Episode 19
Dhurandhar Unleashed: Plot Twists, Punchlines, and Pandemonium
Benny and Minal engage in a comprehensive discussion centered around the cinematic phenomenon that is the 'Dhurandhar' franchise, delving into both parts of the film series. The hosts emphasize the films' significant cultural impact and commercial success, particularly the profound themes of patriotism and sacrifice woven into the narratives. They meticulously analyze the character arcs, especially that of the protagonist, Hamza, portrayed by Ranveer Singh, and the ensemble cast's compelling performances, including Akshaye Khanna and R. Madhavan. Throughout their discourse, Benny and Minal address the controversies surrounding the films, particularly the implications of perceived ideological messaging, while maintaining an objective stance on the storytelling and cinematic techniques utilized by director Aditya Dhar. The episode culminates in an exploration of the music that underpins the films, reinforcing its role in amplifying the narrative's emotional resonance.
Transcript
Hello and welcome to Talking Talkies.
Speaker A:We're your host Benny and Meenal and thank you for joining us, folks.
Speaker A:It's very rare that we get to keep our promise on this podcast.
Speaker A:We did say that we would record and publish another episode after our recent one, and here we are.
Speaker A:This is not going to be too long of a gap between the two episodes, but it is a movie, or I should say a couple of movies that's been in the news, it's been in the cultural debate, and everybody's and their aunt has an opinion on this and it's only worth bringing it up on a movie podcast.
Speaker A:So I'm really glad that I have Mino here to talk through a movie that, you know, it's been a while since the first movie released and it just raised so many conversations, most of which have been in good faith, almost all of them fascinating.
Speaker A:So let's get into it.
Speaker A:What are we going to talk about today, Meenal?
Speaker B:We are talking about the big Bollywood sensation that is Dhurandar and it's Part two, Durandar the Revenge.
Speaker B:So it's going to be a tough task to cover it in a single episode, but we're going to try our best.
Speaker B:So let me first start with the plot summary.
Speaker B: ver two decades starting from: Speaker B:The external intelligence agency of India known as RAW is spearheaded by Ajay Sanyal, played by R. Madhavan.
Speaker B:Following the IC 814 hijacking, he puts a plan in place to build a spy network where RAW agents will infiltrate gangs in Leahri Karachi and act as insiders to Pakistan politics and terrorist network to not only send information back home to India to preempt any terror attacks, but also with the final objective of eliminating the big guns who are responsible for terror activities in India and and ultimately diminish, destroy the whole nexus.
Speaker B:Now, Dhurandar is, as I said, the latest Bollywood sensation.
Speaker B:It's a roaring commercial success.
Speaker B:It has broken many records.
Speaker B: It has so far amassed: Speaker B:Part 2 is the second highest grosser behind Dangal and has beaten Bahubali Part 2 while Part 1 stands fifth in the list.
Speaker B:So that just tells you the scale of the success this film has had and which is why we felt we need to revive the Podcast and talk about it.
Speaker A:I know when you texted me and said, hey, we have three movies to talk about, I figured that this was in it.
Speaker A:This was, well, two of the three movies, essentially.
Speaker A:Very quickly, though, did this become the most successful Bollywood film of all time?
Speaker B:It's Dangal.
Speaker A:Dangal is still the highest.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I mean, on a combined basis, if you take both the parts, then yes.
Speaker B:But I think Dangal has about 2.9 or 2.8.
Speaker B:Kind of a crowd business.
Speaker B:Single.
Speaker B:Just the single movie.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:No, it's not.
Speaker B:The individual parts have not beaten Dangal, but collectively they have, I think.
Speaker A:Because Danlo, if I remember correctly, did really well in China.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:And that helped a lot.
Speaker B:A lot.
Speaker A:Also raining.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Also, Durandar didn't release in Middle East.
Speaker B:It was banned.
Speaker B:And Middle east is a big market for Bollywood films.
Speaker B:So considering they didn't have access to that market, it's quite stupendous their success.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And just to give you, give even our listeners an insight and success in uk, generally, Bollywood films will run for like three weeks and they'll be gone.
Speaker B:This was running for more than six weeks.
Speaker B:And never in my 12 years in UK have I booked advance tickets for a Bollywood movie two weeks in advance.
Speaker B:And they had released for the part two.
Speaker B:The tickets were out three weeks before.
Speaker B:Incredible.
Speaker B:So I haven't seen something like this in.
Speaker B:In my lifetime in UK or in Dubai.
Speaker B:Okay, so outside of India.
Speaker B:So great.
Speaker A:Well, let's go and start at the beginning.
Speaker A:So how did you hear about Durandar in the first place?
Speaker B:The trailer randomly dropped on my Twitter feed, very randomly.
Speaker B:And I opened it and I was like, oh, my God.
Speaker B:A lot of gore and violence.
Speaker B:But the cast was so good.
Speaker B:And mind you, Benny, these are a lot of our 90s, early 90s heroes revived.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:And character roles like our Madhavan, Akshay Khanna were our heartthrobs when we were in college.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:So I was like, wow.
Speaker B:And I didn't recognize R. Madhavan in.
Speaker B:In the trailer.
Speaker B:I didn't recognize him at all.
Speaker B:I was like, yeah, this looks really good.
Speaker B:And then when I looked up and I. I liked Aditya Dar's films.
Speaker B:I've seen Uri.
Speaker B:I've seen Article 370.
Speaker B:He's a very good filmmaker and a good storyteller.
Speaker B:So I said, okay, this is probably going to be quite a decent watch.
Speaker B:I was just worried about the violence.
Speaker B:But I said, let's just go into the theater.
Speaker B:And what happened was one of my very close friends enjoy similar Bollywood taste As I do.
Speaker B:And she raved about the film and I'm like, okay, now this tells me that I should go watch it in the theater.
Speaker B:So that's how I ended up.
Speaker A:I had a very similar kind of, I guess, awareness about the movie because I didn't know.
Speaker A:I don't really follow Bollywood news very closely.
Speaker A:So I wasn't aware that, you know, Aditya Dara was acting, directing another film and Ranveer was in it.
Speaker A:Like you.
Speaker A:I found out just through the trailer.
Speaker A:The trailer dropped.
Speaker A:And you know, this about me, I'm a sucker for dramatic action.
Speaker A:You know, it's like all the hyper dramatized kind of action sequences coupled with a banger of a soundtrack just for the trailer.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So when I watched it, I was hyped.
Speaker A:Like, I barely knew what the story was about.
Speaker A:Initially I was thinking it's like a very typical, like gangster same.
Speaker A:You know, I didn't even think about from like a India, Pakistan angle at all.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And yeah, you know, I saw the cast.
Speaker A:Arjun Rampal, Akshay Kana, Madhavan, Sanjay Dutt.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:And so I saw all these people.
Speaker A:And then, you know, Ranveer Singh's doing this typical macho kind of walk and all the bombs going off, bombs going off, holding the dynamite and lighting, you know, like, coupled with the music.
Speaker A:I was like, I don't really know what this is about, but I'm gonna watch it.
Speaker A:And but the thing is, I also had very.
Speaker A:I didn't really have much of a realistic expectation that this was going to do well based on the trailer.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Because how often have we seen good trailers and the movies just turned out to be very disappointing.
Speaker A:And just based on recent, you know, I guess let's say Bollywood performances or I should say Bollywood film performances.
Speaker B:I'm glad you said that.
Speaker A:How well they've been doing in recent times.
Speaker A:I. I didn't really have any high hopes.
Speaker A:So when the movie released and I started hearing a lot about it, like everybody was talking about it and it was getting really good word of mouth.
Speaker A:And that made me more like, okay, I need to go watch this.
Speaker A:And I'm generally, anytime they say a movie is over three hours, I'm like, I'm like, okay, is it worth going and watching theater?
Speaker A:Should I just wait till it releases online?
Speaker A:And I was like, but the thing is there was just so many, not just so much discussion, but there was also so many theories and like, yeah.
Speaker A:And I was like, if there's like any spoiler that is very critical to the second Film, you know, it'll be annoying if I miss out on that.
Speaker A:So I just decided I'll go watch it in the theater.
Speaker A:And I'm glad I did because yeah, I enjoyed the movie.
Speaker A:I enjoyed the first movie and so I'm really glad I went and watched it.
Speaker B:This is also, I mean when you mentioned the banger soundtrack and we'll of course talk about the music later in the.
Speaker B:In the episode, but this is the first movie, I think in seven years where I listened to the album on a loop before I watched the movie and I was like, I'm very worried because Karan Johar have.
Speaker B:This has movies have destroyed remixes like old songs by remixing them in such a bad manner.
Speaker B:And mind you, we are the.
Speaker B:I'm the 90s teenager Benny.
Speaker B:So there was a big rage about indie pop and there were instant karma and there was Bombay Vikings who remixed like old Bollywood classes.
Speaker B:Fantastic.
Speaker B:So my generation also woke up to those songs right at that point though we already knew them because of our parents.
Speaker B:But it spread far and wide when I listened.
Speaker B:So when I listened to the title track and I was like.
Speaker B:And when the Move ish Kishke song came at the end, it's a very famous song, Kawali, which you do not touch.
Speaker B:It's like, yeah, pious, almost like you know, or revered kawali.
Speaker B: wwali in a move from movie in: Speaker B:And when I saw what they did and it's Rafi who has sung it, the original and Manadi and when I saw what Sonu did with that, what Shashwa did with that little remix, I was like, shashwat, you have my attention.
Speaker B:I'm here for this because you have not spoiled the original.
Speaker B:This is going to become a rage.
Speaker B:The Gen Z's are going to wake up to old Bollywood songs and I'm here for this and I support these kind of remixes.
Speaker B:So bring it on.
Speaker B:So I was really hyped for the music and I wanted to see how it all plays out in the film and I was not disappointed at all.
Speaker A:Brilliant.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:We will definitely take more time to discuss the music and the soundtrack.
Speaker A:But um, and we'll talk about our.
Speaker A:Obviously at the end we'll talk about our favorite or we'll give our rating and all that.
Speaker A:But just to broadly give an idea of whether we like this movie or not and we'll talk about both movies in general.
Speaker A:I definitely like the first movie more than the second one.
Speaker B:Same.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:If I If, if, let's say the second movie was a standalone.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Just a movie by itself.
Speaker A:Like we started there.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:I wonder if I would have just been able to appreciate the movie for what it is.
Speaker A:But the problem with any two parter or even like in a franchise series.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:When the first one turns out to be good, the follow ups have like a high standard to kind of reach and I don't think it quite got there.
Speaker A:I don't think it hit the high notes as it did in the first movie.
Speaker A:But still, even then, taking both of them together, I think this is one of those two parters that will stand the test of time in the, in the sense that people will be talking about this for years to come.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:And yeah.
Speaker A:So what did, what is your impression of the movies?
Speaker A:Broadly?
Speaker B:Absolutely same.
Speaker B:If I have to really sum it up.
Speaker B:I would go watch part one in the theater again and again and again.
Speaker B:Part two I would watch on ott.
Speaker B:That was my summation.
Speaker B:So I'm absolutely with you.
Speaker B:I felt the part two dragged.
Speaker B:There were a lot of loopholes in logic.
Speaker B:We had to have some, you know, like what the hell is going on?
Speaker B:Why is this happening?
Speaker B:Part 1 To me, how I would describe it and is it.
Speaker B:This is because Benny India doesn't make good spy thrillers.
Speaker B:I don't remember.
Speaker B:I could count on a handful.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:Whereas we are spoiled by Hollywood and British and all so, so fast paced with you know, like the Bond and the mi Mission Impossible which have a lot of style and you know, flashy heroes and things.
Speaker B:But.
Speaker B:And then on the other hand you have Tinker Taylor soldier spy which is like such a slow burn and an amazing, like the John Lecar kind of spy movies.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Then you're spoiled by the Americans and Slow Horses web series and things like that.
Speaker B:So for me, part one was near the Tinker Taylor soldier spy domain because it was so much of slow burn and build up and you know, you could see his struggle and you could understand how.
Speaker B:What an effort it is to infiltrate and how risky it is.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Part two was your typical Bollywood masala entertainer, Bahad Sara, you know, dishum, dishum.
Speaker B:And you had like illogical sequences happening in between and then they just decided to have fun.
Speaker B:So that's how I saw it.
Speaker B:So yeah.
Speaker B:But I'm very biased towards part one.
Speaker A:Well why do you think that is though?
Speaker A:Do you think that the success of these masala films and I play a big part in this because I love masala films.
Speaker B:We all love masala films.
Speaker B:It's okay, Benny.
Speaker A:But why, why is it so hard for these kind of films?
Speaker A:And I guess I should talk about the first one in that regard because when we're talking about these kind of slow burning spy thrillers, why is it been so hard in India to create such a.
Speaker A:Especially since we have this India, Pakistan conflict to drive, you know, so that can be the source for so many attempts.
Speaker A:But why is there, why did there seem to be more like very action heavy rather than these slow thrillers?
Speaker A:Do they not trust the audiences to just have the patience to kind of follow along?
Speaker B:I think so, because it's, it's a phase in time.
Speaker B:So if you see like 60s movies and 50s movie, when we were coming out of the.
Speaker B:After the independence, right, it was very social, heavy social messaging, you know, upliftment, empowerment of women and things like that, right.
Speaker B:Then your 70s were all the angry young man, dishoom, Dishoom, you know, Amitabh stole the show.
Speaker B:There was women had very little role to play in these movies.
Speaker B:So I think Bollywood goes through its phases.
Speaker B: S and: Speaker B:So really where would spy films find an audience at such a large scale?
Speaker B:Yeah, I think Durandar's success is also because like you said, the Bollywood performance, right?
Speaker B:In the last seven, we've not had.
Speaker B:We've not even had good stories.
Speaker B:Forget a good spy thriller.
Speaker B:We've not even had a good romantic story or a good film all round, good entertaining film.
Speaker B:We've not had that we can count on our hands.
Speaker B:And to me the other part was they were not even theatrical films, right?
Speaker B:Theatrical have to be a bit larger than life.
Speaker B:Like Chole was, you know, it has to have an impact on the whole psych of the audience where you'll keep repeating dialogues, you'll quote them in your daily life.
Speaker B:Durandar has come at the right time when the audience was actually starved for everything.
Speaker B:Good story, good action, good acting, good, good music.
Speaker B:And that is why the success is bigger.
Speaker B: Maybe if it had come in: Speaker B:Yeah, it would have been because we had some good films.
Speaker B:But that there was Baby, which was a decent spy film and we had Razi.
Speaker B:So they were well appreciated, but they were not like theatrical successes.
Speaker B:So yeah, that's my thing.
Speaker B:Just blended everything together at the right time.
Speaker A:I think the other thing, and you did kind of mention it earlier too, but you know, movies like Tinker Taylor, Soldier Spry or even Like a lot of these spy shows now.
Speaker A:Slow horses and I mean, even if we take.
Speaker A:This may not be the perfect example, but even a show like Family Man.
Speaker A:Yeah, right.
Speaker A:Yeah, It's.
Speaker A:It's done well.
Speaker A:It's doing well.
Speaker A:And that shows that we do have the audiences now who can appreciate it.
Speaker A:But bringing it to like a movie screen, to the big screen, where you're expecting people to sit for two and a half, three hours, I think just the audiences has definitely changed because now we are.
Speaker A:Thanks to streaming platforms.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker A:We are exposed to shows and movies from other countries.
Speaker A:We see what they do, what they do well.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And then when they make those same attempts here in India.
Speaker A:Well, I shouldn't say here in India, neither of us are in India.
Speaker A:But when they do make that in India, you know, people are able to appreciate that more right now.
Speaker A:But that's only like scratching the surface because I think at the end of the day you still need to do it well.
Speaker B:Right, Exactly.
Speaker A:I think for the longest time, film, because I've leaned on this crutch that, okay, the general audiences, they need four or five big fight scenes.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Even calling them action sequences is a stretch.
Speaker A:Just fight scenes.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:There's got to be like an item song.
Speaker A:There's got to be some illogical romantic subplots.
Speaker A:100%.
Speaker A:And so that's the template which for the longest time was kind of successful here and there.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Like with the.
Speaker A:With the right actors and the right music composers and right directors, things fall in place.
Speaker A:They become big hits.
Speaker A:And then everyone just wants to do the same thing over and over again.
Speaker A:And that's why I appreciate someone like Aditya Dar who.
Speaker A:And we'll talk about all the conversations surrounding him and the films, but credit where it's due, he's been able to come almost like get the best of both worlds.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Try to get that very slow boiler.
Speaker A:Okay, here's this guy who's infiltrated.
Speaker A:But how does he infiltrate?
Speaker A:And not just rushing through it.
Speaker A:And I'm talking about the first part, not just rushing through it, letting you know everything, breathe, letting characters kind of.
Speaker A:It's like show, don't tell.
Speaker A:Right, don't tell.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker A:Letting the character, just by their actions, by their words, you kind of get, as an audience, you get an idea of who they are and what their motivations are.
Speaker A:And Aditya Dar combines that with also a little bit of the masala element that Indian audiences are used to.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:We need the dramatic action, we need a dramatic hero.
Speaker A:You know, like where he gets now, you know the kids call it aura forming, right?
Speaker B:Yeah, correctly, you're right.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Ranvi does that well, but not just Ranveer, like all of the other guys.
Speaker A:Arjun Rampa does Akshay Kana does Sanjay Dutt does Madhavan.
Speaker A:Even with that look that he has got going, he still gets some really good mass scenes, as they say.
Speaker A:So I think that's been the secret to the success for Durandar is just that the director was able to get the best of both worlds.
Speaker A:And I don't know because the other question is now whenever there's a movie that becomes very successful, everybody tries to copy it.
Speaker A:So are we going to see a spate of Durandar like films, you know, in the next few years, but more importantly, are they going to be any good?
Speaker B:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker B:I think, see, this is the danger, right, people, you get a formula and you want to emulate it, but not everybody has a skill and talent to do it.
