Thugs of Hindostan

We're in. Hello everyone, and welcome to the Bali would Sind Him a Club? I am the host of the Culture Cast, Chris Stashue. On every episode of the Bali Would Sin Him a Club, we take a look at an Indian cinema film, be it Hindu language, be it Telugu, be it Tammel. We're covering everything and most of the time I think ni times out of ten their movie is totally worth checking out, even though most of the time we've never seen them before.

On this episode of Bollywood Cinema Club, I'm joined once again by my good friend. She is a writer. She is a woman about town. You can find her over at Mondo Heather and over at dia Blik your friend and mine Heather Drain. Hello, Hello, good even and everybody.

I guess should I also say Amir Khan's number one fan in Arkansas, the head of the Amir Khan Arkansas Fan Clothes. He's dreaming, he is dreamy, and boy he's putting on the dream hardcore. On this episode of the Bollywood Cinema Club, we're talking about twenty eighteens action period piece question Mark Subs of Hindustan. Yes, so the film is directed and written by VJ. Krishna Acharya and its stars the aforementioned Amir Khan, also big b himself, Ami Tabean, familiar face from the last time we talked, Fatima Sana Shike she is from Dungal, and then a couple other people in here.

Lloyd Owen, who I have had the pleasure of actually talking to a long time ago for a completely different movie. Yeah, he's gone on to be and we'll talk about him obviously. He's gone on to be on some pretty big stuff now as well. And Katrina Kaife is in there for like a minute. So yeah, but the film is all about well, I guess let's walk this back.

So Fatima Shaik plays Zafira, a girl who is orphaned at the beginning of the movie and is taken under the wing by Amitab Bakchan's Azad who protects her and they end up being freedom fighters. And while they are freedom fighters, the British want to capture them, and so in finding a way to capture them, they hire the best named character, Ferenghi, played by Amir Khan. I was expecting him to look more like nog maybe maybe to you know, quark adjacent Cork is the bag. Frangige Ye for me, Nag is a lower tier one. Nags totally lower tier Frangie Naug is like always say Fringie, that's very But Amir Khan plays FARRANGI a a thug slash liar, slash roust about slash Jack Sparrow type.

I might even I would go as far as to say, and yeah, he is tasked with taking down the thugs on behalf of the Brits And wouldn't you know it, double crosses, triple crosses, all kinds of crosses in this uh sort of pirate high seas adventure movie period piece. So if you can't tell, there's kind of a lot going on here, Heather, I'm gonna kick it to you first. What did you think of your time with Thugs of hindostan Um. You know, when you and I the trailer and the trailer's beautiful, I was immediately pumped. It's a great trailer and it definitely gives you like a great taste of what you're in for.

And so watching the actual movie, I was not disappointed. I feel like everything that's promised you in the trailer like you would certainly get in the movie. I had a lot of fun with it. I was really surprised to see this movie is not beloved. It was.

There's some bad reviews of it, and some of it A get it. We'll go into it. But I almost with a lot of these people, I'm like, maybe you need to watch some of the movies Chris and I have had to watch for past episodes because I've seen worse. I've seen wait, wait, in fact, I saw something way worse before. I had to watch this one for a related podcast.

But we won't go into that here. Christ you know what I'm talking about. I do, but no, I mean to me, it's you know, if you go into it especially kind of expecting like almost like an old Hollywood style action adventure film, but with a kind of a modern flair even though it's historical. Um. I think he can have a lot of fun with it and the cast.

I mean, I definitely want to see more of um, and I'm gonna try. I'm gonna just apologize advanced rady butchering. I do of people's names, Amita, Amy tb he Um playing the great uh uh, I just call him, we can just call him Azad. We'll call Hizade that easier Neil. I mean, who would not kneel before Azad?

Right, He's more of an idea less of a person, really, Yeah, but he his look in his presence in this movie. There are people that have written heavy metal albums about a guy like this man like he is so metal he is just like he is like this silver haired, like like elder like warrior, like he is like a character you level up to in a video game. So as you can obviously kind of tell, you know, just getting right into it, Ami tab Bakchan is there are no actors in American cinema on his level because he is on his own level. That is how venerated and big of an actor he is. So the fact that it's him and Amir Khan in this movie is like, that's a massive selling point.

On the face of it, You're going to see it because they've never been on screen together. So the fact that you're mentioning like Ami tab out of the gate, I think is important because you can't stress enough how much this is really Amir Khan and Amy Tab's movie almost entirely. I mean, you know, Fatima Shake is there, but I kind of feel like the characters that I wanted more from in the movie ended up being her and Amir Khan's Amir Khan's friend who kind of ya, he kind of saved Yeah, they s sony char They save him from jail at the beginning of the movie, or I guess Amir Khan kind of boosts him out of jail so he can come along with him. But the you know, it's funny. We would, like you mentioned, we watched the trailer together and I was just as excited as you were.

And I did enjoy the movie, but when I watched the trailer after watching the movie, I couldn't help but feel like it did kind of show some of the best parts of the movie. And the trailer, yeah, which I think is very much a problem with trailers. I would agree with that criticism as much as we prop enjoyed it. Yeah, I mean, and that I used to think that was more of a modern thing, but I over Thanksgiving break I watched a ton of like obscure seventies like drive in type trailers, you know, and it's like, there are half of those trailers. It's like, yeah, here's the end.

Cat fun with it, you know. So it's definitely not a new problem. But but yeah, I do think people like trailers should be more of a tease, just about to sell the sizzle, not the stake. Agreed, But I also think, like I think my issue with the movie is because the trailer give away so much. What we get in the movie is good, but it's not.

Maybe it's because I've seen some of these other Indian cinema action movies like Doom, like Triple R which is a period piece, like I guess Bruckmostra is kind of in the vein of this, but it's not a period piece. I think the issue that I kind of had with this movie is it gets wrapped up in showing us cool stuff for a little too long, kind of lingers a little long, does it. It's almost Zack snydery in the amount of slow motion and kind of like film distortion techniques that it uses, like slowing the pace of the movie down with the camera, like slowing the frame rate of the movie down, like they do it a lot in this movie. And then there are some shots in this movie that kind of exist to just be cool and look cool.

And this is a movie that's almost three hours long, and that might not sound like a big criticism, but it adds up. I mean it really does. Over a three hour movie. You do SlowMo a bunch of times, it does add up in the end. It's it's inavoidable.

Yeah, no, I can I can see that. I will say that the advantage this one has over say, like a lot of Zack Snyder's work. And I will say this though actually an honesty, I've only there's only one Snack Snyder film I've seen all the way through more than once, and it's only one of his I really love, which is The Watchman. I've never been like pulled to watch all of his filmography. Well, and I want to say, like, the quality of this movie blows Zack Snyder's stuff out of the waters.

