Rog

Hello everyone, and welcome to the first episode of the Bollywood Cinema Club. I am your host, Chris Stashue. Every other week, you are not a fan of Indian cinema, my job is going to be to educate you as to why you should be a fan, because if you haven't seen it yet, you should. We're gonna be covering all kinds of exciting Indian cinema, both ones that you can find on Netflix, some that you can't, some that you can find on YouTube, some that you can find on arrows. Now, you'll be able to find this all over the place, but I will promise to you that I will tell you where you can find it, because half of the battle sometimes with Indian cinema, it would seem, is tracking these films down in the States, because man, not everything got a great subtitle.

Unfortunately, sometimes you really got to dig around and look for things. But we'll make sure you know where to go to watch the films that we're talking about. On this episode, we are going to be kicking off the show with a look at two thousand and five's rog Now. I do not do this show by myself. I am joined by a friend of mine or someone that has something to say or wants to have something to say about Indian cinema.

So on this episode, I'm joined by a good friend of mine. He is the proprietor, owner, author Man about Town of pulp Dash Serenade dot com, your friend and mine if you listen to the Culture Cast. He is a frequent guest, my friend, mister Cullen Gallagher, Anidian. Thank you for having me on the show, especially the first episode. I am honorst episode.

Man. It's excitful, that's pressure. So the reason for this show existing kind of has a little bit to do with you, Cullen, because you and I became friends in twenty twenty, which was the same year that we did our first Indian Cinema Month, and I noticed after the fact that the Indian Cinema episodes of my show seem to do quite well in India, and I love Indian cinema and it is not going to be pulling my arm to get me to sit down every other week to talk about Indian cinema any more than any of my guests yourself included, Culin. Because as you have mentioned before, when we did the Culture Cast Indian Cinema Months, everybody I think always walks away really happy that we watched the movies and wanting to watch more Indian cinema.

That's always the takeaway, definitely. So on this episode, we're gonna be talking about two thousand and five's rog which is a remake of a film from nineteen forty four called Laura, which is based on a book of the same name. Colin, this was actually your suggestion we were going to talk about this, was this something, This was an idea that this movie you had floated to me for we were gonna have a month, right, No, no, it was for when we did no our months. Okay, that's right, yep, okay, sure. And at the time this was not available anywhere to stream, and since then it's now become available on Amazon for rent two dollars one ninety nine to rent for standard definition, which I think the first thing I want to say about this movie before we even talk about the movie.

This movie looks like it was made in the nineties. It does not look like it was made like. There's something strange about films made in the mid two thousands that are still standard deaf. They look like the nineties. I would love to see a Blu Ray remaster for this movie with improved subtitling.

Yes also that, which is surprising given that it was on Amazon Prime and we had to spend money on it to rent it. I would have expected these subtitles to have been better. They are. They're okay, They're not terrible. But this film is directed by Humanshu Brambot.

It stars Erfon Khan and Ellena Hamman, and like we mentioned, it is a remake of another film, so the plot is more or less the same if. Khan plays a police officer who is investigating the death of Maya Solomon ellen Haman's character, and along the way he runs into her lover, a journalist, and all kinds of interesting strange people, and then spoilers, because we'll be talking spoilers from here on out, it turns out that Maya is shockingly still alive, and where the film goes from there is the exciting part of the movie in a lot of ways. That's when the film kind of definitely picks up pace. So Cullen, tell me a little bit about your experience with Indian cinema first, and then tell me a little bit about your exposure to Laura and rog and the novel that the original film in this film are based on.

You know, my, my, my, My experience with Indian cinema is largely films by like such Yaja Drei Um, like the like Pather Pan Shali a Parhito in the World of a pooh Um and other sort of stuff that would have been released more as like arthouse films over here in the States. Um. It wasn't until I was coming on a year podcast that I started watching more like popular Indian cinema and I just fell in love with everything I saw. And it especially appealed to me because I love crime films, mystery films called them, which you will, and I think it's great because every country has their own type of crime film that they that they that they that they want to make. And what really interested me about ROG was that even though it's an Indian film, it's not just like an Indian cram story.

This is specifically remaking one of the most iconic pieces of American film noir, and so I was really interested to see, you know, what they borrowed, what they changed, how does the story work within the context of Indian cinema. And it also touches on a topic that's of increasing interest to me, which is this idea of transnational noir, the idea that noir is not just, you know, an American thing, that it's not like a French concept, that there is something truly international about it, that these stories can play in different countries, that different countries have their own iterations of it. And I think this is a perfect example, this sort of hybrid of Indian cinema and classic you know, Hollywood.

I can talk about Laura in that movie if you want. I wanted to take a little breath and no, no, no, I would of myself. I was so I have not seen a film with erfon Khn yet. Erfon Khn for a lot of I would say American audiences would know him from. It's a mix of things.

He was in Slumdog Millionaire, Life of Pie, he plays the Jurassic World. Yeah, in Jurassic World. I'd say Life of Pie would probably be the thing most American audiences would know him for because in Life of Pi he plays the main character. So unfortunately he passed away in early twenty twenty, which is a shame because he was fifty fucking three. So that's and it's a shame because the character that he plays in this movie, he plays him so convincingly you couldn't convince me that that's just not Erfon Khn in real life, like just like of because there's a level of charisma to this character that I don't think.

The title of this film kind of gives away. The title of the film is rog rog translated means malady. The film calls it disease. At least the subtitle version that we saw, they kept saying disease over and over again, which you know, malady, disease, you know, somewhat interchangeable. But Erfon Cohn is so good in this movie, and he is so convincing as that character that it's like eight in that first scene, he's already fully realized.

