December 23, 2024 • 22 mins
Jigra, the new film by Vasan Bala, combines his trademark cine-literate sensibilities with mainstream Bollywood tropes.
The odd combination makes for an interesting discourse about the film’s broad sentimentality, its genre credentials, and storytelling that is both contrived and confident.
We discuss Bala’s balancing act and whether it works. Along the way, we talk about Alia Bhatt’s strong central performance, the action set-pieces, and the film’s emotional core.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:16):
Hi. And I'm Rohan Nahar.
Welcome to the Long Deck. This week we're discussing the
new on about movie Gira, which is now on Netflix after a
theatrical. It's directed by Vasin Bhala,
the director behind Madhu, DhaniOTA and Manika.
Oh my darling, you know movies. Yeah.
Why do you wake up this one now?I loved it, people hated it.
It was on those divisive movies,so I thought it'll be
interesting to discuss. Yeah, I'm not sure I'm the hate
(00:38):
category. I'm probably somewhere in the
middle, like I think I was like 5 or 610.
No, yeah, I I, I was, like, impressed, like, very, very
impressed with most of the things that this movie kind of
got away with. It's time to do, like, so many
things. Yet it has, like, a voice, but
it's also, you know, it like, giving you the beats that you
(01:02):
expected to. And it isn't kind of afraid to
be sentimental when it needs to,you know, which is something
that you might expect from like,a filmmaker with more of a
identity than, you know, like any random person that we kind
of talk about usually on the broadcast.
Yeah, that actually when I feel like that sentimentality
(01:24):
sometimes actually like became acontention, like show contention
for me. Because you know, like as there
are like references to all thesesort of action movies, Hong Kong
and cinema, anime, other stuff like that.
Either through like scenes and like like you know she's
watching her movie or like through the costumes or
whatever, like T-shirts being given to their alibis character.
(01:45):
And there is like a hint that that will play into like this
movies action, but that doesn't really never on that level of
like those movies or even thoughthe setting is like primed for
it with the whole like sound nice, right, East Asian thing.
So I am like, I'm like, I'm all for this.
Like, you know, heisty, like youare two blondes, like going
bonkers. People trying to like come up
(02:05):
with like new stuff on the go, like full like gun go, whatever.
But I got sensibility of like, you know where they record of
immediately, like the one scene they'll be like, Oh yeah, this
is like insane things that are happening.
And then OK, beach where some like very like Arijit Singh type
like voice will coming and then some song will play.
I'm like, why, why, why is this?Why does it feel like one
director has sat with one producer and said this was like,
(02:27):
you know, don't do you think youdo you think this will work
here? In fact, that's what I enjoyed
the most about the movie. And the prime example for that
is the rooftop kind of chase situation at the end where he
does a lot of stylistic stuff. There's there's like that, that
very memorable sort of slow motion short where they jump
(02:48):
across the roof, all of them. And it's like, it's like lit
like some crouching tiger hiddendragon thing.
And it, and the song that's playing in the background is the
full like, you know, like by BenMalagana and it's and and yeah,
it works. For some reason.
You watch that hyper stylistic short, which is like, it isn't
(03:13):
real, right? There's no realism happening
right there. And the song kind of pushes it
further into this realm of high,like, highly cinematic kind of
moment. But it's like this melding of,
you know, classier filmmaking with this mainstream Bollywood
stuff that is almost always donepoorly.
(03:34):
So in fact, that's what I enjoyed the most about.
It Right. Interesting.
Yeah, because that's for like, Imean, everybody mentioned that
it took away from me. I was like, I'm enjoying this
moment and now you've like plastered on this like
soundtrack or whatever and you like to take instead of letting
leave in that moment, you're like me, like let me make you
feel this moment to like the soundtrack instead of just being
(03:54):
with the characters. No, but that is the primary kind
of focus of the movie, right? The plot might be here or there
and the characters might be in the in case of, you know, the
villain and even what's his name, Manoj Pawar.
They're a little over the top. But but the movie kind of keeps
returning to this emotional core, right?
Which is necessary because a lotof the time it kind of asks you
(04:17):
to just hang in there when she says that you don't have bacha
Dungi and you're just supposed to take her word for it because
we have no idea. Like, is she like some commando?
