Adam: No, I know.
Adam: Don't tap it.
Adam: Just talk.
Winnie: You have to say
Adam: tingling.
Adam: Talk louder.
Winnie: Tingling.
Adam: Yeah, okay.
Adam: Yeah, you're not going to pop.
Khilli: No, no.
Khilli: DJ was doing like tingling.
Khilli: Something like that.
Winnie: Is it from the movie?
Khilli: He was doing like when he was drunk in the car.
Winnie: We've all done the tingling-a-ting now,
Khilli: Adam.
Winnie: I think it's your turn to do the tingling-a-ting.
Adam: If I do that, I get cancelled.
Adam: I can't.
Adam: I'm not.
Adam: Very good. Very PC.
Adam: See, I passed the test. I did it.
Winnie: Welcome to Fear of Stairs, Desi Films Decoded, the podcast where four friends from different backgrounds unlock the world of Desi cinema.
Winnie: I'm Winnie, the Desi who's never been to India.
Khilli: Hi, I'm Kili. I'm from India. I'm a very patriotic person.
Nicky: I'm Nikki, who is also a very somewhat nationalistic person.
Nicky: I'm Adam. I'm
Adam: not nationalistic at all. I'm American.
Adam: And today I learned that if...
Adam: white women go around the world
Adam: and tell people about their history,
Adam: we won't have any conflicts.
Adam: And I honestly think that we should
Adam: currently have more white women to tell us
Adam: what's going on in the world.
Adam: Oh, what movie?
Khilli: Who is the white woman here?
Adam: Well, I think that's why we can't ever solve anything
Adam: and why we fight all the time.
Adam: If a white woman came down
Adam: and gave us a PowerPoint about our podcast,
Adam: I think we could actually perform better.
Adam: We could see things that only white women can see.
Winnie: I guess now we're accepting nominations for a white woman to join our podcast.
Winnie: You can put
Adam: white on your face, and I think that'll do it.
Adam: You think so?
Adam: What, Wyatt?
Adam: Okay.
Winnie: No, I'll paint my face
Adam: white, and then I'll cry,
Winnie: and then you guys will finally care.
Winnie: Yeah, yeah.
Winnie: Okay.
Winnie: Yes.
Adam: That makes you hot.
Adam: If you have your face covered in whiteout ink and you cry...
Adam: A plus.
Adam: I'm not going to participate in this
Winnie: discussion.
Winnie: Does anyone want to guess the movie we're talking about based on this premise?
Adam: Right, exactly.
Adam: No, it's not White Chicks.
Adam: Wrong.
Winnie: It is...
Winnie: Rang de Basanti.
Winnie: Rang de
Adam: Basanti.
Adam: Keely, you chose this for us.
Adam: Yes.
Adam: Why?
Khilli: Why?
Khilli: um this film was like very close to my heart when i was a young kid i was i think i was 15 16 year
Khilli: old and so this film had a dose of the dose of freedom movements history from india draws a
Khilli: parallel to the contemporary politics and then like a armed resistance against corrupt politicians
Khilli: and stuff and then being a
Khilli: kid it kind of attracted me a lot and yeah so it was it it's always been uh very like uh very
Khilli: i was i've been always been a fond of this film so i was like yeah why not because we have been
Khilli: watching a few of america's film and all of them were like kind of goofy i guess and
Khilli: So I was like, let's say let's watch one of his films.
Khilli: That's not that much goofy.
Khilli: And it's also as close to.
Khilli: And also like after after the United Health CEOs murder, it kind of dawned on me like why we not review this film.
Khilli: Yeah.
Winnie: This film is basically like Luigi of India.
Khilli: Yeah, I wish.
Adam: Yeah.
Adam: Close.
Adam: It doesn't have Amir Khan back in college again, which is where he seems to love being.
Adam: But it was 2006.
Adam: I was graduating high school.
Adam: 2008, I remember, is when Obama got elected.
Adam: So this is a very pre-Obama type
Khilli: film,
Adam: Western-wise, I think.
Adam: Yeah.
Khilli: That film is actually, it talks about that times politics and youth, what they were thinking. And at that point of time, like this millennial youth, like we are millennial, right? So
Khilli: When we were young, we were like this huge, I mean, a big promising youth coming out of like neoliberal India.
Khilli: And they had like a lot of dream in their eyes to change the country and everything.
Khilli: So this film kind of felt in that place.
Khilli: And it was very relatable that time.
Khilli: And oh, no, we all had this big dream.
Khilli: And why don't we start a revolution about things and stuff like that?
Khilli: And this film touches...
Khilli: those cords like string like yeah strung those cords so yeah
Winnie: this film must have been pretty
Winnie: radical and revolutionary for that time because i feel like the vast majority of bollywood films
Winnie: we watch is very escapist fantasy like right like you're watching to kind of transport yourself to
Winnie: a better world and this movie really like snaps you back to reality it kind of makes you wake up
Winnie: to what's going on around you the politics and it's almost like a call to action for the youth
Adam: yeah
Adam: I do think it's interesting watching this compared to Jawan that came out last year.
Adam: But
Winnie: this
Adam: is, again, same for Western people.
Adam: The peak of, oh, we have political agency and maybe we can change things.
Adam: Post-Bush era, around the same time.
Adam: And then fast forward to now and it's like, no, we just need a superhero, I guess.
Adam: We're not going to comment.
Adam: So it's a great time capsule of
Nicky: the feeling at
Winnie: the time versus now.
Winnie: We are now jaded.
Nicky: And I guess we'll find out soon enough that it's a pre-iPhone era.
Nicky: Big
Adam: plot point.
Nicky: Honestly, a big reason for our
Adam: whole lives right now is it's all pre-iPhone.
Adam: It's true.
Khilli: iPhone came
Adam: out in 2006.
Khilli: Oh, so same time.
Khilli: This
Winnie: year.
Adam: So everything kind of...
Adam: changes its trajectory after this.
Khilli: It's not that popular in India at that time.
Khilli: But the class we are talking about in this film, actually, they will have iPhone.
Khilli: Yeah.
Khilli: They're pretty rich people in this film.
Nicky: Let's get into it.
Nicky: Yeah.
Nicky: So, okay, you know, to sum it up, Randa Basanti is basically, like, it follows this, like,
Nicky: white girl, British film student.
Nicky: Sue McKinley
Nicky: she's like a film student right and she has this
Nicky: like diary of her
Nicky: grandfather James
Nicky: who was like
Nicky: I think he was like a soldier in the British
Nicky: army serving in like 1930s
Nicky: And he basically oversaw the capture of these freedom fighters.
Nicky: It tells the story of five freedom fighters in the Indian Revolution movement, as we'll soon find out.
Nicky: So she was inspired by that story, and she sought to make a...
Nicky: And I say this in quotation marks documentary
Adam: for,
Nicky: you know, for a film. But then, you know, she, you know, she's throughout the movie, she's in search for these, like people to be, she's in search for like students. She's in search for actors to be in her movie, right? And then she meets like these five guys.
Nicky: uh not the burger five guys uh five i don't know why
Winnie: they're also
Nicky: shopping oh
Winnie: my gosh i suddenly
Winnie: have an intense craving for cajun fries and a burger and
Nicky: very expensive burgers so five guys
Nicky: and then like you know uh it's like an ensemble cast like she'll meet she meets like five five dudes
Nicky: in India. But before we get before I get into that, so like these freedom fighters, they're
Nicky: I'm going to just read it from the I might I might screw the names up. But like there's
Nicky: Chandra Shikhar Azad, Bhagat Singh, Shivaram Rajguru, Ash Fakula Khan, and Ram Prasad Bismil.
Nicky: How was that, Kili?
Khilli: Kili's laughing in the background.
Khilli: No, it was pretty good.
Adam: I
Khilli: just laughed at one name.
Khilli: How do you say it?
Khilli: I think it sounds the same.
Khilli: Oh, okay.
Khilli: The second last
Winnie: one.
Khilli: Aspakula.
Khilli: Oh my gosh.
Winnie: Maybe Adam shouldn't even try.
Khilli: Is that bad?
Khilli: Nikki did a pretty good job, I'd say.
Khilli: No, Nikki did pretty good.
Khilli: All right, sorry.
Khilli: Continue, Nikki.
Khilli: No, no, no.
Adam: It didn't sound bad.
Adam: I can't pronounce McKinley really well.
Adam: McKinley,
Nicky: you mean?
Nicky: See, Killy can't do that.
Nicky: So, okay.
Nicky: What do you mean?
Nicky: I mean...
Nicky: Yeah, I don't...
Nicky: So, I'm gonna be bad at these stream fighters.
Nicky: I don't know what they did individually.
Nicky: But, yeah.
Khilli: Yeah, they're part of this armed struggle resistance against British occupation in India.
Khilli: Yeah.
Winnie: Yeah,
Khilli: so this guy, Chandrasekhar Azad, he was one of the co-founders of Hindustan Republic
Khilli: Association.
Khilli: This was one of the political group that kind of believed in armed struggle against the
Khilli: Britishers.
Khilli: And yeah, so they did few, few actions.
Khilli: And then they were like, and Bhagat Singh, who is like one of the...
Khilli: biggest martyr like we really respect in India because he was a youth icon.
Khilli: He has been a youth icon, armed revolutionary.
Khilli: And he joined the gang and then he turned that political party into a Hindustan Republican
Khilli: socialist party.
Khilli: association
Khilli: and then
Khilli: he was like
Khilli: all of them
Khilli: were eventually
Khilli: martyred
Khilli: because of
Khilli: their actions
Khilli: like either by
Khilli: police encounter
Khilli: or by
Khilli: hanging till
Khilli: death
Khilli: so yeah
Khilli: so they
Khilli: were
Khilli: they're pretty
Khilli: important
Khilli: political figures
Khilli: who are
Khilli: Active in the Punjab region, from the Punjab region, like Lahore, Karachi, and yeah, so all the major Punjab cities.
Khilli: And yeah, so the film kind of follows their story a bit and tries to draw
Winnie: a story.
Winnie: And before this movie, were these people well known amongst the youth?
Winnie: Oh yeah, Bhagat Singh
Khilli: had been really known because there had been films about Bhagat Singh.
Khilli: We read about Bhagat Singh and there are like imageries of Bhagat Singh everywhere.
Winnie: And
Khilli: Bhagat Singh is some character which is kind of liked by...
Khilli: leftist and as well as
Khilli: centrist and as well as rightist.
Winnie: Okay, so very unifying figure.
Winnie: So
Khilli: it's all like
Khilli: him for different reasons though.
Khilli: So my reading is
Khilli: people
Khilli: don't actually
Khilli: read about his politics.
Khilli: They read about like,
Khilli: oh, he shot someone.
Khilli: He was an armed
Khilli: revolution. He did something.