Before you get out of that first scene, he's are you already more or less understand the character? That's first scene I love, especially on you know, repeat viewings, and I think that's a really interesting scene because that is nowhere in the original all right to people who haven't seen it. It begins with like a long take of him talking to a doctor that we're just looking at Irfon's face and he's just talking about being suicidal and really moving sort of series about why he didn't take his life, and that sort of leads to sort of this thing that he's had insomnia for years and he's just sort of on the verge of a breakdown. And it goes from there to he's at a cafe and he's seeing a couple in the corner, and you just suddenly realize, like, how lonely this guy is, right, And I think it's really interesting choice to begin the story by putting the focus on his character and exposing him, which is again so different from the original, in which the detective is much more guarded.

You learn almost you know very little about his background at all. It's it's sort of like the opposite of Dana Andrews, who's the actor who plays it well. And I think to your point, it's interesting to have this like opening scene of this character exposing like just being vulnerable directly, essentially directly to the audience, because you know, we you know, like you mentioned, you do realize kind of farther into the scene who he's talking to. But for all intents and purposes, in the first couple of minutes of this film, he's speaking directly to you, the audience, And I wrote down in my notes one of the lines that he said that was again, very a very literary line. Right.

And again I think that this script, obviously because it's inspired by and it's based on a book that you know, a movie based on a book that had already come out, Obviously, you're drawing from literature already, so it makes sense that the film is going to feel literary in nature. But when he says he wanted to pull the chain on the train of life, it's a pretty great line. Yeah, right, This is again it's the quality of this like the screenwriting in the first scene, just right, just right out of the gate. The film grabs your attention immediately, immediately. We talked about this on the last episode of the Culture Cast that you were on, But this movie grabs your attention immediately from the first moment you see Irfon Cohn looking disheveled.

Sort of, he kind of looks disheveled throughout the film. Oh, he looks a guy who has not been sleeping for years, right, and you can tell it's it's obvious he's not been sleeping. He plays harried really well, but he's so charming, and I think that's again comparing for me when I'm watching this movie, especially the first viewing, I'm just like, Okay, I know the original so well. Everything was sort of back and forth, and so it did take sort of a repeat viewing for me to really get into it. But yeah, he's he's charming, he's charismatic.

Dana Andrews I love. But he's Kurt. He's a jerk, he's rude to people, he's very closed. He's really hard boiled. I mean, he really is the epitome of this sort of you know, sort of bitter, I mean, embittered, you know, alcoholic, self destructive kind of shit hoole America, masculine figure from Hard Boiled, you know, you know fiction and film, and that's not the way they play the character in this movie.

And I like that difference. Well, when you give it a little bit more nuance, I think they allows it allows the story to kind of operate less fatalistically because you don't necessarily know where the character is going to go. Because you know the character of Rethought or day day Rethought in this film, he's I would say his moral compass is rather close to center for what he does for a living, but you do get those moments where he veers off pretty hard. Ben. As the film progresses, he goes further and further astray, right right to the point where he is not even he is operating outside of what he should be realistically doing.

He's he's breaking the law. Oh yeah, And that ending is very different than well somewhat different than the The American you know, where he has you know, sort of allowed May to escape, you know, the prison, you know, helping her make her escape. You know, he's putting himself on the line, right and he basically says like, yeah, I don't know what's going to happen to me, and I will tell you. You know, Eline Hamman has not been in anything other than this, which is kind of a shame because she's really good. Yeah, she's not asked to do much in a lot of ways.

Her character is more talked about than the one who's talking and that is something that's I think really interesting about this particular adaptation as opposed to the forty four film or the novel. Um maybe this is a good point for me to sort of talk about the novel and the way it's structured. Because it's very it's a little different. Um. So the novel was written by Vericus Caspury, and it begins the first part is narrated by the journalist character who sort of Um.

In the book, it's Waldo Leidecker. He's and in the movie he's played by Clipton Webb. His character m he's harsh and rog Yes, he's a journalist known for his you know, biting wit who writes a lot about murder, m and celebrity and sort of gives the Laura and maya character sort of there stepping you know, a sort of a stepping stone in the career. But what's really interesting about the novel is it's very very Casper is very concerned with who is telling Laura's story. So in that first part, you know, when you know the writers telling it, of course he is the center of Laura's life.

The second part of the book is told by the detective. Um. The third and fourth parts I can't remember which happens first, but um, one of them is by Laura herself, and the other is her on again, off again fiance. And then it concludes with the detective narrating. In the forty four movie, the first half begins with again the journalist character doing a voiceover narration.

And so if it's a film, you typically don't change narrator halfway through the movie, right, And so halfway through this movie through Laura, the detective character you know, is in the apartment. He's drinking, he's staring at the portrait, and he's fully obsessed with this woman who he thinks is dead. And as he falls asleep, the camera moves in very closely on his face and then it pulls out again as if it were a dream sequence, and that's the moment when Laura enters the apartment. And in the premeter film from forty four, from that point on, there is no narration from the journalist character. It's all from the perspective of the detective.

Now, of course, at this point he is you know, the perfect lover for for the Laura character, you know, and it's almost like it's like the romance between the two of them, And the way I read the film is that, you know, it's you know, he is he is almost taking control over Laura's narrative, and I think that's something that happens, you know, in the movie where literally the you know, it's these three men, the you know, the journalist, her fiance, and then the cop. They're all deciding who this character is. Um, she has very little agency adjacent very much. And I like how in the original novel Laura does take over. Then you know, she does have her own section where she can narrate her own life and her own thoughts.