Is she special? What is the back story?
We don't know, but we're just supposed to believe her, right?
And she says it in a way her brother is supposed to believe
her. Keep Usna Baldi.
I thought it must be true. And and because the movie keeps
(04:40):
returning to that emotional code, because the movie keeps
returning to that suicide moment, right?
And how it kind of at the perfect moment kind of brings
those up. Like I was really impressed with
how this film is edited also. Like it it knows how to cut to
emotion and to kind of do that again at the end, that motif
almost on the board. It really works because then it
(05:03):
flips it, right? Because she's been protecting
him. And what I really enjoyed was
that, oh, now like, she needs tobe protected, right.
And we've sort of developed thisconnection with this character
based on nothing, no information.
Yeah. But there is a connection that
you developed for Satya, right? And that's partially down to
just the filmmaking of it and ofcourse down to the performance
(05:23):
of it, right, Which is like veryrained in if you consider the
the the flashy kind of movie around her.
Yeah. And I'm, I feel like I'm all for
like, you know, the way they areputting those like, touches to
like, Oh yeah, there's the family history and all of that.
And I felt it could still have worked without having this like,
additional level of, like, melodra on top of it to the
(05:45):
sound. I mean, yeah, I feel like this
is a personal choice. That's how I prefer my films, I
guess. Very clearly it worked for you.
It actually worked for you more because of reducing.
Yeah, yeah, The movie worked forme more because of those
choices, right? Because I'm going and partially
conditioning, right? I'm going and expecting, I don't
know, a certain kind of movie, Isuppose, because the
(06:06):
sentimentality wasn't there in Monica or My Darling, for
example, right? But there was you could sense
the sentimentality, not on the surface, but you could sense the
sentimentality that he has for storytelling.
This is something he loves. Like that was palpable.
But here it's both. Like it's like a Dharma movie
plus, plus it's a Wasan Bala movie.
(06:28):
And I didn't know that such a thing could be possible.
And clearly, I mean, you were like, whatever.
Yeah, for me, I feel conflict inthe do as I mentioned, I think
that's what I keep coming back to is that I was like, no,
you're you're doing good in yourspace.
I feel like you don't need the Dharma of it to like make it
mainstream. You can do without it.
But again, I said, that's how I think I saw.
(06:49):
Yeah, I suppose I was. Yeah, I suppose I was kind of.
I I kind of bought into the world of the movie from the very
beginning because it doesn't start off as a stylistic
Vasanbala movie. It starts off as a Dharma movie,
right? It starts off with these two
characters and you kind of understand Kechaei and Kabon
hair. They're living in some foster
whatever relative's house and they they have each other's
(07:13):
backs, etcetera. We see them play basketball,
which is a good scene because itkind of tells you so much about
them. So that's how we enter their
lives, correct? Are you?
Scared the like scaredness and her like the fear right like she
knows that Kabir and the family are like not good for him and
she she's trying to be overprotective.
She's like, she's like coddled him, like stay in your room
(07:37):
almost like. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So it's a very like, highly likeDharma style kind of family
drama unfolding, right. Yeah, that was always a.
Kind of mother only at this point because they should they
never had any parents going out so.
I suppose if that's the entry point into the story, then
either you buy into it or you don't.
And then once it kind of becomesmore of a stylistic genre movie
(07:57):
after he gets arrested, etcetera, etcetera, and the
villain shows up and he's over the top.
He's very good by the way, the villain.
But I suppose people who don't like the movie would be like.
Yeah, I think that cartoon as a friendly you have to buy into I
think, which is like the movie sets it up I think fairly OK.
Like he like he really scale it up over like I think the two
hours they're like he starts offsort of normal of like, you
(08:19):
know, like I'm in good to cry bored and like I'll do the right
thing, you know, like I'm changing my gloves and all I'm
listening to you. I'll actually listen to the
rules saying haha, I bought intoyour you know, you read the rule
book thing and then he says massive like, you know,
exploration quickly, like name style.
He goes to like cartoon villa atthe end, like he almost dead
returns in the boat. Find dual guns like this is like
(08:40):
full like. Now it's fun right?
So if if see I can fully imaginewhen that moment happens that
he's supposed to be dead, but heshows up again and he's wielding
2 guns and firing like blindly at them and it's a boat chase.