Khilli: He did something
Khilli: like,
Khilli: macho,
Khilli: you know,
Winnie: like,
Khilli: and this youth icon image,
Khilli: like,
Khilli: he did something,
Khilli: like,
Khilli: very,
Khilli: like,
Khilli: brave,
Khilli: brave against the occupation.
Khilli: So,
Winnie: that's the
Khilli: angle that people draw.
Khilli: And I think,
Khilli: that's why this film kind of
Khilli: also, you know,
Khilli: it was in
Khilli: like in the centrist zone.
Khilli: So that's why this film,
Khilli: if you,
Khilli: that's what like even Adam
Khilli: was talking about it
Khilli: while watching.
Khilli: It's like,
Khilli: this film doesn't
Khilli: talk about their politics
Khilli: it's just imageries of
Khilli: what they did right
Adam: yeah it doesn't say what they were fighting for
Adam: it says how they
Khilli: were fighting
Khilli: and maybe that was very intentional to
Winnie: kind of
Winnie: keep him as a unifying symbol for
Winnie: people of all beliefs
Khilli: so I think that this film
Khilli: also like these people doesn't
Khilli: doesn't seem like very well politically versed the the main actors main characters and yeah so
Khilli: i i kind of i was thinking today about it and then i was like yeah it's true like
Khilli: that's maybe the reason that everyone likes bhagat singh because the indian right wing right now
Khilli: they're like religiously oriented and bhagat singh is the person who literally wrote a
Khilli: essay called
Khilli: Why I am an atheist
Khilli: and which was
Khilli: bashing Hinduism
Winnie: quite
Khilli: a bit
Khilli: and
Khilli: like all the religion
Khilli: but like
Khilli: his point was like
Khilli: I cannot
Khilli: so
Khilli: before he was
Khilli: hung to
Khilli: hung to death
Khilli: like
Khilli: people were telling him
Khilli: oh no when you face death you will
Khilli: gain back your belief
Khilli: faith in God and
Winnie: stuff like that
Winnie: and
Khilli: he said like no I don't want that escape
Khilli: like then what am I
Khilli: like I don't want that escape
Khilli: that would be cowardice for me to like
Khilli: believe in God something that I never
Khilli: did like I not never did like
Khilli: I chose not to do
Khilli: just because I'm facing death.
Winnie: So very radical figure.
Khilli: So this movie
Winnie: was not
Winnie: just a progressive liberal movie.
Winnie: It was a movie that
Winnie: kind of
Winnie: was
Adam: relatable for people
Adam: of all political beliefs.
Adam: Would
Khilli: you say that?
Khilli: Yeah, I think so.
Khilli: Yeah.
Adam: I think, you know, like
Adam: like ml glenn beck had like an mlk day
Winnie: you know so
Adam: i think like i'm maybe i don't think he's like
Adam: the mlk or whatever but you know these people when you strip away everything are very easy to be
Adam: commandeered by any
Adam: type of political movement
Adam: when you have like a Fox News guy
Adam: like Glenn Beck doing like an MLK day
Adam: you know I feel like it's
Khilli: the same type of thing
Adam: where it's like he's just a symbol
Winnie: yeah yeah
Khilli: he became a symbol now
Khilli: and also like but
Khilli: this film's narrative has
Khilli: pretty much
Khilli: Hindu nationalist as well like Chandrasekhar
Khilli: has been a Hindu nationalist
Khilli: and
Khilli: what was this guy who was playing
Winnie: the Muslim guy
Khilli: the Hindu guy who was a friend of
Winnie: the Muslim guy
Khilli: Ram Prasad Bismil
Khilli: Ram Prasad Bismil had been a Hindu nationalist
Khilli: so they were
Khilli: like Bhagat Singh started working
Khilli: with Hindu nationalists and then
Khilli: went towards more
Winnie: uh
Khilli: secular socialist
Winnie: and this movie also
Winnie: portrays that right
Winnie: you see kind of
Winnie: the relationship
Winnie: between this Hindu
Winnie: nationalist
Khilli: and this
Winnie: Muslim man
Winnie: start off on
Winnie: a very
Winnie: rough edges
Winnie: and then they kind of
Winnie: learn to see
Winnie: each other eye to eye
Winnie: because
Winnie: of
Winnie: A white woman crying.
Winnie: I know everyone's confused about why we talked about the white woman early on, but it'll make sense as Nikki goes through the plot.
Nicky: Okay.
Nicky: So yeah, like Sue McKinley.
Nicky: It's Sue McKinley, by the way.
Nicky: Yeah, her dad
Adam: was like a war criminal.
Nicky: No, her grandfather.
Adam: Her grandfather, sorry, was a war criminal.
Khilli: Yeah.
Adam: Killed a bunch of people, occupied India.
Adam: She looked at this.
Khilli: Tortured people heavily in prison.
Adam: And he was like...
Khilli: Inhuman torture and then praying to Jesus after that for some reason.
Adam: Yeah.
Adam: And she's like, I need to film this.
Adam: It's like she
Nicky: was inspired by their revolutionary spirit.
Nicky: Or whatever.
Nicky: that it's anyway so it started off with like her and you know wanting to make a film in like
Nicky: london i think and then like her boss was like no we should make more films about like
Nicky: uh gandhi or something she said something like along the lines of
Winnie: that yeah and
Nicky: then like you
Nicky: know since she couldn't make the film she decided to you know travel to india where she has like a
Nicky: friend named sonia
Nicky: Sonia is this college student at the University of Delhi.
Nicky: And then we get to see this...
Nicky: They would round up a bunch of these students to do auditions.
Nicky: And we have this segment with auditions that feel like they're all American Idol rejects.
Nicky: Because you get this montage of them performing badly or whatever.
Adam: They spend
Nicky: a majority of the time doing that.
Nicky: But I do
Adam: want to note, these people want to be in the film,
Adam: which is a big difference in the people she casts.
Adam: That is notable.
Adam: They did volunteer their time and actively want to be in it.
Adam: And she said no.
Nicky: Yeah.
Nicky: So then, you know, because like because they're all terrible, right?
Nicky: They decide to go to this like party at some heritage site.
Nicky: I don't recognize what it is.
Winnie: I mean, it's like a heritage
Nicky: site.
Nicky: And then like, you know, she meets Sonia's friends and we get to see like these like main characters.
Nicky: Now, Akili says that Amir Khan isn't really a goofball, but I kind of disagree with that because he plays this character named DJ, who we first see.
Nicky: He's acting like a
Winnie: goofball.
Winnie: No, he's a goofball.
Winnie: He's a goofball.
Nicky: He's like, you know, he's like sitting on top of the edge drinking like beer bottle with his friend, who was also played by...
Nicky: I think it was
Nicky: Sharman Joshi
Nicky: right?
Nicky: Yes.
Nicky: Yeah so these two
Nicky: we've seen before
Nicky: these
Winnie: two guys
Winnie: are from the
Nicky: Three Idiots
Nicky: right?
Nicky: So that's
Nicky: DJ is played by Amir Khan
Nicky: and then that dude
Nicky: Sharman Joshi
Nicky: is Suki
Nicky: and then we also have
Nicky: like the
Nicky: this like
Nicky: Afro
Nicky: tag artist
Nicky: Aslam
Nicky: who
Nicky: who was played by, I think,
Nicky: Khudan Kapoor.
Nicky: And we also have this badass smoker
Nicky: who has a lot of daddy's money
Nicky: named Karen.
Nicky: That's pretty cool.
Nicky: I don't remember his actor's name, but okay, yeah.
Winnie: Siddharth, I guess.
Winnie: Right.
Nicky: Yeah, those are the two guys.
Nicky: Those were the first four guys.
Nicky: And of course, DJ, because he's Amir Khan
Nicky: and the main character, he spared no expense
Nicky: on hitting on Alice.
Winnie: Like he
Nicky: was like
Nicky: Speaking like
Nicky: In Indian
Nicky: And like
Nicky: He was speaking in
Nicky: Hindi
Winnie: In the end
Winnie: Nikki just went full time
Winnie: Nikki's cancelled
Winnie: Full time
Winnie: Oh my god
Nicky: Okay, yeah, so he's paying no expense hitting on her.
Nicky: And for whatever reason, she's enamored by him.
Winnie: I think it's worth mentioning that Amir Khan is a goofball
Winnie: because he's older, right?
Winnie: But he's still in college.
Winnie: He never graduated college
Adam: somehow.
Adam: He graduated five years ago.
Winnie: But he's still hanging out with his college.
Winnie: That's super
Adam: cool.
Adam: He's the Van Wilder of
Winnie: India in college.
Winnie: And he's the
Winnie: coolest guy.
Khilli: Yeah.
Khilli: He says later that he does that because he's afraid of the outside world.
Khilli: That comes in a very emotional scene later on.
Khilli: I mean, when
Winnie: he went to the outside world, he ended up in space as PK.
Khilli: Sure.
Winnie: Why?
Winnie: He had to stay there as
Adam: long as possible.
Adam: Outside of the art.
Nicky: Peritatory.
Adam: He thinks like he's scared of the outside.
Adam: He's afraid of getting a job.
Adam: So he just stays in this university drinking
Winnie: all
Adam: the time.
Adam: And then like, yeah.
Adam: And then we
Winnie: fast forward to three idiots and you see how bad university is for your mental health.
Winnie: These are all chronological.
Winnie: All the crossovers.
Khilli: All because his widowed or single mother is running a business and doing all the work and sending him money to drink at the college.
Khilli: And that's such
Winnie: a
Winnie: responsible fella.
Winnie: Definitely someone who will walk in Bhagat Singh's shoes.
Khilli: No, no, he played Chandra Shikharazad.
Adam: Cancelled again.
Adam: Oh, man.
Adam: Next.
Adam: We're playing a game.
Adam: Guys, a reminder.
Adam: I'm Indian.
Winnie: I cannot be cancelled.
Winnie: Oh.
Adam: Oh, what?
Adam: Fuck.
Adam: You should be a Vicky now.
Adam: Oh,
Nicky: shit.
Adam: Alright, so he's moving off.
Nicky: Yeah, so I just want to go back to Amir Khan's character.
Nicky: To drive the point home that he's a badass.
Nicky: They're like partying their asses off.
Nicky: And then like, oh, wait, before I get that, we're also introduced in this party.
Nicky: There's like a conservative party that
Winnie: breaks up the partying
Nicky: students of their term of party.
Nicky: Yeah, it's like we get to meet like this guy.
Nicky: He's like this.
Nicky: He's this activist named Lakshman Pandey.
Khilli: The character's
Nicky: name.
Khilli: He's this
Nicky: very straight-edge
Winnie: dude
Nicky: that is very nationalistic and stuff.
Winnie: Yes.
Nicky: And we get to show how corrupt the police are, because the police came over and then they decide.
Nicky: like DJ being the badass that he is
Nicky: decides to bribe the police
Adam: and stuff.
Adam: With his mom's money.
Adam: His mom's like bakery money.
