December 28, 2025 • 33 mins
This week we are talking about the biggest moments of 2025 and what all we can look forward to in 2026. We'll be discussing the trends that shaped politics, international affairs, sports, technology, and health.
We begin this series today with Shubhra Gupta, The Indian Express’ Film Critic, who joins us to discuss the biggest hits and misses of 2025, the films and TV shows that had a lasting impact, while highlighting the major trends and developments in the realm of entertainment and pop culture.
Hosted by Niharika Nanda
Produced by Niharika Nanda and Shashank Bhargava
Edited and mixed by Suresh Pawar
We begin this series today with Shubhra Gupta, The Indian Express’ Film Critic, who joins us to discuss the biggest hits and misses of 2025, the films and TV shows that had a lasting impact, while highlighting the major trends and developments in the realm of entertainment and pop culture.
Hosted by Niharika Nanda
Produced by Niharika Nanda and Shashank Bhargava
Edited and mixed by Suresh Pawar
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hi, I am Aherri Kananda and you are listening to
Three Things the Indian Express News Show as the year
draws to a close. This week, on the show, we
are looking back at some of the biggest moments of
twenty twenty five across politics, international affairs, sports, technology and health.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
But we kick off this.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Series by talking about some of the biggest highlights from
the world of entertainment and pop culture. And to do that,
we are joined by The Indian Express's film critic Shubragupta. So, Shubrah,
what would you say was some of the major trends
as far as cinema and OTIT were concerned in twenty
twenty five.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
So it's really been I think a nar of reckoning
for both ott and cinema in terms of the fact
that there was hardly anything original which came out in
either sector. They were like part twos and part threes,
and whether it was the big ticket streaming shows and
(01:07):
as far as cinema in theaters was concerned, I think
what the filmmakers and what cinema creators have realized that
when it comes to getting people back into theaters, there
are only a couple of ways you can get them
in either you make the movies about animals and superheroes
(01:27):
creature features as I call them, or you get people
who are heroes and people who have been heroes in
the past, or you know, cleaving towards a sense of
really heightened nationalism. As far as cinema is concerned, I
look at both the movies that have made the maximum
box office returns this year to Run There, which is
(01:48):
still making money, which is still in theaters, which is
still the film which came out in the first week
of December. We're almost at the end of December, and
it shows no signs of slowing down.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
It has pushed the release of many.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Films into next year, and I have a feeling that
this is the film that people are going to be
remembering twenty twenty five. Pour Apart from everything else, it's
going to be the year of the Runner for better
Verus and we will always also, of course remember Chava,
which came out earlier this year, which was Viki Koshel's
film in which he plays the sign of Shivaji. He
(02:23):
plays Sambaji and he goes up against a weak evil
orron Zeb. And the interesting thing is that the common
factor between these two films is that akh Khana played
Ornzeb the villain in that one, and he plays Rahiman
Dake the villain in this one. That one, he's shown
to be a weak guy who's sitting, who's smaller than Sambaji.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Here he's shown to be.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
More charismatic and more sort of powerful than the spy
who's going in. So interesting contradictions and interesting commonalities between
both the films that have really I think got the
maximum returns on the box office this year.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Right and sobral like you mentioned, five will forever be
remembered as the year of Durandar. The film is on
its way to break all box office records. Tell us
about your thoughts on the film and the kind of
recognition that it is getting. So the interesting thing about
Duranda is that it makes no bones about the fact
(03:26):
that it is about It's set in Pakistan, It is
about Muslims who are treacherous, who are violent, who are
ultra violent. In fact that the violence in the film
is extremely disturbing, and the whole film is actually set
in this in an outpost of Karachi, ca Liari. There's
hardly any portion of the film that is set in
(03:48):
India except for very specific choices that the filmmaker makes.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
The interesting thing about.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Like I said about Duranda, is that it makes no
bones about the fact that it is jingoistic, that it
is natural realistic, that it is going for the juggler
in very many ways. And it's also very interesting in
the fact that the film uses music and the kind
of language which is very syncretic. So that's why I
(04:13):
think the audience is completely swayed by this film, which
is technically, I think, really superior. It has the kind
of action that Hollywood films routinely managed to do, but
no Indian film has really sort of got the kind
of pace and the zing that a lot of the
action sequences in the Runder Managers. So this is a
(04:34):
film that is deeply conflicting to me, and I imagine
it is very conflicting to many many people who are saying, yes,
it is this, but it is also this, so we
will go and watch it. And yes, of course I
will watch the sequel that is going to be up
in March, like I mean, that's of course, that's part
of my job. But even if it weren't, I would
probably want to know what happens to the spy who's caused.
(04:57):
I think a thousand means more than a thousand million
memes across the borders. Yes, I just had so much
fun with those one day a day in the life
over Spy Pakistan and in India they're doing it in
the other way around too. So when I wrote about it,
I felt that it was this kind of outcome which
no one expected. None of the creators were even thinking
(05:21):
that it would lead to this flux of memes on
the internet.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
I think it's completely I think it's still viral.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
I think anyone who has got hashtag Duranda or hashtag
Panla or hashtag Clipparachi is just like exploding. So yeah,
so the film, if you really want to sort of
collapse it into one line, it is to me, it
is propulsive and it is repulsive at the same time.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Talking about the memes and the conversations around the film,
a lot of people online have been comparing and talking
about the differences between Durandhar and films like Tiger and Patan,
which were of course also spy thrillers.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
So how do you see those differences or those parallels.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
So as far as Patan is concerned, or even let's
say the War films or Tigers in the Hair or
the Tigers the franchise. It very clearly lies in a
more sunny aspect. It's sort of in a light of vein. Yes,
there is a Pakistani is still the bad guy. I mean,
it's the villain, and all of those guys are really
bad guys, and only Indians are the patriotic Indians are
(06:25):
the heroes, for sure. But I think none of those
films have the kind of darkness that Duranda has, and
none of them have melded fact and fiction in the
way that Duranda has. And I think that truly is
the thing that separates Duranda from any of those other
films because of pure fiction. I mean, they may have
used a few instances of real life or incidents, but
(06:48):
here what's happened is that actually, you know, it's taken
real sequences from things that have happened in the past,
like the hijack, the parliament attack, the twenty six to eleven,
the kind of thing that happened in Mumbai, and they
inserted it in this so that for people who may
not be able to make out the distinction, it could
(07:10):
be part of the flow it could be like, Hey,
those guys are having a watch party and they're laughing
when people in our country were dying, which is the
problem with the film. I think it really sort of
tells you the intention of the filmmaker is not only
about creating this kind of canvas, but it's also blurring
the line between fact and fiction. So there is that,
(07:32):
and I think that is deliberate and that's where the
problem lies.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
And Shubra, you mentioned sequels earlier.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
This was also the year when we saw Satara as
a Mean Per and Metro in the Nome, which were
sequels to that That is a mean per and Life in
a Metro, two films that were really loved by the audience.