I can fully understand a certainsection of the audience.
Like what the hell is this nonsense?
But that to me is like the essence of why this movie works.
(09:03):
It's just full. There's no like half measures
right in that moment because A, you're being a cartoon, B,
you're fully relying on the emotional investment that the
audience or you hope to have created for the audience at this
point. Because if you don't care about
Satya and the brother, then nothing is working in that
(09:24):
moment. So you I absolutely have to and
I think I really was, you know, and that's all down to just like
I said, you know, like there arethe choices that he makes.
The so-called interval of this movie is not like an action
scene, which it very easily could have been.
It's a flashback to their childhood.
And those are the kind of decisions that really left me
(09:44):
impressed. So you you want you really,
really are building towards a payoff at the end.
And it will only happen if you make these choices.
So I'm now looking forward to the payoff.
I think the other thing sort of I want to talk about is I feel
like it is like definitely over long.
So I mean like there are parts of it.
I just felt like like you could have trained and you don't need
(10:05):
to go in that direction. Like sure, like, you know, she's
trying to build do this like initial like legal route of
like, you know, I'll try to get my brother appealed and save
him. I'm just like, no, like when
she's going like you lose that momentum, right?
Because when they find out and then she's like, oh, like she's
the coach that my brother, he's there.
Because one of those, it's one of those necessary things,
right? Because I I there's an argument
(10:26):
to be made that, but it's up. Enough.
I think this fictional, I don't know Chinese mixed station
country whatever is that when she before she's even landed
there. I have a sense of that this
country is like cruel to everyone and doesn't really
care. It is care about like the book
and the opera by the book and they will not listen to
(10:47):
anything. So by showing us the whole legal
route and people like talking and a mix of like different
lawyers and like she opens everyand I'm like, I didn't learn
anything new. I thought.
I feel like I knew this country would not let you do this legal
route. And you have basically like
delayed the moment because when she's about to go on her flight,
I remember when that lawyer comes down the private jet and
she does this like move with herlike luggage towards him.
(11:10):
Yeah, that's actually there's like a this fighty spirit in her
right now, right. So she's just she's bubbling on
the surface. She's ready to like kill
everyone as to add brother, and you sort of deflate that moment
by landing in like this hunchy Dao and she going to like 7-8
different like offices. And I know it's jump into like
her first idea needs to be prison break and just like that
gives the movie like added like,you know, fire and like drive.
(11:31):
Yeah. And yeah, you could just insert
the the the bit about the legal route not working by like having
whatever the supporting character tell her that during
the. Yeah, because you already that
he's gaming the system, right? This is the only way to save.
He saved them before the justicemoment.
And even a court is a shamble, right?
It's like they're talking a different language.
(11:52):
Like they remind me of the moment where US have these
immigration courts where they round up people who come from
like Latin America and they don't even get a lawyer.
Judge talks in English. People don't know English who
are like the immigrants. They certainly like 3-4 year
old, like children don't know English.
Judge talks in English and just like, be like, huh, go back to
your country or like, deport or whatever, or like, go to like,
orphanage. And that reminded me of it, you
(12:14):
know? So you've shown that this
country is, like, bogus in this thing, right?
Like, they don't care really about justice.
It is not even giving him legal representation.
Who can talk in his language? It's like, yeah, let's just go
ahead with it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I understand.
I understand That could have been kind of altered a little
bit. Yeah.
But I remember watching, I watched it I think a couple of
days after the movie was released.
(12:35):
And by then people had already started complaining mostly.
And there was a lot of like, I don't buy this world type
complaints, you know, which is weird because it felt like
people were parroting each otherbecause some complaints, same
guys. So anyway, or everybody was kind
of saying I don't buy this world.
(12:56):
But then you're like, have you seen any like Bollywood movie?
Like, how do you buy that world?There OK, there like any like
sort of highest action movie, like even something as basic as
ocean 11 or like Extraction 2, which like this turns into at
the end, like those are hyper realistic, right?
You're not actually thinking that Chris Hansel is going into
some semi Eastern European prison and doing this nonsense
(13:18):
for 2-3 hours. Like you remember that movie?
