on that.

They essentially say the old ways are the right ways and the new ways are wrong. Like that is kind of the take of the movie, and with the message being as progressive as it seems to be up until the end with that scene with the little girl who they go to her arranged marriage and she's like, well, at least your dad thinks about you, unlike my dad who sees me as a burden. Your dad is actively training with you. In the morning and spending time with you and treating you like a daughter. My dad just sees me as a burden.

The fact that this is the same movie where we have a character who is the new ways being thrown out for the old ways as opposed to them coexisting and that being the message is kind of weirdly anti progressive, kind of conservative in a way, in a kind of a weird way, right. I could see that. The other thing too, is like, a there's a character that's even more ridiculous than him, and we don't even I don't think we even get her name, but it's like one of the girls, and I think the only line of dialogue she gets is when Babita comes to join the school. Yeah, the girl's like, oh, a wrestling family. But then you see it's the same girl that's noticing them training with her dad when he moves to the city, and she snitches on them right to the coach.

But then nothing happens with her, and it's like, well, why is she why is she snitching? I mean that seemed a little like random too. It's kind of like random bitchy girl. And then she's gone, and then and then the coach is just the coach is just kind of like a prideful dick, but we don't see him go into the techniques either. You notice that too.

We just have him kind of shouting at them, being like faster, you know, and but then like you know, it's not even soil Gela's like, oh we're learning these techniques. Yeah, well and that's and that's what I you know, I don't. I just don't understand about the second half of this movie, when when we're really kind of with them all grown up. It's just it starts falling into every single trap of a kind of school movie slash sports movie. Like, it just starts falling into every trap of oh, there's the mean coach and oh there's a there's a mean girl who you know again, like you mentioned in a Western movie, she would have been doing what she was doing to get ahead to you know, to get her spot or something.

There's none of that. It's just they're creating tension where there doesn't need to be any because the tension already is two girls from you know, a poor little town in Haryana that rise to national fame because they spent their childhood being trained by their somewhat militant father, former wrestler who said, well, I don't have sons. I'm going to train my daughters to do what I wanted my sons to do, to do what I couldn't, which was bring home gold for my country. How is that not like conflict enough them versus society? Because they did a good job of setting that idea up in the first half of the movie.

That's honestly what the first half of the movie is. I don't know why they needed to kind of pivot that message away, Like that message should have stayed throughout. That is the important message. I mean, Amir con reinforces it towards the end of the movie. He's like, hey, you know, look at those girls over there.

You see them. If you win tomorrow, you're not just winning for you, You're winning for them too. Yeah, and like you don't need more than that, Like that's more than enough. That's ten x more than enough. Agreed, Agreed now, And I love and I love that speech he gave them like that, or gave gave her.

It's like, yeah, just just focus on that because that alone is huge. I mean, especially because it's like that whole scene with the like the arranged marriage, because like even even the wedding song, and that's really the closest thing we get to like a musical number proper because we actually see women singing. Yeah, because everything goes throughout it's just montages exactly. So, but like the lyrics, which to kind of crack me up. It was like the groom is the groom is so weird.

He's a loser, like they translate that, but like and the bride looks so unhappy, and like the bride looks like a baby, and it's like, yeah, she's fourteen. Yeah, like Jesus, like that's you know, and so and and you and that whole scene where she's crying, like just crying and telling them, at least you guys have a life. At least you have a chance. Like I'm kind of surprised they didn't. I'm kind of surprised they didn't revisit that character in the second act.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's that's such a good point. I mean I was, I was okay with the second act, but but you're right, like it's it could have been like a tighter movie as a whole with that, with kind of that more consistency, and even if the coach. I mean, obviously he can't get rid of him as a character, but it's like, I mean, he's like a sitcom villain. It's like it's just it's it's it's a lot, especially because everything else feels pretty real. Everything else feels like nobody feels sort of like like like out of a reality, like everything seems even though it's a big budget movie.