What do you think could the sequels emulate a similar
impact or response.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
So I will tell you a little secret about sequels.
I think sequels are by dem finish. They come second,
they come after the first one. So the first one
has already done all the hard work, has already laid
the ground, has already grabbed the audiences hard. So unless
the second one unless the thing, it's always going to
(08:15):
be a follow up. Unless the follow up is as
strong or as engaging as the original, it's always going
to do the hard work. So as far as both
these films are concerned, I think Life in a Metro
is almost eighteen years, which is almost two decades back
when the media landscape was completely different. Films didn't have
to fight against streaming, films didn't have to fight against
(08:35):
any other. They were just the films that people went
to because there was hardly any other option. That's equally
true for Taris A Meeper because in that one, it
was one of the first films in Bollywood that put
the disability front and center. There had been I think
Black either before or very close to that one. But
for as far as Tarisa Meeper was concerned, it had
(08:57):
a very big started at Amir Khan fronting it.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
It had Amir Khan taking a back seat.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
He only comes in and the second half of the
film though he is the savior figure, but the little
boy with dyslexia it's right in front. And I think
what happened with that film was it opened the doors
to creating conversations around disability that really we hadn't heard before.
Black did it with RUnni Muccergy's character, and Tarisamiper did
(09:25):
it with Adhiabari's character. So I think the people started
to talk about this as like, you know, problems that
things that people lived with, and here what happens with
sitaris and Eper.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
It's a remake of a Spanish film.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
First to Paulish Champions, it's called I haven't seen the original,
and Ahmed is again part of the film, and he's
the one who plays a fairly dislikable character, but once
he gets to know these young people with cerebral palsy,
who are people you can't see disability, you can see
people with characteristics, with motivations, of people who are thinking
(09:59):
about things. I really liked the film because, for whatever
it was worth, I think it was again looking at
people with challenges as people, as human beings and not
just these people who are supposed to be Bichara's. And
as far as the other one is concerned, metro and
life in a metro came at a time and Pretam
and his band were really like usps of that film.
(10:20):
Here I thought they were overplayed a bit, but again
because this whole year has been a whole year where
you've had these ultra loud, ultranationalistic, ultra hyper masculine films
crowding our canvas. I think because it took us away
from that zone. It took us into a zone where
it's about people, it's about connections, it's about the things
(10:40):
that Hindi cinema is losing sight ofp So again, that
was the film that I really like.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Also, one of the things that you've written about is
that in twenty twenty five, the Angry Young Lover made
a comeback. Although one would expect that after films like
Kabir Saying an Animal, the trope would be retired.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
But we did see people rieving about Sayara.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
That's the question that has been sitting in my head,
in fact, for a large part of the years. Specifically
when I watched Sayara and I saw the completely to
me hysterical reaction of all the gen z and maybe
some alphas in there who were actually crying and getting
completely overwhelmed by this film and you know all of
that stuff, And I was thinking, Sanja Dat did this
(11:25):
thing in Rocky like some four decades back, right, he
was this guy with you know, completely you know, spoilt
entitled anger, management issues, everything. All of this this has been,
as you said, it has been part of the Hindi
film permament for a long time, but in the last
few years with the rise of wokeness. Let's see, and
I'm using wokeness without the ironical attachment to it, actually
(11:49):
the right kind of war where people were talking about
green flags without again putting quote marks around it. We're
talking about men who were in touch with their feminine
sight without being laughed at about to bring them back
into play the way that Kabir Singh did, the way
that Our Gun Ready the original.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
Did, and now Saiyara.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
It's like, what you're doing here is you are tapping
into a kind of insecurity that young men have around
you know, how they appear to the other, how they
appeared in their dating lives, in their romantic kind of
attachments that they are hoping to make. So if you're
going to give people these kinds of role models, my
(12:31):
worry is that it's.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
Now part of the mix.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Hey, I can be responsible, like I can go into
a newspaper office, I can bash up somebody and I
will get no pushback, nobody telling me that you didn't
do the right thing. The girl who falls in love
with me is looking at me as if I'm the
best thing since sliced bread, And so the other thing,
apart from the fact that there is a problem with
creating young men who have no responsibility for their own actions,
(12:58):
the thing is that you don't then allow the young
man to grow, You don't allow them to change, You don't.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
Give them that arc.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
And the person who's responsible for that bringing about that
change becomes.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
The hero in.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
It becomes their job to prop up this guy. This
is literally taking me back to the dark age? Is
it taking me back to the kind of regressive characters
that we've always written about against in that sense, and
we've always responded to saying, no, young men need to
take charge. They need to take charge of their own lives.
They need to be standing up and being counted. Where
(13:32):
is this happening right now? It's the Ranji, that's right,
that one same thing. He walks in and he starts
burning up the place because he is madly in love.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Therefore that it's justified in and of itself.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
It becomes the thing for the young woman to actually
just fall at his feet and say, yeah, yeah, you're
in love with me, so therefore I need to be
consequentially in love with you.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
How does that compute and.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
In contrast to the angry young lover trope, we also
saw films that pushed back against this narrative right. A
film like The Girlfriend, for instance, explored consequences of being
in a relationship with an angry young lover, something that
we talked about.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
So what significance do.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Such films hold, especially at a time when movies like
Daish May and Sayara are also finding an audience.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
I would say that they are completely essential to the
conversation around gender and gender divides in terms of cinematic representations,
because these are truly what should be in play more
than anything else, because it is a conversation that is continuing,
and it needs as much nuance and as much push
from all stakeholders, including creators, including people who call themselves influencers.