They say, I think this they capture some like remote town
and they start throwing rockets at it or something in one
sequence. So there so that there are some
train details right even before that and the idea and I don't
even know what happens in that movie.
But so like, you're going into these movies to be like, yeah,
give me like, chaos, you know, like, give me chaos in all
levels so that I'm like, not an issue with.
(13:39):
We could set up like, yeah, thisperson who has nothing, like,
you know, like, I think she's bankrolled by this family.
Like, she asked for two crores flying off and she just ends up
in this country and like, yeah, I'm gonna do like, save the day.
Yeah, yeah. Like she's going to go
overboard. Yeah.
What did you think of her performance, which is very
different to say the performanceis around her?
(14:02):
I think that's like deliberate, right, in a way.
Like that part is probably the one part that it's closest to
those, I would say Hong Kong friends is that you have those.
You know, normally it's a male character in those movies.
It was like this does an immort just does his business?
Like that's how the movie starts, right?
We see he meets Satya and his business suit at her wedding.
She gets the job done. She doesn't like and then we
(14:23):
find out that she's family, likeconsidered a family and she's
behaving full professionally. So this is the character, right?
Like she's that version of that person who like comes in you,
you call her when you need to like things done and she will
get things done. So I think that deliberateness
and she conveys it properly, like the entire and we like
there is again, like my complaint is that if you don't
allow that symptomality here andthat then she doesn't have to
(14:45):
break characterful moments. But in a way it's a stretch.
Like I can understand like why she's feeling that way.
What they like. She's almost like you'd take
like a wet cloth and you like, you know, spin it up like with
your hands twisted becomes a little like that.
And those moments were otherwisefor like the bulk of it, for
like 80% of it. It's very good.
Yeah, it is very good. I thought she was because she is
(15:08):
like, like physically you wouldn't think of her as like a
action hero. But then.
They don't, they don't also put her in those situations.
I was like surprised. I was like, would they do like a
full stand double thing and justlike show us?
But like I think she gets like only like 2 action sequences.
She gets 2 action sequences, butat no point do you doubt that
this person could kick your ass.You know, which is a very
(15:31):
strange thing because she's a slight person, but just through
the performance. And I'm also talking about the
physical performance, right? Which like you just mentioned
that that trolley a moment and then then moment where where
she's with the that Dojo people like The Karate Kid situation
where she doesn't like she she kind of stands her ground.
(15:54):
And those moments are they do somuch like she doesn't lift a
finger. But then you understand this
person also like, oh, she's formidable.
And then when you introduce likethe Manoj Baba character, which
is so much fun. Well.
Comic Relief person for the movie.
Yeah, and it feels like the sensibilities in that moment are
(16:15):
so like, you know, like Rashad and everything.
But that's what we want. You know, people who grew up in
the 90s or 2000s kind of works on that level as well.
You know it kind. It's kind of weirdly not statue
for making stuff. Yeah, like I remember, I think
the cutest more between them is like towards the end of the
(16:38):
standing outside, you know, they're about to like Ram.
The present has like the genitals are not failed.
And she goes to him and she's like hello Bhatia Sir, hello,
Bhatia Sir. And I'm like, what's her?
What is she trying to do when and she like she wants his
blessing And I'm like what? This character was seen for like
120 minutes wants an elder in his blessing.
Like that would have not like gone to my head.
Yeah, but it's it's full, like it's a choice, right?
(17:02):
And which is what I was impressed with the whole time.
Maybe he dies. I was sad.
Like I was like, oh, no, Bhatia,Sir.
Yeah, for a minute. I thought they were gonna kill
like Satya herself on the rooftop because like when you're
running at 4 characters like Trinity style in the matrix, I'm
like how can no one get one bullet in them?
(17:24):
Which like. That is the genius what I was
talking about, right? Because you've kind of been sold
that Satya is this formidable, like unshakable force of nature,
right? Nothing will kind of get in her
way. And it's during that rooftop, a
gunfight, when you actually begin to wonder for the first
(17:46):
time, who is she going to die, right?
Which is deliberate because thenduring the boat chase, they
fully set it up as if you're theguy.
And that's when I kind of realized what this movie has
achieved, right? Because by setting up the
possible death of Satya during those last 1520 minutes, it has
(18:07):
shown to me how much I care about her, right?