It's like, no, these feel like real people, right yo. And then the coach comes in and he's all but like twirling his mustache and you know, well, actually I say that there was the government official where he tries to get a loan from and that guy was free nowhere with him also like I was expecting it to come back, something to come back with him too later at the second act. No, it's that would have made more sense as the conflict like against the you know, the system writ large, not the coach, because the coach ends up being a stand in for the system, but not really. And then the coach never gets his come up ins either. You're gonna introduce this character, this kind of villainous character who's already essentially breaking the quote reality of the movie unquote, then why not have him get his come upance at the end.

Yeah, if this didn't happen anyways, Like what the fuck does it matter if you make up a little bit more, if you just gloss it up a little bit more, I don't understand. Yeah, well it seems so weird to me, see because especially because she kept doing good and it's like, well, why is he I mean, yeah, it's does he get paid more if she does worse? Just after a while where it wasn't really fully explained, Like I mean, I get it, he's prideful, but like, do more with that or maybe do less with it, because who gives a shit. Let's let's keep the focus on the girls and the dad. Well and that and that is the other thing about the second act that the movie definitely suffers because of they suffer.

It suffers because Amir Khan's not in it as much because he's not as the second act of the movie is not his story, it's their story. The first act of the movie is their story together, the three of them. And that is why the first act of the movie is really so good, is because the chemistry between Amir Khan and the two younger actors is really good and really believable. The chemistry with Amir Khan and the two grown up actresses it's fantastic as well. But the three of them in the first you know, first hour and a half what have you of the movie is really compelling and interesting.

M oh one hundred percent. And that's, you know, especially like a lot of the actress that played the youngest, like the young version of Babita, because she she had a way of just like I'm just kind of giggling and I don't know, she reminded me of an old buddy about his youngest when she was real a little because she was kind of sassy and I was like, oh man, it's like this is so like she's just got this kind of sass about her and just the way she would kind of like move her head at times, and I was like, oh man, like these kids are so good, like they're so good and likable, and they seemed like real kids too, but like good kids. Not when I say real kids, I don't mean like shitter kids, right, But yeah, yeah, it would have been nice to to do that.

But but I don't know, But that's said, I definitely I don't think it's a it's certainly not a deal breaker, but it would have been nice. What and this and this is something that again we're continuing to run into with Indian cinema films. Is there the length of the film, at least with some of these that are you know, two hours and sometimes even three hours plus, there there's an intermission, And if there's not an actual intermission, there's kind of an obvious line of demarcation for the first half of the second half of the movie. And in this movie, that's there's a pretty clear point where you can pause the movie. It says into it even says intermission, and the intermission doesn't come when they're just grown up.

It takes a little bit of time after they are grown up to do an intermission. So it's just interesting because everything after the intermission is just so generic for what this movie does before the intermission, and that for me, yeah, it's not a deal breaker at all. The second half of this movie is still better and still more entertaining than most Western sports biopics have any right being so at least there is that at least it's still entertaining. A mere con is still there the actresses that play the grown up versions of our two leads are just as charismatic as the two child actors who were playing leads. But the story just doesn't serve the characters the way it does in the first act or the first half.

And that's a shame, it really is, because the older actresses really are not given a whole lot to do compared to the younger actresses. I agree, yeah, no, that was and that was the thing to because I was kid because the first I'm like, well, why did I because I almost just like, well, I prefer like the kids. But I'm like, well, no, that the it's old actors are great, right, It's not an issue of having like not good actors, not as charismatic. No, they're great. It's just like, yeah, it's almost more stayed.

I will say, though, I did like like the little detail of him being sent the actual film reel of one of her matches and him like going to like basically the equivalent of like, I mean, I don't know if it's a like a dirty movie theater that's basically like a cement room. Yeah, it is a dirty movie theater. Leave that is the nastiest looking little theater I've ever seen. A movie is want to want to go screen our stag film. Yeah, and uh, but that little detail was great.

And like the titles of the movies where his like nephew was like, why are we doing here? Wasn't one of them like lusty ant or something, the lustful ants I was. I was wondering something, and there was this there's this kind of this weird moment in the movie, and I wondered if you picked up on it. So the first time that the two young girls, these are young children go to wrestle, the men in the audience are making really weird comments, not just like uh no, it was gross. It was like gross in like a like pedophilic way.