I mean, just the actors alone in this movie are better than essentially any actor for the most part, that has been in a Zack Snyder movie. Like, yeah, you know well, And I think that's part of the reason why The Watchman is the one of his, you know, because I mean, you've got Alan Morris material, but yeah, you've got like Jackie Earle Haley and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, right, and those two are like gravitas actors and that's the and that is definitely to me, the biggest, biggest selling point of bucks of Hindostan is Amir Khan and um Amy Tab Amy Tub. You can just call him big. You can even call him Big b if you want, Big Bay. Yeah, that's what that's his nickname.

I mean, Amy Top. Amy Top has been acting since the seventies, late sixties, early seventies. Like, he's been around so long that one of his more famous movies, Dawn, got remade with SRK in the early two thousands, who is also in his own right a massive star. So it's yeah, I mean, I mean again, like, what's what's kind of crazy is this is? This is what the third Amir Khan movie we've watched, Yeah, the third Indian cinema movie that we've watched.

Tonally, the three movies that we've watched together Indian cinema wise have been drastically different. First one Rungila, a dancing kind of rom com, don Gal a very serious movie in a lot of ways, fun but serious movie. And then this is a complete one eighty from both of those. Oh yeah, no, this is totally uh, I mean, this is like something where I was like this is probably like a big budget obviously. I mean it's like one of the biggest budget movies made.

It was, it was at it was when it came out, the most expensive and now I think it's just one of because they keep and when the crazy thing is it's it's like the budget for this movie in US dollars is thirty eight million dollars. How much is the average? I don't keep it, like like the Conda Forever was like two hundred and fifty three hundred. This is why other countries hate us. This is why other countries eight America.

That's articulous. Well what's crazy is? I mean if if you if you really sit and think about it for a second, the effects in this movie are not better or worse than American cinema at all, like at all. I mean, the technology is there for everybody at this point. It's how much processing power you put in behind it to refine the look of it.

But like the quality of the look at this point, if you're spending a couple million or tens of millions of dollars something looking nice anymore is not really like in my mind, it's not something that we should be praising. The filmmakers for it should be something that they should be like landing on immediately. I shouldn't have to praise you for your movie looking good in twenty twenty two, right, I will say I think this film, like the two things I liked about it over like, say, what an American counterpart would be is I feel like there was more of a color scheme. I feel like a lot of like a lot of American movies like that are real, that are more current. Most of them tend to not realize that there's a huge palette to work from.

It's just gray and brown and blue. That blue light in the sky is very popular. Oh and so so that was refreshing. And I will say that with c G, I, other than some of it, with some of the boats scenes looked a little bit like a Sierra Adventures game. Yeah, they were very video gamey, very but for the most part, they were very good about integrating small parts of it with stuff that was clearly real, like real set pieces and like some of the boat stuff was real and um and I find that's the best way to do CGI because to me, if you have too much CGI, it to me it's just it takes me kind of out of a film, because it's just like, wow, I would rather play a PS three game and that way I can interact with it, you know what I mean?

Like why would I watch Avatar like I can? Avatar is something I would rather play than watch, like if I want to even play something that mediocre and and generic to begin with. But I'm with you. I mean it's but again like that's also au and me thing because not everybody plays video games now, I know, But also like why watch Adavar or sign? Why watch that?

To be fair, though, I have an Avatar over Fern goalie because it's basically Fern goalie, Fern goalie short, and you have Tim Curry singing oh yeah, bam yeah. Well why support James Cameron anyway? He's got enough money, he's fine, he's fine. But support Amir Khan and Big Beat. I don't want to call him big Beat.

That sounds like some like southern uncle, like from a Tennessee Williams. But I want to see more stuff with him, and I read online planning. There's so much. There's so much, Heather, I doubt Francis Trufaux could be counted as one of his admirers. So for any of you, anybody that's a big fan of Truffaux, legendary French art house director, that's high Price.

So I thought that was very cool. And his dad was a massive poet. His son is a really fantastic actor. Abbi Shehek is a fantastic actor in his own right. Like Ammi tob Bakchon not only comes from good stock but also puts it back out into the world.

So yeah, and he was also a politician too, which is in India, a lot of the actors are so well known and so kind of influential that they end up just kind of going into politics. And I don't Again, I'm not living in India right now, so I can't speak to how people received Ami tab as a politician, but I know how we would receive him here if he tried to do that. And I'm not saying an Indian actor but an American actor, because actors aren't allowed to have opinions on things. So yeah, but reybody, anybody in the creative world's not allowed to have an opinion on anything. But if you're if you're on a really bad reality TV, yeah, well there you go.

I'm really I'm really glad that you were as taken by Amy tab as you are, because he is. He is, for me, one of my favorite Indian actors. I mean, he's just his I don't know, he just has such a great look. Even in this movie when they've kind of I say, uglied him up, but uglied him up in like a bad ass way. It's like what they did to Jeffrey Rush in Pirates of the Caribbean.

You've been like uglied up, but you can still kick ass, Like, yeah, you've made you're made to look like you've been out on the ocean the entire time. Oh my god. He and maybe that's why because I and you know, and you've already mentioned some really good points. Yeah. I mean, this film it isn't a perfect film.

I mean, I don't think it deserves like some of the really harsh attacks because it's a fun movie. I mean, that's at the end of the day. This isn't supposed to be. This isn't an art house film. This is a big budget action historical film.

But um with with with history as a as a backing. But it's not like a drama. It's not like an Oscar bait type of piece. But that's fine, and that's fun. Sometimes you just need that.

And um him, Oh my gosh, so his character like you the minute you see him, before he even says anything, You're like, I love that guy. I am compelled by him, and I think the charisma between him and mir Khan. I do a hundred percent agree with you. I whish they would have done more of a Sepia, especially so much so she's just and what's sad is I don't know if I would have that same conclusion if I hadn't seen Dungal. I assume we probably both would have said all the female characters underserved.

But it's worse because we've seen Dungal, Like, It's okay, we know how kick yash she is. We saw her wrestle some very tough, tough ladies in Dungal. Yeah, and I like Fatima. She's got a great presence and a great look to her. And she's great here.

I mean she, I will say this, Seeing her in the action scenes felt very believable, like even if we hadn't seen donal m And as always about my problem with some Hollywood products is a lot of sometimes a lot of the women they cast I'm like, you want me to buy this woman fighting, right, you know, like because it'll be like somebody who doesn't like for every Angela Bassett, you'll get like, you know, this is a terrible, terribly comparts it, but like I don't buy Scarlett Johansen kicking somebody's ass in real life. I just don't. I don't. I don't either, not one singular bit do I no no um, But like Fatima she or like if we're gonna go with the Pirates of the Caribbean and this film, I think for a lot of Westerners, like even the trailer, you'll immediately kind of think of that movie I mean Americans.

