Disco Dancer (1982)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
We're recording.

(00:01):
I like that Killy likes to sing before the recording.
Yeah, I've sang many times.
He can use it.
In the hopes that I will use it for the cold open, but I never do.
Exactly.
Check out his music career through this podcast.
I specifically use things that are embarrassing to Killy and none of it's his good singing.
He keeps trying to do it.

(00:22):
He has to do like this.
Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy.
Ah-cha, ah-cha, ah-cha.
Alright, that's a good one.
Welcome to Fear of Serious, Desi Films Decoded.
The podcast where four friends from different backgrounds unlock the world of Desi cinema.

(00:47):
I'm Winnie the Desi who's never been to India.
Hi, I'm Killy.
I'm from India and I love films.
I'm like the film enthusiast.
Why don't you sing it?
Yeah, I'll say it again.
Please, Adam.
Okay.
Yeah.
Hi, I'm Killy.
I'm from India.
I'm, I'm...
What are you saying?

(01:08):
It's like the hardest part in the whole podcast.
It's saying who you are that you've done 11 times.
Hi.
Hi, I'm Killy.
I'm the film enthusiast from India.
Hi, I'm Nicky.
I'm from Thailand and my name rhymes with Jimmy.
That's a really good point.
I'm Adam.
I'm the American and today I learned that guitar phobia is real and it affects dozens

(01:31):
of us every year and that you should all be more aware of it.
So, today's film is a 1980s film called Disco Dancer.
It is one of the cheesiest movies in Fear of Stairs history that we've ever watched and
we did know about it to some degree thanks to like, you know, in the past we watched

(01:57):
this movie called Deli Belli and in that movie there was like a character that was obsessed
with this movie called Disco Fighter which Killy has...I remember Killy briefly mentioning
that it was inspired by an actual movie and it's this movie that we're covering called
Disco Dancer and Disco Dancer has a, you know, apart from the cheesy action scenes and the

(02:23):
cheesy acting, the ham-fisted revenge story, there is also like...this movie also has like
a very memorable soundtrack that doesn't extend just beyond Bollywood but also to Russians
as well, surprisingly.
Yeah.
As we'll soon find out.
Yeah, Killy mentioned Disco Dancer and said like we should possibly see it in the future

(02:45):
and the Deli Belli character was based off Disco Dancer so like, okay, that's cool and
I think Killy showed us the post from like, that looks kind of rad and then I was getting
into like the Desi film scene in Blue Sky, like the Twitter clone and I saw someone,
I was chatting with someone that had the Disco Dancer background and I was like, oh, hey,

(03:06):
like we're thinking about doing that and she was this British Indian and she's like, oh,
I'm obsessed with this movie.
She's like, it was actually huge in the USSR and I'm like, what are you talking about?
I had no idea of this history and I'm friends with some Russians.
We watched Russian movies together and I asked them like, have you heard of this movie Disco

(03:27):
Dancer?
And they're like, oh yeah and they started singing the song right away and they're about,
they're 39 years old and she said like, I think my parents were conceived like watching
this movie, sorry, I think I was conceived while my parents were watching this movie.
It was like a gigantic cultural hit and they were all like dancing to the songs and like
the Russians just like grew up with it if you were born during the USSR so then I was

(03:51):
like fascinated and then this user on Blue Sky mentioned a book which we can talk about
later but then yeah, so I read this whole book about kind of Indian films in the USSR
and it was great and then the user was like, oh, check out your podcast.
It sounds like right up my alley and then she never got back to me and then ignored me
and I messaged her a few times when I was like, hey, the book was really good and then she

(04:13):
ignored me and then I was like, hey, so we watched the movie and I loved it and she ignored
me.
She hates our podcast and doesn't want any association with us so I'm not going to shout
out her name but I still want to thank her because she turned me on to a really good
book and without her I don't think we would have watched this movie so thank you to her

(04:34):
and I hope you find a better podcast that you like.
Feel free to reach out anytime if you are listening.
I don't think about it or anything.
Anyways, Killy, what's your background with this?
Yeah, so the disco dancer is played by a Bengali actor called, his name is Mithun Chakraborty.

(04:57):
So Mithun is kind of became synonymous with disco dancers so I was hearing his interviews
and stuff like that and he tells that wherever he traveled like outside of even outside of
India, like people know him as disco dancer like in the airport, like he was being recognized
as the disco dancer.
So the term disco dancer kind of becomes his identity.

(05:23):
For a Bollywood film in 1980s, it came out on, it was released on 1982, right?
So this film is the first Bollywood film that had dance at the center stage of it.
Like Bollywood had dances before in the films but to be the dance as a main hooking point

(05:48):
of the film, dance and music, this is the first one.
And so I was also researching like who was the choreographer.
So it seemed like there was no choreographer.
Mithun himself like came up with the dance moves that he wanted to do and he would send it
to the director and then director would agree on like whatever steps that goes on screen

(06:13):
and then they will take it from there.
So you can kind of tell, like there's no group dance numbers or anything.
It's kind of individuals doing their thing.
Yeah, it's kind of all haphazard and yeah, it's not a group choreography.
It wasn't great dancing.
It was not great dancing but I think it's the attitude towards dancing.
Isn't he like the disco king of Bollywood?

(06:35):
He's supposed to be the best dancer in the world.
He's really a good dancer.
He inspired dancers to do choreography for screens maybe because they thought like, oh,
that should be corrected.
This seems so easy to do.
I think we could all do this.
So I read that this actually inspired a lot of local tournaments in schools and just random

(06:58):
local events where people would either have disco dance-offs or try to imitate Mithun's
dance moves and there'd be prizes and stuff.
So like it did seem like he was quite influential and iconic.
Like, Killy, in your school, did you ever have any disco dance-offs?
Was this actor in, was he able to break out of that role and be in other big hits and stuff?

(07:19):
Yeah, he had few good hits upon his sleeves and also like he was very known because of
few of his very arthouse films he was in.
I mean, he's a known actor.
He's not only a disco dancer, but he had the identity that he is the first dancer hero.
Was he ever like typecasted as a disco dancer in other movies?

(07:42):
I think he did another film called Dance Dance by the same director.
So, but I don't think he has been typecasted, but he was a great action hero.
He was a good action hero.
Like he had done action films.
So, what I got kind of from this film is that people from outside of India knows Bollywood

(08:05):
for its dance numbers, right?
Like dance and music.
But back in those days, there were dance, but I think what disco dancer did is like
it's kind of broke the monotony of the similar dance form that was being on screen
and kind of brought up.
It brought like modern music, I feel too, because it wasn't like old like Indian music

(08:29):
that they're dancing to.
It's like modern music and modern dance.
And there's like sleeves that are cut, you know, skin is showing in like modern clothes,
not traditional clothes.
It was basically like western disco, then to Bollywood for the first time.
I think it's brought kind of sassiness to the whole thing.
Everything that Saturday Night Fever did in America in John Travolta and stuff seems like

(08:52):
the same thing happened with Disco Dancer in India and USSR.
Winnie, did you have any knowledge of this film?
Not at all.
So I didn't even know.
So like Nikki knew about it for the music and I had never heard of it before.
So I'm surprised that it's such a mega cult classic, even like globally, not just in India.
Your mom never mentioned it?
No, I mean, it's like way before my time.
I think it's probably the oldest Bollywood film that we've discussed on this podcast

(09:15):
and that I've watched before.
But no.
The USSR aspect was a surprise because, you know, Adam's not joking.
Like when you go on YouTube to look up the music, like all the comments are just flooded
with people giving like anecdotes about how, you know, when they were living in the US,
in Russia, it was like very influential or like their parents loved it.

(09:39):
You know, the influence is massive.
Yeah.
So let's break down.
What's the plot?
We'll do the plot and then we'll do the context.
To put it simply, you know, it's your typical revenge story of a mama's boy trying to avenge his mom.
Basically, it stars this kid called Anil and he's like basically this like street dancer.

(10:02):
He's like giving joy to people through the power of music.
And, you know, he stumbles upon this rich man, evil record producer named PN Oberoi.
He has the weirdest name.
It's like, what's a weird name?
Oberoi.
No, Oberoi is a very known business cast people.