Speaker B:And when you, when you see the Rundar and when you see try to compare it from the events it was inspired from, you appreciate the research that has gone into this film to the minutest details in building the whole Lyari town in Thailand.
Speaker B:The set designs, the costumes, the look, etc.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:A lot of, lot of work has gone into it.
Speaker B:You need a team to put that effort in, into it.
Speaker B:And I don't think a lot of people do that.
Speaker B:Which is why Bollywood is in the state that it is today.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:Y' all are just trying to do all of the films.
Speaker A:It's funny that, you know, one of the most popular memes going around since the movie success is like peak detailing.
Speaker A:Yeah, right.
Speaker B:I don't think Aditya Dhar had thought about all this peak detail.
Speaker A:No, I mean he.
Speaker A:I saw that he took it in good sport too because he had like tweeted something some while ago referencing that meme.
Speaker A:I was just thinking, you know, it's all fun and a good humor, but isn't it kind of sad that a director taking time to detail his movie?
Speaker A:It is so refreshing because it's not so common that we're kind of making fun of it.
Speaker A:But that's what every director should be doing.
Speaker A:Because I was looking at, you know, when I watched the movie the first part the first time and you know, they show in the movie, it's Pakistan, right?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And there's a lot of detail heavy, very specific to that region.
Speaker A:And I was thinking how much of this was just kind of made up for the movie's sake.
Speaker A:And I went online Later And I was like, a lot of people from Pakistan were saying he was pretty good.
Speaker A:He captured a lot of things very accurately.
Speaker A:And I thought that's very impressive.
Speaker A:Especially when we don't really have like a, you know, India and Pakistan don't really have a great relationship where like there can be like, let me go to Pakistan and like get all these details.
Speaker A:Like, he can't do that.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:He can't do that.
Speaker B:He can't do that.
Speaker A:Yeah, that was definitely impressive.
Speaker B:You should see Benny.
Speaker B:Like I said, I have not seen a film evoke so much discussion and so many memes.
Speaker B:Like people are enjoying all.
Speaker B:And the thing is, if you go to Reddit and if you go to Twitter, there are like threads and threads of Easter eggs in the film and you know, Aditya's ode to old Bollywood.
Speaker B:And you know, in terms of did you all notice this connection then when Part two came out?
Speaker B:This is how Jameel Jamali was behaving and things like that.
Speaker B:You know, all these connections and that means people are invested.
Speaker B:You've got the audience invested, right?
Speaker B:You, you've got the audience invested.
Speaker B:People want to find out about Akshay Khanna's old films and people want to go watch Madhavan's old films things.
Speaker B:So you've got your audience hooked so much that people can't stop talking about it.
Speaker B:And that's what I'm saying.
Speaker B:He is good at his craft.
Speaker B:We will come to all the controversy around and his views but I firmly believe that people are allowed to express their ideologies and their opinions through their art.
Speaker B:And that's what they're doing.
Speaker B:You can reject it or you can disagree with it but you cannot say that they are not good at their craft because Aditya Dhar is excellent at his craft of movie making.
Speaker B:So yeah, what's the debate?
Speaker A:Let's quickly talk about the second movie and why we can't really hold it at the same level as the first part.
Speaker A:Do you feel like it was just the pressure of expectations that we just all went with very high expectations that this is going to match the same level as, you know, the first one or was it just that just ran out of steam, you know, and I'll have my thoughts on it, but yeah, you can go first.
Speaker B:Yes, I, I was, I think my expectations were really high simply because I don't get Slow Burn movies like such a well crafted Slow Burn movie.
Speaker B:I'm not, honestly, I haven't seen in, in Bollywood in a long time.
Speaker B:So I was expecting it to Follow the same pace.
Speaker B:I didn't expect it to be so full.
Speaker B:By the way, I have very low tolerance for violence, Benny.
Speaker B:I was a big mafia gangster movie fan before war movies and all.
Speaker B:I still like war movies, but I can't do violence anymore.
Speaker B:But I have actually watched a lot of action sequences from part one an unhealthy amount of times.
Speaker B:I'm obsessed with the action.
Speaker B:It was so well choreographed.
Speaker B:But in part two, the action started dragging so much.
Speaker B:I was like, okay, so stop now.
Speaker B:This is.
Speaker B:This is not making sense.
Speaker B:You're just dragging it.
Speaker B:Lot of slow mo shots happening, random bombs flying all over, like, okay, this is dragging it too much.
Speaker B:I also felt.
Speaker B:And this is my part two.
Speaker B:Arjun Rampal is a very average actor.
Speaker B:I think he did a great job in small scenes in part one.
Speaker B:Part two, he had to carry off where Akshay Khanna left off as the villain.
Speaker B:And I think part two lacked a strong antagonist to Ranveer's protagonist.
Speaker B:And that is where the.
Speaker B:The scales were uneven, whereas in part one they were evenly matched.
Speaker B:And, you know, that didn't work for me.
Speaker B:So I liked part two.
Speaker B:Enjoyable.
Speaker B:I wouldn't watch it in the theater again and again.
Speaker B:Like I said, yeah, it was too long.
Speaker B:I think it could have done with a bit of editing.
Speaker B:A lot of editing, actually.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And this is where I'll give the first of my hot takes, is that I think the run there should have been a trilogy.
Speaker A:I think it should have been a three parter.
Speaker A:Because a lot of you look at a lot of the best popular movies across, you know, Hollywood, Bollywood, whatever it is.
Speaker A:Some of the best ones are trilogies.
Speaker A:And what it does is it gives people, it gives characters enough time or it gives you as an audience to essentially go along with the character on their journey.
Speaker A:So by the time you come to the end, the culmination of all these, you know, three movies worth, you're fully invested.
Speaker A:But it also gives the director chance to kind of just space it out rather than, you know, in these two movies, even with the runtime for both these movies, by the end you're like, wait a minute, wait, how did that happen?
Speaker A:Why would this character do this right now in this situation that doesn't seem to match with what was before?
Speaker A:And I think that's where the first one was fine, because this literally the first movie.
Speaker A:And he did a very good job in spacing everything out and letting characters breathe and all that stuff.
Speaker A:The plot, plot lines breathe.
Speaker A:But in the second, especially after that first, really.
Speaker A:And We.
Speaker A:We should talk about this later after that amazing opening.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:You know, first 15, 20 minutes, I.
Speaker B:Guess it was, of part two.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:You're talking about part two.
Speaker A:Of part two, yes.
Speaker B:Excellent.
Speaker B:One of the best action sequences I've ever seen.
Speaker A:Agreed.
Speaker A:Absolutely fantastic.
Speaker A:But after that, especially when we kind of jump back to, I guess, the present.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:At least as far as in the movie was concerned, the present storyline especially, you know, once there's this gang wars that happened, that should have taken more time.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Because it was very rushed because obviously it felt like, okay, we need to get to the part where Hamza is now the big.
Speaker A:The leader, dawn, essentially.
Speaker A:And now all this, the ISI and everyone have to kind of work with him.
Speaker A:But remember, we ended the movie.
Speaker A:We ended the first part with Rahman Daket dying.
Speaker A:And from there, essentially jumping over there and getting Hamza in the top seat.
Speaker A:It should not be that kind of like a montage.
Speaker A:Driven.
Speaker A:Okay, this.
Speaker A:All this happens and now Hamza is in the chair, Right?
Speaker A:Correct.
Speaker A:Because that's very fascinating because we've already established in the first movie, this is all that Hamza has to do to even ingratiate himself to decade and then eventually get to essentially what, third level?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Like the third person.
Speaker A:But.
Speaker A:And so you've done that really well in the first movie and then the second movie, you're kind of like rushing over it and be like, all right, here it is.
Speaker A:Hamza is the main guy.
Speaker A:And now let's look at the rest of this movie.
Speaker A:And I felt that was.
Speaker A:That would have been a very fascinating.
Speaker A:Like that gang war component would have been really fascinating if they had just let it breathe.
Speaker A:And I think, again, I'm not a director.
Speaker A:I've not been trained in anything.
Speaker A:But as the humble audience member, I would say first movie, perfect as it was.
Speaker A:Second movie, let's focus on Raymond essentially taking control of the gang.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Just focus your.
Speaker A:It doesn't have to be three hours long.
Speaker A:Make it sharp to R15 where he essentially gains control.
Speaker A:He has to, like, manipulate Uzair, he has to beat the gang.
Speaker A:While also, like dealing with what's his name?
Speaker A:Jamil.
Speaker A:Jamil Jamali.
Speaker A:And Sanjay Dutt's character.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:And Spslam.
Speaker A:And so.
Speaker A:And then once you've done that in the second movie, in the third movie, now you've got the big clash.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Like the big.
Speaker A:The whole point of this whole series, it's about an Indian spy infiltrating Pakistani gangs to essentially get more information about ISI and kind of Essentially thwart their plants.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Correct.
Speaker B:Dismantle the whole Nexus and network.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:That.
Speaker A:That's what I've been.
Speaker A:That's where I think the second movie didn't feel very even.
Speaker A:It just felt very rushed in one part.
Speaker A:And then suddenly here it is, the whole conflict.
Speaker A:Yeah, I agree that that's why the second one didn't work as well for me.
Speaker A:And like you said, it didn't really have the best antagonist.
Speaker A:No, actually I kind of just stole all the thunder in the first one.
Speaker A:And yeah, I think the second movie struggled for the lack of it.
Speaker A:And I feel, in fact, I feel like they should have made Arjun Rampal's character more menacing, if you wanted to.
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker A:Keep it up to that level.
Speaker B:Should we come to that?
Speaker B:And should I just say that the whole angle about his daughter and his family and his dad, like trying to humanize him.
Speaker B:Sometimes people are just evil and they can be that.
Speaker B:And I thought that's where he was headed because the way that one spy scene that they show him torturing the Indian spy in, which puts Ranveer's character Hamza on a complete back foot, I felt that that's where he was headed.
Speaker B:And I'm like, okay, great here, as a director was going to stick him, like make the villain a villain and not humanize him.
Speaker B:We don't have to humanize all villains.
Speaker B:Some people are evil and he didn't do that.
Speaker B:And I was like, oh, these scenes are taking me out of the movie.
Speaker B:Honestly.
Speaker A:Yeah, I mean, if, even if, or if you were to humanize him, all of those scenes had to mean something in the end.
Speaker B:Yeah, they didn't.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:He didn't, but because when you look at Arjun Rampal's character, that the whole relationship between, between his dad as well as his care for his daughter, like it didn't really make any difference to his character or character motivation.
Speaker A:He was still the same evil guy who hates Indians and, you know, he kills his dad in the end, but it doesn't matter whether he killed him or not because in the larger plot of the movie, yeah, it doesn't really make any difference.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:Yeah, I agree.
Speaker A:There were things that could have been left out and this would have.
Speaker A:The movie would still have been sharper for it.
Speaker A:So it's, you know, even with all those shortcomings, second part was still good.
Speaker A:The second part is still better than most Indian movies these days.
Speaker B:I absolutely agree.
Speaker B:So I am like, fine.
Speaker B:I, yeah, I am okay.
Speaker B:I can forgive Aditya for all these loopholes.
Speaker B:It's okay.
Speaker B:You still kept me entertained.
Speaker B:And there were a lot of like, you know, where you got on the seats and you whistled, you know the like we say which scenes did you want to get out of your seat and whistle?
Speaker B:So yeah, part two had quite a lot of those.
Speaker B:So yeah, I'm not complaining.
Speaker B:It's fine.
Speaker B:Well, but if I have to be objective in my review, this is how I would.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And speaking about whistle worthy moments, we talked about this in Project, the episode of Project Hail Mary that it's, it's great when filmmakers give what audiences crave for when they come to the cinemas.
Speaker A:Yeah, right.
Speaker A:Like you have to make something worth going to the cinemas for.
Speaker A:Otherwise all of us will just stay home and wait for the movies to come on streaming platform.
Speaker A:And I think that's where really got the pulse.
Speaker A:He was like, okay, this is what people want to see.
Speaker A:People want to see the good guys bashing the evil guys.
Speaker A:They want to see explosions.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:They want to see, you know, all this kind of violence on the so called bad guys.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So it was all very made for the theater goers.
Speaker A:So how was your, I guess experience of watching this in?
Speaker B:Loved it.
Speaker B:Benny.
Speaker B:There were like, I think there were three or four scenes which I can remember.
Speaker B:I was on the edge of my seat, literally at the edge of my seat, jaw dropping.
Speaker B:I'm like, what's gonna happen next?
Speaker B:Oh my God, is he gonna get caught?
Speaker B:Oh my God, is the car gonna hit?
Speaker B:Amazing.
Speaker B:Like especially the first part.
Speaker B:Also the background music was so on point that it so because I'd heard the like for part one, I'd heard the songs first so they were in my head.
Speaker B:Then I saw the scenes.
Speaker B:So the song got elevated 10x now because I've seen the scene and now I'm listening to the songs.
Speaker B:Now my experience is 100x.
Speaker B:Like I love it even more.
Speaker B:It was amazing.
Speaker B:There was so much, so many scenes I would say were like, you know, you get that Martin Scorsese's image.
Speaker B:Absolute cinema.
Speaker A:This is cinema.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, it's absolute cinema.
Speaker B:This was my expression all the time.
Speaker B:And like I said action sequence.
Speaker B:People forget action is just not bashing and randomly throwing things.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:There's a lot of art and style and thought process in how you get that action sequence in a movie which will grip an audience.
Speaker B:And you're talking female audience here.
Speaker B:Most of us will not like to see violence.
Speaker B:I don't now anymore.
Speaker B:At the age I am, I don't want to see any violence.
Speaker B:But I was hooked.
Speaker B:I really loved how Hamza instigates Rehman Daket to take down the henchmen of Babu Duket for having killed his son.
Speaker B:They all don't want to take revenge, but he instigates it.
Speaker B:And the way they go hunting down it reminded me of Munich.
Speaker B:Munich is one of my favorite movies.
Speaker B:The way they hunt down every single culprit.
Speaker B:I love that I watched it.
Speaker B:I watch it unhealthy amount of times.
Speaker B:Benny, now that it's on Netflix as well.
Speaker B:I love that you already said the part two action sequence.
Speaker B:One of the best 15 minutes I've watched in a film.
Speaker B:My favorite of course is the car scene at the end, which there couldn't have been better.
Speaker B:How do I say the dialogue that Akshay Khanna delivers?
Speaker B:Gaadi Rook.
Speaker B:He looks in the rear view mirror his eyes and then the soundtrack hits the banger.
Speaker B:The title track rap comes on and I was like, oh my God, what is this scene?
Speaker A:Trust me, we're gonna be talking about.
Speaker A:We'll talk about that scene because that is amazing.
Speaker A:Amazing right up there.
Speaker B:So if you ask, these are theater experiences.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:You have to be watching that aerial view of the man being dragged on the bike and the shots and the drone cameras and you know, the whole expanse of Balochistan when they go to see meet.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker B:Yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker B:It.
Speaker B:This is a theatrical movie.
Speaker B:This is.
Speaker B:I watched the movie on ott.
Speaker B:I don't get that kind of goosebumps that I get in the theater when watching dc.
Speaker A:Yeah, I.
Speaker A:It's funny like when I went to watch the first movie, I went a few weeks later because I think.
Speaker A:I don't know when it really was it November or something?
Speaker B:December 5th.
Speaker B:December.
Speaker A:So yeah, so not the best time for me because it's all.
Speaker A:It's the busy time of the month anyway.
Speaker A:So when I went to Washington theater There were like 10 people in this huge hall.
Speaker A:And sometimes with Indian movies watching them in the US it's 50 50, like what kind of crowd you're going to get.
Speaker A:Sometimes you get like really vocal audience member, you know.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So they're whistling or cheering, clapping and sometimes it's just like quiet all just sitting and watching without really reacting.
Speaker A:And this was a good mix where there were like a lot of whistle worthy or scenes which got people whistling.
Speaker A:I'm in general, I'm not the kind of movie watcher who cheers and claps and whistles.
Speaker A:I'm literally.
Speaker A:I'll sit in my seat and I'm like, okay, that was good, good, good cinema here.
Speaker A:I'm like a typical English test cricket watcher.
Speaker B:You're the MCC club, you know, just.
Speaker A:Club for a good scene.
Speaker A:Yeah, that version for a movie.
Speaker B:I'm the north stand.
Speaker B:I'm the north stand.
Speaker B:Van KDA girl.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:So I'm all in my movies, like, yelling and cheering.
Speaker A:You know, when I've gone with my friends to watch like, you know, these South Indian films where this typical South Indian masala movies, like these big actors.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Like right from the title card, people are whistling.
Speaker A:So I go with friends who do that.
Speaker A:And I'm the one who's just sitting there and be like, okay, let the movies start.
Speaker A:Okay, we start.
Speaker A:Let's see how this is.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:But I still enjoyed it.
Speaker A:I mean, I love watching mov.
Speaker A:I love watching movie in the cinemas with like a good crowd who are all very engaged.
Speaker A:And some of my most memorable movie watching experiences have been when there are a lot of people who are all like, into it and who gasp and laugh and like, sometimes even clap, like at certain moments.
Speaker A:But that kind of experience is rare.
Speaker A:I think I mentioned this at Project Hail Mary episode too, that movie audiences are not.
Speaker A:You are not always the best.
Speaker A:You never know what kind of audience you're gonna get.
Speaker A:Some other phones that are talking.
Speaker A:And so this one, luckily I didn't have any of that.
Speaker A:And so I enjoyed it.
Speaker A:I did watch it again when it came on Netflix.
Speaker A:But, yeah, overall this is definitely a movie made keeping the, you know, the movie theater audience in mind.
Speaker A:And I think that's why it helped drive people to keep coming back again and again.
Speaker A:And that, you know, because here's the other thing.
Speaker A:When people make these, let's say, indie films, right?