Nicky: Yeah, so to drive the point home
Nicky: of how cool he is,
Nicky: like we get this segment where they're like,
Nicky: going back from driving back to the party like like they're driving in a jeep and then like you
Nicky: get to see Amir Khan driving in a bike
Winnie: yeah like
Nicky: the badass that he is and it's like a it's like a
Nicky: segment like it's so 90s like so very 90s
Winnie: with the
Nicky: blur effect and everything I don't yeah I don't
Nicky: know I thought I thought that was funny
Nicky: Anyway, we also meet Sonia's boyfriend, who will become a very important character later on.
Nicky: He's like this pilot named Ajay Rathor.
Khilli: Rathor, yeah.
Nicky: Who represents this other historical...
Nicky: uh freedom fighter i think his name is like lala lachpat rye holy
Winnie: crap oh yeah
Khilli: i don't
Winnie: i doubt
Winnie: that's correct right yeah
Khilli: no i mean uh okay so the parallel is
Winnie: it's a parallel but i
Khilli: didn't really
Khilli: like never played in the
Adam: film yeah yeah
Khilli: he never played in that sepia tone film but it's kind of a
Khilli: parallel with the real story yeah and also he was he was the other friend from three idiots
Winnie: wait so there's
Winnie: there's three people
Winnie: then in the movie
Winnie: that is in 3D
Winnie: all
Khilli: of them are
Khilli: into here
Khilli: oh
Winnie: wow
Winnie: oh he's the one
Winnie: the other third guy
Khilli: the photographer guy
Winnie: oh
Winnie: wait wait
Winnie: yeah
Khilli: you're right
Khilli: he's the photographer guy
Khilli: so all three of
Winnie: them
Adam: in this
Winnie: movie
Winnie: that's a totally
Winnie: holy shit that's pretty cool
Adam: are they like Amir Khan's best friends
Winnie: I
Adam: don't
Khilli: know I
Winnie: don't think
Khilli: so
Khilli: because these are the only two people
Khilli: no they're not
Winnie: maybe Rangda Basanti was such a huge success
Winnie: they kept trying
Khilli: to
Adam: so PK then is ultimately
Adam: an option of Rangda Basanti
Nicky: Amir Khan verse
Adam: how do we keep this going
Nicky: so yeah she falls in love with the
Nicky: entire group and she's like
Nicky: I'm going to get them to be in my movie.
Adam: But they're losers.
Adam: I mean, just to be clear,
Adam: they don't volunteer.
Adam: They don't audition.
Adam: They don't want to do it.
Adam: They are like flunkies
Adam: or they can't do anything
Adam: and function in society.
Adam: And she's like,
Adam: these guys i think
Winnie: that's also intentional the way they were portrayed before they got into the movie
Winnie: was to show how that the youth of that time was just kind of uninterested in anything bigger than
Winnie: themselves living in the moment trying to have fun be impulsive so i think that portrayal was very
Winnie: intentional
Khilli: yeah it's a boomer point of view
Winnie: exactly yeah yeah you
Khilli: guys are good for nothing
Nicky: Yeah.
Nicky: Let's go
Khilli: kill some politician.
Khilli: Even one
Nicky: of them, he's like,
Nicky: Karan, like the smoker with daddy's money.
Nicky: So his dad is like a very like politician,
Nicky: like a well-connected politician.
Khilli: Yeah, I would say a crony capitalist.
Nicky: Okay.
Nicky: Yeah,
Khilli: kind of who talks to, like, who is close to the power, like, political party in the power.
Khilli: Yeah.
Nicky: Yeah, and then, like, you know, you get this, like, quick little subplot where, like, he despises his dad.
Nicky: So, like, he'll be in the movie and one-up him.
Nicky: I don't know how to say it, like...
Nicky: like
Nicky: well we'll get into it
Nicky: it's just that
Nicky: so yeah anyway
Nicky: she starts filming
Nicky: they don't take it seriously
Nicky: DJ's a goofball
Nicky: insufferable
Adam: yeah they don't want to do this
Winnie: like they're being
Nicky: pains
Adam: in the ass
Adam: And she's like, no, but these are my guys.
Adam: And just again, to be clear, Nikki said she came to film a documentary.
Adam: She's not.
Adam: She's auditioning people for a film.
Khilli: They have
Adam: roles.
Adam: There's a script.
Adam: They have sets.
Khilli: She's filming an
Adam: actual movie.
Adam: It's called a movie.
Khilli: Ongoing, ongoing debate about this.
Khilli: It's not ongoing.
Adam: I brought this up before.
Adam: Braveheart is not a documentary.
Adam: Titanic's not a documentary.
Adam: What she is filming is a recreation of
Adam: historical events, but that doesn't make it a documentary.
Winnie: That's a movie.
Winnie: Adam, you definitely brought this up before.
Winnie: I think this was 70% of Adam's comments while we were watching the movie.
Winnie: It was just like, this is not
Adam: a documentary.
Adam: So just so the audience knows,
Adam: they're not like interviewing people that are involved in these events.
Adam: And when we say she's making her film, she is just doing...
Adam: a fictional film.
Khilli: Maybe she would
Khilli: interview after
Khilli: like before
Khilli: finishing the film.
Adam: If she showed that
Adam: in the film,
Adam: I would have incorporated
Adam: that, but she didn't.
Adam: Also, she
Winnie: has no money
Winnie: for this movie.
Winnie: So it's,
Adam: you know,
Adam: she's a very poor student.
Adam: But
Khilli: the socks are like
Khilli: so nice.
Adam: I
Winnie: can only afford
Adam: 20 horses per scene.
Adam: You can only get
Adam: one train
Winnie: scene
Winnie: for the whole movie.
Adam: She's pretty broke.
Nicky: Yeah.
Winnie: White people broke.
Adam: She's a millionaire.
Nicky: Yeah.
Nicky: So throughout, this is where, you know,
Nicky: there's a lot of things that happen during this, like,
Nicky: a part in the movie where they're like,
Nicky: she's trying to get them to be serious with this film.
Nicky: Like, at one point we get to see that there is like a scandal
Nicky: happening in the background of the plot,
Nicky: where it's like, there's like a defense minister who's like,
Nicky: implicated in this
Nicky: MiG-21 plane
Nicky: scandal,
Winnie: where
Nicky: the planes are having
Nicky: faulty equipment and they're breaking
Nicky: down and killing their pilots mid-flight.
Nicky: So there's that that's happening.
Nicky: And there's also
Nicky: the thing that, I think this is what
Nicky: the others are talking about, where
Nicky: Because the boys are not taking it seriously.
Nicky: What does Sue do to get them to unite?
Adam: She cries.
Adam: The only arsenal in a white woman's tool belt is to cry.
Nicky: Yeah, to cry.
Nicky: And then the reason she cried is because she decides to enlist the help of the conservative party member, the Lakshman guy.
Nicky: to play the missing fifth member.
Nicky: And, you know, of course, you know, they're not getting along.
Nicky: And, you know, like Adam said, she cries.
Nicky: Well, he hates the Muslim guy.
Winnie: He hates
Nicky: the
Khilli: Muslim guy.
Khilli: The very handsome Muslim guy.
Khilli: Yeah.
Nicky: Which we also get to know more of, right?
Nicky: Because he was like, we get to see his family.
Nicky: Like, they...
Nicky: They hate Hindus.
Khilli: That's a very like regular approach Bollywood film makes.
Khilli: Like, you know, they will have a very secular Muslim and they will
Winnie: have also
Khilli: very conservative Muslims.
Khilli: I think it's here we see like for other religion also like there are extremists and there are secular people.
Khilli: And it's a mix of it's a mixed bag.
Khilli: It's a very conservative.
Khilli: Yeah, it's okay.
Khilli: Yeah,
Winnie: but this woman literally cries and solves like decades, centuries of trouble between Hindus and Muslims.
Winnie: I guess we just need to enlist her right now.
Adam: They want her to not feel bad because she's sad.
Adam: And so then they...
Adam: work together to not
Adam: confront their differences or really
Adam: acknowledge them. They
Khilli: just
Adam: put it under the table.
Adam: They hide it under the rug so that
Adam: she can stop crying and they can keep hanging
Adam: around White Girl.
Nicky: Yeah, so they get together
Nicky: and then, you know, this is where it gets
Nicky: like, they do the parallel thing
Nicky: between what's happening at present
Nicky: and with what's happening
Nicky: in Sue's diary.
Nicky: We get to see like
Nicky: historical moments
Nicky: like the train robbery.
Winnie: They call it the
Winnie: Kakori robbery.
Khilli: We
Nicky: also see the
Nicky: Jalianwala
Nicky: Massacre.
Khilli: Yeah.
Nicky: Jalianwala.
Nicky: No,
Khilli: no, it's right.
Khilli: Yeah, Jalianwala
Khilli: Massacre.
Khilli: It was a
Winnie: Very
Khilli: sad part.
Khilli: They were open-fired on a group of peaceful protesters assembled in a closed park.
Khilli: It had only one or two exits and entrances.
Khilli: And they blocked everything and then just open-fired on...
Adam: I like the non-sad massacres.
Khilli: Which one?
Adam: The non-sad ones.
Winnie: Yeah.
Adam: Which one?
Adam: None.
Adam: There's none.
Winnie: Exactly.
Adam: This is a really terrible,
Winnie: massive pair,
Adam: unlike the other really good ones.
Nicky: Yeah.
Nicky: There's also, like, the,
Nicky: you know, um...
Nicky: I guess it was a Chandra Chikharazan, like a master of disguise.
Nicky: Because we get to see like, you know, in the historical film where like Amir Khan was like doing the whole disguise thing.
Nicky: Do you remember that?
Khilli: I think he was trying out the wig, wigs and mustache.
Nicky: Yeah, yeah, that's it.
Winnie: That's it.
Winnie: Yeah,
Khilli: in the mirror.
Khilli: And that's where it transitions that to like them being actually serious.
Khilli: And the Rang De Basanti title track plays on the back.
Khilli: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Winnie: So what does Rang De Basanti actually mean?
Winnie: The colors, you know, Kili?
Winnie: Is there a
Khilli: meaning?
Winnie: It's like some
Nicky: paint me sample.
Nicky: Yeah,
Winnie: I remember something about colors.
Winnie: I think
Khilli: it's something, some Punjabi lord is there.
Khilli: I kind of, I don't know.
Khilli: Okay.
Khilli: Yeah, I
Winnie: think
Khilli: it's kind of, it's related to some text, actually.
Nicky: But what we know is that
Nicky: all these freedom fighters,
Nicky: they know each other,
Nicky: historically speaking.
Khilli: Is that true?
Nicky: Kili, do you know
Winnie: that?
Nicky: All the freedom fighters.
Nicky: Oh, yeah.
Nicky: The story
Khilli: is kind of...
Khilli: The Sepiaton story is true.
Nicky: It's true, right?
Nicky: They were all there.
Nicky: They were connected.
Nicky: But they
Khilli: were not
Khilli: this five-people gang
Khilli: Like, don't think of that.