(10:24):
Yeah.
So, I don't know, PN Oberoi is just being a dick and accused Anil, who's just like this
street dancer, right, of thievery.
And in the midst of it all, he even struck Anil's mom, who was trying to intervene.
He strikes Anil's mom in the most dramatic fashion possible, like the utter disrespect kind of thing.

(10:47):
And then, you know, since this man is a powerful record producer, he accused Anil's family of thievery.
And they were like literally outcasted from Bombay, I believe.
I think it takes place in Bombay.
Yeah.
And, you know, it's the shame consumes them, right?
And his mother, you know, instead of, you know, Anil was accused of thievery, right?

(11:12):
But then his mother takes the fall and she basically spends time in prison.
And that's when, you know, Anil, his entire life is motivated by a thirst for revenge.
And how does he enact this revenge?
Through the power of disco dancing.
Yes.
And yeah, he just comes back and he rebrands himself as this man named Jimmy.

(11:35):
And it's like another, I don't know, another underdog story, rags-riches kind of thing,
where he's just coming in like an unknown guy coming in to, you know, win the hearts of people.
In this case, disco dancing.
And he becomes a disco star.
And he spends like his whole adult life trying to make PN Oberoi's life miserable.

(11:59):
He has such a singular focus, which is what I really like about him.
He has like one singular memory, which is his mom getting hit by this one rich man.
And so his whole life is consumed with like this crazy vengeance,
where yeah, he just destroys this man's life systematically.
And I really enjoy just how focused he is on that.

(12:22):
He has a relentless hatred for this man.
And the movie has like a very singular hatred of rich people in general.
Yeah, I cannot describe to the audience right now, but if you do ever check out this movie,
like every line of dialogue this man spouts out of like revenge and hatred is like the most vindictive,

(12:43):
at its most vindictive and also cheesiest.
It's like super cheesy.
It's like very campy, I guess.
But at the same time, he doesn't come off as a character who's like overly aggressive or violent.
He's just like...
His violence and his...
His vengeance and like dance is his form of rebellion.
And he comes from love. He loves his mom.
Like he wants to like, his mom took the fall for him.

(13:04):
So the mom went to jail. The mom became deeply embarrassed in her village.
They had to go to Goa in exile.
He just feels deep shame and he comes back.
But some of the quotes he gives is just like, because he doesn't talk a lot.
But when he does, he's just like sniping at this guy.
I want to go to Goa for exile.

(13:25):
I'm not known for your money, but for my talent.
You may have money and power, but I have a voice.
Your betrayals and schemes will not end my music.
With money, you cannot win hearts, nor can you buy a voice.
Disco is a feeling that cannot be bought with money.
This is basically just all...
This is just what he says when he opens his mouth every time.
He's like, I'm crazy talented. I'm going to destroy you.

(13:48):
And money means nothing to me.
Every time he talks, it's pretty baller.
So while that was happening, you know, PN Oberoi has a son.
He's called the current Disco King in this movie.
He's like, I forgot his name, but basically he was...
He has like an attitude problem.
He's a dick to his manager called...

(14:09):
And a drug addict.
Drug addict.
A dick to his manager, David Brown, who we learn of his name
many times throughout the movie.
And David Brown, because he's tired of this guy walking all over him,
he decides to go out on the street and look at hobos.
I'm just kidding.
He finds Jimmy...

(14:31):
Was he drunk? He was drunkenly walking.
He's just standing along the road.
So it's pitch black.
So David Brown walks home and he's like, fuck this alcoholic rich kid.
Because the rich kid's like, I don't want to travel to this concert.
I'm going to fuck this girl that's with me right now.
And the dude's like, OK, you're ruining your career.

(14:52):
I don't want to work with you. I'm going to go find someone else.
Walks along the street to go home. It's pitch black.
He sees this dude on a bridge, just kind of skipping.
The guy's not dancing. He's not doing anything too showy.
He's just dancing on a bridge at night.
He's like, I found my superstar.
And there's a lamp pole shining on him like a stage light.
It's quite a cinematic shot, actually.
Yeah, but he's not good.

(15:13):
You're not looking at that being like, that's a good dancer.
I don't know. It's like that scene.
OK, this is a weird comparison.
But remember in A Bug's Life when Flick was looking for his bug warriors
and then he went into this bar and there was chaos ensued.
And then the circus troupe performers sprung out with the lights shining on them.
It was like that.

(15:34):
It was exactly like that.
It was exactly like when Flick discovered the circus performers in A Bug's Life.
OK, so David sees the guy dancing on a bridge, says, that's my guy.
He's going to be the biggest star ever. And he is instantly.
Yeah.
Even though they were trying to throw tomatoes at him in his first performance, right?

(15:55):
Because of his cast, right? Pretty much.
No, no, because he's a hobo.
Yeah, I know that.
The son paid his girlfriend.
No, not girlfriend. His sister.
His sister was actually sabotaging and like instigating the hatred towards the new performer.
And they were like, oh, we came here for the big star. Who is this hobo?

(16:18):
They kept calling him a hobo.
Yeah.
Hobo, hobo, hobo.
Which is this a translation thing?
Like, because hobo is like a guy that is on the train and stuff.
But in India, does it mean?
I think they were saying hobo by itself.
Sarachap or something like that.
Like, yeah, like someone from the streets.
Yeah, yeah, they were very hobo phobic.

(16:41):
Yeah.
They didn't like hobo sex toys.
Yeah, at all. At all.
And later she falls in love with.
No, in that same performance, right?
Well, you see the chemistry spark from there where she's like throwing tomatoes at him.
Yeah, but then like.
He was weaning her over using the power of disco dance.
But if you watched enough Bollywood films, you'll know that the way it was set up, they're going to fall in love at some point.

(17:06):
Yeah.
From that first dance.
Yeah.
Yeah. So he was stealing. So Rita is the girl's name.
She's the daughter of P.N. Oberoi.
And we get this scene where they like, you know, they're like, like we said, their relationship blossoms and
Jimmy even gets a chance to like do this mega chat move where he takes, they go out on a date and they come back

(17:29):
and he sees the father watching over from the balcony.
And then he notices he notices that.
So he takes the chance to just make out.
It was so ballsy.
It's just like, wow.
It's like a cock move, but he's not the guy.
So the father.
He's cucking her dad.
And like that's pretty ballsy.
Number one, just I think for like an Indian film in the 80s and then also for this poor kind of outcast to do this in front of like this rich

(17:58):
scummy landlord, just say fuck you basically like the kid could lose everything, but he just hate like instinctively hates this guy so much.
He just wants to ruin his life above all else.
Yeah, that's his biggest motivation.
I mean, this.
OK, so this was the girl like who invited me to when they were like kid.
And that's that that starts the whole thing like of his father's misbehavior and everything, everything.

(18:28):
So she was kind of his fan when he was like a street singer and used to and used to sing about how this world belongs to everyone, not only to the whites or the blacks.
The world belongs to the people with hearts, big hearts.
Yeah, the opening song is a very hippie song of like the world belongs to all of us.

(18:49):
Doesn't matter what skin color you have.
Yeah.
And then they're right because welcome to the new international world order where it's about money, not skin color.
So they can all agree on that.
But he hops into a landlord's mansion and he hits his mom.
Yeah.
It's a reality check.
In other words.
Yeah, like, sure.
Do your hippie dippy shit.

(19:10):
But I'm still richer than you and I can control your life.
Well, I see.
OK, so this guy.
So Jimmy's on his way to get revenge.
He gets the girl.
He's a he's a he's a disco superstar.
And I actually see parallels to the last movie we watched, Sarapatha, where things it's always like the hero gets gets his comeuppance.
He's on the rise.

(19:31):
And then something tragic has to happen.
And for disco dancers case is basically being over way, ask this hit man to like amp up the guitar to like five thousand volts and there is amplifier.
And then like Jimmy's mom finds out of the of the assassination attempt.

(19:52):
So in true Bollywood fashion, she rushes to save his life at the cost of her own life.
So like when Jimmy was about to pick up this guitar, his mom was like making this trek all the way to the concert, runs on the stage and grabs the guitar before Jimmy could.
And, you know, she takes the five thousand volts of electricity from her body and that's how she dies.