Speaker A:Like, or the indie film vibe or the award bait kind of films, they're all good movies.
Speaker A:But listen, if I go and watch it and I come out feeling sad or very contemplative, I'm gonna be like, that was a really good movie, but I don't want to watch it again.
Speaker B:Same.
Speaker A:And people are.
Speaker A:What people?
Speaker A:People wonder, why isn't this movie more successful?
Speaker A:Because we don't want to watch those kind of films again and again.
Speaker B:Exactly, exactly.
Speaker B:Watch it once and you get to order it and that's fine.
Speaker B:Or you think about it at home and that's fine.
Speaker B:So, Benny, I watched both Durandar 1 and Durandal twice in the theater.
Speaker B:The last movie I did that for, of course, Project Hail Mary came after that.
Speaker B:So I watched it twice again, but was oppenheimer like three years ago.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:The last Bollywood film, I don't know which I watched rewatched twice in the theater.
Speaker B:It had to be in Dubai, not here.
Speaker B:So that's like good 12 years, right?
Speaker B:Though I loved Gully Boy and we wanted to go watch again, but it had gone from the theaters.
Speaker B:So also you kind of miss like, I really wanted to go watch it.
Speaker B:I was in India for like exactly a week in March and this was just a week after Dhurandar had released.
Speaker B:And I really wanted to go and experience in Mumbai theatre.
Speaker B:It would have been so much fun.
Speaker B:I just didn't have four hours to spare at that point, so I couldn't.
Speaker B:But you know, like us UK crowd is pretty quiet.
Speaker B:But I think for the second movie we went in a.
Speaker B:We went like five of us went together, so we enjoyed it a lot more.
Speaker B:More.
Speaker B:So yeah, and the crowd had got a bit better because how the first movie had played out.
Speaker B:And then more crowds came in to watch the second movie, so it was more fun.
Speaker B:But yeah, this is like I said, this is such a good entertainment.
Speaker B:I want to go and get entertainment.
Speaker B:And you know, that's what my main objective of a movie is.
Speaker B:And Durandar entertained me on all fronts and whenever I saw it and people, oh, Meenal, it's so violent.
Speaker B:And why are you so loving it?
Speaker B:We are surprised you like it.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And I was like, do you guys not understand my movie taste?
Speaker B:Like, this is a solid movie.
Speaker B:And when I told my friends, go watch it.
Speaker B:They went and they all came back and they all said in Hindi, like, it was like Mazag.
Speaker B:Yeah, we had so much fun.
Speaker B:And that's the whole purpose of watching movie in a theater.
Speaker A:So do you think that after the success of these two movies, movies like Pathaan and you know, the Tiger, was it Tiger, right, Tiger, the whole Spy, the Wire of Spider verse.
Speaker A:What is your take on whether movies like that can succeed now that people have seen the Runner or is there a separate space for movies like that?
Speaker B:I think they'll still have the audience because Shah Rukh can still pull the crowds to the theater.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:It's the star part.
Speaker B:You still have Salman's fandom, so they will still pull.
Speaker B:The audiences who love them will still go watch those movies.
Speaker B:But I think a lot of us like me, to be honest, I went for Pathaan because it came after such a long time, right?
Speaker B:Covid.
Speaker B:And there was a Gap and no movie had come.
Speaker B:I'm not a big Shah Rukh fan and I was like, what the hell is going on?
Speaker B:But okay, we had our fun and we came out.
Speaker B:If I had watched it on ott, I would have just fast forwarded all the nonsense that was happening.
Speaker B:You can't be having two spies flying over on KGB headquarters.
Speaker B:That doesn't happen.
Speaker B:It's so unrealistic.
Speaker A:I forgot all about that.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:Yeah, exactly right.
Speaker B:See this is the thing.
Speaker B:You're gonna watch Pathaan, you're gonna watch War, you're gonna watch Ekta Tiger and forget about it.
Speaker B:You'll have fun at that moment.
Speaker B:And they're not going to get spoken about.
Speaker B:Nobody's going to go do peak detailing and write threads and threads of essays on what do you love?
Speaker B:What was the craft?
Speaker A:It's one of those where people will say, just leave your brain at home and go enjoy the movie.
Speaker B:Exactly right.
Speaker B:So I think those movies will still have their own audience, but audience like me who are in the middle, who are not.
Speaker B:I'm going to be like, I'm not wasting my money on Pathaan.
Speaker B:And I'm in the theatre now, Sorry, that's not happening.
Speaker B:I'll just wait for it to come out ott.
Speaker B:Whereas something like Durand that turns up.
Speaker B:I'm going to go again and again to the theatre.
Speaker B:If there's a re release, I'll go watch it again in the theatre.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:It's such a big, how do I say, intelligence IQ gap.
Speaker B:You can see because I feel like the movies of Pathandi, Aditya has given.
Speaker B:Has, how do you say, respected the audience's intelligence to taken a solid spy thriller.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yash Chopra, the yrf.
Speaker B:And people are still stuck in their DDLJ era of romance and love and bikini babes and all that stuff.
Speaker B:Fine works for a certain audience.
Speaker B:But I.
Speaker B:There might be a little bit of a backlash where half the people will be like, sorry, we don't want to watch this crap anymore.
Speaker B:You know, they're not gonna be blockbusters.
Speaker B:They'll be.
Speaker B:They'll recover them.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I think there are people who probably don't want to watch the render kind of films because maybe it's a little too close to reality and possible they don't want to see the harsher side of the spy life.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:So to speak.
Speaker A:The sacrifices.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:You know, there are people with lives that are really hard and they want to go watch a movie to forget about everything that's going on in their lives in the world.
Speaker A:They just want to laugh, just be entertained by the visuals and the music.
Speaker A:And for them, great yeah, it was.
Speaker A:And if those movies are kind of made right, it doesn't even have to be hyper realistic.
Speaker A:But like you said, a key thing you said was respecting the audience intelligence.
Speaker A:I think you can make movies in the vein of these YRF spy universe movies.
Speaker A:You can still make it respecting the audience intelligence.
Speaker A:Just don't, just don't throw stuff on the wall and be like this is mov, it's the movie, just enjoy it.
Speaker A:Just watch.
Speaker A:No, you have to give them something to be like, okay, you know, obviously this is not going to happen in real life, but it's entertaining to watch, you know?
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker A:That's all we're asking.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:How do I say?
Speaker B:So many films, if you see in Bollywood, if you look at it, nothing of that happens in reality.
Speaker B:But it's a story well told, right at the end what it is, it's a story well told.
Speaker B:You make me convinced about the characters, get me invested in them and I'm here for it.
Speaker B:Benny, you and I wouldn't be K drama fans.
Speaker B:Nothing is real close to reality in K drama.
Speaker B:But it's a story well told.
Speaker B:Like they have the most bizarre fantasy elements coming into people who are living normal lives like you and I are.
Speaker B:And it works because again it's a story well told.
Speaker B:So that's what I'm saying.
Speaker B:Respect your audience.
Speaker B:We, I will enjoy a no brainer entertainer but just, just do it right for me.
Speaker B:So yeah, I, and I think it can work.
Speaker B:I get the, I have enjoyed the backlash, I've enjoyed the memes, honestly, it has been great fun.
Speaker A:But before we, before we get to the backlash for these movies, for the render movies, let's talk about another thing that I think universally everyone agrees great part of the film was the music.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:I've not heard of this composer before.
Speaker A:I don't know what his past work.
Speaker A:But I will tell you that ever since the trailer dropped like you have been hooked on the soundtrack.
Speaker A:And I'll tell you, even now when I drive like in my car and I turn on my 6 year old and 3 year old ask me for the title track to be played, they don't know the name.
Speaker A:They don't know the name of the movie.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:But the moment that you know that Punjabi like yeah, the beat comes and then ladies and gentlemen, like they just know it.
Speaker A:So they'll just say oh dad played that ladies and gentlemen song.
Speaker A:And that's how much I'm listening to this.
Speaker B:It's, it's great.
Speaker B:I, I'm in awe of Shashwat.
Speaker B:So after Rehman, Rehman is like the revolutionary musician from.
Speaker B:For me, for our generation.
Speaker B:So look, 50s 60s is my favorite decade of Bollywood.
Speaker B:But that's a very different kind of music.
Speaker B:Very classical based, very pure.
Speaker B:In terms of staying truthful to all.
Speaker B:How do you say the foundation of music.
Speaker B:Great.
Speaker B:My parents loved it.
Speaker B:It came to me.
Speaker B:I love it too.
Speaker B:But 90s was all the soft romance songs that came up, right?
Speaker B:Your Chatin Lalits and your Nadeem Shravans and all very nice.
Speaker B:2000 Saw spate of great music directors.
Speaker B:I think is the best decade for me in terms of who all turned up.
Speaker B:Shankara San Loy and then Vishal Shekhar, Amit Trivedi.
Speaker B:Amitravedi is my second favorite after AR Rahman.
Speaker B:Like I love the variety they brought.
Speaker B:And for me directors who can mix genres, who can mix different styles of music are one level up for me.
Speaker B:Like that's another level of talent.
Speaker B:Shashwat mixed old songs, okay?
Speaker B:Like Kawali is like.
Speaker B:It's a different genre of music altogether.
Speaker B:Blends it with Rebelle who's like this young rapper.
Speaker B:Her voice, Benny.
Speaker B:I'm in love with her voice.
Speaker B:I'm not a rap person at all.
Speaker B:I don't understand much of rap music.
Speaker B:But her talent is at another level.
Speaker B:Humankind in the title track is insane.
Speaker B:And then he's got some more names.
Speaker B:I might forget token in this re re1 as well.
Speaker B:Just crazy, okay?
Speaker B:Like the.
Speaker B:The blend of voices, music genres is insane.
Speaker B:And you know what?
Speaker B:He has not disrespected the original song at all.
Speaker B:If you listen to so and NATO Karavaki Tala Shah, you know in the Ishka Jalakar.
Speaker B:That's the first song, right?
Speaker B:His entry song.
Speaker B:So his entry song and where the movie ends, that song and NATO Karabaki Pelasha is one Kawali.
Speaker B:It's a 12 minute Qawwali, okay.
Speaker B:Sung by Asha Bosley, Rafi and Manadhe.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And the fact that he doesn't destroy the original but reinvents it in his own style just blew my mind away.
Speaker B:Also the beauty I like is how they've used the lyrics.
Speaker B:The Qawwali is actually about Laila and Majnu.
Speaker B:It's about Majnu's love for Laila.
Speaker B:That paragraph that comes the ish kish kahe lines and they've turned it to beautifully express the life of a spy.
Speaker B:It's yeah, the lyrics if you see, you know, So to turn a romantic romance hero lyrics into a Spy.
Speaker B:And it fits so beautifully.
Speaker B:There's a lot of thought that has gone into this.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:All the 90s songs.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Tamma, Tamma Loge, which was Sanjay Dutt's biggest hit number.
Speaker B:Then you know, Monica in the chase.
Speaker B:The chase, the bike chase is just.
Speaker B:I want Aditya Dhar's and Shashwat's playlist.
Speaker B:I just love how they've, what they've done with the music.
Speaker B:So can't complain.
Speaker B:Like what a great goated soundtrack Benny, he has given across both the albums.
Speaker A:So for me, you know, casual fan of Hindi movies or Bollywood movies, not super familiar with all the music composers over the decades.
Speaker A:But for this specific one, what I should mention is when you take this story, right, it's a, it's.
Speaker A:It's essentially a spy movie.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Like India, Indian spy in Pakistan.
Speaker A:You can kind of, you can either do a comedic take almost.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Just forget like based on true story part of it all.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:You can make like a bumbling spy.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Trying to figure out or trying to save.
Speaker A:Like, let's say there's like an event that he has to like stop.
Speaker A:And you can make it like an action comedy or you can make it like a very dark spy thriller or somewhere in the middle.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:You can go different.
Speaker A:You can, you can make different narrative and creative choices to essentially choose which way you want to go.
Speaker A:Now a big thing that, a big factor that plays a role in this is the tone of the film.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:What does it get influenced by apart from performances?
Speaker A:Story is the music.
Speaker A:Now if you just took the music out of this film.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And the story, it's still good, but it doesn't have the same impact as a, as a movie watcher without the music.
Speaker B:Yes, yes.
Speaker A:Because the tone of the movie is always like, yes, this is all like very serious and dramatic and like action, all that stuff.
Speaker A:But there's an element of fun.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:To the soundtrack.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:It almost reminds you like.
Speaker A:Yes, this is like serious stuff.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker A:You know, it's a matter of like a spy and it's about sacrifice.
Speaker A:It's about, you know, saving people's lives.
Speaker A:But there's still like element of like, oh, this movie is fun to watch.
Speaker A:You know, it's, it's not like a slog for three, four hours across the two movies we can actually enjoy because the soundtrack actually complements it so well that you're hyped at the right places.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:They're like poignant moments and other point in scenes which again the music comes in and kind of Elevates that, right?
Speaker A:So he really, the Shashrath really hits the right notes.
Speaker A:Literally, absolutely at the right places.
Speaker B:When you talk about how the songs have elevated, you know, Rehman, the Kitakshay Khanaaz.
Speaker B:This dialogue went viral, right?
Speaker B:Salaam Ali Kumliyari.
Speaker B:The way he says it, the build up in that song.
Speaker B:And the singer also has such a powerful voice.
Speaker B:Also, Punjabi songs have a natural, like, pull you up, right?
Speaker B:Like, great, upbeat, you know, just lift you up and literally.
Speaker B:Benny.
Speaker B:I watched that scene twice in the theatre and I've watched it umpteen times on television.
Speaker B:Even now it feels like I'm watching it for the first time and I get goosebumps.
Speaker B:I get literal goosebumps because of the way the music builds up.
Speaker B:He comes and sees and the camera spans and the crowd, there's so much of crowd.
Speaker B:And you realize the enormity of his popularity despite being this gang murderers, gang leader.
Speaker B:But the impact that scene has and Rakesh Bedi's expressions and everything comes so well.
Speaker B:But the music just elevates it.
Speaker B:Like, without that song, that would have been a pretty okay scene.
Speaker B:You know, it wouldn't have left that impact where you're, like, thinking about it and you're like, okay.
Speaker B:And obviously Fastla went viral because of his step and, you know, it went bonkers.
Speaker B:Like, my entire Instagram feed was only about Akshay Khanna dancing and doing those.
Speaker B:But am I complaining?
Speaker B:I'm not.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And we'll talk about those scenes.
Speaker A:We'll talk about the, you know, our favorite songs and all that later.
Speaker A:But, you know, let's keep moving because we have to talk about the debates or controversies and we.
Speaker B:And we'll come to the performances later, right?
Speaker A:Because we have to come back to the performances.
Speaker B:Like how much I've loved Ranveer in this movie.
Speaker B:I have to talk about it.
Speaker A:But before that, one of the first criticisms that I remember reading about, even before I watched the film was about, you know, toxic masculinity or like very hyper, you know, masculinity.
Speaker A:And obviously there was a lot of criticism, but equally pushed back against those criticisms.
Speaker A:It was, you know, that didn't deter me from going to the movies, but I.
Speaker A:It did put, like this almost like a pause in my head.
Speaker A:I was like, is it one of those, like, animal kind of movie?
Speaker A:So what is your take on that?
Speaker B:I guess as a, as a.
Speaker B:As a.
Speaker B:As a female and as somebody who's.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Your perspective is very important.
Speaker B:Very important.
Speaker B:Also, I'm very vocal about Feminism and you know, women rights and all.
Speaker B:I'm very vocal.
Speaker B:Those who know me, Animal was very misogynistic.
Speaker B:I couldn't get through 20 minutes of that movie.
Speaker B:And the scenes that I saw, I was like.
Speaker B:I was like, first of all, all the reviewers who are saying putting Animal and Durandar in the same breath, I cannot take you seriously.
Speaker B:You don't understand feminism.
Speaker B:You are a false.
Speaker B:What do you say?
Speaker B:You're a false propaganda of feminism.
Speaker B:That's how I would call it.
Speaker B:No Durandar to me.
Speaker B:Okay, Benny, I have a question for you.
Speaker B:What is toxic masculinity?
Speaker B:What is this hyper masculinity?
Speaker B:Are you expecting RAW and ISI agents to go into Taj 5 star hotel and have a high tea and hug it out?
Speaker B:Is that what you're expecting to happen?
Speaker B:And honestly, do you think female spies are going to be sent to Pakistan gangs to infiltrate Pakistan gangs?
Speaker B:Do you know what kind of violence you will be subjecting them to?
Speaker B:Which agency would do this?
Speaker B:So what is it?
Speaker B:If your complaint is that the movie didn't have enough female roles, fine, Agreed.
Speaker B:Honestly, in the plot, where would you have fit the females and the two that were there?
Speaker B:There weren't any derogatory dialogues on women.
Speaker B:None of them were subjected to any kind of violence.
Speaker B:There was a lot of scope, right, to show violence against women in this movie.
Speaker B:And they didn't do that.
Speaker B:And both the women ended up slapping their respective spouses.
Speaker B:So what?
Speaker B:What is the problem with the hyper masculinity?
Speaker B:What?
Speaker B:You want a clean shaven suit, booted Runway to be walking into a mafia gang in.
Speaker B:In.
Speaker B:I don't know what kind of in the way Liari is.
Speaker B:Let's be little objective in our criticism.
Speaker B:There were no kissing scenes.
Speaker B:There was no nudity.
Speaker B:There was a lot of debate over the age gap between Ranveer and Sara.
Speaker B:And I was like, clearly y' all have not watched any of the Khans romancing.
Speaker B:They are stars who are 23 younger to them.
Speaker A:Don't drag Shah Rukh Khan into this, okay?
Speaker B:Why not?
Speaker B:Why not?
Speaker B:Why not?
Speaker B:Oso, Om Shanti, Om Ramti, Manadi, Jodi, Dipika, Anushka.