(14:51):
It should be the thing that all of us are
now talking about more than ever before. So something like
a Rahul Rabindrin's Girlfriend, which has Rushmi Khamdhana play this
central character, which I thought was an interesting casting choice
because she's been playing second fiddle to all these big
heroes in all the really big alpha male kind of
uh you know movies that to have her front a
(15:13):
story which is about the girlfriend and not the boyfriend,
which I think makes a difference because here she plays
a docile, submissive young woman who comes to a Hyderabad
college and then she is completely bowled over by this
charismatic young man who thinks that just because he's fallen
in love with her, everybody else has to fall in line,
including the girlfriend.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
So that's how it goes.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
And then the pushback happens, and that is really truly
the film, and I thought that was one of the
most important films of this year for me. The fact
that it comes from the Telugu industry, the one that
gave us Surgeon Ready a few years ago. Yeah, so
this is again something important. Then I really enjoyed also
Basha Bharat's The Bad Girl. You know, recall the character
(15:56):
a bad girl is something that is so instinctive for
peopleeople whose sake, for young women, who are who voice
their opinion, who are upfront about the fact that physical
intimacy is something that is for men and women.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Oh my god, that's really bad. Hush.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
The film actually mirrors what happens in society, and it's
a temil film. It's again it's set and it takes
its cues from the area that the girl is from,
but it could be about a girl anywhere in this
country or anywhere in Southeast Asia, and.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
The narrative remains the same.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
Basically, narrative remains the same.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Then, of course there was Loca, Who's the female superhero
does it with so much Funache thoroughly enjoyed that, and
a very.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
Unusual film called Sue from Soap. It is set in
a village.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
It's about a young man who falls in love or
has a crush on this girl and that something in
what he does, you know, sort of creates a whole
peroor in the village which leads the conversation into what
men can do, what women can do, and desire about
how female desire is something to be shuttered and this
(17:00):
film brings it out in a very interesting way. I
think it's one of the surprise hits that came out
in the Kannada film So again, no one expected this
film to become the kind of hit that it did.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
So again, very interesting and.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Shabra now coming to something that has become the highlight
for twenty twenty five for Indian cinema, which is Homebound,
featuring Ishan Katter, Vishal Jaeitwa and John Mi Kapor produced
by Dharma, a film that has now become India's official
entry for the Oscars. So do films like these give
you hope that Indian cinema is headed in the right direction?
Speaker 3 (17:38):
You know, your question is sort of answers itself in
some ways, because when you are talking about Homebound as
the film that has been chosen to represent India at
the Oscars, and it has gotten too the last fifteen,
which is about only the fifth Indian film to have,
you know, to got to that.
Speaker 4 (17:54):
Point, it's a great step.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
I think that the fact that Dharma produced it is
also fabulous. The fact that it was from a production
house which is known for the kind of mainstream, the
big budget commercial films that they do to pick up
a subject like this makes me happy, but it also
makes you wonder about the kind of the play that
(18:17):
it got in theaters was not as much as it
should have in my opinion, I think a lot of
people expected this film to have more sort of longer
legs than it did in the theaters. But a film
like this will always come up against a big budget
film and the change that needs to come. Really is
like a conversation between exhibitors and producers and the filmmakers
(18:40):
and saying, look, this is a film which doesn't have
the big stars, but it has a great story. It
is the film that we should be pushing and home
Bound at least got a few weeks. There were great
films this year, with Suburb Bonda, which is a Marathi film,
which is again a film which is fabulous. It's about
two young men and the relationship that they have, which
(19:00):
is hardly ever seen in Indian cinema. There was Humans
in the Loop, Aranyasahi's film, which is about you know,
the combination of two completely radically different elements like the
tribals and AI artificial intelligence and how the two meld.
There was also Dharak Part two which is also a
Dharma film about cast and class, and so was Homebound
(19:24):
about cast, class and religion, the hot button issues that
India should be talking more.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
About, we all should be engaged with much more.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
These are the film that are actually talking about the
real issues and these are the film that we need
to be seeing more off in theaters rather than these
films actually having to struggle for space Kanubhelstity, which is
again a really interesting like a dive into a young
man and small town and the masculinities and the insecurities
(19:53):
that the film is dealing with. Again had to struggle
with the numbers of shows that it got before I
forget it was also Jugnoma ram Reddy's film which I
had Manaj Bajpay in it, which is absolutely one of.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
My favorite films of the year.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Again didn't get the kind of play that it was
that it should have. So I think that's also something
that exhibitors are now struggling with. What are the films
that people will come to or what will they wait
for three weeks four weeks for the film to drop
on a streaming platform. So this dichotomy that has started
to happen and had intensified during the pandemic is something
(20:28):
that the movies all over the world, I mean, filmmakers
all over the world are now struggling with this conundrum.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
But do you think that odit has changed that as in,
even if people don't essentially go to the theater, they
still have a chance to sort of discover such films
and watch them on streaming platforms.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
So while I do agree, yes, of course that these
films are now going to be available for if we
could see them at theaters. We'll of course see them
on this platform.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
But the whole idea.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Of experiencing as it should be in a larger space,
communal viewing, all of that that magic. If you need
that magic, then you need for this some kind of
understanding that this is not this and.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
This you know, will cinema or cinema and that it
should be.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Yeah, and talking about ott one genre that in creators
keep on returning to is the crime thriller or murder mystery,
and that was true for this year as well, right, oh.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Yeah, absolutely, there was no doubt in anybody's head that
the first thing that people would watch in January of
twenty twenty five was Pata Lob Too, you know, the
second part of Patal Love, which came five years later,
and people had been waiting for the show, and it
really didn't disappoint because you know, it just took the
location away from Delhi to the northeast, which is very
(21:49):
clearly the go to place for all for the big
shows this year. I mean, apart from the Bata Lobe,
there was also Family Man, which went off to the
Northeast to get its jolly's along over there. So yes, crime, thrillers, murder, mysteries,
all of these are easier to do than anything else
because it has already made template. It has action, it
(22:12):
has the bill, and it has the bad guy, it
has the good guy, it has the tropes that we
already know. So I think these are the themes that
OTT has explored and done really well with. I would
say though, that some of my favorite OTT shows which
were not made in India was I Think Adolescence was
my number one show, which was a Netflix UK show, which,
(22:33):
again it is sort off about crime, but it's also
about much more. It's about the killing of a young girl,
but it's about, you know, when the layers start getting unraveled.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
It is about society. It's about gendered roles.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
It's about how young men as young as thirteen and
twelve are looking at themselves. It's about how a social
media is shaping the way we are and the way
we behave and the you know, all of those consequences
the show took in so beautifully. Then I really like
The Studio, which is about you know, the Hollywood. It's
about it goes behind the scenes like a BTS in
(23:10):
behind all the creation of cinema in Hollywood. Then I
also really like Slow Horses, which is a mik Karen.
Again it has all these spies, but these are not
spies who are like James Want spies who are sitting
around in a small little you know, in a hole
in the wall building and wondering what to do with
their lives. Very nicely done. So these were some of
the shows which were not Indian, which.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
I really enjoyed.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Then it makes you wonder why a show like Adolescence
is not possible here or is it possible? Can we
do something which goes into just doesn't stay at skimming
the surface, which goes underneath, and which tries to delve
into real lives and to see, you know, how we
are mediating, how social media is mediating between the lives
that we live and the lives that we want other
(23:55):
people to see.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Yeah, and like you mentioned, social media on one hand
and is full of conversations around spotting the green flag
or appreciating the man who is in touch with his
feminine side. But again on the other side, we see
shows like a Doolescence explore what can happen when young
people drift towards the darker corners of the Internet and
(24:18):
how it can shape a young mind.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
Oh absolutely, you know what you've just said is so
on the point as far as the impact of what
we are watching all the time. And I'm now wondering
there was a time when people would say.