(20:15):
She dies instantly.
And I was like, I don't know.
That's one way to go out on the best way to kill Jimmy was to like amp up a guitar, which is assuming that like no one.
Assuming that like no roadie will touch it, that Jimmy himself will plug in this guitar in front of an entire auditorium.
I feel like there'd be easier ways to kill this guy.

(20:37):
But there is like this another thing because the earlier performance, Jimmy was barely touching any guitar.
He doesn't play guitar and never ever.
And even after this performance, never, ever.
I saw the electric guitarist actually plugged it.
They were just like strolling with the electric guitar without being plugged in.

(20:58):
And they just music comes up.
Oh, the first song, like when he was a kid, he was literally playing a toy guitar, right?
The plastic toy guitar and bringing melodious harmony from that guitar.
Actually, if you think about it, guitars have ruined his life because even when he was a kid, he got accused of theft of the young girl's guitar.
That's kind of that's how his mom gets hit and ends up in jail.

(21:21):
And he's an adult. His mom touches the guitar and he dies.
It ruins her life. It's a foreshadowing.
The guitar always hurts the mom.
So the guitar phobia is.
And the guitar is a phallic object.
So the guitar represents like penis.
How can you speak like that of a widower? His mom's a widower.
So any time he tries to utilize it, the mom hurts because it's him being his own adult man and she cannot deal with that.

(21:47):
And she finally tries to rob this. No, it's not.
It's not. That's the part.
The point is that the curtains are blue and you would take it.
I think it's pretty canonical. I think we can all agree that the guitar is a penis.
No, the penis doesn't have music.
So, yeah, so he's not Jimmy's not known for it's not called disco guitar player.

(22:10):
Like he's known for dancing. He barely plays guitar, but they base their whole assassination off him playing the guitar.
The mom, yeah, jumps on stage dies. Jimmy's life is ruined.
Jimmy's life is ruined. He goes into a deep depression like most heroes.
He goes into his Kanye mode. And he has broken.
And he has guitar phobia. Yeah. Yes.
He has guitar phobia. He cannot touch his guitar again.

(22:35):
And he only realizes this on stage when he's about to perform and they hand him the guitar and he freaks out.
Pussy. Yeah.
And then I think he's and then later on he gets his legs broken by my overall has been.
And, you know, he's like he was stated to perform this like international disco competition.

(22:59):
They wanted that he was supposed to be like his comeback. And they were sure that he was going to win.
But, you know, Jimmy's at his lowest point. And then we get like Rita trying to sing this very iconic song.
Jimmy.
Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy.

(23:21):
Which M.I.A. sampled later.
Yes. Sri Lankan rap. Sri Lankan British rapper M.I.A. did like a cover remix.
Jimmy.
Jimmy.
Jimmy.
I heard that's version 3. Yeah, me too.
I think I heard it for the first time in You Don't Mess With The Zilhan.

(23:44):
Oh, it was there too? Yeah. The soundtrack of the final fight scene that Adam Sandler has.
So they're quite popular. And this. And in Bangkok, like I've heard this music being sampled so many times.
Yeah. Interesting.
But there is a lot of like disco influences. So like the Jimmy song is actually influenced by another song that I think.

(24:05):
What was it? Where is it from? It's a French disco. French disco song.
And then there was another song that I think Rita was singing it. Yeah.
But like that song, it sounded like Video Killed The Radio Star.
And then we later find out that they did. They did also take inspiration.
So all these like disco influences, it's no coincidence.
They're actually like taking hits from other countries. They're being very relevant.

(24:29):
They're taking like their their finger is on the pulse of the international scene and they are taking music that's popular in other places and coalescing it into this film, which is pretty good.
So, Nikki, you mentioned that you went on YouTube and you saw a bunch of comments about Russia. Was it on this music video?
Yes. Jimmy Aja. Yeah. Jimmy Aja.
Like when you go on like you go on YouTube right now, there's a lot of comments about people saying that, you know, this song is more popular in Russia than it is in India or like, oh, my mom heard it when she lived in the USSR.

(25:02):
We'll get into that later. So what happens at the end? What's the finale?
So, Rizal was trying to get him to perform again. And then I think through and also as Jimmy's like old musician friend tried to like hype him up and get back into it.
But, you know, so Jimmy gives off this like final performance on stage.

(25:25):
And before the celebration could be had for his victory, Oberoi's men came in and then like shoot up the place.
And Jimmy's friend dies in the process. And then, you know, that was like the last straw for Jimmy. Right.
So he's this is like the climax of the movie where he's like, OK, he's now his disco powers are now coming into Super Saiyan mode.

(25:49):
And he drives a car crashes into to PN Oberoi's like headquarters.
House or something. Like mansion, motel, motel, it says PN Oberoi's motel.
But then you get like this. The guy's just so ballsy nonstop. He's like, I'm going to drive this car to this hotel.
He's like invincible. He rams his car through the hotel room or mansion or whatever it is where all the villains were.

(26:16):
It gets into a fight and then you get like he gets all like acrobatic.
We just like it's like poorly done. I don't know. I can't help but notice how like the people were just like every hit that this guy makes has no impact.
It's just like very weak punches. But then, you know, you have your like cheesy sound effects.
Well, if there was no dance choreographer, there definitely wasn't a fight choreographer.

(26:37):
So it's these guys just making up their own fight choreography.
He was like just flailing people around, like throwing people around.
There was that one guy that just shoots off the screen. Remember, he just like flies across the street and stuff.
Yeah. So everyone dies and then Jimmy is now the disco king and that's it. That's all that's that's all there is to the movie.
Yeah. There's not a lot to go on. He commits violence and kills his enemies and then reigns supreme with the love of music and disco.

(27:02):
Does he end up with Rita? Yeah, of course. Oh, yeah. We did see like a quick shot of them. Yeah. She was his girlfriend.
Well, I mean, there was a scene where she yells at him on stage.
But I think she was she was repenting like when later on, like as soon as like the performance started, she was repenting.
She was crying for being so harsh on him and stuff like this. I think she would be forgiven.

(27:26):
He got back at the wealthy man and always possibly including marrying his daughter. He banged the guy's daughter, killed his son.
Yeah, with no nothing. And he got to claim disco crown. The dude fucking rules.
These Hollywood movies, they just end abruptly once the conflict is solved. It just ends.
And the same in this movie where like the whole plot is like the last half an hour, everything escalates, intensifies and it ends.

(27:50):
And it always turns to like he's like doing, you know, they're doing the music and that all escalates.
But then finally, she's like, we just got to fight. And then they just he just becomes like a good fighter somehow because he's good dancing and just punches everyone.
In Bollywood, heroes have to be good. They have to be good at everything. They have to be good at dancing.
They have to go with fighting, driving cars like in a building. Yeah. Jump off buildings and then like wooing women like they have to be good at everything.

(28:20):
Singing, you know, I felt cheated when I found out that they're not the actual one singing the song.
I see some people like some theologists brought out that how it's kind of similar to the how like we see the the god Krishna, who is like a womanizer, good at dancing, good at fighting, like charismatic, very charismatic figure.

(28:42):
Right. So the Bollywood heroes are kind of come from that thing. Like they have to be good at everything kind of thing.
Like not only fighting, not only like romancing, they have to be good in everything. That's what make you a star. That's what makes you like a Bollywood hero.
To them being like idolized and seen like people worshipping them. Is it because there is an element of like.

(29:04):
Yeah, there is an element of like godlike element because they cannot be failure. They cannot fail at something. They have to be good at everything.
Like if they're playing tennis, they have to be the best player in tennis like, you know, that puts unbelievable expectations on you, the viewer.
Yeah, yeah. If you set you up for failure to be like all these flawless heroes I'm growing up with watching on the screen, does that not affect your behavior in some way?

(29:30):
I think so. It does. It does. And then people who are a bit narcissistic, they think they can do anything.
I think if a kid is narcissistic and then he watches this Bollywood film and can relate to the heroes, I think they can see themselves as like unfollowable person.
Like who cannot. Does that mean you think that most of the heroes in Bollywood are portrayed as narcissistic? No, they are not narcissistic.