Speaker B:Like 20 years younger to Shara work.
Speaker B:No age gap problems that time.
Speaker B:Anyway, I don't have a problem.
Speaker B:There was nothing creepy and they justified the age gap also in that film.
Speaker B:The.
Speaker B:The way the scenes were outlayed.
Speaker B:Okay, There was nothing which made you cringe as a woman.
Speaker B:I didn't feel anything was made me uncomfortable watching this movie.
Speaker B:So yeah, no, I don't I don't have any problem.
Speaker B:I don't see the hyper masculinity or toxicity in this movie.
Speaker B:I want to know what was toxic towards women.
Speaker B:Towards women.
Speaker B:I'm talking about.
Speaker A:I mean, if you're talking about toxic masculinity, a great example is what you just mentioned.
Speaker A:Animal.
Speaker A:You watch that movie, and I know it has its fair share of fans and people who love the movie.
Speaker A:And that's fine from a technical point of view, that movie was great.
Speaker A:But that is a textbook case of toxic masculinity.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:I know the director likes to justify his movies because he writes roles.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Characters like that.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And he, you know, he's talked about, like, how these are.
Speaker A:The men are like that, and that's his worldview.
Speaker A:Like, men are like that and that's how they behave.
Speaker A:And not saying that is right, but that's who they are.
Speaker A:I'm like, fine, but my issue is when you glorify those traits and make it almost heroic or the man has to behave like that to achieve something, I'm like, okay, that's where I disagree.
Speaker A:And so that, to me, is toxic masculinity.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker A:This movie doesn't have those traits.
Speaker A:So I don't get where that comes from.
Speaker A:Because, you know, just going further from your example, what you said, an Indian spy in Pakistan, Right.
Speaker A:Like, Ranveer Singh's character, Hamza, so he comes in one.
Speaker A:He needs to be both vulnerable but also, like, stand up for himself.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So he has to, like, fight.
Speaker A:Fight off these guys who are essentially trying to sexually assault him in that.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker B:That's the first scene.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:I'm like, there's nothing masculine about that.
Speaker A:For a big hero to even, like, say, fine, I'll do that scene where I'm almost about to get assaulted.
Speaker A:And then he is.
Speaker A:He enters this gang world, the.
Speaker A:The Pakistani underworld.
Speaker A:And you cannot, like you said, it's like kill or be killed kind of environment.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:There is no.
Speaker A:This is not like classic spycraft, as you would see in the west, where it's all, like, you know, secretive and, like, secret deals made in, you know, hotel rooms.
Speaker A:These are like, violence is always the first thing.
Speaker A:It's like violence first and then talk later.
Speaker B:Right, Exactly.
Speaker A:So if you're depicting that as a filmmaker, you have to be true to that tone and what you're trying to convey about this world that Hamza is in.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And so he has to behave the way he did.
Speaker A:So to me, as a movie, I am not watching that and thinking, oh, man, they should have toned down that violence or they shouldn't.
Speaker A:No, they should not have depicted it that way because in the context of this story and this world that Aditya Dar has created, it makes total sense.
Speaker A:He's not like you said, he didn't behave any of the characters.
Speaker A:They were not behaving badly towards women and then justifying it.
Speaker A:Which is what exactly Animal did.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And all these characters are generally acting from a place of self, you know, like just survival, self preservation and survival.
Speaker A:So you have to fight.
Speaker A:And that's what they're doing now.
Speaker A:The depiction of violence or the glamorizing of violence, it made for one entertainment and it's not made in a very gory way.
Speaker A:I don't think any of those hyper violence is even like the decapitation which is probably the most extreme one I can think.
Speaker A:I couldn't watch the torture scene where Arjun Rampal's character torches that Indian spy.
Speaker A:Like sure, those are the extreme but that is not.
Speaker A:That doesn't meet the definition of toxic masculinity.
Speaker A:It's not coming from a place of I'm a man, that's why I'm doing it.
Speaker A:It's coming from a place for Rahman decade.
Speaker A:It's more from a place of like ego and like I'm in control of this area and its people.
Speaker A:That's where his violence comes from.
Speaker A:And for Arjun Rampa it all, it always comes from this place of Pakistan is greater than India.
Speaker A:And yeah, this is how I behave towards people like that.
Speaker B:Correct.
Speaker A:I don't understand where masculinity, the topic of masculinity comes from.
Speaker B:So that's something I do get, you can pull out.
Speaker B:Forget Animal.
Speaker B:Animal is also very violent film.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:And the creator has created those kind of like the toxic masculinity films.
Speaker B:But even if you pick up any.
Speaker B:Some of, some of the Bollywood romances where if you go and watch again and you know you realize they've not aged well and you're like this is toxic masculinity.
Speaker A:Okay, yeah.
Speaker B:Tdlj Simran had, we spoke about this.
Speaker B:Simran had no agency.
Speaker B:So much of toxicity you can see in that from her father.
Speaker B:But the girl had no choice.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:So come on, let's, let's.
Speaker B:You want to.
Speaker B:The problem Benny, I've had with people who've not liked the movie, nobody has criticized fairly.
Speaker B:Like it's not constructive the criticism.
Speaker B:It is coming from their biases, their prejudices.
Speaker B:They've made some.
Speaker B:They have notions about Aditya's ideologies the way the film has been made.
Speaker B:And that is why now they're finding false to.
Speaker B:How do you say, the hanging by threads.
Speaker B:Oh, you know, men, too many men.
Speaker B:So it's toxic.
Speaker A:Mass clutching at straws is.
Speaker A:Clutching at straws is the right word in this specific criticism at least.
Speaker A:Agreed, agreed.
Speaker A:You know, the funny thing is this was the first criticism, so to speak, of the movie that kind of became gained a lot of traction online.
Speaker A:But obviously the biggest talking point out of this two movies was essentially what you just mentioned, you know, the ideology depicted or this whole debate over what is propaganda, what is not.
Speaker A:And is this movie essentially a propaganda for the ruling party in India?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:What is your take on it?
Speaker A:I. Yeah, what is your take on it?
Speaker B:So I felt there were.
Speaker B:I didn't think the first part was.
Speaker B:I don't think it's a propaganda film if you ask me.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:The first part, there are three dialogues which R. Madhavan's character says which are like portraying the current government as having done everything right, which is a bit laughable.
Speaker B:And I could ignore it because they were so inconsequential to the whole film.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So I could ignore those and enjoy the film completely.
Speaker B:In part two I felt it was overdone, like justifying demonetization.
Speaker B:Sorry.
Speaker B:It was laughable.
Speaker B:So I can laugh it off because I like the movie so much.
Speaker B:I can totally laugh it off.
Speaker B:But if you are so driven.
Speaker B:And by the way, I don't, I don't have strong political ideology to the left or to the right.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:So you could say bit of center fright maybe.
Speaker B:I don't know, I don't have such.
Speaker B:Or I don't go to what to watch films with my political hang ups in my head.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And that's not how I watch my films because I've enjoyed Heather, I've enjoyed Parzania, I've appreciated how good those movies are and the craft.
Speaker B:I've liked Razi.
Speaker B:So there are many movies which are at the opposite end of the spectrum of what Dhurandar is.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:But I like both of them.
Speaker B:So yes, I felt part two had bits and scenes and dialogues which were like clearly hinting that hey, I think the current government is fab.
Speaker B:But that's his ideology.
Speaker B:So you can disagree with his ideology.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:You can't debate the fact that he's created an out.
Speaker B:He's outstanding at his craft and he's created a great story.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Like you, I'm not very familiar with Indian politics or the different competing ideologies.
Speaker A:And stuff.
Speaker A:So I'm not going to take any stance on that because that would come from a state of not being well informed.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:But when it comes to this movie specifically, my, my whole thing is what lens am I watching this from?
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Am I watching this as a.
Speaker A:Based on a true story?
Speaker A:Like very strictly based on true stories.
Speaker A:Closely adhering to the facts.
Speaker A:Yeah, well, clearly not because Hamza is a work of fiction.
Speaker A:Like, I mean the wider context is based on real characters and based on real events.
Speaker A:But when the central character himself is a work of fiction, I as an audience cinema go where I'm like, okay, this movie is not based on real events for me.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:If it was really based on real events, not just like inspired by.
Speaker A:Yeah, there's going to be a lot more truth to it.
Speaker A:But also it's not going to be as interesting to watch.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker A:It's just going to be by the bus.
Speaker A:And you know when you look, when you do some digging behind a lot of these characters.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Especially the terrorists who hijacked.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Part of that hygiene, like how he died or even sp Islam how he died.
Speaker A:Even Rahman, decades like actual like standing in Pakistani society.
Speaker A:Society and how he was seen by people.
Speaker A:When you do do some digging into it, none of that is close to how they've been depicted in this.
Speaker A:No, they, they have.
Speaker A:Aditya has taken elements of their character and elements of the story and then woven.
Speaker A:They're under.
Speaker A:Together.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker A:So for me, I'm just watching it as fiction.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:That is loosely inspired by true events.
Speaker A:So when I look at it through that prism, I'm not going in thinking like, wait a minute, no, that didn't happen.
Speaker A:Like they should not have shown that.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:And honestly I don't care because I'm just going to watch this movie to be entertained.
Speaker A:Now did that movie entertain?
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:It did entertain me.
Speaker A:Now when they showed certain things like when they cut to like certain real events that happened, be it like the Mumbai terror attacks back on the parliament or even like Modi's speech, second one.
Speaker A:Sure, that takes you out a little bit.
Speaker A:But again, in the larger scheme of things, I get what this movie is.
Speaker A:It's about an Indian spy with a strong moral and patriotic code that he's living by.
Speaker A:And there's been events in his past that's made him disillusioned, which I really should mention was actually one of the first few really strong points.
Speaker A:The second movie is that they don't show Ranveer Singh's Character as blindly patriotic.
Speaker B:No.
Speaker A:Remember he comes from a place of disillusionment.
Speaker A:When he's first tried to.
Speaker A:When Sanyal and I forget the other character when they try to recruit him.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:He's essentially coming from a place of like this country has done nothing for me.
Speaker A:It's only given me anguish.
Speaker A:Essentially destroyed my family, like why do I care?
Speaker A:You know, so that person's arc from where he was in that point to essentially sacrificing his whole life so that he can thwart terrorists on the other side of the border, you know, that is like, that is quite an art.
Speaker A:And that's the kind of stuff that I enjoy watching.
Speaker A:And I, I'm thinking as a movie, this is what Aditya wanted to convey.
Speaker A:He does that effectively.
Speaker A:All these other things I can leave it.
Speaker A:It does not impact my movie watching experience where I would say, oh wait, this movie is propaganda and it's like trying to change the narrative.
Speaker A:As if there were more dialogue scattered throughout the films or there was more appearances by Modi throughout and justifying every single thing.
Speaker A:Then I would have been like, okay wait, what is this movie?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:So that did not happen for me.
Speaker A:And so I, I watched this movie and I remember by the time I got to watching the movie I was aware of all this debate.
Speaker A:And even since then, in the past few months and then after the render 2 came out even more.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And even more prominent voices like, even like directors and movie personalities even in this south India.
Speaker A:So southern cinema have voiced it.
Speaker A:And so it's all led to this conversation.
Speaker A:But I came out of it after having watched these both, both these movies.
Speaker A:I didn't come out of it thinking, oh man, I was totally wrong.
Speaker A:Like they did all of this.
Speaker A:Like the ruling party did all of this and they're the true heroes.
Speaker A:I didn't get any.
Speaker A:To me they were like almost like side characters or like side plots which.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Or these events, these actual true events that happened, they're actually taken and put in this movie to essentially trigger this next scene.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So that's how I saw it.
Speaker A:I enjoyed the two movies and I didn't necessarily see it as a propaganda movie but I do understand why people are upset about.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Or triggered.
Speaker A:Yes, that's a perfect word in this situation.
Speaker B:But my.
Speaker B:Again, so people have gone to extremes.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:They are saying that oh if you love the movie then you're a right winger and you know, you're brainwashed and you know, you fell for the propagand.
Speaker B:I'm sorry, like do not disrespect my intelligence to this extent.
Speaker B:Okay?
Speaker B:Yeah, I will doubt your intelligence if you rate Pathaan 9 on 10 and tell Durandar is crap.
Speaker B:Sorry.
Speaker B:You have no business being a film reviewer.
Speaker B:You should resign and retire.
Speaker B:That's my view also.
Speaker B:Again, we are intelligent enough, Benny, to understand that's hyping up the government.
Speaker B:I don't think so.
Speaker B:I. I do read.
Speaker B:I do understand.
Speaker B:I may not be that politically driven or I may not be that interested, but I'm not stupid, right?
Speaker B:None of us are stupid.
Speaker B:I don't go to movies for moral lessons in life.
Speaker B:I don't watch movies for political lessons in life.
Speaker B:For that, you have to read the news and be well informed.
Speaker B:You cannot have thinking that films are going to brainwash a whole audience.
Speaker A:I mean, if there are people like that, that I know, that kind of terrifying.
Speaker A:I was gonna say it's kind of terrifying if there are people who watch movie and be like, oh man, there, that is the truth.
Speaker A:And whatever happened, that's real.
Speaker A:Like, okay, that's a separate problem.
Speaker B:That's a different problem.
Speaker B:And that's probably a handful of people.
Speaker B:Because honestly, nobody's getting influenced like this.
Speaker B:At least in today's day and age when we have so much access to information.
Speaker B:You ask me what's a propaganda film.
Speaker B:I have watched Kerala's story.
Speaker B:It's a crap film on all angles.
Speaker B:Pathetic acting.
Speaker B:Totally.
Speaker B:What do you say?
Speaker B:Biased narrative.
Speaker B:Really bad.
Speaker B:Really bad film.
Speaker B:Okay, now people say apparently that was a hit.
Speaker B:I don't think so.
Speaker B:It was not like a mass blockbuster.
Speaker B:I don't know anybody who has watched it completely.
Speaker A:It's in the news a lot.
Speaker A:I don't know if it actually.
Speaker B:But again, that's pr, right?
Speaker B:We are fed so much PR that that's what your algorithm will feed you if you start talking about it.
Speaker B:Honestly, a lot of people don't even know this movie happened, right?
Speaker B:So this is.
Speaker B:You can't compare Dhurandar and Kerala story, boss.
Speaker B:They're like, yeah, Kerala was a bad film.
Speaker B:That's it.
Speaker A:Well, the other thing too is I know there was a recent interview with Ram Gopala Verma, who loves Durandar, like way more than probably Aditya does.
Speaker B:Fairly.
Speaker B:Have you read?
Speaker B:So the only review that people should read about Dhurandar one especially is Ram Gopal Varma's Twitter thread.
Speaker B:The man's.
Speaker B:Everybody knows his craft, right?
Speaker B:Forget where he is right now, whether he's gone crazy.
Speaker B:Whatever his movies I have loved.
Speaker B:And like, he's.
Speaker B:He is Like, I loved all Shiva Satya.
Speaker B:I've watched all RGB movies, and the guy knows what he's talking about.
Speaker B:He has actually dissected Dhurandar's technical aspects of movie making so well.
Speaker B:It is the only review that matters to me.
Speaker B:It's the only review that I've loved and which has given me a great perspective on how good this movie is.
Speaker A:Yeah, I don't necessarily agree with him on everything, but he says something interesting.
Speaker A:He said, if Durandar is considered a propaganda, then let someone else essentially do their version of it from the other side.
Speaker A:And that made me think, that's a fair point.
Speaker A:Like, let's say another filmmaker with the complete opposite ideology to Aditya Darwin.
Speaker A:If he had made Durandar from his ideological point of view.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:But equally like on the technical aspect, equally brilliant.
Speaker A:Then guess what?
Speaker A:I will go and enjoy that movie because again, I'm enjoying the movie for the entertainment and the acting and the music.
Speaker A:I'm not going for its messaging or what it's like trying to, like, make you believe.
Speaker A:So it's.
Speaker A:Again, it's.
Speaker A:Through what lens are you watching it?
Speaker A:Are you watching it from the sense of, no, this has to conform to my political beliefs.
Speaker A:Like, then you're gonna be disappointed.
Speaker B:Yeah, but why?
Speaker B:Why does it have to conform to your political beliefs?
Speaker B:Okay, like, the leftists have gone against this movie completely.
Speaker B:Why we should only be making films about leftist ideology.
Speaker B:Why?
Speaker B:Why?
Speaker B:Yeah, like let people do.
Speaker B:Let you.
Speaker B:You all can bring in your ideology films and right wingers can bring their ideology films.
Speaker B:And you know what?
Speaker B:I'll just grab my popcorn and have the fun when you guys start fighting over it.
Speaker B:Like, I just want a good movie, boss.
Speaker B:I don't care about all these political ideologies.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I think there is space for those movies.
Speaker A:I'm not talking about, like, strictly propaganda movies because like the example that he gave with the careless story, like, obviously I would think that most people don't want to watch movies like that.
Speaker A:They do want to watch movies like Durandar, which is, sure, it borrows from real events, but ultimately, at the end of the day, it's a movie that when you're done watching it, you're like, man, I enjoyed those last three hours.
Speaker B:Exactly, exactly, Exactly.
Speaker A:I think we can leave it there because there's still so much more to talk about this film, especially the cast of this film.
Speaker A:Let's start right from the top.
Speaker B:Ranbir, number one performance.
Speaker B:I know.
Speaker B:Akshay Khanna's Rehman Daket.
Speaker B:Went viral and people rediscovered Akshay Khanna.
Speaker B:But for me, Ranveer was absolute star.
Speaker B:Absolute star.
Speaker B:It is the most.
Speaker B:I would say it was a master class in measured, understated acting.
Speaker B:Amazing.
Speaker B:The guy emoted through his body language and eyes so many times and so many scenes.
Speaker B:He was not supposed to be the flashy star in part one.
Speaker B:He's supposed to be working in the background.