Speaker 4 (24:32):
That you are what you eat. I think now we
are what we watch.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
And the distinction between what is real and what is
not real in a young person's mind, which is unformed,
which doesn't really have tools to really understand how to
distinguish between what is right and what is not is
something that should concern all of us.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
And you know, when you talk about ott, one show
that really made waves was are in Khan's directory debut
The Bads of Bollywood, which offers a sharp take on
how Bollywood works and you know the kind of politics
that goes on behind the scenes. What did you make
of the series?
Speaker 3 (25:11):
Okay, I have to say that I expected a little
more substance from the show and something that would take
me out of the zone that I'd already seen in
let's say, Omshantio And also luck by chance, I think
the superstructure on which Arian Khan's debut was built is
something that we'd already seen, and that was my first,
(25:35):
off the top reaction when I watched the show back
to back obviously when it dropped on Netflix, was that, Okay,
we've seen this mother whose movie Mad Mother. We've seen
these people, We've seen the kind of games that people
play behind the scenes in Para Khan's film. We've also
seen the fun aspect of it and the kind of
(25:55):
melodramatic aspect of it in Omshantio.
Speaker 4 (25:58):
So what is Aaran Khan giving that I haven't seen before?
Speaker 3 (26:01):
So to me, the cheekiest part of the show, which
I think a lot of people leave towards, was the
way it sends up the people or the people who
went after Arian and the consequent shadow pad and the
semi fictional people who showed up and said drug Star drugs.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
Though.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
That was funny, but I thought it could have been
better in so very many ways, And I really thought
that it could have been called Who's Your Daddy, which
I think which I think really should have been the
title of the show. It was fun, it was frothy,
but yeah, and to add just a little something, what
I think was the most important part of it, which
(26:45):
I think should have been perhaps played up a little more,
is that it touches upon the syncretic nature of Bollywood,
where religious divide still hasn't sort of druined the industry completely, where.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
Talent and luck what truly counts for.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
You're being from here too, here, So I'm looking forward
to what Aaran Khan does next. But this was a good, well,
let's say, an okay beginning. We're hoping for something more.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Right and Shubra. We've talked about both films and TV shows.
Are there any others we haven't touched upon yet that
really stood out for you?
Speaker 4 (27:21):
So?
Speaker 3 (27:21):
I really also enjoyed Stephen King's the series that came again.
Speaker 4 (27:26):
It's called Welcome to Derry.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
It's one of the many iterations of his most popular
literally which I had. The book that I love so
much is called It is about an entity which is malevolent,
which eats up kids. And I don't know whether this
is a spoiler for people who haven't read it, but
the book has been in existence for so many years,
so I guess it's not. But what this series does again,
(27:50):
it is something really interesting. It goes back into the fifties,
and sixties, and it comes up to the eighties. It
shows the kind of way that people were using race,
using what women can do and what they are allowed
to do, and what the whole the fear of the outsider.
They've contemporized the telling in a way that is it
(28:14):
hits all the essential themes that we are talking about
in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
And the film that really will stay with me, I
think for.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
A long time is possibly in my opinion and in
the opinion of many many people who've seen it, is
the film it's called The Voice of Hindra Jab, which
is being directed by detinition filmmaker counter Benhanya, who also
had done this lovely film called Four Daughters. She heard
(28:45):
this little clip which was on social media which had
gone completely viral. The voice of a five year old
girl who says that her name is Hindra Jab, and
the voice comes through the speakers and into the earp
This is of International Rescue Office which is listening out
for people, and it says, help me, I'm alone in
(29:07):
the car. And it turns out that this is a
car that has been fired at by Israeli thanks, and
it is a Palestinian family and aunt and uncle and cousins,
and this little girl is the only one that is
left alive in the car. And this whole film is
about how this group of people who are sitting in
(29:27):
this office try and put together a rescue team to
get into this gaza strip where this car is like
it is in one corner, which they have managed to
pinpoint the location, but for a variety of reasons, where
it is a bureaucracy kicks in that you need to
take permissions, where the safety aspect of the rescue team
(29:51):
kicks in, where they are worried about what will happen
to the people who go in in the rescue car
the ambulance to go in for and to get this little.
Speaker 4 (29:59):
Girl out of this conflict zone.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
I have not experienced a film like this because in
this one, you are also melding fact in fiction. You
are creating a rescue office which is not real, but
you're taking the voice of this little girl which is real,
which is the five year old who is in this car,
who is so scared her family is all dead. She
doesn't know it yet, she doesn't know possibly the meaning
(30:22):
of death and the impact of that film.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
Sitting in a theater in Gender. I just saw the film.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
A couple of weeks ago at the Red Sea Film
Festival and I still haven't managed to put it past me.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
I don't think I ever will. So I just wanted
to mention.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
That as one of the most impactful cinematic experiences of
twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
And here's hoping that the film reaches an even wider
audience for more people in India can get to watch it.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
But Shabra, Now, if.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
We look ahead to twenty twenty six, we already know
that The r Other Part two is something that people
are looking forward to. What else are you excited to
say in the year ahead?
Speaker 3 (31:02):
So I think again, twenty twenty six looks like I
mean from what I know is it's going to be
more Part twos and Part three sequels and franchise extensions.
But one film that is a franchise extension but is
fronted by a female is Alpha Ali Abat Salpha. I'm
looking forward to it because it gives her a role
(31:25):
that she herself confessedly.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
Is excited about.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
And it's also given me a spy going back to
a spy universe which is less let's say, jingoistic than
the one.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
That really took over this last part of the year.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
I'm also looking forward to Ikis, which is Rei ram
Ragman's film which has Thurminer in his last role, which
is supposed to be out this week but it has
been pushed to early.
Speaker 4 (31:49):
I think the.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
First week of jan Impact, which is about a four
hero Again. It is about what it's about, battles it's about,
but it's about the real thing with out giving us
this mixer of real and not real, which is so
I'm looking forward to a case let's say Alpha, Let's
say maybe a Mizaper part one, part two, part three.
(32:11):
This year was really a waste of my time. I'm
wondering what they will do in a filmy Tahlin Bhaya
and Gang. So yeah, that one possibly may be worth
my while. But you know what, I really actually don't
do this kind of looking ahead because to me, as
a long time film critic, I'm always looking for films
to surprise me. So I don't really like to know
(32:32):
more about any film at all. I like my pride
is to be Christine. I like going in Tabula Rasa.
I like going in without knowing too much. So I
want the year to surprise me in good ways. So
let's see where it goes from here.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
You were listening to Three Things by the Nil Express.