(29:55):
Yeah, but only narcissists would think that they too can achieve that. Maybe. Yeah. Everyone else knows it's fictional.
But it does seem it does seem to put, you know, like we talk about like, you know, women having to compare themselves to like extreme body, you know, presentations and stuff.
But these men in these like have to compare themselves to these flawless male characters. Does it not? Do they not feel shortcomings after? I don't know. I don't know.

(30:23):
No, it's not a thing that they discuss. Do they feel like it like insecure as men because they cannot be these flawless figures?
Yeah, maybe it brings it creates an unhealthy expectations of people that they make of themselves.
I just think you're staring at like superhero people all day. You see them in the tabloids and they're being they're super rich. It's just very high standards on what.

(30:52):
But I rarely see like people. But people usually take up one aspect of their characteristics, like either they're very they think they're like a very good womanizer. They think they're there.
I'm the best womanizer. Yeah. I mean, they think the women are mad for them. They can think that, OK, I'm a good dancer. They can think, oh, I'm a good fighter.

(31:17):
Like, I think I've seen people focusing on a singular aspect of the multitude of the character. Yeah.
So a lot of people try to impersonate Mithun after this movie. Yeah. I mean, they're impersonator everywhere.
Is it the same here? Bullyard heroes have always had like so many impersonator.
So I was I was listening to this dance like a really good dancer and choreographer. And he was a hero back in his time a little bit.

(31:46):
Prabhu Deva. He's like the choreographer, dancer, actor from Indian film.
That he comes from Tamil film industry and then he worked in Bullyard for Bullyard as well.
So he he was saying that when he was a kid, he was inspired by Mithun like this disco dancer film, like how much this film was an inspiration to him.

(32:08):
to him. So his father was the director of a Tamil remake of this film. So he was very close to the
actual content. So he said that the style, that Mitunda's style is something that he really,
like all of them looked up to. So I kind of didn't realize like what is he referring to? What is his

(32:30):
style? Then when he did that step, so I realized that it's that sassiness that he walks in and
the, I mean that in today's context might look weird like, but in that, those days context that
those moves were like kind of catchy for people to get that like, oh a hero is not just

(32:51):
doing old school type. Like Adam mentioned, it brings a kind of modernity to the Bollywood dance.
So I think those things, those groundedness of the movement kind of brought in like inspired people
a lot. And later on this guy was like a terrific dancer and then many dancers actually has referred

(33:13):
Mitunda as their inspiration for being a dancer actor. Yeah. So yeah, give us the context for like
the, yeah, like set the scene. Okay. So in seventies and eighties Bollywood, this thing that
where the revenge flick where the poor guy and rich guys are villain, they are bad people, poor guys

(33:38):
are harassed, like they're wronged in some ways and they come up and they say like most excruciating
stuff towards the rich people for them being rich and looking down upon their poor people
and eventually get revenge. I mean, that was the most common Bollywood trope in that days, like

(34:04):
in those days, even if you see nowadays, okay, maybe the percentage has gone lower, but still
there are so many films that where this kind of theme is still intact that, okay, we are going
against the rich people, rich people are the bad. Now it's more sugar coated and they have, they do
something else, some armed deals like JaVon or something, something. I feel like rich people are

(34:28):
villainized. No. Like since Keijo kind of glorified rich people. Yeah, Keijo made the rich people
glorify. Yeah, but there in those days, I have seen so many Bollywood films where the rich people
are villain. I mean, their villain is come from their riches. And what's going on historically in
India at the time? Like, why is that the view? I mean, that time India was kind of like trying to

(34:56):
build a socialist kind of economic structure. Sorry, independence was when? It's 47. 47? Yeah,
yeah. This is still India was a kind of like a socialist tryout phase. The new globalization
was not a thing that happened in the economy. And the whole, my parents' generation, they were

(35:20):
taught that like, if you work, if you work without thinking of the wealth, it's the phase of nation
building. So it will pay off one day. So all of them were like, they were not, I mean, since there
was a socialist tendencies of people who had like certain jobs and stuff like that. I mean,
we're still talking about a certain percentage of people who are like top 10, 20% of people.

(35:45):
We're still not talking about the farmers or like bottom 80% of the people, but still in this class
of people, there was a hope that, okay, you know, like if we work, it will pay off and
the country will grow as a, become a rich country in one day. So this national building project had

(36:06):
the always the scope of like money and being rich is not in the major focus of it. And yeah,
and it's still the kind of the socialist tendency was in place. Banks were being nationalized,
airlines were nationalized, the steel factory. So in a broad scale intellectual sphere,

(36:37):
socialism was prevailing a lot. So the theme would come again and again into films and everywhere.
But there's still a huge inequality. Yeah. While, while-
What's going on with that?
I mean, that, that inequality was always there. So this is, this is the
dissonant, like the cognitive dissonance everyone faced at that point of time. Like,

(37:00):
like while the, the country is talking about it, while the, the, the intellectuals are talking
about it, but I mean, there is still inequality and I mean, the, it kind of brings in the,
the failure of leftist struggle a bit. The left intelligentsia kind of came from

(37:23):
a kind of a richer background and they don't realize what is going on the ground level,
how much they could reach to the poor and stuff like that. So this, this was like-
And I know tax was like abolished, but it wasn't, I mean, I don't think appropriate
measures were taken to like eradicate it, right?
No, like there were never a very bold move to eradicate poverty. There was one time that,

(37:49):
that thing was happening was the redistribution of the redistribution of-
Land?
Farmland. Yeah. So that was the only one most radical move that India government did.
I heard they tried that, but it never actually got implemented very well.
Yeah. Very few state actually implemented that like West Bengal did it,

(38:11):
Kerala maybe did it a bit like where the communist party, they were kind of very leftist at that
point, like at least they're in their purview of the politics, they were leftist. They kind of
implemented redistribution of the land and another state that did it well was Kashmir.
Kashmir redistributed land a lot. So apart from those states, I don't know about Punjab,

(38:37):
Punjab might have done a bit more than the other states. So yeah, like it was not very successful,
but it was at least taken up by the central government and it was upon the state government
to implement it and it kind of failed in most of the places. It kind of got worked up by some places.

(39:00):
So yeah.
What about the caste too? Like I know like poverty eradication stuff, but like,
I know they abolished caste, but like those are very hard as an American, you still see like racial
inequality like long after it was abolished too, like it's very hard to change that.
So one thing you will realize watching the Bollywood films from this era and how the

(39:23):
Sarapatta we were talking about last week. So you will see the talk of poverty, you will see the
talk of people staying there. But so for example, like this film doesn't state like which caste they
come from, but in other films where wherever there is a ragtorich's film in Bollywood, most of the

(39:46):
time it would be some upper caste person by their ill faith, because of their ill faith started
living in the poor slums and then they become rich again or like overcome their struggle. It's not
someone from that community like who forever for their whole generations like for lived that poor

(40:10):
or was barred from education or something like that coming up and then like conquering. You will
not see those characters. It would be always like someone who had been wronged or whose father had
been wronged or someone had been wronged, like taken off their things, they became poor and then
they come off victorious at the end of the film. I would say that's like a strength of this movie though

(40:32):
because it's like it makes it more relatable. The fact that there's no caste ties or anything makes
it a lot more relatable to like the global audience. But I'm wondering if there's more, if this film was
more influenced by what was going on domestically or globally because there was a big global socialist
movement already and the hippies movement as well in the 70s. So was this actually more influenced
by like the global? It might as well be yeah because if the dance numbers and everything is

(40:57):
getting influenced. I think that the dialogues and the hippies were very well received in India I
guess that point of time. I think it went to India. Yeah the people were just traveling around there.
Yeah so they had a huge influence on things and maybe like yeah so I think it was a cultural
exchange and these things were taken up. But the anti-rich state, like feelings,

(41:25):
the anti-rich vibe of Bollywood films have been a very common theme in Bollywood. That's what
the bottom line is. I grew up with films, like so many films. But that's changed a lot because
now I feel like they match like America. Like in America in the 70s there was some working class
you know film language going on and that's changed as well where like you know the characters just

(41:50):
want to be rich or like it's okay to be rich or that's not an antagonism to be rich. Like everyone
like literally the biggest superhero right now is Tony Stark a billionaire. You know what I mean?
Like that's not an issue or problem. Actually an interesting point is that this movie Disco Dancer
was the highest grossing Bollywood film until the 90s when Hum Abke Hai Kun came out and that became

(42:12):
the highest grossing film. But that's about a rich family. Right exactly. So the theme like from Disco
Dancer being anti-rich and now you have this movie surpassing it in the box office and it's kind of
glamorizing wealth and rich families. So it's completely opposite. It's a radical culture shift.
That kind of like kind of reflects the globalization and the economic change in India.