I mean I kind of mentioned it in the intro. But yeah, he's playing he's playing Jack Sparrow, but in a lot of ways, like he's playing a version of Jack Sparrow that they refused to do in the movies, which was Jack Sparrow really not being taken in by other people. Because that's the thing, right, Like Jack Sparrow's kind of taken by Kiera Knightley and Orlando Bloom and he keeps being drawn into their adventures. This movie, it really feels like American's character has some autonomy of his own the way the movie kind of progresses, and by the end of it, I think you kind of get that even more. But I think I actually appreciate that American is kind of drawing on that as a reference point, but he doesn't do the whole I'm constantly drunk thing Keith richards On a nine day bender, right kind thing?

Yeah, no, no, I it plus some mer CON's character, like has done some truly devious things and which I like because I feel like I've only I've been only seen the first Pirates of the Caribbean film, But like you, yeah, you love Jack Spiro, but he just doesn't seem like that bad of a dude for me, like a kind of a bastard. Yeah, he's done some shitty things, but I mean, your Cohn is so charming, but then he has redemptive arcs and um, and it's a mere Cohn wearing like looking like a bohemian dandy vampire, which I am under down, manic pixie dream dandy, almost as hot as his dad bought and done, all though I'm living for a dad. Thought of your con he doesn't drop his shirt in this movie. Once I was I was waiting for it.

That's a negative listening, your honor. We wanted to see him shirtless. Well, I'm sorry the guys get to see and um so Katrina kipe the wind. The wind cries out Siah, and she, holy crap, is so gorgeous, Like why do you? Why do you?

Why do people? Why is Gwyneth Paltrow popular here? When this woman exists? I wonder? And she's only like she's like only a couple of years older than me too, which is crazy, like he's, oh my god, I'm like, I don't know.

She's so gorgeous. It's just a shame that she's kind of just not in the movie enough, like she could have. She could have been a bigger part all the female characters could have. But you really feel it with Saria and Sophia. I mean, Saphia and Soria are such different characters, but it's almost like Soria as a character in this movie is an afterthought.

Oh, completely no, because she drops out for a huge chunk of hours, like literally two hours, and then it's like all of a sudden, like, oh yeah, there's she. There's that. There's that pretty lady again with her dancing crazy What's crazy. Katrina Kaife is a fantastic actress in her own right. I mean, she's been in Doom three I'm Behat, which I think is a pretty well known, pretty big box office hit, and then she was in a film called Zero, which I think was also rather well regarded.

It's just kind of weird, Like again, the female characters in this movie kind of feel underserved and in twenty eighteen, Like in twenty eighteen, we're not seeing female characters being this underserved, even in Western stuff. Yeah, yeah, no, that is I think that is probably one of the film's weakest, especially because Safia is such a huge to the main character of the movie. Especially well her in her story and her poll and her arc is centrally tied to you know what the seed of this film is, right, I mean, the cold open is her family getting murdered by the amazing Lloyd Owen, who I just I love that the British actors that they cast are such nice duds in like everything else that they're in.

Oh my god, he's a rat bastard and the he's but he's great, he's great, and and that sounds like him doing the dialogue. It sounds like a Western or speaking HINDI it does like um in same with the which I really liked this actor and character to m Gavin Marshall as Captain James Pale. Yeah, and he and and and we get and we get a nice little twist with his character towards Dan, which I really which I liked it was. I mean, even if it's not maybe realistic. Yeah, not only is it not realistic, it's like it kind of comes out of nowhere, well kind of.

But if you notice, there are points in the movie where he'll he'll try and have a little more kindness than Clive does, and Clive, of course will just say something like no, we're not taking any prisoners and no prisoners, no prisoners, and and like and Phillips is looking at him like, God, what the fuck is wrong with you too? Like what is what is your problem? Why are you so awful? So so there's like little hints. I mean, that's the thing.

I think that performance he's really good. He's not given really that much to do with that in the script, but his emotion, like his face is really good at kind of giving you that foreshadowing. But I you know, I you know, Lloyd Owen was just in The Lord of the Rings TV show that Amazon did, and he plays um oh god um el No. He plays the father of oh no, of his character. Now he plays the He plays Alendel, who is the father of a sealed Or.

They're the ones who kill sar on the first time and they're the ones. Sealed Or is the one who ends up taking the ring and not destroying the ring. But he plays his father in the show and he's really good, and it was like, oh, Lloyd Owen's kind of like coming back. But then when I watched this, I just love that he played He plays a bastard so perfectly. Oh such and it's it's and you know, uh in Triple Are they kind of have the same character and it's played by Ray Stevenson instead, which if that sounds exciting to you, you should only check it out.

But it's just funny that I feel like these British actors are just like reveling in the opportunity to play these like British aggressors in them and like again, they're they're not it's not that they're written really specifically, it's more they're just kind of written like one note. But in the context of these movies, it works. Yeah, No, And there's a great there's such a great cinematic shot of Clive at one point where he's almost in this like dark room and the key light hits his eyes. Yeah, just to like highlight how villainous he is. But it's it's done so beautifully, like it's such a gorgeous, gorgeous shot, and um, and he just and he's the perfect mix where he's never he doesn't ham it up, he doesn't make it like a caricature villain, but he's just enough evil where you're like, yeah, burn the whitey, you know, just ye, yeah, pretty much, just get him.

You know. It doesn't help that the film I had to watch before this also was it was racist, so I wanted this movie already having a chip of our soldier about awful with Whitey. Well, I mean that is the thing that we you know, not we you and I, but Westerners we don't have a frame of reference for because like revolutionary war movies aren't super popular in our country, Like period movies about Americans fighting the British is not very popular because for I don't know why really, but you know, these movies are not only very popular in India, but they're also very important because obviously the Brits were imperialist colonizers for you know, hundreds of years, So it's important that these kinds of movies exist for obviously a grand populace of the Indian population to see, because again it kind of is a little it's history adjacent, right, but it's also a lot of wish fulfillment, and it's a lot of kind of taking back what we lost, is what it feels like, and not we, but obviously the Indian people, and I, you know, as someone who's just observing it, I can't really understand it because I mean again, I mean, my family is more or less immigrants from the last hundred years to this country.

But that's not the same as being you know, invaded by people and being their literal royal subjects for you know, however long. So it's I think it's interesting how villainous the Brits are in these movies and how deservedly so it kind of feels yeah, well, and that's the thing is how often do we get I mean, because that's the thing, especially with Westerners, It's like, you know, we live in a country where the people telling the stories are usually you know, I think things are changing a little bit on this front, but typically are it's like, well, yeah, you're not you you're not really descended from people that had it. Rob like you're descended even if you're like like I mean, I'm descended from what would be called white trash.