Today's show was edited and mixed by Siriesh Bavar and
produced by Shashan Pargev and Nina Hurrikan and the If
you like the show, then do some right to us
wherever you get your podcasts. You can also recommend the
show to someone you think will like it, share it
with a friend or someone in a family. It's the
best way for people to get to know about us.
(33:10):
You can also tweet us at Express Audio and write
to us at podcasts
Speaker 2 (33:15):
At Indian Express dot com.
Hi, I am Aherri Kananda and you are listening to
Three Things the Indian Express News Show as the year
draws to a close. This week, on the show, we
are looking back at some of the biggest moments of
twenty twenty five across politics, international affairs, sports, technology and health.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
But we kick off this.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Series by talking about some of the biggest highlights from
the world of entertainment and pop culture. And to do that,
we are joined by The Indian Express's film critic Shubragupta. So, Shubrah,
what would you say was some of the major trends
as far as cinema and OTIT were concerned in twenty
twenty five.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
So it's really been I think a nar of reckoning
for both ott and cinema in terms of the fact
that there was hardly anything original which came out in
either sector. They were like part twos and part threes,
and whether it was the big ticket streaming shows and
(01:07):
as far as cinema in theaters was concerned, I think
what the filmmakers and what cinema creators have realized that
when it comes to getting people back into theaters, there
are only a couple of ways you can get them
in either you make the movies about animals and superheroes
(01:27):
creature features as I call them, or you get people
who are heroes and people who have been heroes in
the past, or you know, cleaving towards a sense of
really heightened nationalism. As far as cinema is concerned, I
look at both the movies that have made the maximum
box office returns this year to Run There, which is
(01:48):
still making money, which is still in theaters, which is
still the film which came out in the first week
of December. We're almost at the end of December, and
it shows no signs of slowing down.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
It has pushed the release of many.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Films into next year, and I have a feeling that
this is the film that people are going to be
remembering twenty twenty five. Pour Apart from everything else, it's
going to be the year of the Runner for better
Verus and we will always also, of course remember Chava,
which came out earlier this year, which was Viki Koshel's
film in which he plays the sign of Shivaji. He
(02:23):
plays Sambaji and he goes up against a weak evil
orron Zeb. And the interesting thing is that the common
factor between these two films is that akh Khana played
Ornzeb the villain in that one, and he plays Rahiman
Dake the villain in this one. That one, he's shown
to be a weak guy who's sitting, who's smaller than Sambaji.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
Here he's shown to be.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
More charismatic and more sort of powerful than the spy
who's going in. So interesting contradictions and interesting commonalities between
both the films that have really I think got the
maximum returns on the box office this year.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Right and sobral like you mentioned, five will forever be
remembered as the year of Durandar. The film is on
its way to break all box office records. Tell us
about your thoughts on the film and the kind of
recognition that it is getting. So the interesting thing about
Duranda is that it makes no bones about the fact
(03:26):
that it is about It's set in Pakistan, It is
about Muslims who are treacherous, who are violent, who are
ultra violent. In fact that the violence in the film
is extremely disturbing, and the whole film is actually set
in this in an outpost of Karachi, ca Liari. There's
hardly any portion of the film that is set in
(03:48):
India except for very specific choices that the filmmaker makes.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
The interesting thing about.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Like I said about Duranda, is that it makes no
bones about the fact that it is jingoistic, that it
is natural realistic, that it is going for the juggler
in very many ways. And it's also very interesting in
the fact that the film uses music and the kind
of language which is very syncretic. So that's why I
(04:13):
think the audience is completely swayed by this film, which
is technically, I think, really superior. It has the kind
of action that Hollywood films routinely managed to do, but
no Indian film has really sort of got the kind
of pace and the zing that a lot of the
action sequences in the Runder Managers. So this is a
(04:34):
film that is deeply conflicting to me, and I imagine
it is very conflicting to many many people who are saying, yes,
it is this, but it is also this, so we
will go and watch it. And yes, of course I
will watch the sequel that is going to be up
in March, like I mean, that's of course, that's part
of my job. But even if it weren't, I would
probably want to know what happens to the spy who's caused.
(04:57):
I think a thousand means more than a thousand million
memes across the borders. Yes, I just had so much
fun with those one day a day in the life
over Spy Pakistan and in India they're doing it in
the other way around too. So when I wrote about it,
I felt that it was this kind of outcome which
no one expected. None of the creators were even thinking
(05:21):
that it would lead to this flux of memes on
the internet.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
I think it's completely I think it's still viral.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
I think anyone who has got hashtag Duranda or hashtag
Panla or hashtag Clipparachi is just like exploding. So yeah,
so the film, if you really want to sort of
collapse it into one line, it is to me, it
is propulsive and it is repulsive at the same time.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Talking about the memes and the conversations around the film,
a lot of people online have been comparing and talking
about the differences between Durandhar and films like Tiger and Patan,
which were of course also spy thrillers.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
So how do you see those differences or those parallels.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
So as far as Patan is concerned, or even let's
say the War films or Tigers in the Hair or
the Tigers the franchise. It very clearly lies in a
more sunny aspect. It's sort of in a light of vein. Yes,
there is a Pakistani is still the bad guy. I mean,
it's the villain, and all of those guys are really
bad guys, and only Indians are the patriotic Indians are
(06:25):
the heroes, for sure. But I think none of those
films have the kind of darkness that Duranda has, and
none of them have melded fact and fiction in the
way that Duranda has. And I think that truly is
the thing that separates Duranda from any of those other
films because of pure fiction. I mean, they may have
used a few instances of real life or incidents, but
(06:48):
here what's happened is that actually, you know, it's taken
real sequences from things that have happened in the past,
like the hijack, the parliament attack, the twenty six to eleven,
the kind of thing that happened in Mumbai, and they
inserted it in this so that for people who may
not be able to make out the distinction, it could
(07:10):
be part of the flow it could be like, Hey,
those guys are having a watch party and they're laughing
when people in our country were dying, which is the
problem with the film. I think it really sort of
tells you the intention of the filmmaker is not only
about creating this kind of canvas, but it's also blurring
the line between fact and fiction. So there is that,
(07:32):
and I think that is deliberate and that's where the
problem lies.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
And Shubra, you mentioned sequels earlier.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
This was also the year when we saw Satara as
a Mean Per and Metro in the Nome, which were
sequels to that That is a mean per and Life in
a Metro, two films that were really loved by the audience.
What do you think could the sequels emulate a similar
impact or response.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
So I will tell you a little secret about sequels.