(42:36):
Like people started dreaming of being rich. From socialist to neoliberal. I mean you just see the switch.
I think also another thing is like there are no like rarely good rich people in the films.
Like it was kind of undertone that if you are rich you become rich by doing something bad.
Which is true. That is true. Yeah. You have to be a mean psycho that doesn't care about other people.

(43:03):
Like if you're the kid of that wealth no not necessarily but to gain that wealth initially yes.
And then by the 90s they're not even analyzing the source of wealth. They're just like look at our
lifestyles. We're living so lavishly. They never talk about how they get the wealth.
Even for the KJOS film like they never discuss or never even like show a little bit. I think

(43:24):
the Hum Abke Hai Kun's predecessor is the movie that the same director made.
So there at least we see an industry like you know the the character is like
indoctrined in the like he was just graduated from some university abroad and he comes back
to world and he's given like an officer's job like that in his father's factory.

(43:48):
So at least we see that there is a factory but seen from Hum Abke Hai Kun there is nothing like
like they're just rich. Yeah in this movie in Disco Dancer like it just assumes that
because he's a landlord he's bad. Like it takes the stance that landlords are bad
and business owners are bad and then later in the other films like it's not. If you own a business

(44:08):
that you could still be a really cool great person and just love you and everything.
There's not the assumption that David Brown is a good guy. He's rich. He's David Brown. The agent?
Yeah why is his name so iconic David Brown? Because he says his name so many times. I'm David Brown.
Like as if like whenever he says he's David Brown people would supposed to know who he is.

(44:29):
I have a white person's name. Please listen to me. So okay USSR again shout out to this blue sky user
who I think really doesn't like our podcast but they recommended me this book called Leave Disco
Dancer Alone Indian Cinema and Soviet Movie Going After Stalin. The author is Sudha Rajagopalan

(44:52):
and I'm just gonna basically just give some brief history here. So during Stalin's time there weren't
a lot of international films that were let in so it was just they were just kind of allowed to see
like other Russian-made films. So Stalin died in 1953 and in 1954 right away there was like the
International Film Festival and they brought in movies from other countries and stuff and

(45:15):
the big first hit in the USSR was Awara. Awara yeah. Anyways Awara was a huge hit and then more and more
Indian films started like flooding in and just Russian audiences really really loved Indian films
and then so when Disco Dancer shows up Disco Dancer becomes the highest grossing film in the USSR

(45:40):
period. A couple interesting things is you know when the USSR slightly opened up with
international film they still they didn't want to import a ton of western movies and there just
weren't a lot of countries producing films at the time. In India because it was very
socialist but it was close to Soviet as well like very family values yeah you know they're not

(46:06):
celebrating wealth at the time like they have these kind of uh shared values it was very easy
to import these Indian films. They would dub them in Russian they would usually cut them down to like
two to two and a half hours or like serialize them like make one two or three parts. The book
surveyed some people that grew up in the USSR and saw these films and so these are some of the

(46:30):
reasons when they watch the Russian films in the USSR a lot of them are about big grand projects
right or like liberating people or you know what it means to be like a good worker like a good
member of society but they're all kind of they all have like kind of lessons in them or some message
that that they want you to receive. People really like the Indian films because it had good music

(46:56):
with beautiful Indian dances the songs had like unusual rhythms and they just really liked how
kind of carefree they are compared to like the really kind of stoic Russian ones you know. Okay
so this is a quote from someone so for years everything was off limits to us but then Stalin
died in 1953 and the Indian film Vagabond opened the festival in 1954. This was I must say an eye

(47:22):
opener it opened a new world one which we did not know and it came at a time when we were in a mood
to celebrate. These were my college years and Indian films were that celebration their aesthetic
and their music Indian films were a component in that new openness after 1953 and showed that our
world had expanded suddenly. Oh and someone else said Indian cinema was a diversion pure joy and

(47:46):
it radiated warmth. When I was young Indian cinema was where you took young girls then we both emerged
happy and contented having watched beautiful relationships unfold on screen. We both wanted
the same we came out arm in arm only Indian films did that for us. That's actually so interesting.

(48:06):
Indian movies saved my marriage. Or started my marriage. It's interesting that like specifically
we would take our young girls there because actually Eastern European women have a lot of
similar beliefs I'd say traditional beliefs to like Indian women. It was conservative family stuff. No so here's another one
uh someone says everything in the west is calculated superficial but Indians and Russians

(48:28):
seem not to crave possessions the absence of a pragmatic streak unites us for our people what
is important is community sitting around with people talking singing our lives compel us Russians
to be this way whereas your philosophy compels Indians to live the same way so yeah as family
oriented community oriented it they were uh similar in way more ways than they were with the west with

(48:54):
the individualistic consumption going on. Well I would love to go to like an Indian Russian party
you just see a ton of whiskey and vodka. So uh Disco Dancer when it came out became a landmark film
so it came out in 1984 and it drew 60.9 million Soviet viewers which was the highest

(49:19):
turnout for any film that year domestic and international it made about like the equivalent
of 75 million domestically now well gigantic at the time so one admirer of the film um talked about
how the viewers identified with the hero with Jimmy she wrote that the auditorium rejoiced at his success

(49:40):
uh she was pained when he lost his mother and then grandfather it was so distressing to see his tears
his pain the horror in his eyes his fear and his hatred for the bandits. Yeah spoken like someone
who's never watched Bollywood and is not used to the intense emotions it derives. No I mean I one
thing I really uh wanna like it it kept on occurring to me again and again because like

(50:06):
when we see uh for Russian films like USR film they're so grounded like you know they're so
realistic right but but like Disco Dancer like gets rid of all kind of realism in it.
There's no real it's a dream state the entire time. Yeah so this is the how the like how the
auditorium is like there is like how the production of the auditorium where they are performing their

(50:27):
disco dances right it looks it looks nothing like how auditorium looks in India for a real life
how the the music is being played how the the the tracks are being like you know uh put again and
again on top like then he's playing the kids playing toy guitar and then they just percussion
just comes in like some very nice electronic music comes in and and also the fight sequence also the

(50:53):
everything this this film is not grounded at all it it creates the images that can be inspired from
like the story it's just it's just like dream sequence stories like yeah and you don't need it
it doesn't need a ton of language yes so like there's not a huge translation barrier yeah um

(51:14):
and yeah the Russian films are very uh kind of stoic and yeah the landscapes are kind of
you know the countryside and stuff and then you just see these like crazy glitzy lights of the
disco and like locations don't make sense from one edit to another and everything is like disjointed
and and and this like just sheen had glowed to it it must have been like mesmerizing honestly

(51:39):
like revolutionary kind of to watch at the time yeah another thing i want to mention too really
quick the the last quote is funny because the the last person said that Indian films taught one to
love without an eye for personal gain they suggested that people that were hostile to these films had
perhaps never loved like that another viewer praised Indian films because even though they

(52:02):
were repetitious and commercial they portrayed real men which i think is very interesting though
because this shows how much variable is in how people perceive masculinity because i think a lot
of people like would not see like a Bollywood film now and be like that's a real man or a lot of

(52:23):
people see Russian films and they're like that is what a real man is but meanwhile women in Russia
are like no no that Indian guy is what a real man is you know everyone has different definitions of
what real men are and for them it was like this disco dancer guy you know so Adam you've watched
a few Russian movies now have you seen elements of disco dancer influencing any of the films you've
watched it's a really good question i have not at all i haven't seen i've seen so yeah with my

(52:50):
Russian friends we watched Russian movies weekly too and i've been watching old USSR films and
occasionally some post-USSR films the post-USSR films are so bleak i really wish they had copied
more from Bollywood films but it's after after the USSR all everyone is about like
fighting for nothing and trying to find meaning in the world and just like what to do after you