Yeah, he's like, oh, I hope her top gets ripped off or something like that, Like he was saying essentially supergrown guys was saying that. And this is when they're still like fourteen, Yeah, fourteen at the mouth likes nah, it's gross. It's gross. It's a very weird detail to leave in, and especially because the guy with him was like, yeah, and it's like, oh gross, Like you would think if somebody said that, at least somebody near him would be like dude, what the fuck, Like, what is wrong with you? You?

Know, but I mean again, it could just be a comment on the state of the culture, because I mean it's it is a known thing in India. Plenty of an innumerable amount of sexual assaults are happening constantly in India because of the disproportionate amount of men to women. I'm not making this up. I'm not the one saying this. This is just unfortunate reality.

So maybe it's a comment on that. But like, this is a Disney movie. Yeah, that was. It's kind of weird. Like it was very it was very weird.

I kind of appreciated that it's a serious enough movie to kind of take to task that, but they didn't really do or say anything with it. No, I mean yeah, because you would at least hope for like, at least a shot of the dad like at least looking at him like I will, I will your guts out right, Darren, look look at or talk about my little girl like that. You weird out. Unless it's just a translation thing. Maybe it's just a translation thing.

I don't know. Yeah, we find out, like the inspiration that's like the character's nave is ted nuts. I just it was just like it came out of nowhere. Is what it felt like like it was just such a weird ikey gross misogynistic. Again, I get that's what they're getting at in the first half of this movie, is that the culture is just very male centric to the point of like women wrestling.

Whoa. But like that that for me if that is the line that the actor is meant to say, and the translation is more or less that it is kind of weird tonally for the movie. Yeah, unless I mean I wonder if those events like like that are kind of like a carny like an equivalent to carny kind of thing, kind of the way they were positioning it right right, and or as wrestling people would call kiss Arnie. Yeah, that's that zarti um. And so those kind of events, especially in this I don't know, Like I mean, Chris and I are from the American South, the rural south, and I mean like this is rural and this is rural India.

Yeah, And I mean there's you know, when I put it past some bubbas for at least one of them to be fucked up enough to be like to see like a teenage girl wrestle and be like, oh yeah, I'd say something inappropriate nasty. No, it wouldn't. I would. I would be shocked just to be like, wow, okay, thanks for letting everybody know you're a predator. But right, yeah, So, I don't know.

Maybe maybe it's it's that to kind of lend that kind of grit of like, yeah, this is the reality of having to wrestle at some event like this, and as well as the culture, the misogynistic, you know, and high just like this is all girls are sexualized just because you're a girl, no matter if you're fourteen or forty. You know, Um, if it's that kind of thing, I mean, I think I would be inclined to believe it is. Yeah, And again it kind of goes to the message of the first half of this movie and I think the movie overall, which is, you know, don't do not discount someone just because of their gender, don't make assumptions about someone because of their gender, and don't tell someone they can't do something because of their gender.

That's right, unless you want to ask whoop in bub Jesus Christ, I wouldn't want to face either one of them either. Don't do they kick my ass six ways from sundown? Oh my god, we'd be we'd be we'd be like arms and slings. I'd be begging for mercy. That's oh my gosh, I wouldn't have you such a beautiful world though, where the minutes somebody tries to step out line with their biggot tree, they just get like, I know that's not very enlightened of me, but I can have my gender tender.

I don't want to be enlightened. Sometimes sometimes you just want to see a BIGGI get punched in the mouth, right. I mean, there's a there's a famous uh like Canadian group called the Frantics that were like a comedy group of the seventies and they inspired like kids in the hall Um. But they had a whole thing called boot to the Head, which was played on Doctor Devendo. And there's a guy named ed Gruberman who didn't want to be in this enlightened martial artist.