I think sequels are by dem finish. They come second,
they come after the first one. So the first one
has already done all the hard work, has already laid
the ground, has already grabbed the audiences hard. So unless
the second one unless the thing, it's always going to
(08:15):
be a follow up. Unless the follow up is as
strong or as engaging as the original, it's always going
to do the hard work. So as far as both
these films are concerned, I think Life in a Metro
is almost eighteen years, which is almost two decades back
when the media landscape was completely different. Films didn't have
to fight against streaming, films didn't have to fight against
(08:35):
any other. They were just the films that people went
to because there was hardly any other option. That's equally
true for Taris A Meeper because in that one, it
was one of the first films in Bollywood that put
the disability front and center. There had been I think
Black either before or very close to that one. But
for as far as Tarisa Meeper was concerned, it had
(08:57):
a very big started at Amir Khan fronting it.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
It had Amir Khan taking a back seat.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
He only comes in and the second half of the
film though he is the savior figure, but the little
boy with dyslexia it's right in front. And I think
what happened with that film was it opened the doors
to creating conversations around disability that really we hadn't heard before.
Black did it with RUnni Muccergy's character, and Tarisamiper did
(09:25):
it with Adhiabari's character. So I think the people started
to talk about this as like, you know, problems that
things that people lived with, and here what happens with
sitaris and Eper.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
It's a remake of a Spanish film.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
First to Paulish Champions, it's called I haven't seen the original,
and Ahmed is again part of the film, and he's
the one who plays a fairly dislikable character, but once
he gets to know these young people with cerebral palsy,
who are people you can't see disability, you can see
people with characteristics, with motivations, of people who are thinking
(09:59):
about things. I really liked the film because, for whatever
it was worth, I think it was again looking at
people with challenges as people, as human beings and not
just these people who are supposed to be Bichara's. And
as far as the other one is concerned, metro and
life in a metro came at a time and Pretam
and his band were really like usps of that film.
(10:20):
Here I thought they were overplayed a bit, but again
because this whole year has been a whole year where
you've had these ultra loud, ultranationalistic, ultra hyper masculine films
crowding our canvas. I think because it took us away
from that zone. It took us into a zone where
it's about people, it's about connections, it's about the things
(10:40):
that Hindi cinema is losing sight ofp So again, that
was the film that I really like.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Also, one of the things that you've written about is
that in twenty twenty five, the Angry Young Lover made
a comeback. Although one would expect that after films like
Kabir Saying an Animal, the trope would be retired.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
But we did see people rieving about Sayara.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
That's the question that has been sitting in my head,
in fact, for a large part of the years. Specifically
when I watched Sayara and I saw the completely to
me hysterical reaction of all the gen z and maybe
some alphas in there who were actually crying and getting
completely overwhelmed by this film and you know all of
that stuff, And I was thinking, Sanja Dat did this
(11:25):
thing in Rocky like some four decades back, right, he
was this guy with you know, completely you know, spoilt
entitled anger, management issues, everything. All of this this has been,
as you said, it has been part of the Hindi
film permament for a long time, but in the last
few years with the rise of wokeness. Let's see, and
I'm using wokeness without the ironical attachment to it, actually
(11:49):
the right kind of war where people were talking about
green flags without again putting quote marks around it. We're
talking about men who were in touch with their feminine
sight without being laughed at about to bring them back
into play the way that Kabir Singh did, the way
that Our Gun Ready the original.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
Did, and now Saiyara.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
It's like, what you're doing here is you are tapping
into a kind of insecurity that young men have around
you know, how they appear to the other, how they
appeared in their dating lives, in their romantic kind of
attachments that they are hoping to make. So if you're
going to give people these kinds of role models, my
(12:31):
worry is that it's.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
Now part of the mix.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Hey, I can be responsible, like I can go into
a newspaper office, I can bash up somebody and I
will get no pushback, nobody telling me that you didn't
do the right thing. The girl who falls in love
with me is looking at me as if I'm the
best thing since sliced bread, And so the other thing,
apart from the fact that there is a problem with
creating young men who have no responsibility for their own actions,
(12:58):
the thing is that you don't then allow the young
man to grow, You don't allow them to change, You don't.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
Give them that arc.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
And the person who's responsible for that bringing about that
change becomes.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
The hero in.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
It becomes their job to prop up this guy. This
is literally taking me back to the dark age? Is
it taking me back to the kind of regressive characters
that we've always written about against in that sense, and
we've always responded to saying, no, young men need to
take charge. They need to take charge of their own lives.
They need to be standing up and being counted. Where
(13:32):
is this happening right now? It's the Ranji, that's right,
that one same thing. He walks in and he starts
burning up the place because he is madly in love.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Therefore that it's justified in and of itself.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
It becomes the thing for the young woman to actually
just fall at his feet and say, yeah, yeah, you're
in love with me, so therefore I need to be
consequentially in love with you.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
How does that compute and.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
In contrast to the angry young lover trope, we also
saw films that pushed back against this narrative right. A
film like The Girlfriend, for instance, explored consequences of being
in a relationship with an angry young lover, something that
we talked about.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
So what significance do.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Such films hold, especially at a time when movies like
Daish May and Sayara are also finding an audience.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
I would say that they are completely essential to the
conversation around gender and gender divides in terms of cinematic representations,
because these are truly what should be in play more
than anything else, because it is a conversation that is continuing,
and it needs as much nuance and as much push
from all stakeholders, including creators, including people who call themselves influencers.
(14:51):
It should be the thing that all of us are
now talking about more than ever before. So something like
a Rahul Rabindrin's Girlfriend, which has Rushmi Khamdhana play this
central character, which I thought was an interesting casting choice
because she's been playing second fiddle to all these big
heroes in all the really big alpha male kind of
uh you know movies that to have her front a
(15:13):
story which is about the girlfriend and not the boyfriend,
which I think makes a difference because here she plays
a docile, submissive young woman who comes to a Hyderabad
college and then she is completely bowled over by this
charismatic young man who thinks that just because he's fallen
in love with her, everybody else has to fall in line,
including the girlfriend.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
So that's how it goes.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
And then the pushback happens, and that is really truly
the film, and I thought that was one of the
most important films of this year for me. The fact
that it comes from the Telugu industry, the one that
gave us Surgeon Ready a few years ago. Yeah, so
this is again something important. Then I really enjoyed also
Basha Bharat's The Bad Girl. You know, recall the character
(15:56):
a bad girl is something that is so instinctive for
peopleeople whose sake, for young women, who are who voice
their opinion, who are upfront about the fact that physical
intimacy is something that is for men and women.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Oh my god, that's really bad. Hush.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
The film actually mirrors what happens in society, and it's
a temil film. It's again it's set and it takes
its cues from the area that the girl is from,
but it could be about a girl anywhere in this
country or anywhere in Southeast Asia, and.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
The narrative remains the same.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
Basically, narrative remains the same.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Then, of course there was Loca, Who's the female superhero
does it with so much Funache thoroughly enjoyed that, and
a very.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
Unusual film called Sue from Soap. It is set in
a village.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
It's about a young man who falls in love or
has a crush on this girl and that something in
what he does, you know, sort of creates a whole
peroor in the village which leads the conversation into what
men can do, what women can do, and desire about
how female desire is something to be shuttered and this
(17:00):
film brings it out in a very interesting way. I
think it's one of the surprise hits that came out
in the Kannada film So again, no one expected this
film to become the kind of hit that it did.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
So again, very interesting and.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Shabra now coming to something that has become the highlight
for twenty twenty five for Indian cinema, which is Homebound,
featuring Ishan Katter, Vishal Jaeitwa and John Mi Kapor produced
by Dharma, a film that has now become India's official
entry for the Oscars. So do films like these give
you hope that Indian cinema is headed in the right direction?