(53:12):
lose everything it's all very bleak and the USSR films are really great but they're not musicals
and they're not as like outlandish as as any of the Bollywood films i'm so surprised that the
impact it had the influence it had yeah i know in Russia and like no directors decided to adopt
that approach and it's interesting right yeah because i would love to see some fusion of that

(53:33):
i would love to see that yeah that becomes Hollywood a musical in Hollywood so yeah real
guys that like you know love their moms a lot you know their marriage is kind of secondary and you
know they they they don't want money they just want to dance and stuff for a time that was
masculinity now it's gone completely the opposite where doing anything artistic is like a waste of

(54:00):
time and you just need to make as much money as possible for some circles the mother complex is
like so common in indian art like indian narratives like it can be story it can be novel it can be
film the mother complex is it's so common in Bollywood like we all grew up so much so that's
why like you remember like when batman versus superman came and then everyone was like what

(54:23):
what the Martha thing is going on like why is that important it was like you know it was like
i was like i totally understand okay yeah yeah he feels for his mother and then like when like he
can totally understand what superman is going through so so this mother complex that we see
here like everything is for the mother this guy is doing for the mother it's uh it's another very

(54:44):
common trope in indian Bollywood film even like local regional films everywhere his dad isn't even
that's our dads are very rare like there are few films where you they avenge their father
and like what happened to the dad he just died even they were poor he just died it's not it's
not mentioned at all but the bond between the mother mother and the son because also like we

(55:08):
are seeing karan arjun right that was like which we like abandoned midway so they're also it's not
mentioned at all but the bond between the mother mother and the son because also like we were
done the midway so there also it was mother and then like yeah i mean the all like there have been
so many work of nation narratives uh where the mother and son dynamics is in the center center

(55:32):
plot and you don't see in american films yeah which is very rare this is not there at all
it's a very common trope anyway yeah but it's a it's a huge strength in indian films and a huge
weakness in american films like i mean like if if you see a mama boy's character in american film
he's a loser the guy loves his mom he's a huge loser but in india in these movies that we're

(55:55):
watching there's no greater trait than being completely devoted to your mom so it is very
interesting because america does have a big like hate your parents streak like a lot of our culture
is fuck your parents i mean like you guys want to get out of the house away from your parents yeah
but like in asia it's normal for kids to stay with their parents because it's an act of like
looking after them yeah repaying their kindness it's very different yeah like there's no concept

(56:20):
of i'm 18 i'm gonna leave now i was talking to a tie girl who lives with her family and i was
explaining like yeah it's normal here but in america like there's nothing more embarrassing
for both sides for the parents and for the kids like the kids are embarrassed to live at home the
the parents are embarrassed that their kids live with them and aren't like living on their own

(56:42):
it's just an embarrassing scenario all around but it's completely the opposite here we're like
if you live alone those parents that's very embarrassing for the parents if you don't live
with the family you know the mama's boy thing was also in saparta right it was but this is
every single indian film you've ever watched it's nice to see because in that movie the mom was
quite aggressive and unsupportive of his dreams but here the mom is like this lovely precious mom

(57:05):
she's so supportive of him throughout the movie yeah well that's because even like you know
sacrifice even though he was mom is mama's boy but he was like it was a kind of an antithesis of
being a mama's boy right like he has to go against his mother and then like mother's wish and has to
prove himself but here it's like it's total devotion and the whole life is perfect and it's

(57:27):
life whole thing everything is just goes around it yeah were you was your family like that um like
what like mother worship are you a mama's boy yeah i'm a mama's boy i guess yeah is that is everyone
like is everyone i think no it's like it's it's very uh yeah it is there because uh first of all

(57:52):
the more more favor that the sons get over daughters yeah it's like in for being in a
pet hugely patriarchal society that's that's one thing and then also uh but but i think that's
common in many many countries especially but the mother something like the not son like the mother

(58:14):
uh whole thing it's like the our land is like motherland uh it's it's uh it has been depicted
by mother characters as a as a what do you call it um as a metaphor so many times in work of art
like depicting the the land as mother like the yeah so it has been in very there's a mother india

(58:38):
is there this is a very very uh prominent character in bollywood film history so so this keeps on
coming and then even even there has been so many artwork like paintings and everything so that's
why and and and also like if you see from the religious side they're like the mother god is a
like very prominent sect of god is uh and it's like a worshiping of the power so it kind of has

(59:04):
like everything is kind of connected so so these things are not uncommon at all like the greatest
gift is being a woman that bears a son right yeah like that's the greatest but that's that's not
that's not explicitly told in the movies but that's in that's the reality of the society like you're
your work is when you have a son right that's fun yeah if you only have daughters like you are

(59:27):
worthless that sucks so bad yeah maybe like you were more worthless than having no so like so like
baby girls that well it's not an uncommon practice just yeah and that's female fetus
i was is a real thing but their only goal is to like because they could make more men because
they're men machines yeah female fetus side is like bad one thing i noticed in these films

(59:52):
i mean i always imagine like indian families to be quite large but these guys don't have like
tons of siblings ever like a disco dancer he has no sibling it's just him and his mom and a lot of
movies we watched there's like not a lot of siblings but is that like a bollywood thing that's not
normal or are indian families kind of small definitely not small i would yeah so what the

(01:00:14):
fuck so why are they disconnected yeah very interesting point i don't know to be honest like
what was going on no but there are brothers there are brothers in films no there are films where
there are two or three brothers i think that was so i haven't watched films from like 40s 50s where
are my parents generations from like when there used to be like seven six seven average number

(01:00:35):
but i i think like around 70s 80s the number kind of came down to two three kind of so it kind of
shows that in the bollywood like if the number came down to like seven of them seven so it's
like just a very big family in general yeah i mean i don't know the movies you see they're not huge
families right am i wrong is it just the movies you see no you made an interesting point i'm

(01:00:59):
trying to like rack my memory and think of all the movies and i feel like when there are siblings
that usually usually plays like towards the plot it's not just there so maybe if there's no use for
in the plot oh you have to watch this you must watch this most excruciating like enraging film
called baghwan it's like so i think we should watch that film because it has like four like

(01:01:20):
yeah that has a big family and it's it it's villainize individual individualism of the sons
and of the children and like it's it's so enraging it and we used to mock it that like this is the
trump card that the parents play on their sons that's showing this film like see you will treat

(01:01:42):
us when you're we're old like that and it was like the the weirdest film one of the weirdest
films i've ever seen from bother it's so bad and it's so pathetic baghwan that just means god right
i think so yeah but i don't know what what this no no no it's from around early 2000s yeah
and it's yeah so that has that one had like many many sons and like four or five sons or something

(01:02:08):
so now i come to think of it and maybe like they didn't do it because it would have been too many
characters too many characters to play one of the the things to again because he's like constantly
just against rich people and like just doesn't give a shit and i think it's very commendable
and fun to watch frankly and like i wish more movies just had characters like him that were just

(01:02:29):
like kind of rude to like people he didn't like um but i like the most baller ass moment ever in
this movie was when he's gonna marry that that guy's daughter and he i think it's after he crashes
the car and he's like he's like he tells the dad he's like the the rich uh antagonist he's like i'm
gonna marry the daughter and and the best quote he says is when i have time i will come to you and

(01:02:53):
ask for rita's handed marriage he's like fuck you i'm gonna marry her whenever i want when i have
the time i'll ask you and you're gonna give it to me and it's so insanely baller like that shit was
just like i like you just don't see that nowadays of just people being like that and that was just
incredibly uh dope and i want to see that more i mean he even breaks into the home and

(01:03:16):
takes her away from yeah because she she calls him and says like that my father is not letting
me go and he just walks in like she's an adult like you have to let go yeah he's afraid of nothing
and i really like that except guitars they freak him out but like he has no fear of death he just
like tells all these really powerful people to their face like you suck and like you just don't

(01:03:40):
see that often i i thought i was so badass that is a very common trope they showed that you know
you remember the scene where the the father like when he takes uh like the scene nikki just mentioned
where he goes into his house and takes his uh daughter and leave with the daughter right and
the next scene is like he he calls the police and the police is talking to him so this is another

(01:04:02):
thing that happens in india so much like if a rich parent calls the police and says like oh my adult
daughter has been has eloped with this guy or something the police will because of the influence
of this guy police will actually make some stupid case of like abduction or something and put that
guy for a proper grown adult yes yes they do that and they will put if they so here the police