I mean, I'm definitely there's probably there is no like colonialism and my family because like we were all just like probably just like poor indentured serf from Ireland or whatever, right, right, But but even then it's different. It's different than having somebody come to your homeland and just take it over like that and then enslaved part of the population, like and then some of the population allowing themselves to be part of the problem too, which is yeah, kind of what they touch on in this movie with Amir Khan's Ferengi, which is a is it a Persian? I think it's a Persian term for someone who's French. I think, oh wow, yeah, I think that's what ferengi FRANGI means. He I mean, Amir Khan.

You know, it's it's interesting in this movie. He's obviously we open with him, you know, kind of getting money from his fellow Indians and then turning them into the Brits to get more money because he's turning them in the thugs that he uses to rob this kind of caravan that he's pretending to be with, So it's like a triple cross. But I kind of wish there had been more of like setting him up as a character. Does that make sense? No?

I agree, And I kept thinking, I kept wondering, what are the thugs that he has wronged? Like I felt like that was almost like check Off's gun. I'm like, surely at some point one of these guys and we even see Clive met with like one of the lead guys right that he double crossed and got thrown into prison. But then not a lot's really done with that. And I kept expecting that to throw a wrench in the plant.

But then but then another part he's like, this movie's already about right under three hours, slock, so maybe you know, maybe they didn't want to go and for like the five hour cut, because honestly, there's so much subplots you could do. Well. Those guys come back in that scene that you've already mentioned with Lloyd Owen where he's sitting in that chair in the prison and he's like, you know, hey, you know, do you remember for Ringy And he's like, he's you know, Burlaal I think is the character's name. Like he smiles, and I guess they go out with them when they kind of attack their stronghold. But that scene ends up being about something else.

You know. It's it's funny reading the reviews about the movie, at least from the Indian press at the time, And mind you, this movie is only four years old, so reading the press at the time, they were like, Ami Tob's Great American is great. Everything else not great. And in a lot of ways, I kind of agree. I think everything is good about the performances.

I just I did kind of want more substance with what was going on on screen because they had a lot of style. The substance just it did. I'm not gonna say it felt a little meandering, but you could have taken a half an hour out of this movie, and I think it might have been a little bit of a tighter narrative as at least with some of kind of the I don't know, there's just some like stuff that doesn't need to be in there. Yeah, Honestly, two of the dance numbers could be taken out completely. Honestly, the music in this movie might be the biggest disappointment.

I was not in. I was not taken by any of the songs outside of the last one. And I think that there are three, at least maybe Soriah's. There's Soiah's number, There's the one where they're singing about how they like to drink um. There's the climatic one where it's like the celebration where they're supposed to throw the arrow in the demon right uh Rivan, I think, yeah, and um, I feel like I'm forgetting one.

I feel like there was four, but I think there were only I think there may have been only three. I mean, there are only three act musical numbers in the movie. There's the Soiah one at the beginning, there's that one, the one the Ami Tab and Amir Khan one, and then there's the one at the end. There's three, and like two of them are immensely forgettable. Actually, the one that I liked the most would probably be the one with Amir Khan and Ami Tab.

But even that one is not It's not even as good. None of the music in this movie is even as good as the music in On Gall Is, And if you listen to our Don gall episode, you'll know that they don't perform it in those movies. It's just you know, on you're watching a montage is essentially what they use for the montages. But it works so well in those montages that you kind of it kind of does the same thing that the musical number would do, you just don't have the number being performed. I really was disappointed by the music in this movie, at least the musical numbers.

I think the music itself, the score of the movie is perfectly fine, but the musical acts I was really disappointed by. Yeah, no, the score's great, I did. I did enjoy the score. The musical numbers were okay, But I see what you're saying, because honestly, I couldn't hum a tune off of any of them. I did.

I'm kind of torn if I had to pick a favorite one, because on one hand, seeing Amatab getting to singing like that was like, he's great, and getting to see him like this like warrior, you know, like this amazing, just like he's almost like a like a gall I'd even hear it in a myth or something like it's so great I'm singing about you know, the priest doesn't want me drinking, but it's so much fun. Like it's like it's cute, but it almost feels like it's in a rough draft stage, you know. I think that's a problem with some of the music. It's like the seats are really good, like there's parts that you're like, yeah, this could really build up to something really killer, but it feels like it it's not polished like I mean, it's polished visually, like the visuals are super polished, and I fat the visuals with that climatic scene are the visuals are my favorite in that one, especially with the giant like like hawk sort of structure that the people are on top of, and just the epicness of it, like it totally gave me almost like I maybe that's I don't know, like like almost like a cecil beat demeal throw it back, Like there's something there's something's something about this film that has that keeps making me think of old Hollywood.

And and it's not even on purpose. I don't think gets on purpose, but it's got that it's got something about old Hollywood films that I just don't feel like you see in Western cinema. Now. No, I I agree, I think, you know, obviously, I don't. You know, I think I think it's just anytime you do something on a boat is like there are very few tricks that you can do, you know what I mean, Like you've got to be out on that boat, you've got to be out doing it.

And there is something inherently kind of throwback about that, because if I think of something like Master and Commander or you know, even I mean, even the original Pirates of the Caribbean movie is kind of old Hollywood. Yeah, there are some sci fi horror trappings to that movie with the coin that turns them into skeletons, but still it's ostensibly like an old Hollywood movie. I think, I think maybe it's just there are certain kinds of stories that just don't get told anymore. Like imagine, if we were watching a big Egyptian movie with lots of live you know, actual set pieces and stuff, you probably would have say the same thing, right, like it's well, I mean, I don't it's like the subject material is it be it being a period piece?

Is that because they don't make They don't make stuff like this anymore. I think it's the way the characters are structured in a weird way, and maybe that actually is also kind of tied to the fact that the women aren't like as focused as they should be, because I mean, that's kind of what you had seen in a Lollywood, right, I mean, not always totally, but the expectation. Yes, um, but I also think like the musical numbers, even though these aren't certainly the best to show anybody getting into this and I'm still like an EO fight, but I mean, like Rangila's musical numbers, Yeah, they were fantastic. Those are tight, um, But one might say though those are technically more or less the focus of the movie though I agree.

But to be fair, the musical numbers in plenty of other Indian cinema films that we have watched for this show that are not the focus have been amazing. So it's not an excuse like it's it's not but um, but there's I don't know, there's something there's it's like a genuine joy to the filmmaking that I was able that has helped me to really kind of overlook a lot of the storytelling flaws and there and there are like I get it, and I agree realistically, they should have made and I hate this pains my heart to say this because I love amer Con, but they should have made Sephi are the main focus and had him as a side character. Yeah. Well, and you know, as much as they do like a mere con in this movie, I do kind of want to mention I like him in this movie, but I think his character is a little overwritten, do you know what I mean?