And if you think about it, Um, the the woman who is killed is literally killed by male projection. You know, they don't see who is in front of them in the doorway at night. They see who they want to see. Yeah, very true. And so I think I think the original story has a lot to do with, you know, this idea of like who's controlling these women's lives because it's about young women entering, you know, in the book and movie, it's it's the advertising world trying to figure out how to get ahead.

And the journalist character is like, Oh, I'm the one who introduced her to people. I'm the one who got here this, I'm the one who did this for her. He says, she thought I was the smartest, funniest, wittiest man. I didn't disagree with her. She thought I was also the kindest and gentlest man I tried to become that person for her.

I mean, is he really that person? I don't think so, because he's narrating it. That's his person perspective. Likewise, when the cop is narrating, I, you know, I don't fully believe it because I think it's wish fufilm and it's a romance from his perspective. And so to get back to rog I think you get a little bit of that in this version, but because you start with the detective character Oude, it is much more about him than it is the other people.

But you do get some flashbacks from the journalist where he similarly talks about he's the one who got Maya into modeling. He's the one who introduced her to people. But she has less agency in this story. Again, you know, like I mentioned Elaine Hammon, this is her singular movie she worked on in her career, and she really does not have much to do in this movie. And that's why they change the title.

I'm sure it would not it would not be fair to title the movie Maya because she is not a She's not as big of a part of the film as she is in either version. She's preceded she's a model in real life from South Africa, right right, Yeah, I would. I would totally like to see her in other movies, you know. I again, maybe because she's not maybe it is to her benefit that she's not given much to do. You know.

Again, she's beautiful, and the entire character in this version they talk about how beautiful she is, and I'm assuming in the other two they do as well. But the portrait in Rag it's you know, it's a it's a photograph of her. It's like a shell up to her ear and she's in the ocean. In the in Laura, it's a it's a painted portrait that's adorning you know, the wall. So they both have these you know, images.

But again, I think that is part of the text of the story. It's about it is kind of about the objectification of these female characters and these people who sort of turned them into what they want in their minds. So it sort of has this like Pygmalion esque um aspect because even Uday it was reading her journals while he thinks she's dead. Um so when he, you know, he finds out she's alive, I think he kind of tries to be the person that she wants, you know, a lover to be because he's reading all her deepest thoughts and he hears he's reading how lonely she is. Um, yeah, which is not great.

I mean, you know, it's it's however, you want to perceive what his character is doing, because if you perceive his character has good intentions, then what he's doing is perfectly fine. Which is my interpretation. Well, I think that's to me, that's the noir aspect right where it's not pure good, it's not pure bad, Like it's a shade of gray. Yeah, And I think that makes him interesting. Fants makes a lot of the characters interesting in this movie.

Hum, I agree, because yeah, you have a character of Ali who is also shades of gray, and then Harsh, who I think is less shades of gray and more shades of black. I love how he camps up that performance. Oh my god, it is steals every scene Sue hell Seth just come on right. It's just it's it's so much in the best way. And I think he definitely borrows a little bit from Clifton Webb's performance in Laura.

Um. But yeah, just like that biting wit always somethings are cast to say, always cackling. He's like a spectator, like everything happening in this movie is like a performance to him, and he's the critic of everybody. I mean, he's a writer right well. And that first scene between him and erfon Khan where he's like, you know, I'm not going to tell you anything, He's like, but you know, can I come along with you?

And it's like, what, like this, this guy's already up to no good. Not only are you not you're like not ingratiating yourself to the cops, but you're also just inserting yourself immediately. He's a poppetmaster and that's what he sees himself as, which should be. You know. I think that's the big insight into his character.

I think all the people in this movie, when you meet them, it tells you quite a bit about who they are, right or at least who they believe they are, because that's yeah, I think that's the other thing about this movie that's that's kind of interesting and it's and you kind of get it in that scene with erfon Khan and Eline Hammon standing in front of the picture of her, He's like, you know this isn't actually you. This is who you think you are, who you want to be, or how you want to be perceived. But this is not actually you. And you know that, and like you know, like you've kind of already mentioned, this film really is about reality and perception and where did the two meet and where did the two definitely split apart?

Because it's not always clear, and it's always it's not always clear what where someone's perception of themselves lie versus the reality. And again you see that in this movie because Harsh doesn't think he's done anything wrong. He believes he's owed all of this because of all the things he did for her. Reality not the case, but perception becomes reality very quickly when you're removed from reality entirely. Nobody is good enough for my except for him, right, I alone can fix it.

And he spends a lot of time digging up dirt on all her other lovers just to discred of them. Yep, yeah, he digs up dirt on Ali. Who is is he having sex with his aunt? Yeah? He's that what's going on?

Not on her aunt? Her aunt? Okay? I thought it was his aunt. I was like, whoa okay, Okay, there's definitely with her aunt and she doesn't know, and he brings them, He brings her in to see it happening because he is an unrepentant bastard, as is Ali.

Right, Well, yeah, they both are, you know. But I mean the character of Harsh is played so bombastically because I don't I don't think it would really work if he wasn't like mustache twirling, because he's effectively mustache twirling throughout the entire Yeah, but that's what makes it fun. So since we've mentioned Ali in the forty four film, that character is played by a very very young Vincent Price. That's amazing. Um.

And similarly, you know they go to you know interview, you know, the ont character the aunt and this in the original is not getting like a nude massage and drinking cocktails at ten in the morning the way, um is it pronounced Shaymilie Shamlie Varmah. Yeah. I love her in this movie. She her intro scene is just fabulous. She's great.