Khilli: Because also in the film, they never show them, like, together doing that,
Khilli: apart from, like, plotting the murder of one of the police general after.
Khilli: So that was the only scene where all of them come together in the Sepiaton film, right?
Khilli: But they are connected through this party, Hindustan Republican Association.
Khilli: That's it.
Khilli: But their timings are different.
Khilli: And maybe they are not, like, all that close friends and stuff.
Khilli: But they were all comrades, for sure.
Khilli: Yeah.
Adam: Were they all explicitly, like, leftists?
Khilli: No, that's what I'm saying.
Khilli: Bhagat Singh was leftist, kinda.
Khilli: Very left-influenced.
Khilli: Socialist, for sure.
Khilli: And Chandrasekhar Azad was Hindu nationalist.
Khilli: Ram Prasad Bismil was a Hindu nationalist.
Khilli: Asfakullah Khan was, of course not.
Khilli: But she was like, but they all were kind of Republican kind of point of view.
Khilli: Bhagat Singh brings in socialist
Winnie: tendency.
Khilli: And then, I mean, when I'm saying Bhagat Singh is like in the scope of this film,
Khilli: like there were definitely other members in that party who were also cohorts of Bhagat Singh.
Khilli: But...
Khilli: in this film's context,
Khilli: like,
Khilli: Radha Singh brings in
Khilli: the socialist point of view
Khilli: and he was too powerful
Khilli: in the party,
Khilli: he becomes too important
Khilli: in the party
Khilli: to change the name
Khilli: of the party
Khilli: and add the socialist part
Khilli: because there was
Khilli: a very important speech
Khilli: by him like that,
Khilli: you know,
Khilli: like,
Khilli: this,
Khilli: I mean,
Khilli: you have to be that
Khilli: because otherwise
Khilli: there is no way
Khilli: of emancipation.
Khilli: Like,
Khilli: there would be like,
Khilli: he said like,
Khilli: otherwise,
Khilli: like,
Khilli: white sahibs will live
Khilli: and brown sahibs will rule us.
Khilli: There is no change.
Adam: So their one defining trait was just anti-colonialism.
Adam: Yeah, actually,
Winnie: what was their fight?
Winnie: Was it just anti-colonialism?
Winnie: Yeah, yeah.
Winnie: Get
Khilli: rid of the Britishers.
Winnie: Okay, okay.
Winnie: Yeah, that
Khilli: was the fight they were fighting.
Winnie: So it's very interesting that the whole premise of this film
Winnie: is a British woman trying to...
Winnie: explain this part of the history
Khilli: cathartic journey for her mid-20s to kind of relieve her of her
Winnie: ancestral guilt
Khilli: yeah weird
Winnie: that's how a lot of white people feel about
Adam: a lot of things
Adam: they need to butt themselves into every situation because they feel guilty about what their
Adam: grandparents
Khilli: did at least at least white people are in that stage brown people are not even
Khilli: in that stage of like feeling guilt about their past deeds
Adam: what do they have to feel better?
Adam: I think
Winnie: brown people are still recovering from...
Winnie: The segment
Khilli: of brown people who are like oppressors.
Adam: Sure.
Winnie: They're
Khilli: not even in the stage of acknowledgement.
Khilli: I mean, barely the hyper minority of them are like in the stage of acknowledgement.
Khilli: It's okay.
Khilli: I
Winnie: think they're playing a different game.
Winnie: White people are
Khilli: better.
Winnie: No, they're playing a different game.
Winnie: I think they are like reverse colonizing.
Winnie: Like Rishi Sunak and all.
Winnie: I'm guessing
Winnie: they were probably...
Winnie: They probably had some level of power.
Khilli: I'm talking about the people where brown people are from.
Khilli: Like the lands where brown people are from.
Khilli: Like...
Khilli: they're not even acknowledging the atrocities
Khilli: they have been doing for ages.
Khilli: If you point that out, you'd be like,
Khilli: oh no, you are just like being,
Khilli: creating this false segregation and shit.
Adam: - I agree with Kili, white people are better at
Adam: their fault.
Khilli: Yeah,
Khilli: I also make
Khilli: better films,
Khilli: I guess,
Khilli: about
Adam: their
Adam: about their
Khilli: about their
Khilli: like nasty
Khilli: stuff that they
Khilli: did.
Khilli: So they do
Khilli: nasty stuff
Khilli: and then they
Khilli: write a nice
Khilli: script about it
Winnie: and they make
Khilli: a very nice
Khilli: film about it.
Adam: Brown people
Adam: can learn a lot
Adam: from
Winnie: it.
Winnie: And that's why they're still our heroes, right?
Winnie: Because they commit crimes, but then they also save us from those crimes.
Winnie: This movie would not have happened without her
Adam: grandfather committing the crimes and her coming back to film them.
Adam: So think about that.
Adam: Without white people, we wouldn't even have this
Nicky: movie.
Nicky: The only way I can contribute is that Thai people love to save face.
Nicky: And?
Adam: And that worked
Winnie: because Thailand was never colonized.
Winnie: The only country in Southeast Asia that was never colonized.
Winnie: We took
Nicky: the cowardly audit.
Nicky: Anyway, we
Winnie: have to cut that.
Nicky: So,
Winnie: anyways.
Nicky: I also want to point out that, like, Sonia also got cast in the film.
Nicky: And then, like, it's never mentioned again.
Nicky: Where, like, she's cast as this Durguwati.
Khilli: Dula of Habi or something.
Khilli: Yeah.
Nicky: Who is
Khilli: she?
Khilli: She casts her
Nicky: as that character.
Nicky: And then it never gets mentioned again.
Nicky: I don't
Khilli: understand.
Khilli: She played...
Nicky: Who was she?
Nicky: Lama Rajputra's wife?
Nicky: I wouldn't know because that's why we got in the movie
Winnie: an insignificant character
Nicky: so I have a question for all of you
Nicky: when you go to the airport
Nicky: not like the airport
Nicky: but the fields where the airport are
Nicky: do you take off your shirt and
Nicky: howl at the planes as they fly above you
Adam: yeah that's how you pass tsa in america because
Nicky: we
Nicky: get this scene where like ajay their their pilot friend takes the boys and sonia and sue to like
Nicky: this this airport and then like all the boys take off their shirts and howl at the airplanes like i
Nicky: don't know if that's a thing but the my main point of this thing this this part is that ajay uh proposes
Nicky: to sonia
Nicky: You know, he asked for her hand in marriage.
Nicky: It's going to be important later on.
Adam: Well, yeah.
Adam: And also, we haven't seen their relationship at all until now.
Adam: And like, we kind of forgot he existed.
Adam: And then he proposes.
Adam: And even watching the movie, we're like, who is this guy?
Winnie: Where did he
Winnie: come from?
Adam: And then the movie just veers off and does a whole relationship montage.
Winnie: So it's kind of easy to see where this is going, right?
Winnie: You can kind of tell that his character is going to be pivotal somehow.
Nicky: Yeah, like marriage and I'm going to join the army and fight for my country.
Nicky: I wonder where that will lead.
Nicky: But the interesting
Adam: part is that there is nothing to fight now in the army he's in.
Adam: This is why it's interesting.
Adam: He's like, I'm patriotic.
Adam: I'm going to fight back.
Winnie: Adam, you cannot say that.
Winnie: That's how all countries operate.
Winnie: That's how
Winnie: militaries
Winnie: exist.
Winnie: There's always something to fight for.
Winnie: What do we have to
Adam: salute him for?
Adam: He's just doing test runs.
Adam: He's not even protecting anything.
Adam: He is impotent.
Adam: He is in a military with no purpose at the moment.
Adam: These previous guys had some type of purpose.
Adam: Now it's like,
Winnie: The whole military thing as a complex is kind of devotion to your country.
Winnie: So no, I
Winnie: agree with you.
Winnie: You're not protecting,
Winnie: defending against anything.
Winnie: It's
Winnie: kind of like this invisible threat that
Winnie: you're going to create somehow
Winnie: because you're going to go and do something that attacks them
Winnie: and then there's going to be defense and then you're going to say,
Winnie: yep, this is why militaries exist.
Winnie: But Kili, you said that you're very patriotic.
Winnie: Would you do what he did?
Adam: which is fly a plane back and
Winnie: forth.
Winnie: That was your
Winnie: introduction.
Winnie: Yeah,
Khilli: I would like to fly a plane.
Khilli: Someone enroll me in a pilot course or something.
Winnie: It's very
Adam: expensive.
Khilli: I can't afford myself.
Khilli: Please, guys.
Adam: So we're starting up a GoFundMe.
Adam: So if you go to fearofstairs.com slash fundme,
Adam: we can pay for Kili to be a test pilot for MiG planes.
Winnie: Please consider this Patriots, please.
Adam: He's so patriotic.
Adam: The only way to protect India at the moment is to fly planes back and forth.
Winnie: Kili's going to save
Adam: India.
Adam: That's actually
Winnie: me.
Adam: Don't be close.
Nicky: Go
Adam: on.
Nicky: So yeah, they work on the film.
Nicky: They get close to...
Nicky: They bond over making this film.
Nicky: And so does that conservative party guy, Lakshman.
Nicky: And, you know, we...
Nicky: And then also, Sue begins a relationship with DJ.
Nicky: Because why not?
Nicky: I feel like that's undeserved.
Nicky: Am I the only one that felt like it was so
Winnie: undeserving?
Winnie: Undeserved on whose end, Nikki?
Winnie: On...
Adam: The
Winnie: deserved of each other.
Winnie: Why does she like him?
Winnie: Why does she like Indian
Adam: Van Wilder?
Adam: Who is a goofball?
Adam: A college dropper.
Winnie: And he's cute.
Winnie: No, honestly,
Adam: like, is that...
Adam: But there's nothing even...
Adam: But come on, there's cuter guys in this group too.
Adam: That Muslim guy is
Winnie: way harder.
Winnie: Yeah,
Adam: way harder.
Adam: But the Muslim guy was not even flirting with her.
Winnie: That's not
Adam: her problem.
Adam: She could go for
Winnie: him.
Winnie: But also, maybe because he's Muslim, I hope that's not the
Adam: reason.
Adam: Are you
Winnie: speaking on behalf of white women right now?
Winnie: I think
Adam: Haley deserves to speak on behalf of white women.
Adam: he's a
Winnie: carrot
Adam: at every place we go to i don't cry but
Winnie: dj does have this charisma to him right like
Winnie: maybe it's amir khan coming through as an actor but he does kind of have this goofy personality
Winnie: but you can tell he is also the lead ringer of his group
Adam: the moment he's
Adam: pursuing her the whole time
Winnie: yeah but in a very sweet way
Adam: yeah yeah yeah he's just very clearly
Adam: interested in the whole he like
Adam: tags her instantly and like he doesn't
Adam: allow other people to talk to her
Adam: and is very much like I called
Winnie: her
Winnie: well I think for most Indian men having a white woman
Winnie: is kind of one of the biggest prizes that they'll have
Winnie: so you know he's definitely on his
Winnie: best behavior
Adam: would you agree
Adam: I know why he likes her that's not the question
Adam: why does she like him
Winnie: Because she's doing her eat, pray, love, you know,
Adam: that's her journey.