Speaker 3 (17:38):
You know, your question is sort of answers itself in
some ways, because when you are talking about Homebound as
the film that has been chosen to represent India at
the Oscars, and it has gotten too the last fifteen,
which is about only the fifth Indian film to have,
you know, to got to that.
Speaker 4 (17:54):
Point, it's a great step.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
I think that the fact that Dharma produced it is
also fabulous. The fact that it was from a production
house which is known for the kind of mainstream, the
big budget commercial films that they do to pick up
a subject like this makes me happy, but it also
makes you wonder about the kind of the play that
(18:17):
it got in theaters was not as much as it
should have in my opinion, I think a lot of
people expected this film to have more sort of longer
legs than it did in the theaters. But a film
like this will always come up against a big budget
film and the change that needs to come. Really is
like a conversation between exhibitors and producers and the filmmakers
(18:40):
and saying, look, this is a film which doesn't have
the big stars, but it has a great story. It
is the film that we should be pushing and home
Bound at least got a few weeks. There were great
films this year, with Suburb Bonda, which is a Marathi film,
which is again a film which is fabulous. It's about
two young men and the relationship that they have, which
(19:00):
is hardly ever seen in Indian cinema. There was Humans
in the Loop, Aranyasahi's film, which is about you know,
the combination of two completely radically different elements like the
tribals and AI artificial intelligence and how the two meld.
There was also Dharak Part two which is also a
Dharma film about cast and class, and so was Homebound
(19:24):
about cast, class and religion, the hot button issues that
India should be talking more.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
About, we all should be engaged with much more.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
These are the film that are actually talking about the
real issues and these are the film that we need
to be seeing more off in theaters rather than these
films actually having to struggle for space Kanubhelstity, which is
again a really interesting like a dive into a young
man and small town and the masculinities and the insecurities
(19:53):
that the film is dealing with. Again had to struggle
with the numbers of shows that it got before I
forget it was also Jugnoma ram Reddy's film which I
had Manaj Bajpay in it, which is absolutely one of.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
My favorite films of the year.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Again didn't get the kind of play that it was
that it should have. So I think that's also something
that exhibitors are now struggling with. What are the films
that people will come to or what will they wait
for three weeks four weeks for the film to drop
on a streaming platform. So this dichotomy that has started
to happen and had intensified during the pandemic is something
(20:28):
that the movies all over the world, I mean, filmmakers
all over the world are now struggling with this conundrum.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
But do you think that odit has changed that as in,
even if people don't essentially go to the theater, they
still have a chance to sort of discover such films
and watch them on streaming platforms.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
So while I do agree, yes, of course that these
films are now going to be available for if we
could see them at theaters. We'll of course see them
on this platform.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
But the whole idea.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Of experiencing as it should be in a larger space,
communal viewing, all of that that magic. If you need
that magic, then you need for this some kind of
understanding that this is not this and.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
This you know, will cinema or cinema and that it
should be.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Yeah, and talking about ott one genre that in creators
keep on returning to is the crime thriller or murder mystery,
and that was true for this year as well, right, oh.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Yeah, absolutely, there was no doubt in anybody's head that
the first thing that people would watch in January of
twenty twenty five was Pata Lob Too, you know, the
second part of Patal Love, which came five years later,
and people had been waiting for the show, and it
really didn't disappoint because you know, it just took the
location away from Delhi to the northeast, which is very
(21:49):
clearly the go to place for all for the big
shows this year. I mean, apart from the Bata Lobe,
there was also Family Man, which went off to the
Northeast to get its jolly's along over there. So yes, crime, thrillers, murder, mysteries,
all of these are easier to do than anything else
because it has already made template. It has action, it
(22:12):
has the bill, and it has the bad guy, it
has the good guy, it has the tropes that we
already know. So I think these are the themes that
OTT has explored and done really well with. I would
say though, that some of my favorite OTT shows which
were not made in India was I Think Adolescence was
my number one show, which was a Netflix UK show, which,
(22:33):
again it is sort off about crime, but it's also
about much more. It's about the killing of a young girl,
but it's about, you know, when the layers start getting unraveled.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
It is about society. It's about gendered roles.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
It's about how young men as young as thirteen and
twelve are looking at themselves. It's about how a social
media is shaping the way we are and the way
we behave and the you know, all of those consequences
the show took in so beautifully. Then I really like
The Studio, which is about you know, the Hollywood. It's
about it goes behind the scenes like a BTS in
(23:10):
behind all the creation of cinema in Hollywood. Then I
also really like Slow Horses, which is a mik Karen.
Again it has all these spies, but these are not
spies who are like James Want spies who are sitting
around in a small little you know, in a hole
in the wall building and wondering what to do with
their lives. Very nicely done. So these were some of
the shows which were not Indian, which.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
I really enjoyed.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Then it makes you wonder why a show like Adolescence
is not possible here or is it possible? Can we
do something which goes into just doesn't stay at skimming
the surface, which goes underneath, and which tries to delve
into real lives and to see, you know, how we
are mediating, how social media is mediating between the lives
that we live and the lives that we want other
(23:55):
people to see.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Yeah, and like you mentioned, social media on one hand
and is full of conversations around spotting the green flag
or appreciating the man who is in touch with his
feminine side. But again on the other side, we see
shows like a Doolescence explore what can happen when young
people drift towards the darker corners of the Internet and
(24:18):
how it can shape a young mind.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
Oh absolutely, you know what you've just said is so
on the point as far as the impact of what
we are watching all the time. And I'm now wondering
there was a time when people would say.
Speaker 4 (24:32):
That you are what you eat. I think now we
are what we watch.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
And the distinction between what is real and what is
not real in a young person's mind, which is unformed,
which doesn't really have tools to really understand how to
distinguish between what is right and what is not is
something that should concern all of us.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
And you know, when you talk about ott, one show
that really made waves was are in Khan's directory debut
The Bads of Bollywood, which offers a sharp take on
how Bollywood works and you know the kind of politics
that goes on behind the scenes. What did you make
of the series?