It's kind of making you feel that, oh, I don't want her to
die because I've gone on this journey with this person who has
this one mission and through some kind of film making magic,
I have got like grown to care for her and definitely,
(18:28):
definitely want you to care for her in that moment because she's
about to die. And if I suppose you, you, if
that works for you, then then it's kind of successful on an
emotional level. And that is the most important
thing for any movie, right, If you care about the characters.
And I thought about that now like, yeah, works it's and I
think done what it wants, yeah. We do make it work because of,
(18:49):
like, what you sent before, right?
That's also like the time, the references to their childhood,
like, yeah, they really, like, evoke that.
Like, you know, they'll cut to like the young versions of Satya
and Unconsumni and then you'll be like, Oh yeah, like, you
know, inside, like we all have that like version of ourselves.
Like it's not like we grow up like 3040 lbs, just that person.
No, we have 25 year old insiders.
(19:10):
We have 15 year old insiders. We are talking.
So depending on who we are interacting with, that
personality sort of comes out. Which is why when she is in the
prison in that rear sort of sequence where like, I think you
attach the camera to Alia Bhatt's body, she briefly turns
into that little girl right in the prison, MD.
And she's for a moment, she's not Satya like the powerful,
(19:33):
like woman anymore. She's actually like, scared.
Yeah, because nobody has been around to protect her.
Her and her job, the entire however long she's lived mostly
is to protect the brother and the move and.
Take on the rule of both the bears, Right?
Like, felt like they lost the mother.
Yeah. Like, I'm guessing in someone's
boat, essentially, that's what it's implied like, And then the
(19:55):
dad leaves them. I'm guessing they're both 10 or
under. So since then it has been like
her as the sister, as the mother, as the father, like it's
everything. Yeah, yeah.
And that's what that's exactly what worked in the movie for me,
that sentimentality and just that how you can rely on
literally exactly one thing, right.
(20:15):
It's it's a very like expansive movie.
It's long also, it's got so manythings happening.
But then the core is just singular, right?
It's very, very lean in that way.
Like it keeps it turning to thatone moment of drama, right?
Which is, oddly enough, like Queen's Gambit.
(20:35):
I don't know if you remember, but they kept throughout that
journey of that character, she kept having flashbacks of the
moment where her mother essentially ran her car into a
truck and with the intention of killing not only herself but
also her. Right.
(20:56):
Similarly, it's just that one moment that kind of flips and
kind of establishes who you are going to be as a person.
And then the kind of understandsthat.
Yeah, that's. Why it's true for us to like,
you know, like you need to like,loop that thread and close it.
Which is why, like, if you don'treturn in the end to this
cobwebbed house, like, which tells you that they've never
(21:17):
stepped foot since that moment there, that like, encapsulates
that. Like, yeah, it's all good.
Like finally the journey is likedone Now they can come here and
heal. Yeah, it's so good.
I really liked it. You know, it's just wish they
would take out the mainstream Bollywoodness of it.
I would have loved it more. But then the ending is
mainstream Bollywood and they returned to the.
(21:37):
That's something I'm saying every the visuals can work
without the oral. Mistakes possibly.
I like the, the, the, the music motif and everything.
The same song plays everything. It's weird.
Like if you're going to feed me like mainstream Bollywood, this
is kind of the dish dish here. To do it.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, fair, right.
(21:59):
And then wrap it up. Yeah.
OK, that's on for this episode of The Long Take.
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review when episode and we will see you next week.
Thanks for listening.
Hi. And I'm Rohan Nahar.
Welcome to the Long Deck. This week we're discussing the
new on about movie Gira, which is now on Netflix after a
theatrical. It's directed by Vasin Bhala,
the director behind Madhu, DhaniOTA and Manika.
Oh my darling, you know movies. Yeah.
Why do you wake up this one now?I loved it, people hated it.
It was on those divisive movies,so I thought it'll be
interesting to discuss. Yeah, I'm not sure I'm the hate
(00:38):
category. I'm probably somewhere in the
middle, like I think I was like 5 or 610.