Winnie: Romance is part of it.
Winnie: Exotic meat.
Adam: No, you're right.
Adam: There's a million other.
Adam: She's in fucking India.
Adam: Like she can fuck any of these guys.
Khilli: So I think she had a thing for the revolutionary.
Khilli: I think she had a thing for Chanda Sakharazade.
Khilli: Like while, because.
Khilli: She really explains it with like,
Khilli: oh,
Khilli: like,
Khilli: no,
Khilli: someone who cannot,
Khilli: so no one can catch him kind of vibe.
Khilli: Like she,
Khilli: she talked about very passionately about Chandrasekhar Azad and looked at him like,
Khilli: Maybe she did this.
Khilli: That was her thing.
Winnie: Maybe.
Winnie: Maybe the movie she really wants to make is that scene with the white woman and five black guys behind her.
Adam: But now it's South
Winnie: Asian men.
Winnie: All right.
Winnie: So anyway.
Winnie: maybe remove that maybe
Adam: that is what she wanted to do and i think that's a really good point
Adam: no
Khilli: that's
Winnie: why it's brown
Adam: brown is
Winnie: the new black i guess
Adam: brown is the new black so
Nicky: so su and her
Adam: so
Nicky: she's filming a porno
Adam: with these young college students
Adam: No way.
Nicky: Go on.
Adam: I
Nicky: can't get that image out of my head.
Nicky: Anyway, so they bond over
Adam: there.
Adam: When they run train on her, it's actually not about
Adam: the train scene.
Winnie: That's why she could afford it in her budget.
Winnie: It's all for free.
Winnie: Oh my god.
Nicky: I'm dead.
Nicky: They get to...
Nicky: They bond over a torture scene.
Nicky: That's
Winnie: a weird way
Adam: to segue
Nicky: into the next.
Nicky: She's in S&M.
Nicky: There was like this torture scene between like the conservative guy and the Muslim guy.
Nicky: I'm going to refer to them as that now.
Winnie: And they
Nicky: bond over this scene, right?
Nicky: And then, of course, Ajay comes in and said, oh, why are you guys all looking sad?
Nicky: You know?
Nicky: feels like someone has died wink wink anyway they they celebrate you know uh you know that ajay is
Nicky: gonna go to to the air for indian air force
Adam: and what do you think happens next well movie's over
Adam: there's no problem
Adam: And he just protects the skies all day.
Adam: Yeah.
Adam: Well, that's the bad.
Adam: Oh, shit, I should have stayed and watched.
Nicky: That's the false ending.
Nicky: He dies.
Nicky: He just may become devastated to learn that Ajay dies.
Nicky: Because as we mentioned before, there was a MiG-21 malfunction scandal thing going on.
Nicky: And Ajay, unfortunately, becomes one of the victims.
Nicky: to, you know, drive the jet and malfunction
Adam: and it would crash.
Adam: Yeah, the plane just like exploded in the air or something on like a normal test run.
Adam: Yeah.
Nicky: So that is like a very like huge turning point in the movie because that's when things get
Nicky: really serious.
Nicky: And, you know, the government, they kind of like blame the accident to like how Ajay is
Nicky: like a bad pilot and they try to close the case and all that.
Nicky: But.
Nicky: You know, the group knows that Ajay is a good pilot, and they refuse to accept that official explanation.
Nicky: So we also learned that the defense minister, he signed a contract importing cheap parts.
Nicky: you know, of the plane
Nicky: in exchange for, like, personal
Nicky: favors. I don't know why
Nicky: he did that.
Nicky: And we also realized that Karen,
Nicky: the guy with daddy's money,
Nicky: his father is involved
Nicky: in orchestrating this
Nicky: this whole deal.
Nicky: We get to learn a lot in that bit.
Nicky: And we get to this really serious moment
Nicky: where the group, they organize like a protest
Nicky: at the India Gate.
Nicky: And then we get like this segment
Nicky: that the police just like violently breaks up the group
Nicky: and like there's a whole lot of police brutality
Adam: going on.
Adam: Yeah, I like this scene.
Adam: I like this scene because I was kind of worried
Adam: that it was going to be...
Adam: you know peaceful protesting solves everything and if we just hold hands and think kumbaya like
Adam: that's how the message gets out but it's not like they did try that and they all sat down and had
Adam: like a candlelight vigil type thing and then the government comes in and like cracks skulls and
Adam: beats up that dude's mom who died and then that's when they become like radicalized which is which
Adam: is like appropriate
Winnie: like honestly
Adam: that's when i become became radicalized when i thought like
Adam: cops bashing BLM protesters
Winnie: and stuff where I was like
Adam: okay there's no point
Adam: of return on this one so that's good
Adam: like I did like that is
Adam: true like the
Adam: peaceful protests don't work and I'm glad
Winnie: these guys
Adam: tried it saw it failed and then moved
Adam: on to the next step like I did appreciate
Winnie: And that really brings us back to the beginning of the movie, right? When her company in England wanted her to cover Gandhi. Because that's kind of the story you'd get from Gandhi. Just like non-violent, peaceful protest working in the country's favor. And then you get almost the exact opposite with this Bhagat Singh coverage.
Khilli: Yes.
Nicky: for it
Nicky: yeah that's
Nicky: really good
Nicky: actually Gandhi
Khilli: was like
Khilli: didn't write
Khilli: a mercy
Khilli: plea for
Khilli: Bhagat Singh's
Khilli: life
Khilli: like everyone
Khilli: asked Gandhi
Khilli: to write a
Khilli: mercy plea
Khilli: for Bhagat Singh's
Khilli: before he was
Khilli: hung to death
Khilli: and Gandhi said
Khilli: no these are
Khilli: violent kids
Winnie: who
Khilli: took wrong bet.
Khilli: Oh, is that what happened?
Nicky: Yeah,
Adam: yeah, yeah.
Winnie: Sorry.
Winnie: Now that's going to be cancelable.
Winnie: The only reason,
Winnie: and
Adam: Kili, correct me if I'm wrong, please,
Adam: but a lot of these peaceful protesters
Adam: are only successful
Adam: because of the other violent groups behind them.
Adam: where the threat is, if you don't work with me,
Adam: then you have to work
Winnie: with
Khilli: the violent people behind them.
Khilli: Yeah, you have to always keep that as rifle.
Khilli: If Gandhi did
Adam: not have them, he would have no leverage,
Adam: no platform, and his platform would not have succeeded either.
Khilli: No.
Khilli: The
Adam: peaceful only never works,
Adam: and Gandhi honestly should just appreciate the fact that them...
Adam: existing made him more palatable.
Khilli: Yeah, Gandhi was a very...
Khilli: For sure, he was a very important
Khilli: figure and he did a lot and
Winnie: everything.
Khilli: But he's like full of flaws, right?
Khilli: So, any leader is.
Khilli: Most of the leaders. And Gandhi is
Khilli: maybe a little more.
Khilli: But...
Khilli: Yeah, I mean, there was one huge movement.
Khilli: I mean, he was like this huge figure
Khilli: who has like a cult-like following
Khilli: of millions of people.
Khilli: Like he would say one thing
Khilli: and people would like...
Khilli: do anything
Winnie: so he
Khilli: had that command over like the huge mass right so there was some movement
Khilli: like leave india movement which is 1942 the last biggest movement before before india's freedom
Khilli: uh there was like and that movement kind of became balanced towards the end and gandhi actually
Khilli: started fasting
Khilli: to stop his followers to continue the movement at some point because the movement turned violent because at one point like you know I mean there was like some police cops beating and everything so what the protesters did they do?
Khilli: locked all the cops in one village in one police station and burned the whole police station.
Winnie: So
Khilli: after that, like Gandhi was like, no, no, this is out of hand.
Khilli: This is getting violent.
Winnie: But you see, that's just a natural progression of any movement.
Winnie: Like a bloodless revolution is almost a myth, I think,
Winnie: especially when there's colonizers involved and it's
Winnie: been going on for centuries.
Winnie: And
Adam: there's so many common analogies.
Adam: I'm not Martin Luther King Jr., the black guy, but Martin Luther...
Adam: uh
Winnie: the the lutheran like the guy that created like protestantism yeah um
Adam: you know he kind of
Adam: started the rebellion against the catholic church but then when he kind of got into a position of
Adam: influence where he was kind of just taken care of and kind of lived like a nice life and stuff
Adam: he started trying to quell all the other protests and was like no just listen to me we don't need to
Adam: you know material conditions would be disrupted he didn't want that to happen
Winnie: so like when he
Adam: was
Adam: on the lower end of the totem pole he was all for fighting and then when he got
Khilli: in a higher position
Khilli: he told everyone else to
Adam: kind of stop it
Winnie: happens all
Adam: the
Khilli: time never read that part in the history
Khilli: book though you
Winnie: know in the end it's always the victors who write history so the people that we
Winnie: end up knowing are who kind of like the victors would want the west would want us to know about
Winnie: that's why the whole world knows about gandhi but
Winnie: Only Indians will know about Bhagat Singh and that whole group.
Adam: And
Winnie: this is our first introduction through a movie.
Adam: Again, because of a white woman.
Adam: And also,
Winnie: it's
Adam: not only people that they want you to know, but people that they want you to follow.
Winnie: Exactly.
Winnie: That's why I'm saying you have to be kind of like suspicious of anyone who's pushed in your face as a good role model.
Winnie: I
Khilli: think Gandhi people still stand behind him.
Winnie: Of course.
Winnie: Because
Khilli: there's one big reason.
Khilli: Because...
Khilli: He was a very centrist figure,
Khilli: like in the truest sense of centrist figure,
Winnie: like right wing
Khilli: hated him.
Khilli: Leftist also didn't like him.
Khilli: And he was actually assassinated by the right wingers.
Khilli: So this is a very,
Khilli: I think I don't know many of the incidents in history
Khilli: where right wing extremists assassinating
Khilli: a very centrist figure.
Khilli: Because they usually assassinate who goes towards...
Adam: JK, assassination.
Adam: Yeah.
Adam: he was a centrist
Adam: I mean
Adam: he was a centrist
Khilli: in
Winnie: terms of
Winnie: American politics
Khilli: or in terms of
Khilli: global
Winnie: centrist
Winnie: I think will tend
Winnie: to pose a big threat
Winnie: because they're
Winnie: another unifying symbol
Winnie: they can actually
Winnie: get the mass on board
Winnie: so I'd say
Winnie: if anything
Winnie: centrist can be
Winnie: the biggest threat
Winnie: to people in power
Khilli: yeah
Khilli: So that's what happened.