She plays that specific kind of role perfectly because she and something I find really interesting is the way that Uday is talking to Shamlee. Um, you know, he's there to question her she's a little indignant about it, and he's like, you're you're not sad that you're you know, niece has been killed. And she's just like, Okay, just because I'm not crying doesn't mean I don't feel it. And he even mentions, he's like, well, I got to talk to you some more. And he's like, you know, so you just you know, seeing Ali and using him for stecks, and he says like something like because you're not, you know, middle class, you know you can do this, so let's just not beat around the bush.

So there is this sort of like morality class difference where she's rich, so she's allowed to have you know, boyfriends, right, you know, whereas and you know, it's it's like almost like I don't want to say okay to talk about it, but it was like you could be a little more above board because she's above right. Well, and there is that interplay again in this movie between the haves and the have nots, right, because yeah, you have the character of Maya whose entire success is held over her head by harsh and then you have the aunt, who you know is is you know, kind of doing the same thing. You know, she's holding Ali over everybody else because again, like you said, she can, and she does and she wants to.

I love the scene toward the end where she's saying to Ali like, yeah, Maya, she can't deal with someone like you young women, they can't handle you at all. Only someone like you know, mature like me can like keep you. And I thought that was like a really interesting sort of like power moment. She also just has like sassy attitude, like scene showing even if she's not saying anything the way she's like looking at the cameras, got so much attitude. No, she's great, And then into the scene accidentally stumbles Ali.

It's like, oh, oh, oh, I didn't realize what's going on. He's kind of the oblivious and he always has the most amazing outfits. Yes, don't god anybody else you notice like these like sleeveless garments. At one point looks like he's actually wearing like a burlap sack. And he looks like he looks like a gigglo half the time.

And that's I mean, that's essentially what he is. He's a board joy. Yeah. They kind of say as much, like you know, he's always hanging around these clubs, hanging around you know, single women. Yeah, yeah, that's like, you know, yeah male giggolo.

But again like not he's not a gigglo, but it's like a he's like a player. He plays around, and that's similar to the Denchlan Price character. He the Vincent Price character. One of the things that the journalist pulls out up is that you know, he's been accused of stealing um when he's you know, stays at rich people's houses and as uh he says about himself the Vinceton Price character like, Oh, you know, I'm I'm not you know, I'm not normal, so you know that's why I'm an obvious suspect. I'm not like everybody else.

And I think I think that's there's an interesting gender and sexuality stuff in the in in Laura the forty four film, and it's just like, what does this mean? You're referring to yourself as not like everyone else? Is it just a class thing? Gould to be something else? Because the journalist character is coated as very queer um and when he first meets the cop character, he says, oh are you the cop with a lead in his leg, which he's referring to bullet holes and his you know, he got shot in his leg.

But it's like, is that really what you're referring to your leg? There's none of that in this movie though I know Harsh is played very straight both ways. Yeah, I think I mean to me, but like I would be curious to know what an Indian viewer. Maybe there's other there's got to the other cultural stuff that's going over my head. You know, one thing that didn't go over my head because the subtitles did keep him on this version of the film.

The music had subtitles, which I always appreciate. The songs are great and we should mention sadly the one of the vocalists just died last week. KK Yeah, Krishna Kumar kunath Yep passed away last week at like well fifty three. Also is Christ Yeah, he was two years younger than Arf. Good lord.

He had a heart attack after a show. It's a shame. All all of the songs in this film are really catchy. They're real earworms, and I think they highlight you know, something that's a little bit absent from the forty four film, which is it's you know, there's a real sincerity to like you know, the loneliness, the desperation, the anguish that they're feeling, especially Ude. Yeah, I think that the songs, the songs that I remember Mane Dil Sikkha and the Khobsarat Kobsarat.

I think they play it twice in the movie. It's like it's like halfway through and them right at the end. But it's really I like the music in this movie a lot. It's not I will say, it's all is very samey sounding. There's not a lot that sets it apart from one another because it all kind of is in the same milieu of songs, which is fine because I again I think with this genre of film, it's a little harder to have like a techno song or something a little something, a little bit more outside of the box.

I don't think would have worked with this kind of serious movie. It's more about the lyrics, right though. It's it's telling the story and the feelings of the characters through song, which I mean it does in most of these movies, I mean most of Indian cinema, the music is used as a way to further the story. But in this one, it's all of the songs really are more just vehicles for internal character emotion. So now you know who we haven't talked about yet.

Who is a character, But I love it doesn't exist in the book with the movie, which is Muna, Uday's partner, who is sort of like a straight man like, he's also at an eccentric. He's like always talking about like his Grandpa's wisdom, which I think father said don't touch the dead person's belongings for a fun con. At one point, it's just like, I am sick and tired of hearing about your gr don't want to hear about your grandfather anymore. And then there's that nice little call back at the end where he's like, you should write a book with all of your grandfather's sayings in it. That's how the movie ends.

Yeah, it's great. I also love that Una in a weird way. He's the most normal person. He's not entirely normal, because there's like some points where he's like following Uday around, like spying on him. But I think he's sort of there to be, like, you know, some of these people are a little eccentric, Like he almost grounds thing like we are cops, right.

I think he is sort of important to the story and I also like how he gives up drinking until Day can make an arrest, and he's like, man, can you just make an arrest so I can have my drink. I even brought my flask around, and Uday's like, you might as well take a drink now. It's like, you might as well take it because I'm not a restiner, so you might as well take a drink now because it's not happening. I like that they give the character of Ude some a fair amount of shades of gray. I mean, I wasn't.