He just wanted to learn how to kick people in the head. And that's why ed Garuberman was like, my impulse is to just feel like sometimes you just want like, okay, you're being so ss being racist or transphobic or sexist. Boot to the head. I mean, some people need some manners beaten into them. I mean, yes, it's a it's it's some cognitive dissonance beating the manners into someone.

But you know, sometimes you just need that's right. My middle name is cognitive dissonance. Yeah right, cognitive dash dissonance. Thank you very much. It's a hygd it that could be my action here.

I am cognitive dash dissonant. Damn, like that Diamond cutter. It's just you know, it's it's it's it's it's refreshing to see a movie like this that's message doesn't get in the way of it being entertaining, that's message doesn't feel like it's being beaten into me either, no pun intended. That's the other thing, like, imagine this, imagine this as a Western movie, and how just unrepentant they would be with the message of the movie, and oh, you know it would just never shut the fuck up about it. Oh god, no, no, Now this film handled that so beautifully, and the actresses like, oh god, yeah, because that's the thing that's seeing we're you know, where they talk to that that poor poor kid who's being you know, wetted off, and the way that that you can see just the realization on the two sisters face is just like it's so good they don't need to beat you over the head because they know, like we've got good acting.

Yeah, like that's the yeah, we've got We've got some intelligence here with the storytelling too. Um and the fact that like, um, that a beer Khan not to keep fangirling as the first time we've brought Amir Khan up in a while, I feel like, well, I've been trying to let be restrained, you know, people got to let him have his moment. Yes, but um, is that that's something like I was reading that that's a champion, like our cause he's champion is to you know, to have kind of like better a better future for women in India, for girls, And um, it's like, okay, a mere con, we already love you. You have to now you have to be all about humanitarian causes and a philanthropist. Come on, man, I know it's like God's not being so dream like and that well that's the thing I mean again, like a beer Khan is you know the big ones are you know, Chahru Khan and amitab Bakchan, but Amir Khan is there.

I mean, he's one of the three big cons. I mean, he's I forget who the other one is, but it's SRK Amir Khan, and then I believe there's one more. And like that is so apparent when you see movies with him in it, that he's just a seminal talent. He is so talented that even he could make me care about a movie like this one that I again would have had no interest in otherwise he was the entry point for me as a viewer. Yes, well, and he's a rare like, he's a rare actor that has not only like the charisma of like what you think of with a leading man and you know, the classic good looks, but he has the talents and that's sort of also a different type of charisma that I associate personally more with character actors because I tend to be more of a character actor person usually than like a leading actor person.

So I usually think character actors were more interesting and you know, tend to be actual a lot more nuanced. I think as a whole, as as far as talent ghost, um, it's like the Joe Spinel versus Brad Pitt factor. You know, um, and god, I love Joe Spinel. That's a whole other show. That, yeah, but um, but a mere con is that rare kind of bird where he is this like really gifted actor who can bring different levels to something because even like the whole thing like people losing weight or getting buffer roles and nothing new.

And at this point it's almost kind of like, I mean, de Niro did it, and when de Niro did it for Raging Bull, it was a big deal because actors typically didn't really do that back then, right like, um, to quote Laurence Olivier, it's called acting, dear boy, acting with a capital a, acting ota an octa, but m And the reason I forgot the other Cohn was its Selmon Khan who killed someone while drunk driving and then he was convicted and poaching and he's been He's a massive actor and I don't want to take away from his acting abilities because he is one of the three cons Amir Con, shah Rukhan and Salman Khan, but he's the problematic one. It's it's like a family. Everybody's gonna have that cousin, the one, the one conn, the con that nobody can get along with the one we're at the family reunion, like oh, we're so and so girl he's in jail, right, I would.

I'm trying to think, I think the most And this may be a little on the nose, given the movie that he was in this year, I think that the most act comparison possibly for amir CON's acting kind of uber and the style that I get from him when I watch movies with him in it. It might be a little on the nose, but he does kind of remind me of Tom Hanks. I kind of see it right like that I can, but I doubt he doesn't hit me that way. No, he's more endearing and Tom Hanks. I mean that's for me.