Speaker B:That was his rule.
Speaker B:And he was fantastic also, Benny, I love Ranveer as an actor.
Speaker B:I can't stand him off screen.
Speaker B:So they're two different things.
Speaker B:Separate the art from the artist.
Speaker B:I do it very well when it comes to Ranbir.
Speaker B:I've loved all his movies except the ones which Sanjay, Leela Bhansali directed or Karan Johar directed.
Speaker B:But I still liked his performance.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:He was very good.
Speaker B:So to me, it came as no surprise that he pulled off this amazing performance.
Speaker B:He is a brilliant actor.
Speaker B:Whatever you all say.
Speaker B:He's great at his craft.
Speaker B:This is the pinnacle of his career.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:You know, I've.
Speaker A:I have been a fan of Ranveer from Band.
Speaker A:Yes, Band.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:His first film.
Speaker A:And I still feel Gully Boy is probably like his best performance.
Speaker A:I mean, it's hard to choose between this and the Rander.
Speaker A:But I absolutely loved his performance in Galiboi.
Speaker A:Oh, yeah.
Speaker B:Galiba was great.
Speaker B:He was amazing.
Speaker B:Again, very much in the background, not the star.
Speaker B:Understated.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:Brings that kind of characters to life on screen.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I honestly think that whenever Shahrukh Khan is done, I really think, you know, I know this will be a separate debate between Ranbir Kapoor and Ranbir Singh.
Speaker A:But I honestly feel Ranveer Singh has the ability to essentially be the next quote, unquote, superstar of Bollywood.
Speaker B:Can I.
Speaker B:Can I be a little controversial and say, sure, I think Ranveer is a better actor than a Shah Rukh.
Speaker B:Shahrukh is superstar.
Speaker A:I don't think that's controversial.
Speaker A:I love Shahrukh Khan, but I don't think he's a better actor at all.
Speaker B:So for me, Ranveer is the better actor between the two.
Speaker B:But you will not.
Speaker B:Shah Rukh is the last superstar.
Speaker B:That's my view.
Speaker B:We're just not in an age, Benny, where there will be superstars.
Speaker A:We're done with superstar.
Speaker B:We're done with superstardoms.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Ranveer will go down as one of the best actors in Bollywood.
Speaker B:100%.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I really think that, like you said, he can do both.
Speaker A:The very larger than life, very hyper character like Rocky, he was fun, but then it was like Gully boy or.
Speaker A:And at least the first part, you know, when he does this understated, where he's really has to be decided and just observe.
Speaker A:Yeah, right.
Speaker A:And just react.
Speaker A:Not this.
Speaker A:This is very common, like in Hollywood and, you know, the western films in general, I think they're very good at.
Speaker A:Actors are generally good at that.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:But in Indian cinema, I feel like for the longest time this belief is like acting is when you're just like dramatically crying and dramatically like moving your hands and like projecting your voice, you know, that kind of thing.
Speaker A:But obviously there have been a lot of great actors like Irfan Khan, most notably, who have shown that that's not the only way.
Speaker A:That's not the only measure of good acting.
Speaker A:And I think in this movie, as crowd pleasing it was, it's pretty impressive that for a movie as popular as this, you don't have the.
Speaker A:The main.
Speaker A:The protagonist, at least in the first part, he's mostly just responding to things and reacting to things, getting in a few scrapes here and there.
Speaker A:But for most part, he's just getting settled into this world.
Speaker A:He is learning how to manipulate and like how to be in certain scenarios and all that stuff.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:And I know there, there's another debate going on.
Speaker A:Like, good Ranbir Kapoor have pulled this role off or could he have been better than Ranbir Singh?
Speaker B:No.
Speaker A:Hands down, I agree.
Speaker A:I agree with the current crop of actors, including Ranbir.
Speaker A:I don't think anyone else could have done this role or well, at least as.
Speaker A:Not as well as Ranbir did.
Speaker A:Yeah, let's say that as well.
Speaker A:Or better.
Speaker A:And so, yeah, his performance, especially the transformation, like, you know, the first movie, like the long hair and this really like Viking vibe.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And then in the second, at least the first 15, 20 minutes of the second movie, he.
Speaker A:He almost looks like a college kid.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:You know, and so he looked.
Speaker A:And he.
Speaker B:He's 40, Benny.
Speaker B:And he looked 22 as Jasky Rath.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:When he goes on that revenge spree, he.
Speaker A:And a lot of that is body language, right?
Speaker A:Yeah, it's.
Speaker A:And this is something that I feel like Dhanush also is very good at because he's got such a youthful face, but he has portrayed like an old person and you know, his age and then also like a much younger, like, high school college kid.
Speaker A:And he can pull that off convincingly because not just based off their looks.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:It's how you carry yourself.
Speaker A:Because people in their 40s, their body language is very different to people in their 20s.
Speaker A:And so it's all in how you carry yourself.
Speaker A:And I think in this process, movie especially Ranbir gives like a masterclass.
Speaker A:I agree.
Speaker A:Like, even, you know, this debate between Ranbir, Ranveer, like, could Ranbir have played Animal?
Speaker A:Could Ranbir have done Dharandhar?
Speaker A:I'm like, listen, I'm gonna leave Animal alone.
Speaker A:I don't think anybody should have acted in that role.
Speaker A:But at least for Durander, I think Ranbir would have made a good attempt at it and he would have probably given his version of it.
Speaker A:But it would not have been better than.
Speaker B:No, no, not better than Ranvi.
Speaker A:So Aditya really lucked out on getting Ranveer for this role.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Aditya made a great call in getting Mukesh Chhabra as his casting director.
Speaker B:And people should go listen to Mukesh Chhabra's interview on how he went about casting all these people.
Speaker B:It's great insight into how hard filmmaking is because if you get the wrong guy for that role.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Your.
Speaker B:Your movie's success also depends.
Speaker B:Could get impacted.
Speaker A:Well, let's, let's talk about that then.
Speaker A:Akshay Kana, we.
Speaker A:We've talked about him or I don't know.
Speaker A:No, no.
Speaker A:I feel like we talked about Akshay Kana in general.
Speaker A:Maybe it was off.
Speaker A:Off mic or something.
Speaker A:But yeah, Akshay Khanna, the way he dominated his screen time.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:I get the hype.
Speaker A:But first of all, let me say Akshay himself, no question, always one of the best performers in Bollywood.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:I first saw him in Dil Chattahe, loved him in that.
Speaker A:And then over the.
Speaker A:He's been kind of sparse here and there.
Speaker A:He's not like he does like one prolific actor.
Speaker A:He's like the definition of a working actor.
Speaker A:He doesn't take himself too seriously.
Speaker A:The way he carries himself in interviews, he always seems like a very like.
Speaker A:Like, I'm just doing my job.
Speaker A:I'm not like, yeah, better than anyone else.
Speaker A:You know, that kind of attitude, which I admire.
Speaker A:But what I said when I get the hype is about the character that he plays in this Again, before I watched the movie, I was hearing a lot about Akshay Khanna's performance in this and like how he was so cool and this and that.
Speaker A:And I was like, I don't know, let me watch movie and then see, maybe this is just like hype and people just like, you know, creating real for.
Speaker A:No, just for the fun of it.
Speaker A:But I watched it and I was like, okay, he is magnetic.
Speaker A:He's very charismatic.
Speaker A:But I also left with this feeling of.
Speaker A:And it's the constraint of the movie and the constraint of the story, but I feel like we got way too less of him.
Speaker B:Yes, I felt the same.
Speaker A:I feel.
Speaker A:And again, his.
Speaker A:The actual character of Ramon Decade, obviously he could not have survived to both movies because, you know, that's for Hamza to advance, obviously.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:But the unfortunate downside of that was you lost out on a great performance which could have carried over into the second movie.
Speaker A:Because that's like we talked about earlier.
Speaker A:That was one of the kind of shortcomings where we didn't really have a good antagonist.
Speaker A:And so he just cleaned the plate.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:First movie.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:What did you think of his performance in this movie?
Speaker B:When was the last time women swooned over a negative character in Bollywood films?
Speaker B:Think about it.
Speaker B:Shahrukh in Dar and Bazigar, two and a half decades ago.
Speaker A:I mean, they don't really make good villains anymore.
Speaker A:That's the problem.
Speaker B:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker B:And this is a very well written villain.
Speaker B:Benny, there are fan fictions happening on Tumblr, okay, about Rehman da kid's romance with his wife.
Speaker B:Like, he hardly had two scenes with her.
Speaker B:Come on.
Speaker B:So women have completely fallen for Rehman da gate.
Speaker B:And I'm like, guys, he's a murderer.
Speaker B:He's a murderer.
Speaker B:At the end of the day, he's a murderer.
Speaker B:Why?
Speaker B:Why are we getting so dragged into this?
Speaker B:Yeah, but that's a charm that, like you said, magnetic, charismatic aura.
Speaker B:Farming Mog is another new word I've learned in the Gen Z lingo.
Speaker B:He did it all.
Speaker B:He did it all.
Speaker B:Also, I watched Chava at the start of the year where he played Aurangzeb.
Speaker B:Fantastic.
Speaker B:He was in the character completely.
Speaker B:If you put Aurangzeb and if you put Rema and the kid side by side, you cannot make out it's the same person and playing it.
Speaker B:That's how good he is at masking himself in the characters.
Speaker B:So everybody's like, what a comeback.
Speaker B:Faux Shekhana.
Speaker B:What a comeback.
Speaker B:I'm like, no, guys, he's going to be in the running.
Speaker B:If Durandar had not happened, he would be getting awards for Aurangzeb.
Speaker B:So he's already done a stellar job.
Speaker B:But, yeah, I think, you know, the.
Speaker A:Funny thing is when I watched the trailer, I thought he was, like, meant to be this very incompetent buffoon like character.
Speaker A:Because if you remember, in the trailer, I think he gets kind of, like, beaten up by Sanji Dutt's character, I think it's in that police jeep.
Speaker B:Oh, yes, yes, yes.
Speaker B:Okay, okay.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And then he comes out of the jeep with a smirk on his face.
Speaker A:I was like, maybe it's like a con man kind of character, you know.
Speaker A:And then you watch the movie and it's like, oh my goodness.
Speaker A:This is a completely different character.
Speaker A:Like just his entrance.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:You know, in the hospital.
Speaker A:And he's so menacing and he doesn't say much.
Speaker A:And that's the best kind of villainous performances where rather than the very hyper vocal, dramatic hand waving.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Villains is someone who doesn't say much.
Speaker B:No, no.
Speaker A:And that suits intimidation.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:It's his body language.
Speaker B:And you spoke about the entry.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So Dhuranda did all.
Speaker B:And like good old Bollywood films, every character had a smashing entry.
Speaker B:Like every character.
Speaker B:But Akshay Khanna got four awesome entries, if I have to count.
Speaker B:One is the hospital one.
Speaker B:The first one.
Speaker B:Second was his first election time when he comes and there's panic music.
Speaker B:The music track is Panic, which is going in the background.
Speaker B:When he first comes with Jameel Jamali and he meets the Khaanani brothers.
Speaker B:The third one is obviously the one that went most viral.
Speaker B:The Fast Love and Sherry Baloch.
Speaker B:And the fourth is the Lyari one.
Speaker B:He had four massive entries in the film and he aura formed all of them, if I've got the word correct.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Well, let's keep going.
Speaker A:The next three big ones were Arjun Rampal, Sanjay Dutt and Madhavan.
Speaker A:Varying degrees.
Speaker B:They were three big ones.
Speaker B:But the biggest scene stealer was Rakesh Bedi as Jamir.
Speaker A:Well, I want to accompany separately.
Speaker B:Oh, you want to come in separately?
Speaker A:Separate space.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:The reason why I'm keeping Rakesh Bedi separately is because for me, between the three that I just mentioned, Arjun, Rampant and Madhavan, I was not fully satisfied with their, I guess character arcs or roles.
Speaker A:Let's say like Malibu.
Speaker A:And first of all, I liked him.
Speaker A:I know he's like the biggest kind of hot rod for all these like debates over this propaganda because a lot of it was stemming from what he was saying.
Speaker A:But performance wise, I was like, they made one of the most attractive looking men.
Speaker A:Okay, well, I'm not saying he didn't look good.
Speaker A:Sorry to like 50% of the Indian men out there.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Don't be discriminatory.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:I'm not going to shame or body shame or anything.
Speaker A:Let me say it this way.
Speaker A:Let me rephrase.
Speaker A:They made one of the best looking Indian men Look average.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:I was like, that's Madhav.
Speaker A:Like, it looks so.
Speaker A:It looks almost like a completely different person.
Speaker A:And he carries it off.
Speaker A:At no point do you feel like he's wearing, like, prosthetics or making, like, acting like he.
Speaker A:He just was so natural in his role.
Speaker A:So kudos to him.
Speaker A:But the other two, I was not as impressed.
Speaker A:I like their characters or performance in this, but I didn't leave the movie thinking, oh, my God, Arjun Dranpal and Sanjay Dutt were great.
Speaker A:There was something just missing.
Speaker B:Arjun Rapal is a very below average actor.
Speaker B:Sanjay Dutt is a very average actor.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Let's be honest about that.
Speaker B:They're not going to come and set the screen on fire.
Speaker B:So when the trailer came, I was like, why is Arjun Rampal as Major Iqbal?
Speaker B:Because Major Iqbal seemed to be like, the big protagonist at the end.
Speaker B:If it was going to span the way the movie was going to span out, I was like, not so sure.
Speaker B:Sanjay Dutt is just.
Speaker B:I'm not a fan of Sanjay Dut at all also, given his past and his personal controversies.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Nope.
Speaker B:But you know what?
Speaker B:He was fun.
Speaker B:He suited the role.
Speaker B:He looked apart, and he just had some of the funniest dialogues and funniest scenes in the whole film.
Speaker B:I was entertained.
Speaker B:So, fine, I'll keep my personal grievances aside.
Speaker A:But my issue with Sanjay, that performance was just like, he's literally done these.
Speaker A:He can do this performance in his sleep.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker A:It didn't really require him to do anything different.
Speaker A:I feel like he's done the same kind of role, like, so many times in the last.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:I mean, even in Tamil, he acted in Leo.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Like the big Tamil hit a few years ago.
Speaker A:It was almost the same kind of performance.
Speaker A:And so when I watched him, I was like, it was passable.
Speaker A:It was not bad.
Speaker A:But it was also, like, compared to what Ranveer Singh and Akshay now got.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Nothing remarkable.
Speaker A:And Arjun Rampal, too.
Speaker A:I felt like it was.
Speaker A:For most part, it was very generic.
Speaker A:Yeah, he had some really good scenes, especially that torture scene, like his intro and every time.
Speaker A:And all these, you know, all these people would conspire again for these terrorist attacks.
Speaker A:You could believe, like, he's the ISI chief and he's like, evil and all that.
Speaker A:He had a very menacing presence.
Speaker A:But again, it was mostly generic for me.
Speaker A:It didn't really hit.
Speaker A:And again, I don't know how much of this is influenced by when your comparison is actually, I'm like, okay, you Guys are not fair.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:This guy's, like, really good.
Speaker A:And these guys are just average.
Speaker A:So that's where I felt like.
Speaker B:I think they got chosen for the look of the character versus the real person.
Speaker B:Real person they were inspired from, which is what I think.
Speaker B:That's why I said, like, Mukesh Chhabra did a solid casting job because who else would you have cast as Arjun Ra instead of Arjun Rampal or Sanjay Dutt in the current space?
Speaker B:You have a lot of better actors.
Speaker B:You will get better actors.
Speaker B:I'm just saying, looks wise.
Speaker B:Who could you have molded into those looks?
Speaker B:None.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So that's, I think, where they drew the ballot.
Speaker B:They're like, okay, we've got three, four solid performers.
Speaker B:One or two average should do it.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:You know, I also learned that the real Life Spslam was a fan of Sanjay Dutt.
Speaker A:So that's like a nice little tie.
Speaker B:For all the wrong reasons.
Speaker B:If you know.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Before getting to Rakesh Perito, also Sarah, Arjun.
Speaker A:It wasn't necessarily controversial, but there was like.
Speaker A:Like you mentioned earlier, there was this talk about why this big age gap.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Why is she in this movie?
Speaker A:And I. I thought that the movie did a decent job in justifying the age gap.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:Because essentially Hamza is manipulating a much younger girl.
Speaker B:Younger.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:To get access to her dad.
Speaker A:And so in the context of the movie, it made sense to me and I thought it was.
Speaker A:Sarah did a good job too.
Speaker A:Her performance.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:Didn't detract.
Speaker A:And she wasn't really given a role that was meant to kind of shock and awe.
Speaker A:You know, it was a decently written role, which I thought she did a good job.
Speaker B:Me too.
Speaker B:I.
Speaker B:She didn't take me.
Speaker B:None of their scenes took me out of the film.
Speaker B:And I didn't get heavily invested in her character, but she.
Speaker B:How does.
Speaker B:I was like.
Speaker B:I didn't say why she.
Speaker B:Her.
Speaker B:I never said that.
Speaker B:Yeah, she was fine.
Speaker B:She was fine.
Speaker B:She's very pretty.
Speaker B:I think she's very beautiful.
Speaker A:I think she's got a great future ahead of her.
Speaker B:I think so.
Speaker B:She is.
Speaker B:Because I. I just finished watching Ponyan Selv in both parts Benny today, and she plays the younger Nandini and she was very good in it.
Speaker B:So she's got a very expressive face.
Speaker A:And her most memorable role for me is actually when.
Speaker A:From when she was a little girl.
Speaker A:I can't believe I'm striking out on the name, but it was where Vikram, the actor.
Speaker A:Vikram played her dad.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:It's essentially like have you seen the movie I am Sam?
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've seen that.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:It's essentially like.
Speaker A:Yeah, so that was.
Speaker A:She does a really good job in that too.
Speaker B:So she's got a great.