I wasn't really concerned given that it is noir, but like you mentioned, with this kind of idea of transnational no war and approaching it differently in a cultural sense, that may have been a bridge too far, And I'm glad that it wasn't. I'm glad that that's still within the realm of possibility of what we can all kind of agree is a scale of gray, do you know what I mean? Yeah? And I think what's interesting about OO Days they mentioned early on, you know, he gets these pills, and he doesn't seem like that into taking these sleeping pills. And he's talking about how like you know, all your other cops can just like drink and passed out to me, like establishes early on, like he's not that much of a drinker, Like he doesn't have a lot of the stereotypical like self destructive tendencies that you would see and like the American equivalent.

Right. Well, and that's I mean, that's the other thing. You know, he's an insomniac, but he's not abusing pills and alcohol to put himself to sleep, which, like you said, and his American counterpart would do. So I think the one time you see him with a drink is when May comes into the apartment and he like quickly like throws it into the plant, you know, to hide it. It's like, you know, I mean I like seeing that, Like, you know, he does seem like a genuine nice guy.

Yeah no, And that's the thing. You know, what's funny about the movie is I think I feel the same way. And I wasn't expecting that. I was not expecting that I was going to feel that his character was still really grounded in reality and like grounded in a way that he's not a caricature. He feels like a real person with real like with real problems and a real, like a real sense of like moral morally questionable actions being done under the guise of personal justice.

I appreciate that they approach that in an interesting way, in a believable way. The other thing we haven't mentioned is he has like two outside pressures on him. One is that if he doesn't get to sleep, the doctors are going to give him shock therapy, which he doesn't want. And his boss has also given him two weeks to make this arrest or else the or else seeing they're going to take the case away from him and they'll just arrest her. Yeah, And there does seem to be a little bit of implication that, like, you know, this is his responsibility, he has to do this.

If he doesn't do this, he's letting down his boss. And I feel like so much of his identity is wrapped up in him being a police officer. That's like a personal you know, it would be a personal family for him. It's like, what else does he have going for him? He doesn't have that partner, he doesn't have that outside life.

Um. There's a really interesting moment where he's talking to the doctor and he's like, yeah, the last time I slept well was when I went back to my village and put my head in my mother's lap. So he's like away from his family. He doesn't have these friends around him. Um.

And I guess that's the other nice thing about Muna. It's like that's his partner, that's his only friend. Um. Yeah, that's like the only person he really talks to. I mean, people know who he it would seem people know who he is.

Yeah, he's he's a famous cop for doing his job well, right, So that's why he has to do this. If he fucks us up, everybody's going to know that the famous cop didn't you know, bust, you know, didn't solve the case, right, And that's and that's the thing you don't want, as the famous cop is for your your being unable to get the to get your man. I do like the noir kind of trappings of the complexity of the plot, because the plot is a little kind of it unpacks itself rather well, but it does obviously lean on noir tropes. You know, wrongful you know, fem fatals, wrongfully accused women, you know, people hiding things under beds and in closets, and then you know miss you know, I'll kind right all kinds of just like the typical stuff, right, mismistaken identities, Yes, oh my god.

Yeah, the kind of the big the big thing with the wrong woman being murdered. Yeah, that that's kind of that. That's the most nowar ish thing obviously in my mind, and I will it is worth pointing out that, well, there is a lot that's different about this movie. Once we meet the journalists harsh in the second scene, the plot unpacks. To use your word, um, you know, the story very much the way that it did in the forty four film, like the Sea, like the If you look at a scene, it's like, well, what is the purpose of this scene?

What happens in it? It's almost like point per point. Towards the end, there's a little bit of they kind of go off in a different direction. Um, Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney don't get down the way that uh UDEI and Maya do. Boy, don't they.

I mean, you couldn't do that in nineteen forty four. No, of course you could do that in two thousand and five, though they have some very well lit, well shot uh fun would seem yeah, nothing nothing to get you turned on, Like going into the police station so you could just escape together. Now, this this movie was a lot of fun. You know, I've only seen one other Indian noir film, and that one was Parnda, and I think that one leaned more on say more on the because as much as this film is noir, I think it's definitely not like Stylistically, it's not noir, not at all. Perinda is more stylistically noir, Like it has more of the noir kind of trappings Stylistically, I think the plot of this movie is pretty noir.

The plot of Parrenda is pretty noir. But I think Parrenda overall is a more noir film. I think this movie has a This movie's main performance is what you're here for. You're here for Urfon Cohn as Oude. Everything else is kind of secondary, even frankly and I, you know, just to go back to just how good he is.

I love the centerpiece scene of the film when you know Meyer review you know, enters the apartment, reveals that she's alive. But right before that, he's like staring at her portrait. He's lit all these candles, He's like holding the you know, the shell up to his ear. You know, he's trying to you know, min ocur, He's like trying to make this connection. Yeaheah, it's very ritualistic.

Yeah, that's scene. It is almost like he summons her back to life, which is interesting because again, like the entire conceit of the movie I love because like it would not work in this day and age like that, that wouldn't work anymore someone getting shotgunned in the face and it's like, well, that just must have been the person who lived here. Yep, I guess. So I love that. I love I love that kind of that, that noir because that's a noir thing, Like I just love that mistaken identity thing.

Yeah, I've been I mentioned on my other show, I've been reading a lot this year, and I looked on my story graphs. It's like an app that you can keep track of your books, and it was like mystery novels bang like a huge line and it's just like I understand now as if I didn't before, culin, I understand now why you love noir so much, like after reading books this year, like I understand why you like what you like and you know who This character reminds me of a little bit. He's kind of like Hope Mosley. Oh, he's kind of like a little you know, a bit of a shaggy dog. Yeah, yeah, you know, yeah, kind of disheveled, moral compass pointing generally straight, but you know, a little room for kind of I would say he maybe, at least for the Hope Moseley books.