He totally is like he is the smartest guy in the room. He's three steps ahead of everybody. And I normally don't have an issue with that kind of character. It's when the character starts telling everybody that I have a problem, well, and it's it's a little bit you get dangerously into Kenny territory. Frenny Gammer fans, Yeah, thank god, he's not a little boy.

But you know, for anybody who's not familiar, Kenny is a precocious kid character that somehow magically knows everything right, but he has no reason to know about it. And he's like, oh, yeah, caare borus blah blah blah, and you're like, how do you know this? There's no reason why this kids to know it, and it's like, kind of he's not charming enough to make you overlook that you cannot suspend a disbelief because you're annoyed. Now obviously AMR. Khan is no Kenny and he's very charismatic, so you're able to pull through it.

But agreed at the same time, I mean, you're not wrong. Well, and it's it's it's again like you know, the mentioning of Jack Sparrow. You know, those later Pirates movies end up being just like the Jack Sparrow Show. And that's kind of the problem is original Pirates of the Caribbean. Jack Sparrow is not really the main character.

It's Kiera Knightley and Orlando Bloom and he is used in small doses, you know, throughout the movie and against small or large harbor you want to view it. He's not the main character of the first movie, second and third movie. Yeah, he's the main character more or less because they were like, oh my god, we hit upon you know, we hit upon lightning in a bottle. The way this movie ends, they kind of understand what they've got and they kind of you know what I mean, Like if there's ever a sequel to this movie, I don't know, but they's end this movie in a way that it's almost more of a response to movies like Pirates of the curebean less responses to this movie itself, because if you have this movie end a certain way, there's nowhere this movie can go.

And they had to end of this movie in a certain way just in case Amir Khan wants to come back and play this character again, which I mean, I would be totally game for if I know he's the main character in the movie and it's being written that way and it's being set up that way. Don't set up the next movie by introducing us to a character who's a female character and then having them be the backseat character in their own narrative, because that does really not just in this movie, it just bothers me in general when it seems like, well, they were writing the script, they realize who the cool character was and pivoted, and it's like, while I appreciate that certain characters may be more entertaining than others, they don't do a lot to actually further the narrative of the movie.

Yeah, Well, and you have some really great supporting characters that you don't get enough of, right, Like, it's not even just like Sepia, it's not a supporting character. She's a main character. But you get like like his buddy, Yeah, like Santa char the guy he saves from prison, Mohammad Zishan Ayoub, who is also in his own right fantastic, and those little scenes you get with him are really good and kind of really like really kind of heartfelt too, when he goes up to him and he's like, thank you for being my Azad and it's like, holy shit. Yeah, what movie is like? This is this is a kind of a quiet moment in an otherwise very fast paced movie.

This movie doesn't give you a lot of time to kind of sit and be with the characters either. There's like a couple scenes, but that I think maybe and this kind of just all ties into the same problem. This movie never sits long enough to let you get to know the characters. And that's wild to think about with a three hour movie. Yeah, right, Like that's what's crazy is most of the time when we watch one of these Indian cinema movies, the two hours or two hour plus time that these movies are running they're utilizing it to really give us a complete idea of who these characters are.

In a lot of ways, they're giving us two movies for the price of one. Most of the time, it's like a backstory and then the conclusion to the story that was set up in the backstory, like in Cooch Couch Hota High, like in K three G. I mean they tell two stories. So it's it's it's weird that the character who is our main character gets forgotten about after the cold open, Like it's that quick into the movie. Yeah.

Also, like I really lights them. Oh God, I'm gonna his name, the Maharaje character who was basically you find out is helping trade weapons to Isad, but he's also providing opium to the English and like he and that actor is so good because at first you think you're gonna get one thing, but he does like this little subtle thing with his mustache when he's walking away from Clive and you're like, oh, is that a little that Is that a little hint? And you find out yes it is. And that guy's great and he ends up being a badass. Like we don't get a lot of them, but his fight scenes and he's like this older guy who's kind of stout, but he's like bringing it.

Like you're like, yeah, this guy is a leader for a reason, and we don't get enough at him. And also, even though I know she's more of a comic character, I really loved like the medicine woman of the village. Yeah, she's fantastic. She's so good and um jai toumbi with the character's name Elam, I hope that I feel like I faund like I'm speaking at Talian. Yeah, but um and I find if you look at her credits, she also has like has a few composer credits and as song on like dozens it looks like dozens and dozens upon Bollywood movies as like a background singer.

So this woman's a badass, is what I'm saying. We should Um, there's so Sharat Suxena, who is the or Sucksena. Let's go with Sharat sucks Sena is the actor that you were talking about who played the Maharaja and he was nominated for a Film Fair Best Villain Award, which is the equivalent of our Academy Awards, for a movie that he was in in ninety eight with none other than Amir Khan a film called Gulam, which apparently is pretty good, so maybe maybe something worth checking out. But he was apparently the main villain in a movie opposite Amir Khan. So yeah, so we'll be doing this in twenty twenty three.

Sense a thing like, you know, every time anybody comes on here, this sense that we always get by the end of the episode or while we're just sitting here and talking, is I want to just watch more of this. Even as much as I have issues with this movie. You know, it's two hours and forty five minutes. I spent half of the day I've been awake more or less watching it, Like it's not a small amount of time, and yeah, you could sit and watch it in two sittings. But this movie doesn't have an intermission, at least not on the prime video version that I watched, not on the version that you watched, which was also on Prime video, which is where you can find this movie rather easily.

But a lot of these movies offer intermissions. This one didn't, and I think it just it really is still a fun movie even with all the problems I have, Like I would not recommend a movie like this if it were like a Marvel movie, like even with the Flaws. Yeah, yeah, though, and that's the fast same thing though, Chris. It's like all three movies that I've done on the show so far, if they had American modern day American equivalence, I would be like next m next, I'm with you, biopic drama next, you know, sports movie even mine, yeah, sport next, next, like double next, and like and but no, I mean, and you're because even this film that is like it does have like some very valid criticisms that we've gone into.

It's still, at the end of the day, a very entertaining film. You get to see great actors. Some of the visuals, like even though you know, I totally see what you're saying, some of them are amazing though, Like some of the fight choreographs, Oh my god, I mean awesome, gorgeous. Um it has it has like I love the Hawk, I love Birds of Prey in general, Like I'm a big fan of Hawks, and um and that's Hawks with an h people x Hawks. That's also that sounds like the like name of a like a cover band of like an Eagles cover band in some really shitty bar well, I thought all they would do is just play Highway to the Dangers over and over again.

Oh god, oh yeah, thirty fifth time we're playing this song in a row? Who in Here loves Kitty Logan sultansa bump bump bump, I love it? Yeah, top Yeah, see, I would rather see this than the new Top Gun movie. Yeah. Well, And I've been trying to figure out what that is.