Speaker B:She should choose the right scripts.
Speaker B:I think she'll do really well.
Speaker B:She's good.
Speaker B:I liked her.
Speaker A:Someone who also has a great picture just being sarcastic is Rakesh Beatty.
Speaker A:My first time I, I don't think I've seen him before.
Speaker A:I don't think I've seen him in any of his previous performances or if I've seen him.
Speaker A:It didn't register.
Speaker A:Let me say it that way.
Speaker B:I don't recollect any of his recent movies but Benny, you should watch the old light hearted, middle class focused movies.
Speaker B:He's been in many.
Speaker B:His most famous is Chashmi Padur with Farooq Sheikh and Dipti Naval.
Speaker B:Delightful movie.
Speaker B:The day you want to have feel happy, you should go watch that movie.
Speaker B:And he was, he was very famous.
Speaker B:There was this com.
Speaker B:I don't know if it will work now.
Speaker B:This is the 80s Durudarshan serial, Hindi serial called Yejohe Zindiki.
Speaker B:He was in that as well.
Speaker B:So he's done a lot of good roles.
Speaker B:So he's not new to me and I'm not surprised by his performance or his capability.
Speaker A:But I, I should say that, you know, that's the first time, let's say watcher of his performance.
Speaker A:It was very impressive that in a movie like Durander with all the violence and all the like, you know, the, the terrorism angle, the political angle, the little bit of this romantic angle, the.
Speaker A:He comes in, he has kind of a difficult job to pull because he's obviously the comic element to this but he also has some seriously emotional beats.
Speaker A:Yeah, right.
Speaker A:He also has, he has to manipulate like on both sides.
Speaker A:He's manipulating and then.
Speaker A:And we'll talk about this when it comes to twists.
Speaker A:He has probably my favorite twist of this movie which we find out or most shocking twist at the end of the second movie.
Speaker A:Yeah, right.
Speaker A:So he was definitely someone that I watched the first time and I was actually like very entertained by his performance and how he was able to bring about the balance in such a heavy, heavy movie I think is the right way to describe it.
Speaker A:Heavy and busy movie.
Speaker A:So yeah, I thought he had some of the best dialogues.
Speaker A:You know, doing the one in the trailer, it came in this.
Speaker A:They should not have shown that in the trailer because I remember watching the second, I remember watching the Second movie and being so excited about it, I was like, man, I wish I didn't know this was coming because I absolutely love that.
Speaker A:His line delivery always just was brilliant.
Speaker B:But when you bring about the twist and when you talk about the twist, it was hilarious.
Speaker B:You know, he has this constant dialogue, you're my kid.
Speaker B:You're my kid.
Speaker B:Everybody is his kid.
Speaker B:And then he was kidding the hell out of all of them by saying this.
Speaker A:Yes, yes, we'll talk about that when it comes to the discussive twist.
Speaker B:So I loved.
Speaker B:I think.
Speaker B:I think he was excellent in part two.
Speaker B:He just elevated it.
Speaker B:Like in first, he was very good, no doubt.
Speaker B:But because, you know, you had Akshay Khanna and Ranveer, he became like the third.
Speaker B:But in part two, he just took over for me amongst all the.
Speaker B:In the entire cast.
Speaker B:So there was Ranveer and then there was Rakesh Bedi.
Speaker B:And I was only interested more a lot in their scenes.
Speaker B:Especially Rakesh Bedi's dialogue delivery is just amazing.
Speaker B:It's so on point and his expressions, fantastic.
Speaker B:So, yeah, he's my.
Speaker B:Probably my favorite character.
Speaker B:I mean, Ranveer is Ranveer, right?
Speaker B:Hamza is Hamza.
Speaker B:He's the protagonist, obviously.
Speaker B:But yeah, even above Rehman the K, I would go for Jameel Jamali because he entertained me so much in part two.
Speaker B:Without him, I would have been bored in Part two.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Well, do you want to give any mentions to any of the other actors?
Speaker B:Yes, two of them.
Speaker B:Gaurav Gheira as Alam.
Speaker B:He.
Speaker B:He's also a very comic actor.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:I didn't recognize him when he.
Speaker B:When I saw Part one, it's only when I came back and I was going through the cast, when I was ready reading the credits, I was like, gaurav Gera, it can't be.
Speaker B:It's not possible.
Speaker B:He's not Alam.
Speaker B:He's like, impossible.
Speaker B:So I went and checked his Instagram and stuff and I'm like, oh, my God, what a transformation.
Speaker B:Great.
Speaker B:I also loved Danish as Uzair.
Speaker B:Very handsome.
Speaker B:Yeah, he is very handsome.
Speaker B:Very good to look at.
Speaker B:Very good actor.
Speaker B:Also.
Speaker B: of a very young Amitabh from: Speaker B:That.
Speaker B:The whole tall Persona and that face structure.
Speaker B:So, like, one of my favorite moments in the film is like purely a female gaze, if you have to say, is in Fastla Song, Danish walks in, Akshay is in the center and Ranveer is on the side.
Speaker B:And I'm like, give me this dilemma of three.
Speaker B:Very good.
Speaker B:Looking men also who can act.
Speaker B:I'm all for it.
Speaker B:I'm all for this.
Speaker B:Bollywood hasn't evoked these emotions in me in a long time.
Speaker B:So another credit to Aditya Dhar and Mukesh Chhabra for the casting.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Gaurav Gara Asama.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:It's the heart of the both movies in many ways.
Speaker A:Mainly because he was almost like Ranveer Singh's.
Speaker A:He serves as his conscience but also like this mentor slash counselor which someone like Hamza needs in that environment.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:He has to be really careful like every day.
Speaker A:You essentially aren't pins and needles about someone discovering your secret.
Speaker A:And so you needed someone like Alim on your side.
Speaker A:And so when he dies, that's like a pretty big moment in the context of both movies.
Speaker B:It hit me.
Speaker B:We'll talk about it.
Speaker B:It hit me very badly.
Speaker B:I think I couldn't get over it for many days.
Speaker B:I'll be honest.
Speaker B:I was really, really upset because he.
Speaker A:Has a very impactful dialogue when they show what he says prior to everyone coming in, you know, so that definitely lands.
Speaker A:So yeah, he did a great job.
Speaker A:Dhanush.
Speaker A:Dhanush,.
Speaker B:I think.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's his son Pandor, I guess as Uzair.
Speaker A:I really felt bad for his character in the second movie.
Speaker A:I'm like, this poor guy.
Speaker A:All he did, he was loyal to Ramanda, he was loyal to Hamza.
Speaker A:And what does he get?
Speaker A:He gets sent off somewhere, he lands, gets arrested, comes back, gets arrested and now he's incriminated as an Indian spy.
Speaker A:And he's like, what is going on?
Speaker B:I'm like, what is wrong with all of you?
Speaker B:You, my best friend whom I went to watch here, whom I went to watch the movie with and my husband, okay?
Speaker B:I was sitting in between them.
Speaker B:And you know, when he gives Uzair's name as the Indian spy, both of them are like, oh, Bechara.
Speaker B:And I'm like, he is not Bechara.
Speaker B:He decapacitated a guy and played football with his head.
Speaker B:He's a murderer.
Speaker A:Listen, he did what he had to do, okay?
Speaker A:But the poor guy, he doesn't even know the plot of the movie because he was.
Speaker A:He had such a great.
Speaker A:He had so much scope to perform.
Speaker A:Obviously in the first movie and the second movie, he just comes, you know, he gets drunk for a bit and then he's like angry.
Speaker A:And then he sent off somewhere and then he comes back, gets, you know, all of this stuff.
Speaker A:And I'm like, I do feel bad for him because he Wasn't ne.
Speaker A:I didn't.
Speaker A:I never saw him as fully evil because compared to all the other, you know, let's say characters, especially even when, you know, they go to Captain Eggball's lair and they are planning all these terrorist attacks, at no point does it feel like was there.
Speaker A:He's there for the money.
Speaker A:He never feels like, like he's, he's very evil.
Speaker A:Even in the scene where, you know, there's this essentially altercation between Ramanda, Kate and Hamza, he's the one who kind of comes in between, he sends off Hamza and he like separates them and he always seems to be on the right side of both of them, like Rahman and Hamza.
Speaker A:So he's like this loyal person and what do you do?
Speaker A:And again, obviously you can't have sentiment.
Speaker B:All of you are justified.
Speaker A:Listen, I'm trying to talk through my feelings, okay?
Speaker A:This is, this is therapy for me.
Speaker A:I'm trying.
Speaker B:I like it.
Speaker A:Accept this.
Speaker A:So you know what?
Speaker A:Poor guy did what he had to do.
Speaker B:Everybody was like, have you seen the memes on Instagram that people started putting for Uzair?
Speaker B:The songs.
Speaker B:The songs.
Speaker B:Oh, I should share it with you.
Speaker B:I was having a hearty laugh and it's like,.
Speaker A:I should mention, you know, and obviously there are more accurate.
Speaker A:And we're not going to go through all of them.
Speaker A:No, but there was a cameo in the second movie.
Speaker A:I didn't particularly like it, even though I knew it was coming because it was, you know, it was.
Speaker A:People were debating, not debating.
Speaker A:People are sharing on social media that, oh, there could be a Yamigata cameo or even what's his name from Uri,.
Speaker B:The lead actor, Vicky Kaushal.
Speaker A:Vicky Kaushal, you know.
Speaker A:Yeah, they might do like a tie in, like some sort of universe tie in.
Speaker A:And, you know, they're all in the same universe.
Speaker A:I feel like if they're gonna bring her, give her like a solid meaty role that's like kind of integral or critical to the plot because I see what you're doing.
Speaker A:Okay, She's Aditya, the director's wife.
Speaker A:She's a well known actor, well known personality.
Speaker A:But you're almost doing like a marvelization of this.
Speaker A:Yeah, Marvel does this a lot, right?
Speaker A:They do these and like Easter eggs, Easter eggs are fine.
Speaker A:But a cameo like this, it takes you out of the movie because you're like, you watch that scene, you're not thinking, oh, she's like a nurse has come to do this.
Speaker A:You're like, oh, wait, that's.
Speaker A:That's coming out.
Speaker A:That's the director's artist coming and doing this thing and she's smiling at Hamsa and leaving.
Speaker A:I'm like, that took me out a little bit.
Speaker A:And I thought if they were going to use her, they should have used her more effectively.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:It's probably like last minute thing.
Speaker B:After the success of Ram Daravan, maybe she said, yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker B:You know which was my favorite cameo though?
Speaker B:The guy who played Nawaz Shariff.
Speaker A:The guy who played so much like Nawashri.
Speaker A:That was crazy.
Speaker B:I was like, what the hell?
Speaker B:There were so many whistles at that scene.
Speaker B:Benny.
Speaker B:It was crazy.
Speaker B:I'm like, how, how did you guys get this right?
Speaker A:I. I mean we already mentioned like how a lot of these actors were based on like looks of, you know, the real life counterparts.
Speaker A:But that actor, whoever played Naji, he looked like a dead ringer for him.
Speaker B:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker A:It's like even if he was.
Speaker A:Even if you brought Nawaz Sharif, you would be like, that's not him.
Speaker A:But the actor was more real looking,.
Speaker B:You know, so good.
Speaker B:So good.
Speaker B:Like I loved it.
Speaker B:I think that was like I said, so many whistle blowing scenes.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Moments.
Speaker B:This was one of them.
Speaker B:Like amazing.
Speaker B:The entire theater burst into a laughter.
Speaker B:It was amazing.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:No, that, that was.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Definitely one of the best real life, you know, looking portrayal, I should say.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Let's get into some favorites or bests.
Speaker A:We'll talk about our dialogues.
Speaker A:Which dialogues did you like the most?
Speaker A:I mean, because this is a very quotable movie.
Speaker A:Actually both of them.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Any that stood out for you all.
Speaker B:Came from our Bathwan.
Speaker B:First one was Horsla Indan Badla.
Speaker A:Oh yeah, that was so catchy too in the trailer.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:Ghayal Ho Isli Ghata Koh.
Speaker B:A lot of Easter egg.
Speaker B:Because they're both Sunnydale movies.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And Kismat ki Sabse Khubsurat adat Hai Ki vo Vak aaan.
Speaker B:I also like that.
Speaker B:So yeah, if I have to pick top three, all are Madhavan dialogues.
Speaker B:Ajay Sandhyan's dialogues.
Speaker A:I had to kind of go online and because, you know, it's been a while since I watched the first movie, but there were some dialogues that really stood out for me and I wanted to get words so I had to go online and find it.
Speaker A:Obviously the biggest one was the best for me.
Speaker A:Just what you mentioned.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:I'm going to pronounce this badly, but essentially Guile.
Speaker A:Who?
Speaker A:Islay Gataku.
Speaker A:And I was like, okay, I'm not even going to try that again, that dialogue.
Speaker A:Because in the context of, you know, the movie and in that scene, like, that was just perfect.
Speaker A:But another one, this actually came from other one too, which is so, so real.
Speaker A:So true is when he says India's biggest enemies are Indians themselves, Pakistan comes second.
Speaker A:Talk about propaganda.
Speaker A:That is so true.
Speaker B:That is true.
Speaker B:So many people were upset.
Speaker B:And I'm like, why y' all upset.
Speaker A:Over that is one of the truest things that's been said on a.
Speaker A:In a film.
Speaker B:Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:I, I agreed with that.
Speaker A:And then this one is from the scene that we'll probably talk about again in a little bit.
Speaker A:It's Alam, you know, before he essentially decides to essentially take the fall.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And again, I'm gonna mess this up, but I'm sure you'll understand.
Speaker A:He says, take bareilika pocket.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:That took.
Speaker B:That hit me very badly in my heart.
Speaker B:I was like, so upset by me.
Speaker B:Almost two years.
Speaker A:Maybe.
Speaker A:Let's talk about that scene now, because since we're already talking about that, because when they first show him, right.
Speaker A:Like, he is, you know, everyone's there in the room, and then Hamza walks in.
Speaker A:And then essentially when he dies, I was like, okay, I get it.
Speaker A:And I. I'm sad that they didn't show, like, the lead.
Speaker A:The build up.
Speaker A:Lead up to it.
Speaker A:I was like, that's such a quick end.
Speaker A:I get it.
Speaker A:He's sacrificing for Hamza, but I feel like we should have gotten a little more.
Speaker A:So it's very, very glad.
Speaker A:When later they show the conversation between Hamza and Alamur, essentially Alim says, wait, you go, I'm gonna take the fall for this.
Speaker A:And when Hamza is like, no, and.
Speaker A:And basically Alim says this, right?
Speaker A:Like, give me this chance.
Speaker A:Yeah, this is my chance.
Speaker A:And I was like, there's a lot.
Speaker A:Very filmy.
Speaker A:There's a lot of filmy things in the second part.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:But this is one of the most profound moments because this is.
Speaker A:This thing can happen in real.
Speaker A:I mean, this does happen.
Speaker A:In real life.
Speaker B:This does happen.
Speaker A:There are so many people, not just soldiers, but even, like actual spies out in the field.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Who know that they could die any moment.
Speaker A:Correct.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:And they're doing this all for this ideal of protecting the country that they love.
Speaker A:And not many of us will ever know.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:About these people.
Speaker A:These are the names.
Speaker A:Faceless people.
Speaker A:And so to hear something like that even articulated, you know, that was so simple.
Speaker A:Simple dialogue, but exactly.
Speaker A:So Hard hitting in the moment.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:I.
Speaker B:When it hits you, I thought about it for so many days, so many days that what is, what is.
Speaker B:Because this scene and then Ranbir's ending scene in the film.
Speaker B:Yeah, kind of.
Speaker B:These two scenes sum up what spies give up in life.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:I was beautifully portrayed.
Speaker B:You didn't need big dialogues.
Speaker B:You didn't need big scenes.
Speaker B:Alam in his one dialogue and Ranveer in his eyes says it all.
Speaker B:And you just think and think and you can theorize and you can write essays on it and you can discuss the dilemma of a spy and you can discuss the life of a spy.
Speaker B:But those two scenes are enough to tell you what they are giving up for their motherland.
Speaker B:It's a thankless job.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:Because when their cover is blown, India is not.
Speaker B:No country is going to own up that that's my spy and I need to retrieve the spy.
Speaker B:Nobody.
Speaker B:They're just going to be left to die.
Speaker B:It's really hard,.
Speaker A:You know.
Speaker A:That's why.
Speaker A:So all that, what you just said now about Especialum.
Speaker A:So true.
Speaker A:Which is why it cinematically, or I should say from an audience perspective, it was very pleasing to watch.
Speaker A:But when Hamza, who gets detained.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Like who gets arrested at the end and then Sanel calls.
Speaker A:That part was so filmy.
Speaker B:Exactly, Exactly.
Speaker B:I'm glad you said that.
Speaker B:That's not how it works.
Speaker A:And that was such a jarring contrast.
Speaker A:Now if they had killed off Ranbir in that and if they have done it in such a way that we can accept.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:He did so much.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And we'll never know.
Speaker A:Most, many Indians will never know the sacrifice.
Speaker A:You can kind of live with it.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:But the way that they show that he gets rescued.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:It's crowd pleasing.
Speaker B:But exactly.
Speaker A:It doesn't.
Speaker A:You kind of have to like, okay, it's a movie and you know, okay, fine, you know that.
Speaker A:So that, that was a crowd pleasing.
Speaker A:But I also felt very conflicted about it.
Speaker A:I was like, that's.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Also if he had this, what do you say?
Speaker B:The ace up his sleeve, Sanyal, why was he waiting for so long for him to get caught and stuff?
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:Like he should have pulled him out before.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Or deathly killed by the time he killed him.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker B:But, but Benny, to be fair, it did give us the funniest scene in the movie.
Speaker B:For me, like the song placements we've spoken about.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:We could go into details and like how awesome the song placements are Rasputin playing at that exact moment.
Speaker B:Took me out of the film.