I've read this, This cop Uday operates a little looser than Hope does. But I mean, Ude is still a good cop. He's still like a world renowned cop because you know, at least not world, but at least India or I would say India renowned cop seems pretty well known from from the sound of it. Yeah, I mean Harsh is harsh is writing about him? Yeah, so who he is?

Harsh knows who he is, then he's got to be important, right Yeah? Man, what what a what a fun little movie. Huh. I'm so, I mean, I'm so glad you liked it. I'm glad of it.

It's a good movie. Yeah, it's a fresh adaptation. I think for people that are from familiar with the book in the original film, they'll know the story going into this, but I think it'll be it's it's a nice contrast. I guess then the other The other thing about this movie that I I again I really appreciate is when the I think, when the film comes to a close, I don't I don't feel like the ending is as saccharin and maudlin as I felt like it was going to go. Do you know what I mean?

Well, you get that amazing action sequence which I was not expecting, and it's like I think, intentionally like a little cartoony, because we also haven't mention there's a sense of humor to this movie, like when when when Maya comes in and finds like erf on like in front of her portrait in the house, He's like quickly like blowing out all the candles, like, oh, gotta act cool, gotta make it not look like I always have an a ritual, right, And well that's some think Like like you said, there is a there is a level of comedy to this movie. This movie is not some sort of like real drag Tonally. That's why I said, like tonally, it's not really a noir movie, Like it's a lot more upbeat, a lot more like kind of it's not self serious.

No, I think, especially the character the minor characters give it a sort of levity. It's you know, it moves along really quickly. It's also a shorter film than most of the other Indian films that we've looked at on your podcasts. It's two hours. Yeah, that's the other thing I wanted to mention.

That's that was wild to me. I wonder if they were considering trying to do an international release. I mean, now that would be my expectation with the length. I mean, you know, the other the other thing about it is like Urfon Cohn in two thousand and five is not really well known in the States at all. Frankly, so I don't know.

I just I have to wonder because it is so drastically shorter in length, not that I think it really needs it. Maybe the length of the movie was dictated by the fact that it's an adaptation of pre existing source material, and that pre existing source material only has so much content. Anyways, I mean, we haven't seen a lot of Indian adaptations of things. That is the one thing we have not really seen. A lot of the stuff that we've watched has been original ideas in Indian cinema, not you know, an adaptation of an American film.

So I say. One of the one of the writers of Rogu, Mahesh Bat and again please forgive me for that pronunciation, has done a lot of other noir ish sort of crime movies, including like the Murder Trilogy, and those all look to be about the same length, like you know, two hours four minutes, two hours seven minutes, and like one of them is an adaptation of that South Korean film The Chaser, which is so awesome. So I'm excited to see the Indian remake. Yeah, I was about to say, um Mahesh Bot is also the one who did the Silence of the Lambs movie. Oh I didn't know it.

Yeah, yeah, song Harsh he was the writer. He didn't direct it, but yeah, Song Harsh is a is based on Silence of the Lambs. It came out in nineteen ninety nine. And that sounds that sounds awesome, right. I love Silence of the Lambs.

That's one of my favorite movies. Frankly, I remember loving it. I as you know, I love Jonathan Denny. It's been a long time since I've seen Silence the Lambs. Murder.

I've heard of Murder as well, because there's like three of them. Yeah, that I know. Yeah, uh, they seem to be in a lot of cool movies. My list of suggestions for this podcast grows every time we talk about an Indian film for real, and it's always funny to see things that Indians like, to see the connections to Indian cinema when we're watching and talking about other things. Because we watched on the Culture cast d War, You and I and Richard film, which is a remake of or No Excuse Me, A Better Tomorrow is a remake of Dwar, which we talked about the month before, which it was a weird connection because was not expecting a John Wi movie to be inspired by a Indian cinema film, But there you go.

Yeah, No, Indian cinema has been like one of those things where the more I've been doing that's the more I'm just watching more Indian cinema and less anything else. You know, I'm watching it when I want to just watch something. I'm not just watching it for the show anymore. I mean, as you mentioned at the beginning, it's wild how inaccessible these movies have been over here. It's great that some of them are starting to be available now, but what I run into all the time is Hey, this Indian movie sounds great.

Yeah, it's nowhere to be seen, at least not with at least not with quality subtitles. I mean, and without quality stubtitles. Like that's fair. I come across stuff all the time. I'm like, well, there's no one in hell for me to see this.

And you know, there's so many countries around the world there's stuff that's inaccessible. It's not just there there's a cinema. There's mean plenty of even American cinema that's not accessible. But I do think this podcast is a great idea to show, you know, if you look beyond the algorithm, how much amazing stuff is out there that can be and should be seen well. And you know, it's like anything else, there's a you know, if they advertise two percent of the content that's on these platforms, you know this, you know, this is on Amazon Prime Video for two dollars.

But there are plenty of Indian cinema films that are on Netflix. Netflix is full of Indian cinema. And I'm talking new stuff, old stuff, Netflix exclusives, even we might be talking about on the next episode. You know, there's all kinds of stuff and they're not advertising that to us, us being Westerners, there's no way it's showing up. And I would be curious if we watch a bunch of Indian cinema films on Netflix, if all of a sudden, Netflix will be like things you should also be watching Indian cinema because guess what, that's not helpful to anybody that you expect me to watch it before you will suggest it to me.

How does that help me build my repertoire of things that I've seen If you're only going to offer me the same thing I've been watching, That's what the algorithm is based on. It's about what you've already seen. You like donuts, and here's some more donuts. You like cemosas, here's some more cemosas. We're not going to fill them with anything different, which is gonna be potatoes and peas baby all the way down.