He's more endearing, but like he has that like kind of like general endearing quality about him. He does, but he also is like he can he can be intense in a way that I don't associate with Tom Hanks. That's fair. He can be um. I don't think if Tom Hanks is dreamy.

I'm not a hater of Tom Hanks for the records, I'm not, like, you know, it's not like yo, No, Like I'm not a fan of bread Pitt unless he's playing an actor. If he if or playing an actor, and Breakfast is playing a role where he's not good looking and forced to be an actor. I think he actually he's all right, like like burn after reading I haven't seen that pretty. He's pretty good. He's pretty good.

Yeah, I was thinking more like um, like, I'm not the biggest fan of twelve Monkeys, but I thought he was really good at twelve Monkeys. So is there is there a more apt comparison in your mind to Amir Cun's Western equivalent, Hollywood equivalent. Listen to quoth the old song ain't nothing like the real thing. Baby. You can't compare.

Can't compare, that's fair. Can't compare a day a plastic daisy at a Western sizzlan buffet spread to an Indian rose darling. That's true, that's true. I don't. I don't disagree.

I'm like raised in the roof because I'm a dork over here. I'm not. I don't disagree. I've I've said it before on this show, Like, I really don't think that there are good Western equivalents for Indian actors, at least not for what they really bring to a film, Like the level of gravitas that they bring to a movie. I would be more interesting in like what would somebody who like what an Indian viewer would say is the Western equivalent m that would be a perspective.

I would be because I feel like I'm not honestly, Chris, you're better suited for this answer than I am because you've seen a lot more films than I have. So you say, Tom Hanks, you're honestly more educated to make that. Yeah, but I only I only ask because you've seen a lot more Western movies than I have. Yeah, but most of the Western movies I've seen don't have Tom Hanks also don't involve people with clothing on, to be fair, So that's not not everything. They say everything dude at their trained sex fiends and cognitive just top gun only bottoms.

It's coming out soon, coming coming to a theater. See, I went in my defense, you're the one that went all saucy saucelito on that one. I was the one that made the eighties butt rock joke boy with that with the tops guns with a Z. I was gonna put a z a backwards. I went the more obvious disgusting route.

Long Bottom, Wow, long Goose. Long Bottom is the is a character for Harry Potter that has nothing to do with sex. But now I can't unhear that. See, I've only I've actually always seen like the first Harry Potter movie, Neville's Long Bottom. I don't even that's his name.

That's a character's name, Neville long But which one was he? The British one? Yeah, the one into witchcrafts, the one, the one, the one with the vacant stare for the first three movies, that one. Oh, that's most of those actors, say, that's most of the child actors in those movies. Yeah, which is crazy though to think about the child actors in this movie and then think about child actors in like bigger budget movies, and how good the kids in this movie are.

Oh my gosh, to compare it to like Harry Potter, Like those Harry Potter movies are goddamn trash with those kids actors in the first three movies. They are like the Harry Potter movies. In the first two movies, the kid acting is really really, really bad. It's really bad, like nobody's gonna go to bat for and maybe Emma Watson, but the kid actors are bad. And then you put it on a movie like this and it's like those don't even feel like actors.

They feel like the real people and they just put the camera on them. And that is not something that you can do very easily, especially when again we know that these aren't the real people in the movie. But again you could, you could convince me otherwise. That's how that's how good this movie is, and that's how convincing this movie is is. By the end of it, I was like, yeah, like they might not be the actual people, but convince me otherwise.

That's you know, that's the other thing if this is a Hollywood movie, because even like the side kids like yeah, I'm just like, like they are these boys that like taunt the girls that they've had their haircut, and you know, and those kids look like real kids. I mean, that's the thing. It's such that even they act like real kids, they look like real kids. They don't look like William Morris children, right, you know what I mean? Because like Central casting exactly, and like the the opponents later on, Scott, think about it, if this was the Hollywood movie, their opponents would be like a size zero in way like one hundred and two pounds.