Is that us just as Westerners being jaded and disillusioned with our cinema and like the trappings of the cinema that we have been viewing and being kind of indoctrinated into our entire lives. Like, is that what it is? I'm genuinely curious because, like, I haven't had this conversation with anybody, but at some point somebody has to ask, why are we saying exactly what you're saying? Because I agree, I echo it one like I would rather watch Yeah, I'd rather watch this than a Marvel movie of the same quality and caliber. Yeah.

Now, I I've thought about that. I've thought about that a lot, actually, said since watching Things of hindostand because I was like, you know, because I was like, well, why, yeah, why am I feeling like that? Right? Because you was not you're not an MCU fan at all, Like I mean, I don't, I don't hate it, It's just not for me, like right, but like you're not rushing out to see a movie like this made for Westerners in Heale now hell no. But but but then it hit the and I think, like, and this is also tied to kind of what I'm talking about with the like old Hollywood in a way too, is that I feel like with a lot of newer American movies, like people get lost in the gadgetry of things, but they but they don't have the love of the world building.

Like I don't know, I just feel like there's something I'm a cynical about, like how some films are made, Like it feels like this is what we do, you know, and yeah, here's this cool thing we did in after effects. But it's like it doesn't always feel to me. And this is just my opinion. I know a lot of people differ, and that's totally fine. There's these are all opinions.

There's no this is a science. But um, except when it's me because I'm right, yeah, and I'm just agreed, but I know better than to disagree. Yes, I know. I feel like there's such a joy and in all three of these very different films there's a joy and yeah, making it, I'm not just the joy and here's a cool special effect we can do, or here's the joy and all the money we're going to get from merchandising. Like it's like there's a genuineness of loving building this world.

Like I'm on a hundred percent believe when they made this movie, they the editors, the director, everybody like had fun and it's like, look at this world we can create, and there's cool top hat we can give amir Con that top hat rules. He looks, he looks his costume design in this movie, like give those people so much credit. Oh my god, him and like it's like it's funny like him and like Sherlock from the Sherlock TV Show and like Doctor Who, they're all in the and like Jack Sparrow, they're all in this like manic pixick manic Pixie dream dandy thing where they're just like, oh, he's the himbo daddy of my dream. Oh my god, that it's so funny. You said, because I knew a girl that was the big like newer wovie and meeting like she was in she got into The Doctor Who when it was like David Tennett, Yeah right, did not know who Tom Baker was, which makes me say odd, but whatever.

But then when they cast Peter Capaldi, she was like so bomb because she was like, oh, but he's that cute like that he's not I would bang him, I was to say, like, I mean, I would just to hear him like curse at me. But that's fake. Peter Capaldi, He's such a nice guy. No, he seems like a jet But the one time I met him he was very nice. I mean I was taking Chris.

I don't know what fancy paying someone money to meet them is not Fanny. No, you met Peter Capaldi and one of the actors in the film we're talking about day Yeah, well no, I mean that was That's the thing about Western actors in Indian movies, like Lloyd Owen obviously, I mean again like talking the Lord of the Rings, talking about Apollo, I think it's like Apollo eighteen. Is that the movie that he's in. It's interesting to watch them in these movies because what they're being asked to do is like something that you ask character actors to do in a Western film just like just ham it up, but like obviously not really not just ham it up, but like you need to be a villain hard stop. Like I'm not sure you need to do more than that, which I appreciate.

I mean that's the thing about this movie, I think, just in general, and that maybe is where the problems are because the movie is kind of written so broadly and all the characters are so over the top. I mean, you have, you know the character that Fatima Shake plays, Zafira. She at one point she does like a flip and shoots four arrows at guys at once. And Ami tab is wearing this like crazy iron armor and he looks like a Rakatta soldier. All these characters, at least the ones that they've put time into, are so like stylistically interesting that it is kind of a shame when some of them are just stylistically interesting.

And that's it. Yeah, Like that is this weird disconnect because female actors in Indian cinema, like actresses in Indian cinema normally, are not this underserved and so like, I don't know, like in a lot of ways, I was kind of trying to think, like, what would be the best way to kind of alleviate the issues that I had with this movie. I think taking the Siah character out and would take two of the three musical numbers out, which decreases the movies run time by twenty minutes, and taking her character out completely, and actually having a mir Cohn have a romantic relationship with Zafira, because that's what kind of is weird about this movie is by the end of it, you have the sonic char character being like didn't you two fall in love?

Like aren't you in love? Like why aren't you staying? And he's like, I don't care even if we were, Like I'm going to do my own thing, and then you know what happens, you know, kind of and then there's kind of another twist right at the end of the movie. But it's weird to me because that would have been the smart thing to do, would have Amir Khan and Zaphira have like a actual relationship and it never feels like there are anything other than just kind of annoyed by one another. At least she feels constantly annoyed by him.

Yeah, well, I will say I was actually kind of glad they didn't go full romantic with them. But part of that is because we watched Donall and I was just like, oh, well, there is that. To be fair, it's kind of like that was like I remember when I saw years ago like Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow and just being so weirded out because like I'm like, wow, I remember seeing Mermaids with Share. I love Share, but like Whenda Ryder is in it, and Christina Ricchie plays for like nine year old or eight year old little sister, and Johnny Depp is one of Nina Rter's love interest. And then just a few years later, because it's Hollywood, you know, well the writers already aged out, but we'll have little teenage baby.

Chris seemed to Richie be the love in christ and Sleepy Hollow, but Johnny Depp, it's like, it's like, wow, this just turns into Matthew McConaughey and tasted and confused, like you know, like the girls just stay the same age and I keep getting older and older, and it's like and you kind of like throw up in your rather. You know, well, I mean I guess maybe I do wonder if maybe meta textually that's why they didn't do that, Yeah, because Donal was it was is a massive hit of it, Oh yeah, and a critical hit yeah, critically and you know, financially. So I wonder if they were like, well, we can't have him having a relationship with the actress he who played his daughter, not but like two years ago.

But that also feels kind of like a the only explanation for that is non narrative, which is kind of I'm never I'm never one to fully buy into that because that is also some of me just thinking that and making connections and making assumptions. But it would have been weird if they had had a romantic kind of thing going on, because yeah, they were so believable as father and daughter. It's like do I want to see this? Like I don't know if I need to see this now. But on top of that, like I just get really tired of singing like women in general, like female characters where it's like they have to have a love interest, right, I agree with you there, I just I'm more pointing it out because I feel like if she had been his love interest, we may have actually gotten more of her.

Is more my reasoning, Like it's kind of a it's antithetical album, Like I don't like or feel like movies need romantic subplots, but in this one, it might have benefited actually giving us something with the character more than just her shooting people with arrows. Yeah, as rad as that was though, Yeah, I mean she had more. She had more of a relationship with Ami Top than she did with American. Yeah, you felt what it is? It hits me with the musical numbers, Chris, you just unlock something in my brain.