It sucks. I mean it sucks because there is so much on Netflix. This is on Amazon Prime, but you gotta pay for it. There are so many Indian cinema films on YouTube, on Netflix. Jesus eros now five dollars a month and you can get access to Indian cinema films.

On Netflix. They do have English dubbing, and sometimes it's really bad. So surprisingly, surprisingly it's not great because like any other language, there are words in Hindi that do not have English translations, so a lot of it feels stilted and it doesn't feel like people actually talking. It feels like them trying to make the best of a bad situation, which is kind of what dubbing is in a lot of ways, like you're trying to make it so that an audience in a different culture can understand it. And there's a lot that goes into that.

It's not just here's what the movie says. Yeah, you can't plug a script into Google Translate and get a workable translation. No, I've tried. Yeah, right, it just doesn't work. But it is, you know, like you mentioned, this is easier to find.

But yeah, in the States, you know, back home in Dallas where I grew up, at the big one of the big movie theaters near where my folks live, they play Indian cinema, new Indian cinema films just all the time, like new releases, and it's a cinema mark. There's like a big movie chain. That's how popular Indian cinema is in Dallas, where I'm from, and I thought that was so cool because when I was home, I went and saw Doctor Strange and I saw like a giant, you know, cardboard cutout for a movie with Amy Top in it. So I'm like plane movie that has Ami Top in it, and I was like, God, damn, that's cool. Right yeah, right, yeah, really for real, I probably should have probably would.

I mean again, Doctor Strange wasn't bad, but I would. I would much rather see a movie that was probably going to be just Again. Indian cinema is just like a pure expression of cinema. That's always what it feels like. Everybody's just having fun.

Irfan Kahn is having a good time. You can tell he's enjoying himself shooting this film. He's great man. It's it's just such a shame he was taken so soon. I'm looking forward to, you know, digging through more of his movies.

Yeah, I'm trying to think in the roles that he was in in American films. In that Jurassic Park movie, he's given like nothing to do. Yeah, don't go seek out Jurassic World if you want to see her a fun con no because you'll be really disappointed because it's a really lame role and he just like dies out of nowhere. It's like, whatever, okay, trying to think. I'm trying to think if there's and that in the Life of Pie.

But I don't really like that movie, so I didn't see it or read it, So no comment. It's it is what it is. Let's just put it that way. I don't I don't know how to explain it. It's I don't know why they make kids in high school read it.

Let's just put it that way. It's it's definitely an interesting book, but it is why fiction, So you know, kind of take that with a grain of salt. And he was also in the U in an adapt God It's always comes back to Dan Brown. This year he was in an adaptation of that the third, the third Dan Brown book, Inferno, fourth Dan Brown Book. I really enjoyed this movie, call and this was a good pick.

I'm glad you liked it. Thank you for letting me pick it. Yeah, yeah, no, it was. Um, it was not what I was expecting, but I didn't have any expectations to begin with, so I assumed she was coming back at some point. That was my only assumption was like, they're not going to have her featured so much and then not have her show up somehow.

Yeah, right, I mean they talk about her so much. It's like, there's no way she's not coming back. Yeah, it's not to beat over the head with it, but it's like, yeah, it's there's no way, But it was. It was. It's fun.

It's uh yeah, I think tonally, I understand where it's head at and where it's coming from and what it wants to be. I think it was a lot more fun than I was expecting another Indian noir film to be, given that the last one that I watched kind of gets bogged down and a little it goes a little dark at the end of the other noir movie, which makes sense because it's an a war movie. I mean, this is seems that it feels like it's more like an erotic like a nineties erotic thriller, right yeah, with some comic relief thrown in there, which is kind of an odd combination of those two. But yeah, well that's the thing. It's like, like I've been saying, like noir stylistically it is not, but plot wise it is.

And yeah, it's it's it's kind of like a Brian de Palma movie. It's funny you say that, because when I was watching with Lauren, I said to her, I'm like, this is like if Brian de Palma remade Laura, so pretty much you and I think alike, Yeah, it's got that same Brian de Palma feel to it. And yeah, I would love to see a blu ray HD scan of this movie, because Amazon, that is a bad copy of the movie that you are renting to people for two dollars. I know, Cullen and I may be the only people this or whoever rented it, but that is not an excuse, and that is not okay. It's like it's rough.

I mean, I wonder where they sourced it. Frum um me too. That's my point, where did they get it from? Because it's not good. I mean, I've seen some people have just uploaded VHS prints and the charged form, so I don't think that because those subtitles, I mean, they definitely need a proof reader.

There's there's a few key moments where like He's used instead of she like something like that. Um, there's or you know, there needs to be like you know, like a comma in quotes because someone's quoting somebody else, and right from having seen Laura, I'm like, okay, I know what's actually going on here. But like Lauren was like, wait that that dialogue doesn't make any sense, and I'm like, you know, just put in the comma, put a couple of quotes. Now it makes sense. Let me pause it and I'll get my I put a period, theres might dry race, marker out and draw on the screen for you real quick.

This is what they're trying to say. And there's also some misspellings, right, But yeah, I did pick up on the the subtitles and the failings of the subtitles. I picked up on that because yeah, it does. It does kind of get in the way of one's ability to understand the movie, especially if I've ever seen the original. I would say that it's not enough to I wouldn't dissuade I wouldn't let that dissuade anyone from renting this for two bucks.