Khilli: He's the first assassinated
Khilli: political, huge political figure
Khilli: and it was the Hindu
Khilli: terrorist.
Khilli: Hindu terrorist.
Adam: But if it wasn't for these guys
Adam: that the movie's about, there would be no
Adam: independence.
Adam: For
Khilli: sure. They built up the pressure
Adam: a
Khilli: lot.
Khilli: I mean, there has always been a parallel armed struggle in the Indian freedom movement.
Khilli: There were like Azad, Hind, Faj, which is like an army built against,
Khilli: with collecting militaries who were arrested in Japan as part of the Second World War.
Khilli: indian army uh like british indian army so suvash chandra was like he kind of collected all this
Khilli: uh army people from like he britishers enemy states and created one army so they were trying
Khilli: to enter india from one end like they were not very successful but whatever they were trying to
Khilli: there was like an indian british navy in a british indian navy they they revolted they
Khilli: there was a mutiny of the Navy towards the end.
Khilli: So there were this,
Khilli: all this armed resistance force was pressuring up and Congress,
Khilli: international Congress,
Khilli: that's like Gandhi was leader of like,
Khilli: they were politically like peacefully moving and there were a lot of movements
Khilli: happening.
Khilli: So it was a very disturbed,
Khilli: like they had a lot of pressure and of course the,
Khilli: Yeah, like you said, the arm struggle will help the pressure a lot.
Khilli: Cool.
Adam: Do these guys have holidays based off of them?
Adam: Exactly.
Winnie: Thank you.
Adam: Of course not.
Adam: That's why we don't have Malcolm X Day.
Adam: That's why we have MLK Day.
Adam: Alright, keep going.
Nicky: Yeah, so they see
Nicky: Ajay's mom get beaten up
Nicky: by the police. She ends up in a coma.
Nicky: Lakshman gets to see that his
Nicky: conservative party
Nicky: leader is in cahoots with the
Nicky: government. And that would
Nicky: lead to all of them being
Nicky: radicalized and
Nicky: they need to take action and avenge
Nicky: Ajay's death.
Nicky: And so, what do you think they do to avenge Ajay's death?
Nicky: They fucking murder the...
Nicky: They fucking murder the defense minister.
Nicky: In broad
Winnie: daylight.
Winnie: I'm still so impressed by this scene.
Winnie: Insane.
Winnie: Like, literally just
Nicky: walking down
Winnie: the sidewalk in broad daylight.
Winnie: They come up with a bike and...
Winnie: puff puff
Winnie: yeah
Speaker 7: that's what
Winnie: guns sound
Adam: like
Adam: why
Speaker 7: did you do puff puff
Adam: I don't know
Speaker 7: I think I'm thinking about the joint right
Adam: now
Adam: that's what we were
Speaker 7: boom boom
Adam: the way Nikki brought that up
Adam: is how quickly the movie brings that up
Winnie: it's like out of nowhere
Adam: in one scene they're like I guess we gotta kill this politician
Adam: and then they just do it
Adam: After like all this buildup and they just they're in a car.
Adam: It's like a GTA scene.
Adam: It's like broad daylight.
Adam: They just do a drive by shooting on this guy.
Adam: He's like walking out of his house to kill him
Winnie: dead.
Winnie: And like
Adam: it happened.
Adam: They did it super unexpected for me.
Adam: I've never seen a movie just advocate killing politicians.
Adam: I mean, not advocate, just doing it.
Winnie: And that's not
Adam: the plot of the movie.
Winnie: Is this how Luigi also shot the CU guy?
Winnie: It was also in broad daylight,
Adam: right?
Adam: Yeah.
Khilli: Very similar.
Khilli: Yeah, it's actually kind of cool.
Winnie: But
Khilli: yeah, of course, the CU didn't have bodyguards.
Khilli: This
Winnie: minister
Winnie: had
Khilli: bodyguards.
Khilli: But they couldn't do anything because if you suddenly...
Khilli: Because there is no intel, right?
Khilli: So that's how people catch the assassination attempt.
Khilli: Because there would be an intel.
Khilli: Because there would be a bigger...
Khilli: network flat plotting it there would be leaks of information
Winnie: and stuff like
Khilli: but they were like
Khilli: just five people like deciding okay let's kill him
Adam: and then there was
Khilli: no leak of information and
Khilli: suddenly killing him so no one
Adam: could do anything again pre-internet so they're
Khilli: not gonna like
Adam: surveil this over chat or anything
Winnie: yeah it's these
Adam: dudes in a room
Adam: they kill him, they can't find who the killers are.
Adam: And yeah, it's pretty impressive.
Adam: It's a good blueprint for how we should all live our lives.
Nicky: Adam's starting a revolution
Winnie: right here.
Nicky: So you think that is sudden, right?
Nicky: Wait till you hear what happens next.
Nicky: So the media ends up reporting that the defense minister,
Nicky: he was killed by terrorists and that he's like a martyr or something.
Nicky: And because the group feels that, oh shit,
Nicky: that didn't make much of an impact.
Nicky: what do you think they do next?
Nicky: They take over a radio station at gunpoint.
Adam: Yeah, they need to tell everyone why they killed him.
Adam: They need to tell everyone why this guy was bad
Adam: because they're shocked that newspapers weren't saying,
Adam: like, hey, evil guy dead everywhere.
Adam: And again, because it's pre-iPhone,
Adam: because it's pre-internet,
Adam: which I never thought about until watching this again,
Adam: they have to hijack a local college radio station
Khilli: and it's a college it's like a proper radio
Winnie: station oh
Khilli: so they hijack like a
Adam: local radio
Adam: station to broadcast their messages they have to physically hijack it when anything else now
Adam: would just be like a facebook live stream
Winnie: yes like some
Adam: twitch stream murder or something
Winnie: but
Winnie: that's also a radical component of the film because they're not trying to run away they're
Winnie: not trying to hide or anything right like they are literally
Adam: confessing
Winnie: what they just did
Winnie: on to like the entire country because they stand by it and
Adam: they do want it to change they're not
Adam: just killing him they're killing him for a purpose
Winnie: exactly try to
Adam: affect some changes
Adam: when once that change doesn't happen then they try to push it further which
Winnie: yeah again
Adam: that's the
Adam: being tagged yes exactly also
Khilli: like this is a good parallel with bhagat singh like how he got caught
Khilli: so he uh he tried to kill like the general the the police officer they killed on the broad daylight
Khilli: right so after that he was already wanted but he could go away anyway so that's when he did that
Khilli: party decided to like attack the parliament when the parliament was on session but they
Khilli: want didn't want to kill anyone because they are like
Khilli: They're innocent.
Khilli: I mean, not innocent, but they don't promote terror attack randomly.
Khilli: Targeted killing is okay.
Khilli: So what they did was they made this bomb, like smoke bomb, without any slinter.
Khilli: And they throw their pamphlet up there with party manifesto and everything in the parliament.
Khilli: And they did that so that...
Khilli: when they would be tried in court,
Khilli: they can talk about their motto,
Khilli: their politics and everything.
Khilli: And all the news reporters,
Khilli: journalists will be there
Khilli: and they can publish.
Khilli: And that's how their manifesto
Khilli: would go out in public.
Khilli: So I think that's a good parallel
Khilli: with what they did
Khilli: with hijacking the radio station.
Nicky: Yeah.
Nicky: Karen takes over
Nicky: the station
Nicky: I think it was the one
Nicky: that broadcast
Nicky: and then
Nicky: while they're like
Nicky: Karen is the white woman
Nicky: Karen
Adam: is the other guy
Adam: Karan
Adam: I'm kidding
Adam: I'm
Khilli: kidding
Khilli: you have a friend
Khilli: we have a friend
Adam: that is
Khilli: true
Khilli: it
Winnie: sounds great
Winnie: Karan Kalan
Khilli: it's the same name
Winnie: it's the same name
Winnie: but Thai is pronounced
Nicky: it differently
Winnie: yeah
Nicky: correct
Nicky: Yeah, so they broadcast the...
Nicky: I'm keeping that part in.
Nicky: That's a really important
Winnie: part.
Winnie: Go ahead.
Nicky: So Karan, a broadcast of the defense minister's corruption, right?
Nicky: And while that's happening, right, they managed to evacuate everyone from the radio station.
Nicky: with guns and uh
Adam: important part important
Nicky: part because while that was happening right the the
Nicky: indian uh military decides to raid the radio station and what do you think they have what
Nicky: do you think happens they they just you know surrender themselves and everyone walks off
Nicky: scot-free
Adam: it becomes like munich and they just uh bunker down and and amir khan becomes like a hardened
Adam: It ban wilder becomes Rambo basically.
Khilli: They wanted to actually surrender,
Khilli: but they realized that the surrender is not a point because they had a,
Khilli: uh,
Khilli: shoot at site order.
Khilli: I mean the before the scene before the army or the whatever armed force
Khilli: arrives,
Khilli: like they threw the guns on the beans.
Khilli: that was like a scene you remember like they were like as soon as they decided they they they did
Khilli: the broadcast that we killed him we killed him because he he's the he's guilty for my our friend's
Khilli: death for me me crashed and then the song starts playing and they they put the gun in the trash
Khilli: which was like i think i'm going to make an image of it
Khilli: Yeah, so they did that.
Khilli: So it's like, okay, we get rid of the arms.
Khilli: We are done with the violence.
Khilli: And then they're shot.
Winnie: Well, I think they knew what their future held, right?
Winnie: Like they all thought they were going to end up in jail or whatever.
Khilli: And that's
Winnie: why they accused their friend who's rich
Winnie: of being able to get out of it.
Winnie: And they knew that was their fate.
Winnie: So I think they didn't want their actions to go into vain.
Winnie: And that's why they were trying to make a statement
Winnie: and urge people to wake up and see what's going on around them before they died.
Winnie: Oh, that's a spoiler alert.
Winnie: They died.
Khilli: But the rich friend...
Khilli: The
Winnie: rich friend
Winnie: could have gotten away
Khilli: because he's a rich dad.
Khilli: Right.
Khilli: That
Winnie: is the biggest twist in the movie.
Khilli: The biggest twist?
Winnie: I'd say that's one of the biggest statements.
Winnie: It was the last thing to reveal.
Winnie: Yeah, I was going to get into that.
Winnie: So
Nicky: we find out that Karan is...
Nicky: He would have walked away because his father is like...
Nicky: what do you call capitalist crony,
Nicky: politician,
Nicky: whatever.
Adam: He just owns,
Adam: he's in this
Nicky: military
Adam: industrial complex
Adam: and he's making money off these airplanes.
Nicky: So his father promised him
Nicky: that he could walk away scot-free
Nicky: if he could just name his friends
Nicky: and, you know,
Nicky: he'll get like a lighter sentence or something.
Nicky: And then like,
Nicky: you know,
Nicky: you get this really emotional scene.