And it's like, okay, sure, I like the last girl that geta wrestles she's a she's a loss. Oh my god, I think I think brock Lester has some splaining to deal with that one. She yeah, I wish is she Australian Angelina Watson? And the that's the thing. If you wanted to make a villain in the movie, there's your villain.

She was like the Dolph Lungdren and Rocky four of us, right, She's like, oh, she's gonna lose. My favorite was the real shitty way she said to Maste at the pros conference that her little smirk like like it was just like, oh, she now that was a villain I was living for. I was like, more and Jelina, let's out, Like I didn't what a Bitchelina locked her dad. I mean it would have been equally, if not more ridiculous, but I at least would have been like, you know what, I respect that it's a it's a it's a. I honestly though, like the it's it's unbelievable to me that the dad would have actually followed that guy.

Well that was yeah, that isn't as hyper focused as he's been the entire journey. This is the moment, this is the singular moment. Yeah, and he's gonna go off with some guy just because it's like, oh, this vague authority figure will be offended. Oh then yeah it was Yeah that was I don't know that was. Yeah, that was a week that was a major week spot.

Yeah sure, yeah. I really can't get over how clunky the climax of this movie is. It really does, it really does. It just kind of ends the movie on a sour note for me. But the movie is so good otherwise that I kind of don't care.

But man, that third act needed some work, to some real work, because the main character doesn't need to be locked in a room Like that's just like like what are you fucking thinking? Movie? Like it's just mind boggling, Like yeah, I get it, Oh, she's going on the emotional journey by herself, she doesn't need her dad, but like that's not really the story you're telling here, Like no, you're telling the story that her dad's training is what is allowing her to be successful, not that she can do it without him, like she can, but that's not it's a chared journey here. It was just very strange. I've never seen a sports movie do that, where like one of the main characters just gets like taken out, but but the climax is still the positive climax, the positive result is still gained.

But one of the main characters was just locked in a room. So it sounds so stupid to explain it, it really does, doesn't It's I just now, I just want this, like this alternate universe for Angelina's the one that is like, actually, it's not the coach, it's her right. I want the alternate universe where a mere con just takes out a piece of chalk and writes it and draws a doorknob on the door and open. Because that's how ridiculous this movie gets where we're supposed to believe the coach is so angry, like he still wants her to win. Like I, if I were the coach for the national team, I'd probably be more offended at this movie than anything else.

Like why'd you make me out to me this bad guy? I don't care? That was the big mystery from I couldn't my brain hit being like, well, wait, if she's winning, why does he fucking care? What's the situation? Like, if anything, this will probably get you a race, right, you know?

She got the first gold as a woman like for India, Like, but why do you what? Okay, sure, that's like even if she doesn't give you credit at the press conference, you could still be like, oh yeah, as a coach, that was one of my students and that looks good on your resume. Well, and I mean it's not like the coach wasn't a shitthead himself. He's like, I take full credit for all this, and this was all I mean, it's like I'm king, yeah, I know that was that that press conference he was He might as well have been like I'm king look at me. Yeah yeah, huh?

What a what a what a good movie though, right, what a fun movie. I enjoyed this actually as a whole as much as as much as we are, you know, rightfully, So crabbed a little bit about the second act. I loved watching this movie. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Um, And it's not it's not often I see a newer movie that compels me like this one did.

So I really enjoyed it. So I'm glad we got to talk about it. And a mere con Oh my god, I know, right, forget what you know about Western leading men. A mere con is the truth. Well, you know, the thing is like I find so many Hollywood leading man, like leading men of this era so blant, like they're so bland.

They're all like hatched out of the same like Chris Rigg. Yeah, it's just like they're all generic white guys with six packed like Nat, I'm good, I've had Phil. Well, that's the thing. I mean, you can't really you know, like that's the thing. It's like with with Indian cinemas.

I'm learning slowly. It's like, you know, the stars, you know, you mentioned those are the three cons you could tell each one of those guys apart. Yeah, like they all are very distinctive looking and acting people and an artist, And I just feel like you don't really get that a whole lot in Hollywood. No, I would, I would agree, I would agree on and you know, like I you know, you're you're kind of final thoughts on the movie, Like I one hundred percent agree, Like it's it's a movie that, even if it's third act, is kind of a mess, and it just kind of becomes more of what I'm used to with these kinds of movies is kind of goofy nonsense of creating baddies where there aren't any, and you know, kind of fantastical logic.