Like, no, God, if you're listening and you're like on the fence, forget it. Everything we're saying about the subtitles, it'll be worth the two dollars. And realistically, if you use Amazon, and you've ever purchased anything on Amazon, and you've never rented anything on Amazon, you probably have a dollar promotional credit waiting for you anyways for digital renting, because I know I did, and I never rent anything on Amazon, So it's like a dollar. If you order something and don't select two day delivery, they give you a dollar fifty credits so you can use to rent stuff like rog And there's a lot of free stuff on Amazon Prime. We just happened to pick something that wasn't free, but there are there are so many free things ddlj KKKG, you know, some of the big ones, and then there's plenty of things that are just on there.

So yeah, Amazon Primes great eros now Netflix YouTube, but this one, Yeah, Amazon Prime, Unfortunately, that's where you're gonna have to go, and you're gonna have to spend a whopping two dollars. So go order some cat litter and have it shipped you next week and you'll have fifty cents to pick. I don't know. I mean, hey, everybody's always buying stuff from Amazon all the time. Yeah, right, we all do.

We're all guilty of it. This podcast brought to you by Wondry. No, it's not. It's not at all brought to you by Wondry. So calling anything else you want to talk about rog No, I think covered most of everything I wanted to say, you know, terrific, Adam, seek it out, seek out the original, seek out the book Pierre Casper, He's a great writer.

I know. I'm going to try and seek out the book because I liked this story and I would like to see kind of what this story is. And it's a it's in its base form. Yeah, this was It's back in print from Cuney's Feminist Press. I think they also put out another novel of hers, Bedelia.

A lot of her other stuff I think is the last I check was out of print. Um she had. I mean, I think she ran into trouble with HUAC in the fifties because in the late thirties and early forties she had been involved with the Communist Party. Um. I think she tried to separate from from that when she when her leanings changed, but she still had those connections and in the fifties she and her husband fled to Europe to avoid being called as witnesses because they didn't want to get involved with that Quex stuff.

But I think even when she came back in the late fifties and she was involved, they adapted the movie Lea Girls as an adaptation of one of her works, Apparently she still had to sign a like are you sure you're not a communist? Yes, I'm sure, I am one sure I am not a communist. But yeah, the fucking Huex kind of derailed her career. It's a shame. It's an awful, awful shame.

But hey, films like rog still exist, thankfully, I agree. So on that note, expect the next episode of this show in two weeks from today. Colin will not be joining me. My good friend Andy nosis will be. We'll be talking about twenty twenties Bulbul, a Netflix original Indian cinema supernatural gothic film.

It's a yeah, and you know what, Colin, it's a breezy and gentlemen ninety minutes. That was my response. I was shocked. So, if you're one of your issues has been not wanting to check out Indian cinema because the films are too long and there's too much music, ladies, gentlemen, Bubble has no music and is only an hour and a half. I'm not advocating that you start with that movie, but if those are things that you have been worrying about, maybe you should.

You should have no problem with music in your movies, and you should have no problem with long film that justifies its length, unlike American cinema. But Bubble is only an hour and a half? Colum, Can you believe that? Because I believe? I believe because you said it.

That's fair an hour and a half Indian cinema film. Why it wasn't I given those as culture cast instead of all these three and a half hour movies? What was I doing? Taking great movies? That's fair?

Yeah, well that's a thing like those those movies they justify their length so much. I wish like three I think three times in like two days. I've seen DLJ like four or five times. I watched it like two or three times when I did that episode on it two years ago, and that movie is like three hours and some change. So I get it.

I get it. I totally totally get it. So so Culin. On that note, when you are not here joining me talking Indian cinema, where could people find you on the internet? Um?

Not checking my email, which is a problem. I need to or at least I check it. I need to get better responding Nick, I mean Culin Gallagher dot com has usually the latest thing I've been working on, which as of now it's a I wrote an introduction to two of W. R. Burnette's novels that were republished by Starcouse Press, High Sierra and An Asphalt Jungle, which Tom no our classics say.

I've heard of Asphalt Jungle before. Great movie, never seen a great book, never seen it, never read it, but I know it exists and I've heard of it. It's name Isabelle. I wonder if there's a you know, Bollywood remake. They're very well might be there.

Honestly, you know what they're probably is. I'm gonna as soon as we get off, I'm gonna good check. As for me, cstashu dot com, cstacchiw dot com. That is my link tree go there for all the things that I work on. I have done other Indian cinema film podcasts on the Culture Cast during the month of April, I believe at least for this past year and the year before that.

So if you want to hear those episodes we did show le Brenda, dwar D d l J covered some pretty big ones. We've covered some lesser, lesser known ones. But that's where you can go for all of that. As for this show, Bollywood Cinemaclub dot com, Bollywood Cinema Club on all social medias where you can go for all of the ways to connect with us. But the best way to connect with us and the best way to contribute is on iTunes, rate and review the show.

That would be the best way to engage. Let us know how we're doing. Tell your friends if you like Indian cinema, send some suggestions is our way? Why not? I would like to know what you like Indian cinema.

Wise out there you listener in Indian Cinema Land. As for Cullen and I Culin, thank you for joining me. It's been a lot of fun. First episode in the bag heck yeah, this is this a first for you, a first time you've been on the first episode or something. It is.

It's like an invocation. You're like, uh, you're like the priest going into the Amityville house to bless it. As you know, there's just no flies and hopefully you're not running out because it says get out. But that's what it is. You're you're here and this is the first episode.

So wait, something's coming through the mic the headphones. I'm hearing it. Oh, it's telling me to murder my family. Yeah no, no, you think there's Amityville. You think there's an Amityville.

Uh, this is this is our research we can do. Yeah, this is probably uh so yeah and uh on that note, um, what's the thing Andy came up with? So yeah, on that note, that's been another episode of the Bollywood Cinema Club and with rog. If you haven't seen it, you should