The problem is, like the music and the musical numbers don't they don't really match the score or the vibe of the movie. Like if they if they had musically reflected, do you think he would have liked them better, because I know I would have if they if they musically reflected what was going on with the atmosphere and tone, like something a little more heavier, something more with more storm and throng, like something is really like some drums, some like big drums or something like like battle like battle music. Well that's why that's set. That's why the second musical number really only works for me because it's you know, it's in their hideout and it's all you know, there's kind of this like sense of camaraderie between Amitab and American and kind of getting to know one another and kind of feeling one another out through this song and like that makes sense.

But to your point, it almost feels like the movie grinds to a halt when Katrina Kaife as Soriyah comes on screen because she's almost in the movie solely to be in the musical numbers. That's it, like and not even that's kind of it, like that is it? Those are the two times she's in the movie outside of when she shows up the very end, and that for me, it's like she's a good actress. Yes, she's talented at singing and dancing and choreography, but she's also a good actress in her own right. Give her more to do.

There's plenty of time. It's plenty of time. Yeah, but granted her dancing fantastic, like it's incredible. Cannot argue with her God given abilities, that's for sure. Oh my goodness, or Amir Khan or Amy Top like Amy Top is not singing.

I'm not sure Amir Khan is singing. But still they're killing it with the choreography. With the choreography well, and especially because how old at this point is Ammie top he is he's eighty now, so this he was seventy six seventy six and pulling off the ship. Damn that man's living right. Yeah?

Yeah, I want that. You know, I don't need Qwyn pouch Or's goop or whatever. What is I want Ami tabs law duds, maybe tons of law duds, just not poisoned ones. Yeah. They're gigantic too.

They're like the size of your fists, Like, holy can't. I'm like that looks like a sweet dinner role. I want it. I'm curious, though, how did you feel about the third act twist in this movie? So towards the end of the movie, a Mere Cohn comes back to Sarayah and they've kind of been pushed out of their stronghold and Amy tob is dead for all intents and purposes, and they come to Sariah and they say, look, you're going to be entertaining the battye Lloyd Owen's character, so can we show up with you as your dance troop and will kill him at the end of their performance, and She's like sure.

A Mere Cohn finds out, along with the rest of our characters that Ami tob is still alive during this, right before this final performance, and so he backstabs everybody unbeknownst to them to get them all imprisoned so that they can break out and kind of storm the gates from within. How did you feel about the third act twist of him kind of you know, taking apart their entire plan in front of them. I was, I'm torn on it, to be honest. My first reaction was like, what, like, this is a bit I mean, honestly, categorically it's a bit much. I cannot and I and I really enjoyed this movie and I would recommend it to somebody like because it's fun and I think it's a whole like the positives outweigh the negatives.

But um, that's a lot. But the first there are some really cool fruits that came out of that later in, you know, afterward in the film that I really enjoyed. Um, but it's a bit yeah, I mean, it's kind of what you mentioned it earlier, almost like he's outwitting everybody to an almost like supernatural degree. Chris, you're muted. I can't hear you.

I have no idea how I got muted. I don't know. I felt like, where did I get muted from? I don't know. Well, yeah, you you were clear, and then when I that last bit where I was talking, that must have happened.

Then oh, then you started talking again, and I'm trying to I'm trying trying to remember what I was talking about. I didn't want to like interrupt to be weird, you know, No, no, no, it's fine. Um. So, not only does he backstab him his friends and the Brits, he also bat like diminishes his own like visibility to the Brits by making himself look cowardly to them to further sell this kind of idea that he's created that he's backstabbing them at the eleventh hour. But the movie is in the last hour of the movie.

Are we supposed to act actually believe that he's turning on them here, that's my question? Or does it feel like kind of a little bit of a plot contrivance, Because to me, it ends up feeling like a plot contrivance. I didn't believe for any moment that he was going to kill Amy tb in that cell. No, right, but but Ammi Tob was so good, like well, that's the thing, Like it makes up for it because that whole back and forth is so good that I kind of ultimately really don't care. But in Lesser Hands it would be a bigger problem.

No agreed, I think, And I think that's the thing. This film's charms and obviously it's with these actors are so great that you are able to overlook like and even in I was like, this is I mean, this is a bit much, but I can I can still go with it because like what I'm getting, but it is it is like it's a bold move and you better have the right players for it. Luckily in this film we did. But yeah, I mean if it was like you know, if it was somebody who was a little blander or a little as charismatic, I mean, it would you would be you'd you'd be a lot more upset. I think watching this, she'd be a little bit like are you shitting thing?

But here it's kind of like what but it's like, oh, but there's there's zombie top and there's a mirror, and there's that uh like there's Mohammed, yeah, his astrologer friend. You could tell these languages and he's great, And there's a joke, and there's even a nice little like back reference to the medicine woman's like how most of her potions kill because it sounds like she probably just made something she meant to heal aple and it's still just like poison, So they just have her make poison at the end of the movie. So yeah, but yeah, so it is. It is controved, but it's like, I don't know, it's like I can kind of roll with it. It's sort of like, not everything has to be it.

It does it make the film an A plus? No, it does hurt it, but it makes it. The film, I would say, is a solid I hate grating shit, I shouldn't do that, but it's I think it's it's solidly entertaining. I agree, it's you know, I think if you if you go into it with the expectation that you are going to get some really big, fun action set pieces with some of the finest actors in Indian cinema. It delivers on those in spades.

But if you see the trailer and you're expecting, you know, Katrina Kaife or Fatima Shike to be in the movie in a substantive way, they are not. You know, I read some of the comments on the trailer and there was one of them that was like, Katrina Kaife is in the trailer as much as she's in the movie, and I was like, oh, fuck, fucking got him there, Like it's yeah, more or less, you know, it's it is a shame because you know, like yourself, I don't understand why we have to use female characters in a certain way in cinema and why. I don't know why anyone did for the longest time. And I don't like perpetuating it. And I don't think they're perpetuating it intentionally here, but they are perpetuating it either way.

So it's just a shame because, yeah, you know, Fatimashike. We know she's a great actress. We saw her in Don Gall She carried that movie along with Amir Khan like she was fantastic. So it's not for a lack of talent. It's more just the writing kind of suffered.

And so you know VJ. Krishna Akcharia. He wrote Doom one and Doom two, which Richard and I have covered. He didn't director either of those movies, but he was the screenplay and story and dialogue and those movies are fantastic. He directed the third one, which I have not seen Richard and I will be watching it at some point.

The third one features Wouldn't you Guess It? Amir Khan, So I don't, you know. I don't know what to expect with Doom three. I hope it's solved some of the issues that this movie has. I know it came out before this movie did, But at the same time, I've heard things about Doom three that, now I've seen this movie maybe kind of an issue that this director VJ.