(01:04:26):
couldn't do it because he's a rich star that's why he had the influence to not so that but but if he's
like the downtrodden like a guy from a slum or something the police will get that guy behind the
bars the girl will go back to the family the girl will be brainwashed like tortured like like uh
tactics like you know scare tactics or whatever they will shush the girl and and most of the time

(01:04:51):
the guy will be behind the bars and and will face consequences for eloping with a rich rich girl
even though both of them are adults like the girl will be pressurized by the family to say things in
the court and stuff like that eventually they will do the like blackmail emotional blackmail like
multitude of plethora of tactics they'll do it is surprising that rita in the film even as a child

(01:05:16):
like um she gets beat up by her dad right when she invites him so she's after and then even when she
goes on a date with him as an adult the dad slaps her again so it's like kind of interesting that
despite all of this harassment this is kind of harassment now killy yeah yeah despite all this
it's physical she's still very headstrong and she still does what she wants yeah everything jimmy does

(01:05:39):
would kind of sentence you to death if you did it in real life at that time i feel but he doesn't
have he's not ever worried about that what did he do she's going around telling rich people like
fuck off fame at this he's he's rich that's that's yeah but he he had that attitude before he was
famous and then what i really liked was when he did get famous because some people are like oh now

(01:06:01):
i'm famous i i think if they made this movie now he'd be like oh i'm famous and i forgive you and
that's the lesson you take is like forgive everyone or don't worry about it no he's like
i'm gonna leverage all my power and destroy you you can't do anything about it because i'm huge
and famous now and i won't use all this leverage to hurt you and that is so fucking dope and what

(01:06:21):
should be done like in just all scenarios but i think now it's always like no don't hurt him or
oh oh the the rich landlord was misunderstood and bullied as a kid so like you know now we can all
get along and get married now the dad likes everyone no everyone's like fuck you dad and
the guy's like i'm gonna use and and jimmy uses all this power against him and is not humble and

(01:06:42):
is not uh gracious he's gracious to like all his old bandmates and everyone that supported him
but he also uses his power to punish and i like that you don't see that you do see parallels in
real life like today at least with the shooting of the ceo director like that was kind of celebrated
yeah that was celebrated publicly by everyone but you would never see a movie with that guy as the

(01:07:06):
hero yeah yeah because they don't want you to work to look up to this guy which is why when it does
happen everyone is so happy and it's universally praised we all still in our hearts hate rich people
but we're just told constantly on media that they're like good or like that you can you know like
relatable in some way they're not and we should use whatever power we have to punish them to

(01:07:28):
fuck off but like we're just trained not to that they're nice because they're the people that
produce our media so their whole thing is like hey we're actually really cool 70s bollywood will
make that mood have made that film where that guy is here i mean those are films for like
yeah killing the rich guys most of the time and and while while while so popular while romancing

(01:07:50):
their daughters that was that was that was like so common like the rich guy rich villain guy
their daughter their daughter being romanced by the hero and the guy get killed by the hero
and as well like there's no greater punishment than a poor person fucking your daughter

(01:08:11):
and then you die from him and they're right it is a horrible like fate for them and more movies
should be like that like just fucking rich dude's daughters and killing the rich guy i mean people
would fucking love that movie but no one would make that now so i love like what he was saying
was normal back then but now it's like absolutely radical i think and it shouldn't be you know i

(01:08:34):
think it's radical now like to make the those kind of statements it is absolutely netflix would
never make a show like this where like he just makes it his life mission to just like hurt a
landlord it just wouldn't really happen and and and he's like i hate money i don't need it i give
it i give it back we're gonna redistribute all this like anyone to help me in my past life i give

(01:08:57):
money to i have talent no one can take that away from me i don't give a shit just incredible
charisma being all like that's so hot and killed my family she's like you're right they were bad
your dancing is really good does it kill the guy or he gets arrested at the end like
i honestly can't remember actually died like the main antagonist

(01:09:19):
is he not done did i remember this all wrong i don't remember i can't remember he's taken
down in some way yeah that was so fun too but the sun does die the sun dies the sun dies
he killed my brother i mean he was a heroin addict so i guess he deserves to die

(01:09:40):
well yeah his son is a huge piece of shit too and was like um and and jimmy tells him like you bought
your fame i have talent i don't need to buy it like you have nothing and it kind of sucks that
then when he does singer dance it's not very good so do you have a harder time believing he he would
even so he was being pulled by the the the lady art female artist he was with like she was taking

(01:10:04):
so much better she was singing the more singing more she was on she was mostly performing and he
was just side kicking her like you know like we shouldn't say all the dance numbers are like
mostly him kind of like doing michael j fox and back to the future when he's like playing guitar
at the at his parents prom and just kind of sliding around the floor and stuff and then when they do

(01:10:25):
the big disco international tournament it's clear like nobody really talked before they started
filming so all the other countries they're like it's like france and they're just kind of like
shuffling around on stage not dancing with each other just kind of like dancing on their own to
music that's not playing in the auditorium and then they cut to an audience that's in a completely

(01:10:46):
different auditorium getting yeah clapping like the the stage work doesn't make any sense and
i gotta say when jimmy does come back for his big disco revival he does like a krishna song
it's not disco whatsoever yeah he does like a he does he does like a song praising krishna and
he's like dressed like a bird so he has been calling gods to come to the earth for many times

(01:11:13):
like he did it for jesus he did it for oh we didn't even talk about that yeah there was a whole song
about jesus yeah and why because he was in goa is that why maybe i think that was one of the
reasons because goa is very christian he has this whole christian song there's shots of jesus in
these so it's very explicit it's about jesus he says jesus's name over and over again jesus come

(01:11:36):
come to come back to us like that's for the song and then again krishna come back like everyone
comes back sings a whole song about krishna and they don't really comment on that i don't know
why they did that krishna song why did they that was weird it seemed kind of shoehorned in actually
but then it would make sense it's like oh they they wanted to be krishna but then they do the
krishna thing and the yeah god is god like doesn't matter maybe spirit of inclusiveness both both

(01:12:00):
religions are represented in india and like with a guy named david brown i'm guessing he has christian
yeah we need to know more about david he has a mysterious past actually the guy the guy who played
david brown he's like a terrific actor like he has so many good films upon his sleeves like what is

(01:12:20):
his real name we need to know om puri what om puri om om puri p u r i that's drastically different
from david brown yeah but he's a really good actor he has done so many good films you know tom
cruz plays characters that are called tom cruz from his real name i don't know why he doesn't have to
have like another white name like john smith or something that's a christian name you cannot it

(01:12:44):
cannot like it's a christian name yeah indian christians are christian names yeah so yeah so
anyways disco dancer was a big hit i fucking loved it i was expecting to watch like a b-movie
cheesy thing but i i really really like this like i really like we were clapping we were having a

(01:13:04):
great time watching it we watched it with a group of people it was a blast like i don't think it's
that corny now just because you don't see content like this so one international dance competition
to another like how does it measure up to happy new year's dance competition
yeah they're very similar they're very similar there's no child death trap in this one

(01:13:27):
there's no place for the dancers to die randomly on stage which was considerate that was also
revenge flick right yeah yeah but this one they want in happy new year they wanted to steal money
and get rich yeah and in this one he wants to overturn the oligarchy yeah the indians performance
are always taking like too much time taking center stage with disco dancer it's like you know

(01:13:52):
him being scared of guitars and realistically speaking so who won like uh like jimmy won or
or or his girlfriend won it was such an abrupt ending i mean because it ended because there was
open firing in the auditorium itself right like over as gang came and fired so that's why the

(01:14:14):
i think the competition kind of when he actually watched this one he can't remember i know and
that goes to show what i think about the film i stayed up way past my bedtime to finish it
but yeah like the song calling jimmy to dance is like way more famous than i was gonna say
realistically speaking the show would have just ended like they would have stopped him from

(01:14:35):
performing but the whole crowd was just waiting for jimmy he's the disco king but just like in
happy new year it's always you know he saved this child this child from dying from getting impaled
like indians are the true heroes always of competitions always something else i learned
from this movie is that sand is a very natural physical therapy right like oh yeah walking his