Nicky: At first,
Nicky: the first time we see this scene,
Nicky: they like,
Nicky: you didn't get to see how it ends,
Nicky: but then when the group is getting gunned down by the military,
Nicky: we find out that, like, he murders the dad.
Nicky: Like, he fucking shoots him with a gun,
Nicky: like, out, like, in cold blood.
Winnie: Like, literally, they're going in for a hug,
Winnie: and then he takes a gun out and shoots him in the stomach,
Adam: which is so
Winnie: radical for Indian families in general.
Adam: Oh, yeah.
Adam: I mean, not just killing your dad, but...
Adam: uh i never it was the biggest surprise for me i never expected to see this in any movie to be
Adam: honest where like the the kid of like a rich guy realizes his dad is part of the problem
Adam: and shoots him
Winnie: right instead of trying to like leverage it and take advantage of that
Adam: yeah or even just feeling guilty he does take action what is
Khilli: more rare son shooting the dad or
Khilli: son and dad hugging each other
Winnie: oh
Winnie: gosh
Winnie: every Asian person just
Winnie: that was something
Nicky: I craved
Nicky: that childhood
Nicky: I wish I could
Winnie: I wish I could be that close to my dad
Adam: as close as that guy is to shooting him
Adam: I wish I could be that close
Adam: but
Winnie: now you guys know why our dad's never hugged you
Winnie: he's always afraid you're gonna shoot him
Adam: why is dad approaching me
Winnie: he's gonna kill me
Nicky: yeah uh so yeah they all get gunned down in the end i mean okay that didn't really happen but like
Nicky: they get gunned down right and they manage to send out the message and like
Adam: but what is the message
Adam: can we drill down on that for a
Khilli: second adam you're the right person to do it none right
Adam: none none
Adam: yeah i mean what what are the what what they hijack a radio station to say what
Adam: Like, I honestly
Khilli: forget.
Khilli: We will keep on doing, like, we joined the system to change the system from within.
Khilli: Sorry.
Khilli: That narrative.
Khilli: You're right.
Adam: Actually, it's worse than none.
Adam: Sorry, you're right.
Adam: So it's worse than, like, a pointless, stupid message.
Adam: What they say is, because the rich kid that killed his dad takes the mic and he's like,
Adam: hey...
Adam: you know,
Adam: we are self-aware youth
Adam: and we're coming to change the system,
Adam: but we're not going to do what I just did.
Adam: We're all just going to infiltrate
Adam: and become police officers
Adam: and become businessmen, I guess,
Adam: and enter into the government
Adam: and change it from the inside.
Adam: Even though they,
Adam: throughout the whole movie,
Adam: have learned that that doesn't work,
Adam: And that they learned that direct action is the only thing that really gets anything done.
Adam: They then just directly neuter themselves and tell everyone that is inspired by them to not do what they did and to just become liberal subjects in a republic and just try to change the system from the inside, which you cannot do because those institutions just exist everywhere.
Adam: with express purposes to like kill or exploit or whatever.
Adam: And so that was the disappointing part was their messages useless.
Khilli: Wow, Adam.
Adam: Am I wrong?
Khilli: No, exactly.
Adam: Really?
Khilli: That's why I think, yeah, because...
Khilli: Yeah, I mean, like, what the hell?
Khilli: Like, you cannot change the system like that.
Adam: You don't fix the police office by becoming a police officer.
Adam: You cannot.
Khilli: No, not police system, yeah.
Adam: Like, yeah, so like that, you cannot change the army by becoming a soldier.
Winnie: Guys, you cannot forget that people make institutions.
Adam: Correct.
Winnie: So if you uphold the
Adam: institutions, no matter what size you feel...
Winnie: But for a film to be endorsed by Bollywood,
Winnie: to receive such critical acclaim,
Winnie: and to be able to pander to such a wide audience,
Winnie: you need to find a centrist
Winnie: ground to
Winnie: portray that message.
Winnie: And this movie does that.
Winnie: And that's how it
Winnie: received
Winnie: so much critical acclaim.
Winnie: Or else it would have been too radical to promote on such a mainstream media.
Khilli: But there was one major...
Khilli: Not major, but a very weird movement going on after this...
Khilli: film came out which was like youth for equality which was kind of against the positive
Khilli: like positive reservation system that we have against the for caste-based reservation
Winnie: so
Winnie: basically affirmative action against affirmative action
Khilli: so what are happening was like this
Khilli: reservation was being given to another layer of
Khilli: oppressed not oppressed like other backward cast like it was a huge thing that was happening and
Khilli: all the people all the politicians they could didn't let it happen and then like finally it
Khilli: was happening 2005 2006 after we in the education system after which the the surge of private
Khilli: education sector was up in india to get keep the education anyway so
Khilli: That Youth for Equality movement, they used to have this kind of chats that, oh, let's kill this minister.
Khilli: So even though the film didn't want to associate with certain things, but it kind of rang to people who comes from that problematic society.
Khilli: segment of the
Winnie: society and then
Khilli: yeah so it kind of happened for a bit so yeah so it kind of
Khilli: happened but yeah
Adam: and then you can see with the current government of india everything got
Winnie: solved
Adam: it became super peaceful and it worked that the plan worked yeah yeah
Winnie: You know, but I think this movie is very open to interpretation. It's subjective because the actions they take is very radical. They literally shoot someone who's in a position of power and then they say, join these institutions, right? But like, it's up to you to decide what you want to take from that. Maybe they cannot be as direct and bold with what they're trying to say, but their actions kind of show that.
Winnie: So actually, yeah, the actions that they take in the movie and the final messages that they preach on the radio station is a little bit at odds with one another. And I think that is just to kind of
Winnie: make it a
Winnie: little bit more subjective for you to just decide and make it more relatable
Adam: for a wider audience, I think.
Adam: So, Winnie, you're the only person that has this perspective.
Adam: And we're not going to give anything away, but you do work for larger institutions.
Adam: Is it possible to change it from the inside?
Adam: Absolutely not.
Adam: Okay.
Adam: Absolutely
Winnie: not.
Winnie: No, but my point is that when you start this kind of messaging, you need to make it relatable
Winnie: to as wide of an audience as you can.
Winnie: And in doing so, you have to be strategic about how you portray that.
Winnie: And I think this movie does a wonderful job at that.
Winnie: And that's why it is so acclaimed the way that it is.
Adam: Sure.
Winnie: okay
Adam: no but thanks
Adam: if I were a
Khilli: writer
Khilli: I would not
Khilli: make them say anything
Khilli: like we just killed him
Khilli: because he was
Khilli: doing that
Khilli: you take a decision
Khilli: what you should do
Khilli: right but then
Winnie: but then you see
Winnie: when you just have
Winnie: that action alone
Winnie: look at what's happening
Winnie: with Luigi
Winnie: he's literally facing
Winnie: the death sentence
Winnie: that does not bode well
Winnie: you need to kind of
Winnie: have a messaging
Winnie: at the end that
Winnie: kind of almost simmers down that action in a way
Adam: to make it not you should not i'm
Winnie: saying like for
Winnie: it to be relatable
Adam: well for it to be relatable for something
Khilli: like i don't see them very politically
Khilli: bunch of kids to be honest in the film
Winnie: like they did
Khilli: something huge because they were emotional
Khilli: they they had their friends killed because of this uh corruption thing going on they took a very bold
Khilli: decision they sacrifice their life for that cause and everything
Khilli: but to change institution,
Khilli: to talk about the whole politics as a whole,
Khilli: they were not,
Khilli: they were not informed enough.
Winnie: Like they
Khilli: were like very shallow.
Khilli: And then,
Khilli: I mean,
Khilli: this one experience wouldn't change your knowledge.
Khilli: It might change your perspective and make you inspired to do stuff,
Khilli: study and change things.
Khilli: But it didn't make you like very literate or very politically aware or very
Khilli: like a,
Khilli: I guess,
Khilli: I mean,
Khilli: a,
Khilli: figurehead like you know like I don't think that would happen because like look at the revolution
Khilli: in the parallel they were the the the filmmaker was drawing on they were heavily a literate like
Khilli: politically literate people there was a study political literature and
Khilli: They would plan, they would write manifesto for
Winnie: the party,
Khilli: they would do all these things.
Khilli: And then they've committed violence and also chose when to not commit violence.
Khilli: And these people were not that educated,
Adam: for sure.
Adam: It brings up a good point.
Adam: I think if a white woman was in the past, I think those revolutionary leaders would have a holiday in their name.
Adam: Because they'd be a lot more powerful, a lot more knowledgeable
Nicky: and effective.
Nicky: Oh my god.
Nicky: shall we review the movie yeah let's do that we're
Winnie: introducing a new segment
Adam: we may or may not continue please let us know in the comments how much you love
Adam: the system but you have to use our own rating system to judge this
Adam: segment we have a rating system based on five different things
Adam: Number one, the staircase movement did have a big surprise.
Adam: A dance floor clause was their dancing.
Adam: Three, family feud factor.
Adam: Four, regional spice.
Adam: And five, were there emotional extremes?
Adam: There's a bonus point for a broader moral message, but we're going to get into this
Adam: step by step.
Adam: So staircase moment.
Adam: Nikki, I think you touched on it.
Adam: What was yours?
Nicky: The first one would be, you know,
Nicky: Ajay dying, basically,
Nicky: from the plane scandal.
Nicky: But the bigger staircase moment for me
Nicky: would be that they end up
Nicky: killing the minister
Nicky: and getting killed at the radio station.
Nicky: It's just like, you know,
Nicky: it just
Winnie: takes you by
Nicky: surprise.
Nicky: That moment right there
Nicky: took a left turn for me.
Nicky: I was like, okay, I did not see that coming.
Nicky: I guess you all agree, right?
Winnie: I think my biggest staircase moment, though, was when he shot his dad.
Winnie: I would not expect that from most Bollywood movies.
Winnie: I feel like we're supposed to treat our parents like God.
Winnie: That is definitely quite a statement in itself.
Adam: That's pretty big.
Adam: Yeah.
Adam: I just like the killing the politician because if you blink, you will miss it.
Winnie: super quick.
Winnie: There wasn't
Adam: really any buildup,
Adam: but if you had to go take a piss
Adam: or something, you would have missed that they just
Adam: bodied this politician on the
Adam: street. So yeah, that was my
Adam: staircase moment. Now, my big
Adam: issue with this movie, Dance Floor
Winnie: Claws...
Adam: Were there any musical numbers?
Nicky: See, this is what I'm telling you.
Nicky: We didn't talk about it because you know why?
Nicky: Because I don't remember any of it.
Winnie: Yeah, and this is so crazy because A.R. Raman
Winnie: was the musical composer of this movie.
Khilli: And all the songs were banger.
Khilli: Yeah, and he's
Winnie: like Indian Mozart.
Winnie: He is
Khilli: so
Nicky: widely
Winnie: acclaimed.
Nicky: There were a couple, like, they were dancing at the heritage site again.
Nicky: They were, like, jumping down the
Khilli: waterfall.