Krishna Akcharia kind of just has, and it's not something that he really is worried about fixing or cares about doing. So I don't know, you know. Again, outside of the way the female characters are treated in this movie, it's a fun movie. It really is just kind of a big epic epic like it's just epic. It's just an epic movie.

Everything about this movie is made to feel epic, and I think that does come across on screen. I don't think at any point was I like rolling my eyes at them trying to be epic. Yeah, no, agreed, agreed, It's so much. It's so much fun and end to be honest, like the it probably does help that the movie I watched before this one had some serious sexism, so I went into this film even kinder. Probably it's it's not overt sexism here, it's just it's it's a subtextual.

I wouldn't even say it. I wouldn't say it's sexist. I just think it's unfortunate. Yeah, yeah, it's just kind of it's almost But she's still what you do get of her. She is badass.

She brings it. I would love to see a sequel star in Sepia. Yeah, me too, have her as it's this like leader of her people and willing to do anything to defend her, her country, her people. Because she's got that and this actress can bring it. I mean that was the other thing like with like Groment of Pirates and Karen Knight least a good actress.

I'm not hating on her, but it's like I had a hard time buying Like when she tries to get bad ass, I'm just like, yeah, I'm with you, yeah, and it's and she's a good address. I'm not hating on her, but it's just like I'm not buying it either. It's not like when you see like say Linda Hamilton, like that's something that lends itself well determinator, even the first one. She's not as muscly in that one, but Linda Hamilton has a presence where you're like, yeah, I would have her have in my back in a bar fight, like yeah, she's cool, but um and yeah, I mean yeah, so more Sepia would be great. Um.

I doubt they will because then had this film and afense and you probably saw this too. I guess there is a different, a shorter cut of this film for China, right, because Amir Khan is so popular in China. He's wildly popular in China. It's insane. He should be popular everywhere.

I agree he like that is the thing. Like we kind of did talk about him a lot, but you know, take Amir Khan out of this movie and like, I don't think I'm interested at all. I mean, I like Ami Tab but like Amir Khan is just so goddamn charismatic. Oh my god, the man could eat a sandwich and he's like, You're like, oh my god, I'm just give you a little give you a little head, nod in a little head and just the way. I just he is such a good actor, Like that's all you have to say.

Really, Like, there are a few actors that are better at what they do than Amir Khan, and I'm not sure who they are, but they're probably Indian cinema actors. Yeah, yeah, I definitely can't think of a West especially any living Western equivalents. Like, yeah, I don't know pole who go see Tom Cruise movies because Tom Cruise is in them anymore? But I know people go and see a Mere Khan movies because Amer Khan is in there. Oh yes, yeah, I mean honestly, it's a special kind of talent right well, and honestly for me, like with Western actors, the ones that I could say that about are usually character actors, right, not exactly the leading men.

You know, but he is a leading man, but he has that character actor whole to him, right about it? Because you know, especially with I think most like with more modern Hollywood, a lot of leading men tend to be a little on the blands and and sometimes says to their detriment because sometimes you'll see them in another role and you're like, this guy's actually good actor. It's just just that given you know, like a love is big, roles are blant. It's not the actor, but um but yeah, Amer Khan is fantastic and and imb Tom like I love of Azad, like that's that's a guy you could see people really being like this is going to be our savior, right yeah, no, I I'm so excited to watch more Indian cinema with you, and and maybe at some point watching Ami Tab movie just to see because like, again, he's obviously such a big part of this movie, but obviously plenty of movies where he is the singular and sole focused like Chole, like Dawn, Like he's the lead in Dawn and that movie is just that's the Ami Tab show.

Like that's that. Yeah again, Like I can't can't speak kindly enough of all these movies, and I speak so highly, as do you, of all cinema. I just don't get to see all of it because I only have this much bandwidth, you know, just like we need more free time and money, right, yeah, that the truth. This is where we plug our patrons. Yea.

Yeah, so I guess their final final word on Thugs of Hindostan. I enjoyed it. It is a lot of fun. It's got like, if you're in the mood for a big epic movie with great charismatic lead, tight action and in a hawk, I think this is the movie for you. I I as a whole enjoyed it.

I don't regret watching it at all, So I'm with you. You know, it's it's easy enough to find. It's on Prime Video right now. Not only is it in Hindi, it's also in Tamil and Telugu should you speak one of those other languages. But I mean, obviously it is a it was is a massive movie in India when it came out.

It's a movie that, like I said, you still find on Amazon Prime. So it's you know, it's like you said, it's a big charismatic action movie. It does not necessarily serve everybody's interests in the most successful way. But I think the things that you show up for you get and I don't think you realistically even get any more than that, which I think is okay in a lot of ways. Not every movie has to check all of its boxes plus the five more boxes that you brought.

Sometimes it's just checking its own boxes and not worrying about what your expectations are. And in a lot of ways. I think this movie kind of is that it's just it is just a big action movie with some great leads, and it doesn't need to do more than that and doesn't. So yeah, I mean it harkens back to his time before we had things like cinema sins or whatever, you know, like just enjoy sometimes, you know, just enjoy a movie. Just enjoy it, like not everything needs to be overly analyze.

Right. Oh did Amitab's characters survive that boat explosion? I don't know, and I don't care. Really, yeah, yeah, we get more of him. Good for us?

Yeah, right, Like I'm not complaining, but he's not not in the movie. I'm glad that he is, so shut up cinema sins. Right. Yeah. So until the next time we do one of these, which maybe us talking about a nineteen ninety nine a mere Con film called Gulam.

Until then, Heather, Where could people find you? Should they want to track you down on the internet? Um, Chris that says it sunchary. If they want to find you, you want to find me? Um, you can find me at my website which is Mondo Heather dot com.

I'm also on Instagram, Twitter, and the aforementioned Patreon under all at Mondo Heather. And as for me, you can find me at Weirdingway Media along with this show and the Culture Cast, which is where the Indian cinema kind of thang started. And that's where you can find this show and so many other shows that you should be checking out. And if you're not well, are you listening to things worth listening to? Jokes aside, Weirdingwaymedia dot com Bollywood Cinemaclub dot com is where you can find this show, rate review on iTunes or wherever you get your show.

Thank you so much, Heather for joining me. I know it's a I know it's a it's a real ass to get you to sit down and watching a Mercan movie at this Oh my gosh, Like, how dare you be? Like, Heather, watch more of this ridiculously charismatic, mega talented dreamboat of a man and an artist. Yeah, oh yeah, and you haven't even scene her thique Roshan yet. As an actor, he was the actor who was almost the main character that Amir Khan played in this movie.

And hertique Roshan is, if Amir Khan is a dream boat, hertique Roshan is like a dream yacht, so at least for me he is so so as always until then, well we'll catch you on the next episode.