Speaker B:I loved it so much.
Speaker B:I had such a. I laughed and my stomach hurts.
Speaker B:And Raj Duchi's expressions were so on point.
Speaker B:So on point again with the person he's inspired from real life.
Speaker B:If you see people actually brought them up, it's Muneer, I think the Pakistani general, It was just hilarious.
Speaker B:And the, the song, Rasputin, Russia, Israel, everything just took me out.
Speaker B:I was like, I love you, Aditydhar.
Speaker B:I love you guys for doing this.
Speaker B:Okay, fine, I can forgive you.
Speaker A:Yeah, that was that.
Speaker B:It just came out of nowhere.
Speaker A:That's the thing.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:No, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker A:It was very funny.
Speaker A:It was crowd pleasing.
Speaker A:And, you know, you enjoy it in the moment.
Speaker A:And then later, poor Alim, like, he had to die.
Speaker A:Why did Alam die?
Speaker B:Yeah, I know.
Speaker A:Especially after he killed Isi chief.
Speaker A:Like, he gets to go, you know.
Speaker A:I know.
Speaker B:I feel it.
Speaker B:I felt it too.
Speaker B:Benny, I'm totally with you.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:All right, Favorite action set pieces.
Speaker A:You're not a big action person, but I'm sure you had some favorite.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So part one is my.
Speaker B:The chase.
Speaker B:The hunt down of the henchmen of Babu Ducat's gang.
Speaker B:Single one, how they take out.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:I love the way he gets tossed into that Nihari pot.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Boiling pot.
Speaker B:This is really.
Speaker B:I am.
Speaker B:I'm not this kind of a person, honestly.
Speaker A:That was scared.
Speaker B:Yeah, it was, but I didn't know it was so well done.
Speaker B:And the drone shot of him being dragged on the motorcycle.
Speaker B:Like, excellent choreography.
Speaker B:Start to end.
Speaker B:And in part two, the first 15 minutes of Randy's revenge.
Speaker B:The whole sequence is brilliant.
Speaker B:Like how he hunts them down one by one.
Speaker B:Great.
Speaker B:Whoever choreographed the action, take all the awards.
Speaker A:Part two.
Speaker A:I, I definitely that.
Speaker A:The first one where he hunts down the curve.
Speaker A:Family members.
Speaker A:But I, I did like this.
Speaker A:The set, the climax of the second movie, the action.
Speaker B:Okay, okay.
Speaker A:You know the whole.
Speaker A:That mosque fight.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:And again, they showed this in the trailer.
Speaker A:And I'm like, man, I would have enjoyed this if I saw this when I was watching the movie.
Speaker A:Because, you know, there's this sequence where they're trying to shoot.
Speaker A:I guess maybe it was Major Iqbal who was, like, trying to shoot him.
Speaker A:But essentially Hamza does this move where he kind of like scurries under him and around.
Speaker A:And it's shown in the trailer.
Speaker A:And it's so cool to watch as an action scene fan.
Speaker A:And then even the whole, like, fight,.
Speaker B:You know, the cheese.
Speaker A:Leading up to the Iqbal's death.
Speaker A:Where that oil tanker or whatever it is.
Speaker A:Yeah, like, you know, right up to that.
Speaker A:It was very visceral.
Speaker A:It was very, like, you know, hand to hand.
Speaker A:And like, that part I really enjoyed.
Speaker A:But, yeah, the thing that really takes the cake was that opening.
Speaker A:Fantastic.
Speaker A:Fantastic.
Speaker B:I think that is the.
Speaker B:If you have to pick just one across both the movies, I would pick that one.
Speaker B:The hunter would be second, but the first, Jaskirath's action sequence would be my top.
Speaker B:Top.
Speaker A:You know, I'm a big fan.
Speaker B:So impactful.
Speaker B:So impactful.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I'm a big fan of John Wick movies where it's not about the plot, there's no story to it, it's just action set pieces.
Speaker A:And in those movies, it's like, it's just very constant.
Speaker A:There's no room that you don't have time to breathe.
Speaker A:It's just like, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight.
Speaker A:And that's what I liked about this opening sequence because it was just like he kept killing all these people and still there were more and more and.
Speaker B:More and more coming.
Speaker A:Exactly how many people are there?
Speaker A:And he was like this one man army, like, taking them down.
Speaker A:And he did it in such, like, creative ways too.
Speaker B:You know, the beauty is how the mood shifted.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Because he does this whole action sequence and then he goes.
Speaker B:Sees his sister, who's tied like an animal in the.
Speaker B:In one of the.
Speaker B:Whatever the back shed kind of thing.
Speaker B:Go downs are shed and.
Speaker B:And his expression and breakdown is just so brilliant.
Speaker B:Like, I was like, surely you didn't do this in like a sequence.
Speaker B:But if.
Speaker B:Because if you've done this in a sequence, hats off.
Speaker B:Amazing, amazing range.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I remember watching that in the trailer as well and I knew something like that was going to be coming up because in Indian movies they do this a lot where the most heartbreaking or, like, very visceral moment is typically tied to, like, assault of a female.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:Women being assaulted.
Speaker A:And I kind of saw that coming.
Speaker A:But the acting too.
Speaker A:Like, we've already talked about his acting, but there's been a lot of conversation about the action and the politics of the movies.
Speaker A:But again, we, you know, Ranier's acting not just in that one, but in the first movie where he's watching the terrorist attack in real time.
Speaker B:I know.
Speaker A:And he can't give himself away, but he is just, like, shocked.
Speaker B:Shocked.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:He's processing it while also, like, still in character.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Because he has to cheer along with them.
Speaker B:And, you know, fine.
Speaker B:Ranbir had that opportunity to be conflicted.
Speaker B:But Arjun Rampal and all the.
Speaker B:And Akshay Khanna had to cheer.
Speaker B:I don't know how they pulled off.
Speaker B:And in one of the interviews, Rampal said that it was the most difficult scene for them because they had to sit through 45 minutes of the actual tapes that were played.
Speaker B:Audio tapes.
Speaker B:They listened to the whole thing and then they were asked to.
Speaker B:Oh my God.
Speaker B:I. I don't know how they did it.
Speaker B:Benny.
Speaker A:Because what was.
Speaker A:And I'll come back because the other favorite action set piece was maybe we'll talk about in a favorite scene.
Speaker A:So I'll.
Speaker A:I'll keep that for my favorite scene.
Speaker A:But that was also my best action set piece.
Speaker A:The car scene.
Speaker A:I'll come to it.
Speaker A:But before that unhealthy obsession.
Speaker B:I haven't with it.
Speaker B:I'm telling you there's something wrong with me.
Speaker A:But before that, I did want to ask, since we were discussing that the whole, the terrorist attack, the Mumbai attacks, I guess what is your take on Aditya essentially choosing to include like cut to red.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And then the audio recordings.
Speaker A:What is your take on that?
Speaker B:I. I didn't have any.
Speaker B:How do I say it hit me very badly because mind you, this is very close.
Speaker B:We've lived through that terror attack also.
Speaker B:Bombay.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:My city.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:That I grew up.
Speaker B:So we watched it, live it.
Speaker B:I have a lot of news moments from that coming on screen playing and how horrible it was that.
Speaker B:That it was a horrible, horrible time.
Speaker B:I can't describe in words what we went through.
Speaker B:And we were not even the ones impacted as such.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:There were people who've lost people.
Speaker B:So to me it was quite bone chilling at that point to see that.
Speaker B:So it was quite shocking.
Speaker B:It didn't take me out of the movie at all.
Speaker B:I get why he did is to shock people and to get that reaction out of them and get them invested.
Speaker B:I get.
Speaker B:Didn't take me out of the movie at all.
Speaker B:But that's when people got conflicted as to why that real clip was inserted when this is a fictional, fictional movie.
Speaker A:So that.
Speaker A:Yeah, I think I've fallen that camp where, when, when that cut, when it cut to red and it was, you know, they were saying, oh, these are real recordings.
Speaker A:Yeah, I felt conflicted because one, it did make me very uncomfortable.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Because.
Speaker B:Yeah,.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker A:You know, you go from this fictional depiction based on or inspired by real events and then you cut to this.
Speaker A:Essentially it feels like a documentary now.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Like you're cutting to okay this because otherwise it becomes like you've been watching A documentary or a reenactment meant of a story with.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:That's how document.
Speaker A:Certain documentaries are essentially enactments.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:Where.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Actors come and portray scenes and they splice it with real events.
Speaker A:So that's what that made me feel like.
Speaker A:I was very conflicted because on one hand I was very uncomfortable because in real life I try to avoid watching or listening to any of those and.
Speaker A:But here you don't have any choice.
Speaker A:You have to.
Speaker B:You're there.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And then I was like, okay, that is Aditya's intention.
Speaker A:He doesn't want you to avoid it.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:He doesn't want you to flinch because it makes it even more impactful.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Because this is what these terrorists have done and this is why someone like Hamza is needed.
Speaker B:Needed in them.
Speaker A:And because there's that follow up scene where he meets Aslam and then you know.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker A:Alim.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And he talks about like his revenge, wanting to take revenge.
Speaker A:So all of that was made more impactful by it.
Speaker A:Now you can debate like, was it needed?
Speaker A:Was it necessary to.
Speaker A:Because yes, it did take me a little bit out of the movie because then I remembered, okay, like this is not just a movie.
Speaker A:This is also like this happened.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So it, yes, it.
Speaker A:I felt a little conflicted about it.
Speaker A:But I do understand the intention behind it.
Speaker A:And I can appreciate a filmmaker who is willing to make, who's willing to take those kind of chances where someone can feel like, hey, this took me out of the film, but he stuck to it.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And like I said, he.
Speaker B:You can debate his ideology, you can debate why he's done this, but you can't debate that he's a great.
Speaker B:He's good at his craft.
Speaker B:That's what I keep saying.
Speaker B:I don't have to agree with everything he does, but I can't stop admiring how good he is at his filmmaking as a filmmaker, as a director, as a storyteller.
Speaker B:How good he is.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:All right, let's keep moving on.
Speaker A:It's almost.
Speaker A:I think we've hit two hours already, but we're gonna try to wrap this up.
Speaker B:Up.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Soon.
Speaker A:Favorite scene, I have to say, across both movies.
Speaker A:Well, the second.
Speaker A:Well, I'll start with the second one.
Speaker A:That kind of, kind of comes close, but in the end it does not really take over.
Speaker A:The first spot is, I think you.
Speaker A:Well, what's the song?
Speaker A:Fastla or.
Speaker A:I know it's spelled out differently, but when Rahman Dakai goes to the Baloch.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:It's, it's spelled F A Q9LA.
Speaker B:But, yeah, but the name, it's a Baharini song, so it's Fast Love.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:So that I, I remember seeing that even before I went to watch the movie because it was all over my Instagram and in.
Speaker A:I, I liked it then.
Speaker A:But I remember watching the movie and I was like, okay, this is, this is cool.
Speaker A:Whatever.
Speaker A:Forget the rest of the movie and the rest of the story.
Speaker A:This is actually kind of a cool scene.
Speaker B:Cool scene.
Speaker A:But that car scene, oh my God.
Speaker A:I. I'm sure that many movies will try their versions of this.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:But in that moment, like the acting, right?
Speaker A:Like just the whole.
Speaker A:From the moment Rahman opens his eyes and then he's like, why are we going this way?
Speaker A:And when we're trying to like, you know, even this cantroke, like, you know, like all that accent.
Speaker A:And more colorfully said by Rahman, I mean, that holds.
Speaker A:So that build up and then that whole, like in the car, like everyone tussling and fighting.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's just hands down, best scene.
Speaker A:I think I watched it like three times now.
Speaker A:Just that scene.
Speaker A:I watched it like three times.
Speaker B:I've lost, I've lost count because twice I watched in the theater.
Speaker B:Right then on ott, I've lost count of Armington because I love the title track so much.
Speaker B:It comes at the right opportune moment.
Speaker B:It's like hit.
Speaker B:So it starts with ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
Speaker B:The music starts with Sanjay Dutt giving abuses to both Hamza and threats.
Speaker B:Basically telling them, if you guys don't, if you guys go against me or pull a fast one on me, you both are like, I'm gonna screw you both.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Pardon my French.
Speaker B:And then the akshakhana comes and says gadi Rook with more colorful language, like you said, he looks into this and then he hits the accelerator.
Speaker B:The song starts and I'm like, boss, this is amazing.
Speaker A:And that again, I mentioned it earlier, the music that can transform the tone because that scene could have been more like very intense and action.
Speaker A:But the music itself, almost like it reminds you, like, hold on, you're going to be entertained.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:Ladies and gentlemen, you're not ready for this casting.
Speaker B:Just wait and watch.
Speaker B:I loved it.
Speaker B:I loved it.
Speaker A:I almost wondered if Aditya, like when he was writing the script, he was like, okay, I need this scene and I need to write around it somehow to make this happen.
Speaker B:And the whole, you know, the fire hydrant being hit, the guy getting knocked.
Speaker A:Off, you know, coming out, like, you know, decapitation.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And there's a whole Like a whole fight scene that happens after that.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Which is a very long fight scene which is essentially where Rehman is also trying to survive.
Speaker B:But Sanjay, that sps Slam and Hamza want to thrash him but don't want to kill him because otherwise, you know, all their plans will fall apart.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:It's insane.
Speaker A:I, I have to say I enjoyed the, the, you know, the ensuing scenes when he's taking him to the hospital and where Rahman is like trying to like.
Speaker A:Yeah, he's like, no, no, no, don't worry, don't worry.
Speaker A:I thought that was such a cool, cool way they wrote that.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So but the car scene being this pinnacle of buildup and where it heads to.
Speaker B:Just brilliant.
Speaker B:I haven't been this entertained Benny in a long time so I'm happy.
Speaker A:We already discussed this a little bit.
Speaker A:But favorite song.
Speaker B:I struggle.
Speaker B:It has to be the title track of part one and the ending move because it's Sonu and I love Sonu and you know, I love this Kawali, what it's done and how they fit it to fit a spy life.
Speaker B:Also in part two, I would say the last, last song by Arijit.
Speaker B:Oh my God.
Speaker B:Hit my soul so much Benny.
Speaker B:And the whole, you know, the whole instrument that comes.
Speaker B:Instrumental tune that follows is just amazing.
Speaker B:Great.
Speaker B:Honestly, the entire soundtrack is for both films is like great.
Speaker B:But if I have to pick, pick.
Speaker B:These are my three months.
Speaker B:I'd pick.
Speaker A:You know how Spotify Wrapped will show which was your most listened song this year?
Speaker A:I don't even have a doubt which song it's going to be because I started listening to this title track, you know, November whenever it dropped for the first time.
Speaker B:First time, yeah.
Speaker A:Then I've been listening to it till like I most recently listened to it yesterday in the card like when my daughters were like, oh, play that song.
Speaker A:It's just a perfect coming together of everything.
Speaker A:I, I love rap, I love the Punjabi music.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:Great blend of fusion of all of those elements and yeah, I just can't get enough of that.
Speaker A:And also run down the city.
Speaker A:Oh, very good with the Monica.
Speaker B:Very good.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:That's another one that listen to songs.
Speaker B:And what a well choreographed chase again.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:It's a great chase scene.
Speaker B:I love it.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So yesterday we, so we were at Lake District for the weekend.
Speaker B:It's a good seven hour drive from London to Lake District and back.
Speaker B:So I was, I was driving half the time.
Speaker B:So two and a half hours, which was my non stop stretch on the motorway.
Speaker B:Durandar was playing full Blast Benny.
Speaker B:Best.
Speaker B:Best time of the trip that we've had is when Durandar was playing and you're driving on the motorway at 70 miles, 80 miles an hour.
Speaker B:Very nice.
Speaker B:Nice.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Perfect.
Speaker B:That's what this film has done.
Speaker B:So why should I complain?
Speaker A:I think that'll be one of the legacies of this film, the soundtrack.
Speaker A:Because, I mean, yes.
Speaker A:Movie, the acting, all of that stuff, you know, will be talked about for a long time.
Speaker A:But you can't talk about this movie without talking about the music.
Speaker B:The music, absolutely.
Speaker A:Twist.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah, twist.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Yeah, twist you already talked about.
Speaker A:We talked about Alan's death.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:But I also want to talk about the twist that really, you know, the second movie was not all that.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Worth talking about it in a way.
Speaker A:But the twist where Jamil is revealed to be a spy, I was like, what I was fully expecting, you know, when they.
Speaker A:When Hamza opens the car door and someone is sitting in.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:I thought it would be some generic, like.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Liaison guy who's there to, like, pick him up.
Speaker A:So when Ranbir, like, looks at him and there's this second where he's like.
Speaker A:And then it cuts to Jamil and the light comes on.
Speaker A:I was like, genuinely.
Speaker A:I was, like, shocked.
Speaker A:I did not see that coming.
Speaker A:There was no hints.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Nothing about it.
Speaker B:I had avoided all the spoilers, and so I was glad I avoided the spoilers because the impact was so much fun.
Speaker A:Well, especially because then you look back at stuff that's happened over the two movies and you're almost able to appreciate things more because of that reveal.
Speaker A:Because then you're like.
Speaker A:Well, because there are times throughout the two movies where you're made to think, like, okay, Jamil is this very shady, like, almost like scummy type of character.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:He's like a leech or a slippery snake, as I call him.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:He's playing both sides.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:No moral compass at all.
Speaker B:That.
Speaker B:That's the kind of.
Speaker A:But you see, he's.
Speaker A:In a way, he's been watching over.
Speaker A:He's been watching Hamza's back, essentially, to make sure he's doing what he should be doing.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:Yeah, I thought that was.
Speaker B:I thought it was nice.
Speaker B:People say, oh, that was a stretch.
Speaker B:And I'm like, no, I enjoyed it.
Speaker B:I love.
Speaker A:Listen, that was another.
Speaker A:No, that's filming.