Winnie: There was, like, a scene like that.
Winnie: And then the song Rang De Basanti itself.
Winnie: Rang De Basanti
Khilli: itself had some dance because they were going to, like, a fair.
Khilli: And where there were, like, people in the traditional Sikh Punjabi, like, some cultural races.
Khilli: And then they were dancing.
Khilli: But it was not a massive dance number that Bollywood brings in where the main characters go and dance a lot
Winnie: randomly.
Khilli: That didn't happen.
Khilli: But yeah, the music was a banger.
Khilli: The music was super hit.
Khilli: And a lot of the songs they didn't use in a whole...
Khilli: in the film
Khilli: they are in the
Khilli: like a track
Khilli: released separately
Khilli: yeah
Khilli: but yeah
Adam: so F
Adam: F minus
Adam: dance
Khilli: number
Khilli: no not F minus
Khilli: F
Adam: F plus
Adam: two of the
Winnie: songs
Winnie: in this movie
Winnie: received nominations
Winnie: for like the best music
Winnie: in Academy Awards
Winnie: or something
Khilli: neither of
Winnie: them won
Winnie: but like that's how
Winnie: renowned it is
Winnie: these songs were like
Winnie: super hit
Khilli: this was like
Khilli: peak of Ehrman's
Khilli: career, like, you know,
Khilli: this film, songs were, like,
Khilli: well-received by everyone
Khilli: in the spectrum of music.
Khilli: They should have had the white lady
Adam: sing, and I think I would have remembered
Adam: it more. Like, if the white lady
Adam: was like, hey, you can sing too, and then, you know,
Adam: she's like, I don't know, I'm nervous, and then she
Adam: ends up, like, you know, dancing with, like,
Adam: With the garb.
Winnie: Teardrops on my guitar.
Winnie: I love the
Khilli: song.
Winnie: Yeah, it was like an Alayas Morissette
Adam: cover.
Adam: That would have been nice.
Khilli: I love the song when Ajay dies and the news comes to her mother.
Khilli: That time the song was playing on the background.
Khilli: And that song was like really emotional.
Khilli: It was one of my favorite songs.
Khilli: It's kind of a happy sad song.
Winnie: like
Adam: yeah
Khilli: that song is really cool
Adam: we
Khilli: are not
Khilli: scoring on
Adam: songs
Adam: background songs
Khilli: do not count
Khilli: yeah we are not
Khilli: scoring on songs
Khilli: we are music number
Khilli: we are not
Khilli: scoring on music number
Khilli: we are scoring on
Khilli: dance numbers right
Winnie: like both
Winnie: and there's not even
Winnie: a credit scene
Winnie: everything goes in
Winnie: hand
Winnie: it's like song and dance
Winnie: I think maybe
Winnie: the songs in this movie
Winnie: were more meaningful
Winnie: maybe you have to
Winnie: understand the lyrics
Winnie: to get it
Winnie: maybe it's not like
Winnie: as upbeat and fun
Winnie: like other Bollywood movies
Winnie: where even people
Winnie: who don't understand it
Winnie: can just like vibe
Winnie: to it because it's upbeat.
Adam: He should have had an airplane song singing in the airplane
Adam: before he dies.
Adam: He should have had a shooting your dad's
Adam: protest song.
Winnie: There's a million different things they
Winnie: could
Adam: have done.
Adam: They did have that one musical montage when they are
Adam: engaged. I remember that.
Khilli: That's it. And it was boring.
Khilli: And then he died.
Khilli: If you are scoring a musical number,
Khilli: I'll pretty much score it high.
Khilli: But if it's a dance number, I will not score.
Adam: I'm gonna repeat
Adam: this is a dance floor clause
Adam: yeah
Adam: was there at least
Adam: one memorable
Adam: musical number
Adam: you see like
Adam: I remember
Nicky: all these things
Nicky: that are happening
Nicky: like when the dance
Nicky: numbers come
Nicky: I cannot for the life of me
Nicky: remember how any
Nicky: of the songs go man
Nicky: I don't remember it
Nicky: I just
Winnie: I just cannot
Nicky: I tried so hard
Nicky: like
Nicky: I mean, even like India Wale from Happy New Year is still in my head.
Adam: Oh my god.
Adam: And you just got it in mine too.
Adam: But you know what you do remember, Nikki?
Adam: Family feud factor.
Nicky: Yeah, there's a lot of that, right?
Winnie: Name one.
Nicky: The Muslim family.
Winnie: That's a good one.
Winnie: Okay, I was going to go for the shooting the dad one.
Winnie: Too obvious.
Nicky: Too obvious.
Winnie: Yeah,
Nicky: like, you know, I mean, they...
Nicky: Muslims and Hindus they don't go get along and you know uh bad influence like you know that family
Nicky: was like you know telling the the rest of the group like you don't know what you're getting him
Nicky: into because like he gets hurt and like they're dragging him down with them and stuff like that
Nicky: and you know uh
Nicky: their religion is like different from theirs and they shouldn't be getting along there's like that
Nicky: kind of conflict
Khilli: but also they they kind of be brought up on a very important factor that kind of
Khilli: more true in today's day so they were saying like oh we this country doesn't treat us well
Khilli: that was their point of saying that you know like this country doesn't treat us well
Khilli: don't meddle with these people because you will be in danger
Adam: i was gonna ask you guys um
Adam: Yeah, which religion do you think is better?
Winnie: In this current political context, Brave.
Winnie: No, I'm
Adam: kidding.
Adam: Next.
Winnie: It was like
Khilli: a quiet moment.
Khilli: It's like an hysterical moment of the podcast.
Adam: Everything
Khilli: becomes so gloomy.
Adam: Regional spice level.
Khilli: Hmm.
Adam: Did it feel culturally or regionally specific?
Adam: This was in Mumbai, right?
Khilli: No, Delhi.
Khilli: So, no, I like the Sikh culture it showed.
Khilli: I like the...
Khilli: Because, yeah, because Punjab is next to Delhi.
Khilli: And, yeah.
Winnie: Definitely culturally significant.
Winnie: It goes into the history of some of the biggest
Winnie: movements of the country.
Adam: Did it feel like real college life?
Adam: Did it feel like real Hindi?
Adam: I feel like Kaylee's
Adam: the only guy that can answer this one.
Adam: I don't know what we would contribute
Khilli: to that.
Khilli: It had a flavor of real college vibe.
Adam: Like,
Khilli: definitely more than three idiots.
Khilli: And I think as a white
Adam: guy, I think the white lady acted like an appropriate white lady.
Adam: So I'm going to go five on the regional spice level.
Adam: She thought the yogurt was too spicy, and so I thought that was pretty
Winnie: accurate.
Winnie: And she cries, which is what white women do.
Winnie: Yeah, and
Adam: that's what white women do.
Adam: So I think it's pretty accurate.
Nicky: I don't know if this counts for the category, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that for most Thai people, they're not aware of such movements.
Nicky: So I think that worked for me, the revolution.
Nicky: movement
Khilli: yeah it worked for you for me like it gave
Nicky: me some awareness exactly that way
Khilli: yeah of
Khilli: course just by watching it like yeah
Adam: i
Nicky: have a basic understanding but you'll get a basic
Nicky: understanding just watching that that's true i
Adam: didn't know any of this honestly going in
Adam: yeah uh last one emotional extremes yeah for
Winnie: sure yeah
Winnie: yeah america
Adam: does very good eye work
Adam: like when he's like a young college,
Adam: not young,
Adam: he's like five years graduated,
Adam: but he's always like a 30 year old.
Adam: But when he,
Adam: but he does have like a playful,
Adam: you know,
Adam: like flirty vibe.
Adam: But at the end,
Adam: when he's like locked in the radio station,
Adam: his eyes are very good.
Adam: He has a good eye actor.
Adam: And like,
Adam: He looks like he hasn't slept.
Adam: He looks like he's all stressed out, like he's about to cry.
Adam: He does do well with emotional extremes,
Adam: and he carries that pretty well, I got to say.
Adam: It's believable when you see him looking like an action hero at the end
Adam: from being a college loser.
Winnie: I
Adam: like that.
Adam: I think the characters handled that pretty well.
Khilli: Also, that scene where he was eating food and suddenly burst out
Khilli: in tear because he was holding back
Khilli: all the emotions for a long time
Khilli: and then he comes back from the hospital
Khilli: after when like
Khilli: Ajay's mother is in coma and then
Khilli: Su brings him food
Khilli: and he starts eating and then he's like
Khilli: totally quiet, not talking and then suddenly
Khilli: while eating bursts out
Khilli: in tears and it was a very good contrast with how he was eating in his mother's restaurant
Khilli: and making faces while eating and stuff like that and then it was a good contrast of his journey that okay this
Khilli: this youthful dude
Khilli: who didn't give a flying
Khilli: about anything.
Khilli: The one time you don't swear.
Adam: I was like,
Adam: why are you
Nicky: censoring?
Nicky: You brought that one time
Winnie: and I was like, why?
Adam: What now?
Winnie: Alright, was there a
Adam: broader
Adam: moral message?
Winnie: Oh, absolutely right.
Adam: It was called sell out,
Adam: be part of the system,
Adam: and things will
Winnie: work out.
Khilli: Yeah.
Adam: What was the moral message?
Khilli: Kill a politician and then ask other people to join the system.
Winnie: Hold people accountable and then join those systems.
Khilli: Great
Adam: moral message.
Winnie: We
Adam: all have different
Khilli: messages.
Khilli: Yeah, it's good.
Khilli: Yeah, it's open
Adam: to interpretation.
Adam: So what do you think?
Winnie: Overall...
Adam: out of the movie
Adam: 4 out of 5
Adam: they hit 4 out of the 5 points we
Khilli: had
Khilli: yeah so what was the score?
Adam: I mean there's no dance
Winnie: it's a 4 for me
Winnie: I'd say it's a strong 4 for me
Winnie: it's a strong 4
Winnie: all right all
Speaker 7: in agreement
Speaker 7: 4 stairs
Khilli: we give it 4
Speaker 7: stairs
Speaker 7: we give it 4 stairs
Adam: that only can break your arm
Nicky: not a neck
Nicky: Pretty safe.
Nicky: If it was five, it was so good that we end up dying.
Nicky: That's true.
Nicky: The stairs aren't long enough for
Adam: that.
Adam: So we will be back next week with minimal injuries.
Adam: The film next week is Dostana.
Adam: Which is a very exciting movie.
Adam: I'm excited to talk about it.
Adam: It's just in time for
Nicky: Pride Month.
Nicky: Pride Month in Bangkok.
Nicky: Which is also a very significant moment this year.
Nicky: Because it's the first time that they're hosting it.
Nicky: When the marriage equality law comes into effect.
Nicky: Yes.
Winnie: Perfect timing.
Winnie: Right.
Winnie: Yeah.
Winnie: Perfect.
Winnie: Stay tuned.
Nicky: Bye.