I just I loved everything about this movie. And a Miracan is just such a charismatic lead, and the child actors are great. Everything about this movie other than kind of the third act quibbles, is really fantastic. And again, this is not the kind of movie I would gravitate towards if it was a Western film. I don't watch Miracle or any of the other sports with I've never even seen Field of Dreams.

And I bet you've seen Field of Dreams only parts of it, but I now don't even know no that one that's that I can't. And Kevin Costner is a bland at it, Yeah, a perfect example of a Western leading band. And I blame all this on Ryan O'Neill, by the way, because I feel like you could trace the blandification of the Hollywood leading man's Ryan O'Neill. Mm. That's fair, because you know, if you go to like classic Hollywood, all of those guys pretty distinctive.

Like you were going to confuse Clark Gable with Humphrey Bogart. You're not going to confuse Gary Cooper with um, you know, oh God, like William Holden or you know what I mean, like yeah, it's like each each person in the same the woman like Ava Gardner is not going to be confused with Katherine Hepburn. It's you know, or a lot of Turner. It's um because I think like a lot of the main actresses in Hollywood two are kind of a lot of them are boring as well, Like you know, like now, I mean a mere Khan is just he's a total package and just him. Even even if this film's plot does not entice somebody, and if it was on any other film, it wouldn't entice me or Chris, it's worth it.

Like the whole film is great, but at the very least see it for just such a greatly performance. Uh. And a guy that just brings brings it all, brings his a game. And then some a man who looks good both with a mustache that he can twirl in, a full beard and a buzz cut and a dad bud. I saw a photo of him with that twirl and mustache, and yeah, he can get it.

He can get it all day, every day, six ways to Sunday. He's a he is I know, you know, he of all the actors in Indian cinema, I think he's the one that I've seen the most of his films, primarily because just I don't know, just have like I've seen more amer Cohn movies than I've seen anyone else. I three idiots Rengila this, so that's like four. And then on the next episode that you're on of the Bollywood Cinema Club, we're gonna be talking about a big budget action movie featuring a mere Cohn with said twirling mustache. I've been a top hat, which it is.

I don't think it could be any further from what this is. We're gonna be talking about a little film called Thugs of Hindostan, which sounds insane. It looks insane. A meer Con looks nutty in the movie. Yeah, I can't wait.

It's an Indian action movie, which you'll get to see what that's like. And they're wild. It sounds like Christmas is coming early for me. I'm excited. I'm excited to I've seen other Indian action movies and they are varying degrees of successful, but they're all fun at least, even if they're not the best made movies.

They're still fun, they're still entertaining, So I'm looking forward to it. Obviously, clearly we're both looking forward to it. So until then, Heather, where could people find you if they were looking? You can find me over at my website, which is Mondoheather dot com. You can also find me on Instagram and Twitter at Mondo Heather.

And I also have a Patreon where you could read my various ramblings, get sneak peek into upcoming articles and other fun sunduries, and that's also at Mondo Heather. And as for me, Weirdingway dot com is where you can find this show and all the other shows of the weirding Way media network, which there are plenty, including some episodes where Heather and I talk about movies over at the Culture Cast and now episodes talking about movies here on Bollywood Cinema Club. So that's where you can go to find all the shows you should be listening to, because if you can't find it there, maybe you shouldn't be listening to it. As for this show, Bollywood Cinemaclub dot com, Hollywood Cinema Club on all social media, but social media sucks as far as i'm concerned, so just listen, rate, and review the show on all platforms where you get the show.

And yeah, Heather, thank you so much for joining me. I'm really looking forward to the next time we talked about Indian cinema because I think it'll be as good as this movie, but maybe even more entertaining. Oh my god, I'm excited. Thank you so much for having me on, Chris, and as always, well we'll catch you on the next episode.