(01:14:59):
legs are completely destroyed and then rita takes him and like helps him walk on the sand in the
beach and one month later he's like performing at this international disco competition yeah so guys
like whenever you have like a broken leg try to start the therapy the physical therapy walking
on the sand like i think it has the woman holding your hand specifically that i think

(01:15:20):
if it's your mom you get healed quicker if it's a normal woman non-mother figure takes a month
medical professionals also so the rich guy got arrested he didn't die at the end okay but like
it did seem like close enough people were dying left and right i mean he was a fucking
murderer there's a ton of ton of people dying they they weren't sad about anyone dying in this

(01:15:41):
no death is just another reality of life so yeah bad bad guys bad guy is dying it's like of course
why wouldn't they yeah yeah they should they were all addicted to heroin so it deserves it doesn't
matter heroin or not like bad guy you're a bad guy you should die that's it uh winnie closing thoughts
for you it's not i think it was a great film it's yeah one of the movies that i've finished

(01:16:04):
watching in a while did you watch it again when i watch it again yeah i think it's a light watch
for a bollywood film like bollywood films tend to be a little bit heavy i feel like i always need to
mentally prepare but this was like a light nice watch everything's kind of predictable you know
you know what's gonna happen okay bollywood fans listening to this and really think about our

(01:16:27):
curation of films like saying bollywood films are tend to be very heavy
i mean you have to be ready for a roller coaster you know like this didn't feel like as big of a
roller coaster and i like the element of like going against the rich which is new it's not
something that i think we've seen in most of bollywood films that we've watched so it was quite
refreshing i love this film actually i would totally watch this again i really like it and

(01:16:50):
not like on like not ironically like i think it's a good film yeah nice yeah i think uh you know
what i want to one thing i love about this movie is that it has a lot of influence a lot of people
my partner is a dj and she even knows the jimmy song yeah that's crazy like everyone knows it like
when we played on youtube yeah it had 122 million views it's crazy crazy huge hit yeah i just love

(01:17:17):
i mean it's it's an easy to watch movie i like the other movies that we've been watching like
three hours three hour long uh serious watching you know and it's free on youtube yeah it's free
on youtube is it yeah yeah i shared it with friends yeah because i was recommending it hello guys
watch this film yeah last thing do we want to talk about what we did before we watched this movie

(01:17:41):
together and we where we ate oh oh yeah so maybe i i would say that we should make this tradition
so this is the first time we went to this indian restaurant in bangkok which is renowned as one of
the best indian punjabi restaurants and we had a big fat meal with butter chicken chicken tikka
all of the classics before watching the film and i think that made the movie that much better

(01:18:04):
because our bellies were full with curry super full and i want to know killy's color method for
the curry please no so the indian curry is like when you go like it's like depending on which
region is for they have this most complicated names of the curries and then like so i tend to ask the
waiter like the color of the curries so that like i have a guess like what kind of what kind of taste

(01:18:28):
that i can i can expect from those curries is that a normal question it's a smart question
i think it's a very smart question it's a very smart question because i cook i know like if a
curry is like a green then what to expect it's a curry question i think just the way that
killy goes about is always hilarious every time we go eat indian food so it's a red or brown curry

(01:18:52):
what is it like like the ordering takes like five to ten minutes and where did it come from
what did the curry feel like they're asking the recipe is like a long answer like you know they
have to just tell me the color yeah tell me the color i can guess but has that ever deceived you
like does the color ever yeah that can happen like a black one can be like a really sweet curry but

(01:19:16):
not usually that's like really exceptional but i can usually curry strategy what color so red ones
are kind of tangy because of tomato and stuff and uh it's it's it's like the spices tend to be like
more towards raw this is a raw flavor to the spices the brown ones usually have like more

(01:19:39):
like red chili and then more roasty kind of type and the dark black one was like it are like very
dried and how the the spices are way more cooked and what's your favorite like as darker as it goes
yeah the darker the better yeah so your favorite curry is black curry they were black curry but the

(01:20:02):
color comes from a particular so what's your favorite color curry i think dark brown yeah
so guys if you're watching this video i like a yellow i like a yellow one as well
so that's a dark brown curry i highly recommend yeah dark brown curry please you should be positive

(01:20:22):
yeah but but but but here is another thing like chicken tikka masala is not indian food
oh it's a british food come on come on what's your butter chicken argument you guys were both
talking about butter no butter chicken i was taught also as a not indian food but i i realized
that it was it was made in india but didn't you guys say like the restaurant like lives or dies

(01:20:46):
on the butter chicken or something what you guys talked a lot about how the importance of butter
chicken i think this is an easy gauge for the quality of food that's a classic dish but it can
be made so differently because it's like the main thing that most people will eat even non-indians
so some restaurants will try to cater it to like a wider palette and then tone down the flavors
in that process so you know the authenticity of a restaurant you can really tell based on the flavor

(01:21:08):
of the butter chicken but what should it be i think outside of india i think that's true for
outside of india because i've rarely seen people ordering butter chicken in india to you it's a
british dish which is about to offend so many of our listeners okay butter chicken is not
really but you thought that i thought that because it tastes so different it's so it's so

(01:21:30):
indian guy who moved to the uk and like try i think that's chicken tikka masala butter chicken
i think like there was there was this restaurant i went in del new delhi who claimed that they made
butter chicken first but nevertheless it was made for uh like a foreign palette yeah yeah foreign
taste how do you know that history i mean this is why no no no information on the internet

(01:21:59):
there's a headline says indians can decide whether or not they want to claim tikka masala
but what about butter chicken is that even argued i think it's similar to chicken tikka
butter chicken it's very similar it's both are like orange and yellow why is tikka masala not
okay so it's made in england but does it taste that different or what's the story of how chicken

(01:22:19):
tikka masala was made it's very interesting it was made by indian immigrants for sure like it's like
definitely indian immigrants but british will try to claim us you know for a change when it benefits
because they don't have anything else to claim for food like come on let them have let them have one
curry like it's okay we have don't welcome to england our national dish is a chicken tikka masala
that is so stupid that is so offensive let them have one curry we have so many like it's okay just

(01:22:44):
keep one do you like it chicken tikka masala and i'm not a big fan i think maybe more that's why
i'm already into take it because they can take it yeah so here's what i found in 2001 british
foreign secretary robin cook mentioned tikka masala in a speech claiming the benefits of
britain's multiculturalism declaring she got to chicken tikka masala is now a true british

(01:23:04):
national dish not only because it is the most popular but because it is a perfect illustration
of the way britain absorbs and adapts external influences so it was made in england yeah
i think chicken tikka was already a thing but they made the curry they made it sweeter and everything

(01:23:25):
to yeah what's the difference like what's what what because what makes chicken tikka masala
that's more to me i think the pros yeah tomato paste and like it was it was made for uh like a
non-indian taste taste palate so to sort of like not that having so it has more creaminess it has
more tomato and stuff like that the british should have like big beans and running eggs and no of

(01:23:48):
course it's not made by like they try to fry it somehow british ethnic people like it's of course
like indian ethnic people yeah but it was kind of made for them they were made for like both world
like it's a middle ground so what indian dish made in india would you recommend to a foreigner
just start with dahl just start with try you have to try try chicken chop chop is like you have to

(01:24:12):
try chop chop is like can be beef chop it can be chicken when he doesn't even know what you're
talking about is that north or south it's very naughty it's it's a very munglai dish it's very
rich in oil i mean it's best it's really good yeah it's kind of looks like yellow for us like
growing up chicken curry like chicken masala curry is like a very generic name it can be like like

(01:24:37):
very different in everywhere because it's it's a very generic name i don't know yeah maybe my
grandma's chicken curry but it's like brown is masala that's like yeah exactly it tastes brown
yeah we don't have the red i mean it's it's yeah that we would we would have the chicken curry
and then we would have papaya salad because my they were all like born in ubon in the north
that's so healthy so it was a very healthy indian food at the same table but it was always dahl like

(01:25:02):
aloo gobi chicken curry also just chicken shall i try chicken chop or beef chop it's it's amazing
with biryani or i like masala i think tikka masala is the best and i don't really want to try anything
else no you have to you have to try it yeah i i figure find out where we can get yeah okay

(01:25:26):
okay bye bye bye
bye okay okay bye

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