Speaker 3 (25:11):
Okay, I have to say that I expected a little
more substance from the show and something that would take
me out of the zone that I'd already seen in
let's say, Omshantio And also luck by chance, I think
the superstructure on which Arian Khan's debut was built is
something that we'd already seen, and that was my first,
(25:35):
off the top reaction when I watched the show back
to back obviously when it dropped on Netflix, was that, Okay,
we've seen this mother whose movie Mad Mother. We've seen
these people, We've seen the kind of games that people
play behind the scenes in Para Khan's film. We've also
seen the fun aspect of it and the kind of
(25:55):
melodramatic aspect of it in Omshantio.
Speaker 4 (25:58):
So what is Aaran Khan giving that I haven't seen before?
Speaker 3 (26:01):
So to me, the cheekiest part of the show, which
I think a lot of people leave towards, was the
way it sends up the people or the people who
went after Arian and the consequent shadow pad and the
semi fictional people who showed up and said drug Star drugs.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
Though.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
That was funny, but I thought it could have been
better in so very many ways, And I really thought
that it could have been called Who's Your Daddy, which
I think which I think really should have been the
title of the show. It was fun, it was frothy,
but yeah, and to add just a little something, what
I think was the most important part of it, which
(26:45):
I think should have been perhaps played up a little more,
is that it touches upon the syncretic nature of Bollywood,
where religious divide still hasn't sort of druined the industry completely, where.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
Talent and luck what truly counts for.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
You're being from here too, here, So I'm looking forward
to what Aaran Khan does next. But this was a good, well,
let's say, an okay beginning. We're hoping for something more.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Right and Shubra. We've talked about both films and TV shows.
Are there any others we haven't touched upon yet that
really stood out for you?
Speaker 4 (27:21):
So?
Speaker 3 (27:21):
I really also enjoyed Stephen King's the series that came again.
Speaker 4 (27:26):
It's called Welcome to Derry.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
It's one of the many iterations of his most popular
literally which I had. The book that I love so
much is called It is about an entity which is malevolent,
which eats up kids. And I don't know whether this
is a spoiler for people who haven't read it, but
the book has been in existence for so many years,
so I guess it's not. But what this series does again,
(27:50):
it is something really interesting. It goes back into the fifties,
and sixties, and it comes up to the eighties. It
shows the kind of way that people were using race,
using what women can do and what they are allowed
to do, and what the whole the fear of the outsider.
They've contemporized the telling in a way that is it
(28:14):
hits all the essential themes that we are talking about
in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
And the film that really will stay with me, I
think for.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
A long time is possibly in my opinion and in
the opinion of many many people who've seen it, is
the film it's called The Voice of Hindra Jab, which
is being directed by detinition filmmaker counter Benhanya, who also
had done this lovely film called Four Daughters. She heard
(28:45):
this little clip which was on social media which had
gone completely viral. The voice of a five year old
girl who says that her name is Hindra Jab, and
the voice comes through the speakers and into the earp
This is of International Rescue Office which is listening out
for people, and it says, help me, I'm alone in
(29:07):
the car. And it turns out that this is a
car that has been fired at by Israeli thanks, and
it is a Palestinian family and aunt and uncle and cousins,
and this little girl is the only one that is
left alive in the car. And this whole film is
about how this group of people who are sitting in
(29:27):
this office try and put together a rescue team to
get into this gaza strip where this car is like
it is in one corner, which they have managed to
pinpoint the location, but for a variety of reasons, where
it is a bureaucracy kicks in that you need to
take permissions, where the safety aspect of the rescue team
(29:51):
kicks in, where they are worried about what will happen
to the people who go in in the rescue car
the ambulance to go in for and to get this little.
Speaker 4 (29:59):
Girl out of this conflict zone.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
I have not experienced a film like this because in
this one, you are also melding fact in fiction. You
are creating a rescue office which is not real, but
you're taking the voice of this little girl which is real,
which is the five year old who is in this car,
who is so scared her family is all dead. She
doesn't know it yet, she doesn't know possibly the meaning
(30:22):
of death and the impact of that film.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
Sitting in a theater in Gender. I just saw the film.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
A couple of weeks ago at the Red Sea Film
Festival and I still haven't managed to put it past me.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
I don't think I ever will. So I just wanted
to mention.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
That as one of the most impactful cinematic experiences of
twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
And here's hoping that the film reaches an even wider
audience for more people in India can get to watch it.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
But Shabra, Now, if.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
We look ahead to twenty twenty six, we already know
that The r Other Part two is something that people
are looking forward to. What else are you excited to
say in the year ahead?
Speaker 3 (31:02):
So I think again, twenty twenty six looks like I
mean from what I know is it's going to be
more Part twos and Part three sequels and franchise extensions.
But one film that is a franchise extension but is
fronted by a female is Alpha Ali Abat Salpha. I'm
looking forward to it because it gives her a role
(31:25):
that she herself confessedly.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
Is excited about.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
And it's also given me a spy going back to
a spy universe which is less let's say, jingoistic than
the one.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
That really took over this last part of the year.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
I'm also looking forward to Ikis, which is Rei ram
Ragman's film which has Thurminer in his last role, which
is supposed to be out this week but it has
been pushed to early.
Speaker 4 (31:49):
I think the.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
First week of jan Impact, which is about a four
hero Again. It is about what it's about, battles it's about,
but it's about the real thing with out giving us
this mixer of real and not real, which is so
I'm looking forward to a case let's say Alpha, Let's
say maybe a Mizaper part one, part two, part three.
(32:11):
This year was really a waste of my time. I'm
wondering what they will do in a filmy Tahlin Bhaya
and Gang. So yeah, that one possibly may be worth
my while. But you know what, I really actually don't
do this kind of looking ahead because to me, as
a long time film critic, I'm always looking for films
to surprise me. So I don't really like to know
(32:32):
more about any film at all. I like my pride
is to be Christine. I like going in Tabula Rasa.
I like going in without knowing too much. So I
want the year to surprise me in good ways. So
let's see where it goes from here.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
You were listening to Three Things by the Nil Express.
Today's show was edited and mixed by Siriesh Bavar and
produced by Shashan Pargev and Nina Hurrikan and the If
you like the show, then do some right to us
wherever you get your podcasts. You can also recommend the
show to someone you think will like it, share it
with a friend or someone in a family. It's the
best way for people to get to know about us.
(33:10):
You can also tweet us at Express Audio and write
to us at podcasts
Speaker 2 (33:15):
At Indian Express dot com.
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