Speaker A:That's filmy.
Speaker A:But that's fine.
Speaker A:That doesn't take anything away.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker A:You have to have these elements.
Speaker A:Otherwise it's just very.
Speaker A:I don't know, it's a Slog.
Speaker B:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker B:And it had the most claps and whistles in the theater.
Speaker B:And I'll take that.
Speaker B:So it's fine.
Speaker A:Yeah, I absolutely enjoyed it.
Speaker A:I was not looking for realism in the moment because the moment that they released Hamza, I was like, okay, that's not gonna happen.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:So you're all crossed that line.
Speaker A:Yeah, we already crossed that line.
Speaker A:Now what else is there there to, you know, watch?
Speaker A:Okay, MVP of the franchise between actor, director or music composer.
Speaker A:Who is your mvp?
Speaker B:Aditya, the director.
Speaker B:He is the captain of the ship.
Speaker B:This was his vision.
Speaker B:And I love the fact that they went and shot like an eight hour film and he decided not to cut and chop and said, I'll do a two parter.
Speaker B:So I love that.
Speaker B:Everything about it has a stamp and this is coming.
Speaker B:Since I've seen movies he's written, produced.
Speaker B:I recently saw Bara Mullah After Dhurandar in between the two Durandar movies, which is on Netflix.
Speaker B:It's an ott, very well done movie.
Speaker B:Excellent.
Speaker B:Again, there are things that make you uncomfortable in the movie and I think both sides of a story should be heard.
Speaker B:We've heard about how the army has, you know, led to a lot of, what do you say?
Speaker B:Brutality has probably caused people to shift over to the other side of terrorism.
Speaker B:But here it was what the Kashmiri pandits also went through.
Speaker B:So in Baramullah, so he's shown both sides and I think, fine, he has a voice, he wants to speak about it and that's fine.
Speaker B:He's a Kashmiri pandit, so he's been through it.
Speaker B:So he wants to bring this side of his view to his films.
Speaker B:Fine.
Speaker B:As long as you give me good films with good investments and something that I'll think about.
Speaker B:I want movies, I think and brood over and want to talk about.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:He gives me that.
Speaker B:So for me it's him.
Speaker B:Without him this wouldn't have happened.
Speaker A:I agree.
Speaker A:For all the points that you made, I think Shashwood, he did a great job in the first movie.
Speaker A:He did decently well in the second one, but it didn't match up to the standards.
Speaker B:I agree.
Speaker A:I felt.
Speaker A:And for Ranveer, again, one day when we talk about the highlights of his career, obviously it's going to be right there at the top.
Speaker A:But if you talk about whose absence would this movie have really pulled down the movie more?
Speaker A:Yes, Ranbir would not have done as great a job, I feel, but you would still have been able to make a movie with someone like Ranbir.
Speaker A:But you could not have made this movie without Aditya.
Speaker B:Agree.
Speaker A:Like, I don't think there's another filmmaker currently who can balance that, the Bollywood elements along with like a real world espionage thriller.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:As effectively as he did in these two movies.
Speaker A:So absolutely.
Speaker A:He is definitely the MVP of this.
Speaker A:And I don't know what else he has lined up.
Speaker A:I haven't looked at his future projects, but I, I kind of want to.
Speaker A:I want to see him take on more, not necessarily spy thrillers, but some sort of action movie.
Speaker A:And showing your ideology is fine, but I just want him to do a movie where people can just go and watch for like just people see, oh wait, this is an audit.
Speaker A:The other film, like, I'm gonna go watch it.
Speaker A:Like, that's the kind of thing that I want to go and watch.
Speaker A:Like, so I want to watch like fun action thriller, but kind of from his, you know, vision of it all.
Speaker A:Because he, he seems very good at conceptualizing like these action set pieces.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And so, yeah, I would love to see what he's going to do next.
Speaker A:And I hope he kind of chooses something kind of different from what he's done with Rundar and even Uri.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker B:And they are very.
Speaker B:Two different genres.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So he's, he's shown.
Speaker B:And if you see Article 370, which he wrote and co produced and even Baramulla, which he produced and wrote as well, I think.
Speaker B:So he has that in him to do different movies.
Speaker B:What I heard is his movie was Ashwathama, which was supposed to be his big movie before Dhurandhar.
Speaker B:So I don't know if he's gonna revive that.
Speaker B:And I think it had Micky Kaushal with it.
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker B:So if that gets revived, I'm a big mythology buffer.
Speaker B:I would love to see again India.
Speaker B:We don't.
Speaker B:Bollywood films don't do mythology very well.
Speaker B:So I would love to see this happen on screen.
Speaker B:I'd love to go for that.
Speaker A:Well, before we give our rating and essentially our verdict, which I think everyone should know by now, do you have any hot takes, outtakes, anything else worth mentioning?
Speaker B:Yeah, I want Aditya, Dar and Ranveer to make his hair care routine public.
Speaker B:Like, this is for the greater good of all women, especially us who are in our 40s.
Speaker A:Hey, for the greater good of men too.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:He is my go to.
Speaker A:When I go to the salon, I always try to find good pictures of Ravi Singh because some of his styles, like, are so good.
Speaker A:Right from his first movie.
Speaker A:Even like his band like that look, the hairstyle that he had.
Speaker A:I really like that.
Speaker A:And so I always try to get inspiration from this.
Speaker B:So my, my personal view is Indian men cannot carry off long hair.
Speaker B:They can't.
Speaker B:That's my personal view.
Speaker B:But Ranveer was hot as hell in the movie.
Speaker B:I am like so open about my feelings.
Speaker B:He is, he was.
Speaker B:I just kept staring at his long curls and his hair and I'm like, you're in this gangster, you're fighting.
Speaker B:Where do you get time to get up and blow dry your hair?
Speaker B:Because, Because I don't.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:The, the other thing, the best savants and Layari, you know, which.
Speaker B:Where are you going?
Speaker B:Ar, tell us.
Speaker B:Second thing, that was like I was out of my seat and screaming at R. Madhavan's character.
Speaker B:You know, at the end when Jesse comes, Jaskee Rath comes.
Speaker B:And all R. Madhavan says is, you did good.
Speaker B:No, you idiot.
Speaker B:He.
Speaker B:He sacrificed his whole life for this.
Speaker B:Cause he's lost his family.
Speaker B:He has lost.
Speaker B:He's done everything.
Speaker B:Taken out all the bigwigs in the network, dismantled it and all that.
Speaker B:You have as a boss to tell him this?
Speaker B:He did good.
Speaker B:I was like, this is so typical corporate performance appraisal.
Speaker B:I'm so upset with it.
Speaker A:A typical Indian corporate boss.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:Very upset.
Speaker B:I. I literally screamed.
Speaker B:I'm like, you did good.
Speaker B:That's what I'm going to tell him.
Speaker B:You did good.
Speaker B:Very upset.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So, yeah, those were my hot takes, Benny, if there were any.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:You know, I. I thought of having Benny's Connor, but we've already gone too long.
Speaker A:So instead of Benny's Connor.
Speaker A:Yeah, no, instead of Benny's Connor.
Speaker A:Let's talk about the ending of the movie.
Speaker B:O.
Speaker A:This was a curious one.
Speaker A:I think it took a couple of days to process what I felt about it.
Speaker A:So obviously the ending of the movie.
Speaker A:Tuscarrett is back in India.
Speaker A:He's in.
Speaker A:I guess.
Speaker A:I don't know if it's really how he would be dressed normally or if it was a disguise with a turban and everything.
Speaker B:No, he's a Sikh.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:He's a Sikh.
Speaker B:So, okay.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So then.
Speaker B:And the beard are but up to waist.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:So he goes home.
Speaker A:Or I should say specifically he gets very close to his house where his mom and sister are there.
Speaker A:I should say, for one, it was actually unbelievable.
Speaker A:Indian moms have eyes at the back of their heads.
Speaker A:You're telling me that she would not have sensed her son?
Speaker A:Come on.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:That's unbelievable to Me.
Speaker A:But anyway, so he gets there, he's obviously so emotional.
Speaker A:He's so excited about finally getting reunited.
Speaker A:He's on, he's kind of takes steps towards his house, but then he stops, you know, and then his mom and sister, they go inside the house and then he looks back.
Speaker A:I mean it's kind of very heavy handed metaphor in a way.
Speaker A:Like the crossroads, right?
Speaker A:He's at crossroads and then he essentially looks at the camera and almost like posing a question like, what would you do you wear in my shoes?
Speaker A:And then it faces black.
Speaker A:What is your take on it?
Speaker A:On, on the ending?
Speaker B:I thought it was as perfect as it can be for a spy movie because he's never really going to get rid of his spy life.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:He's probably going to be put on another mission.
Speaker B:And having a family or having a connection makes more than you.
Speaker B:You will become vulnerable.
Speaker B:Yes, but you put the family in jeopardy.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So they've been told he died and they have accepted it and moved on.
Speaker B:And he decides he doesn't want to disturb it.
Speaker B:He just wanted to see if they're doing fine, which they are, and he moves on.
Speaker B:Because as a spy you don't get to enjoy all.
Speaker B:You don't get to enjoy any personal life.
Speaker B:You don't get to have relations, connections.
Speaker B:They will all come as a part of your job.
Speaker B:You don't get to have any real life connections.
Speaker B:And it's a very heartbreaking fact of a spy's life.
Speaker B:And that's when you realize as an audience or as a neutral third party that I don't know what motivates people to go spy for the country.
Speaker B:It's the worst thankless job that you could do.
Speaker B:You're not even getting medals.
Speaker B:Your family is not going to get any compensation.
Speaker B:Your death won't get acknowledged.
Speaker B:I don't know how people do it being spies.
Speaker A:When he starts walking towards his house with tears in his eyes, I didn't even consider the possibility that he's not gonna go in.
Speaker A:To me it was because we've already established in the preceding scenes it can be filmy, right?
Speaker A:It gets released and the Jamil has been a spy all along.
Speaker A:So this movie is not like grounded in reality.
Speaker A:So to me it was like, logically, you know, there's going to be this cheerful reunion and everyone is happy.
Speaker A:So my first instinct was I was actually mad at Abhikillo.
Speaker B:It was like a lot of people.
Speaker A:Were, let him have his happiness, man.
Speaker A:Like he's just gone through hell in the last few years.
Speaker A:He lost his wife and kid.
Speaker A:He's probably never going to see them again.
Speaker B:No.
Speaker A:And this is his family, like his, his mom and sister.
Speaker A:He's already lost his dad and the other sister and he.
Speaker A:We didn't even talk about it.
Speaker A:He killed his best friend.
Speaker B:Best friend.
Speaker B:I know.
Speaker B:We didn't even get there.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:Which is also like another great scene.
Speaker A:Like the whole fight between them.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:So I'm like, just give.
Speaker A:But then.
Speaker A:Which is why I said I needed a couple of days to process it.
Speaker A:Because initially I was like irritated by that ending.
Speaker A:But then later I was, I was thinking about it.
Speaker A:I, I appreciated that he, Aditya, wanted to leave it open ended.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Because guess what?
Speaker A:Maybe he did go to the house after all.
Speaker A:Like in that moment, he just needed a moment to process and kind of debate, have his internal debate, should I do this?
Speaker A:Should I not?
Speaker A:And then maybe he decided, you know what?
Speaker A:No, I've done my part for the country.
Speaker A:This is my personal thing.
Speaker A:I'm gonna go see my mom and sister.
Speaker A:So maybe he could have.
Speaker A:But on the flip side, maybe he did decide, you know what?
Speaker A:There's no going back to that life.
Speaker A:That life is over.
Speaker B:Is over.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:I'm a, I'm a different person now.
Speaker A:My mom and sister probably moved on.
Speaker A:And me coming back is probably going to cause a lot of.
Speaker A:After that initial joy, it's going to be confusing for everyone.
Speaker A:It's going to throw everybody off.
Speaker A:It's going to be this new dynamic.
Speaker A:And then if I have to leave again, again, more emotional trauma for my family.
Speaker A:So he probably decided not to go.
Speaker A:So I like the fact that it leaves it to us.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:For the audience.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:We can decide, hey, if you wanted that ending where he goes to meet his family, guess what?
Speaker A:Yeah, he did.
Speaker A:So have it.
Speaker A:Have it your way.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:It's like the Sliding Doors movie where it shows you two endings.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:So it's, it's.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's what they left it at.
Speaker B:So you decide which door because.
Speaker A:Because if he had gone inside the house and guess what?
Speaker A:There would have been people who are upset, like, no, he shouldn't have.
Speaker A:And you know, all that stuff.
Speaker A:But this way both people, both sides keep debating.
Speaker A:Fine.
Speaker A:You know what?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:He did what I wanted him.
Speaker B:Also, also he had the additional guilt of making his sister a widow.
Speaker B:So you know, that's a bigger guilt as well.
Speaker B:That will keep playing true.
Speaker A:How do you reunite with your sister?
Speaker A:Be like, oh, by the way, your husband who's been missing all this.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And he was going to blow my cover.
Speaker B:So I had to do this.
Speaker A:I had to stab him in the eye.
Speaker A:So sorry about that.
Speaker B:Which was a great scene.
Speaker B:We didn't even get to it right, because this, which I felt like this movie had two pivotal intermissions, like great intermissions.
Speaker B:In the first where Arjun Rampal looks at him and saying, we changed the date because we think that we have a mole.
Speaker B:And he looks at him and I'm like, his cover is blown.
Speaker B:Probably he's dead.
Speaker B:And even the second time when he says, Jassi, what a meme it has become, that dialogue.
Speaker B:And we were like, oh, no, no, no, his cover is going to get blown.
Speaker B:Like, what the hell?
Speaker A:So, yeah, I was actually thinking there's no way he doesn't recognize them, you know, at the airport.
Speaker A:Because, you know, Ranveer's face is pretty distinctive, even with the beard and everything.
Speaker A:Like, especially if you've known him from childhood.
Speaker A:Come on, you've got to know either by his voice or by his face.
Speaker A:So I was like, okay, this is like a movie thing where he doesn't recognize him.
Speaker A:So that was very satisfactory when he.
Speaker B:Was like Anushka didn't recognize when Shah Rukh just had his mustache off.
Speaker B:Like, he's a husband.
Speaker A:We gotta start with the Shahrukh slander.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:He's a very versatile person who changes he looks and then it's unrecognizable due.
Speaker B:To the memes that came out of this.
Speaker B:It was hilarious.
Speaker A:Sorry, wait, you know what?
Speaker A:Superman used to wear glasses.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker A:You know, it's hard.
Speaker A:It's a hard one sometimes.
Speaker B:It's very hard.
Speaker B:So kudos to Jassy for recognizing Ranveer in that after so many years, even.
Speaker A:As high as he was, he was able to recognize it.
Speaker A:All right, there's so much to talk about this film and we can go on and on.
Speaker A:And we did go on and on.
Speaker B:Yes, Benny, I'm very late for my dinner.
Speaker A:I think it's time to wrap up.
Speaker A:What is your final rating and how do you think this movie will stand the test of time?
Speaker B:I'm going to give two separate ratings.
Speaker B:So part one is an 11 on 10 for me.
Speaker B:I don't think I've given 11 to any movie, have I?
Speaker B:So yeah, yeah, 10 on 10 and part two is seven and a half.
Speaker A:I think that's almost what I would give.
Speaker A:I would give first one nine and the second one seven.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:I think the second one just suffers from being a follow up within like what, six months or no, not six months.
Speaker B:Three months.
Speaker A:Six months.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So while the first one is still fresh in everyone's mind and everyone has just been like going raving about it, I think it had a very tough act to follow and the lack of like a strong antagonist was its downside.
Speaker A:But overall still a very, very solid duo of movies.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:And yeah, it's been a while that we could say that about like an, like an Indian movie.
Speaker B:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:I mean we have not discussed Rajamouli movies.
Speaker A:I know a lot of people at least when I talk about like comparing to like world class movies, obviously the Baobali movies.
Speaker A:And RR has been in the debate a lot and maybe one day we'll talk about those film.
Speaker B:Yeah, I loved Bahubali but I missed it in the theaters and I regretted it because I think it is one for the theaters.
Speaker B:Bahubali as well.
Speaker B:I enjoyed both the movies.
Speaker A:What I would, what I would love to talk about actually is rrr because I watched it in, I watched it here in the US I watched it in this smallish town with 15 other people.
Speaker A:And I was the only Indian really in that screening for rrr.
Speaker A:And it was not like dubbed.
Speaker A:It was a Telugu film with English subtitles and I watched with Americans.
Speaker B:Interesting.
Speaker A:And so I want to talk about that experience.
Speaker A:But.
Speaker A:But yes, all that to say, you know, everyone talks about ultimately being the standard and the best filmmaker currently in Indian cinema.
Speaker A:I think Aditya there are has thrown his hat into the ring with these two films.
Speaker A:Obviously he has to do more to show that he's not like a one off kind of person.
Speaker A:But just based on these two films, I think there's going to be a lot of expectation on him going forward.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker A:And I'm so, I'm really excited to see what he does in the future.
Speaker B: s of fires because Uri was in: Speaker B:Okay, six years.
Speaker B:I don't mind if he does like one in five years but if he gives me something like Durandar again, I'm all for it.
Speaker B:So that's fine.
Speaker B:Don't compromise on your quality.
Speaker B:Take your time to build your movie and your world and give us another Durandar like experience.
Speaker B:I don't mind waiting for it.
Speaker A:Agreed.
Speaker A:And on that note, we're gonna wrap up this marathon recording and I hope whoever listened, I hope you enjoyed this as much as me and Mina discussed enjoy discussing this film.
Speaker A:But yeah, this was a movie or a couple of movies worth discussing.
Speaker A:So, yeah, this was great.
Speaker A:Great chat as always, Mino.
Speaker A:Thank you so much.
Speaker B:Same here, Benny.
Speaker A:Thank you, Sam.