No, yeah, I I, I was, like, impressed, like, very, very
impressed with most of the things that this movie kind of
got away with. It's time to do, like, so many
things. Yet it has, like, a voice, but
it's also, you know, it like, giving you the beats that you
(01:02):
expected to. And it isn't kind of afraid to
be sentimental when it needs to,you know, which is something
that you might expect from like,a filmmaker with more of a
identity than, you know, like any random person that we kind
of talk about usually on the broadcast.
Yeah, that actually when I feel like that sentimentality
(01:24):
sometimes actually like became acontention, like show contention
for me. Because you know, like as there
are like references to all thesesort of action movies, Hong Kong
and cinema, anime, other stuff like that.
Either through like scenes and like like you know she's
watching her movie or like through the costumes or
whatever, like T-shirts being given to their alibis character.
(01:45):
And there is like a hint that that will play into like this
movies action, but that doesn't really never on that level of
like those movies or even thoughthe setting is like primed for
it with the whole like sound nice, right, East Asian thing.
So I am like, I'm like, I'm all for this.
Like, you know, heisty, like youare two blondes, like going
bonkers. People trying to like come up
(02:05):
with like new stuff on the go, like full like gun go, whatever.
But I got sensibility of like, you know where they record of
immediately, like the one scene they'll be like, Oh yeah, this
is like insane things that are happening.
And then OK, beach where some like very like Arijit Singh type
like voice will coming and then some song will play.
I'm like, why, why, why is this?Why does it feel like one
director has sat with one producer and said this was like,
(02:27):
you know, don't do you think youdo you think this will work
here? In fact, that's what I enjoyed
the most about the movie. And the prime example for that
is the rooftop kind of chase situation at the end where he
does a lot of stylistic stuff. There's there's like that, that
very memorable sort of slow motion short where they jump
(02:48):
across the roof, all of them. And it's like, it's like lit
like some crouching tiger hiddendragon thing.
And it, and the song that's playing in the background is the
full like, you know, like by BenMalagana and it's and and yeah,
it works. For some reason.
You watch that hyper stylistic short, which is like, it isn't
(03:13):
real, right? There's no realism happening
right there. And the song kind of pushes it
further into this realm of high,like, highly cinematic kind of
moment. But it's like this melding of,
you know, classier filmmaking with this mainstream Bollywood
stuff that is almost always donepoorly.
(03:34):
So in fact, that's what I enjoyed the most about.
It Right. Interesting.
Yeah, because that's for like, Imean, everybody mentioned that
it took away from me. I was like, I'm enjoying this
moment and now you've like plastered on this like
soundtrack or whatever and you like to take instead of letting
leave in that moment, you're like me, like let me make you
feel this moment to like the soundtrack instead of just being
(03:54):
with the characters. No, but that is the primary kind
of focus of the movie, right? The plot might be here or there
and the characters might be in the in case of, you know, the
villain and even what's his name, Manoj Pawar.
They're a little over the top. But but the movie kind of keeps
returning to this emotional core, right?
Which is necessary because a lotof the time it kind of asks you
(04:17):
to just hang in there when she says that you don't have bacha
Dungi and you're just supposed to take her word for it because
we have no idea. Like, is she like some commando?
Is she special? What is the back story?
We don't know, but we're just supposed to believe her, right?
And she says it in a way her brother is supposed to believe
her. Keep Usna Baldi.
I thought it must be true. And and because the movie keeps
(04:40):
returning to that emotional code, because the movie keeps
returning to that suicide moment, right?
And how it kind of at the perfect moment kind of brings
those up. Like I was really impressed with
how this film is edited also. Like it it knows how to cut to
emotion and to kind of do that again at the end, that motif
almost on the board. It really works because then it
(05:03):
flips it, right? Because she's been protecting
him. And what I really enjoyed was
that, oh, now like, she needs tobe protected, right.
And we've sort of developed thisconnection with this character
based on nothing, no information.
Yeah. But there is a connection that
you developed for Satya, right? And that's partially down to
just the filmmaking of it and ofcourse down to the performance
(05:23):
of it, right, Which is like veryrained in if you consider the
the the flashy kind of movie around her.
Yeah. And I'm, I feel like I'm all for
like, you know, the way they areputting those like, touches to
like, Oh yeah, there's the family history and all of that.
And I felt it could still have worked without having this like,
additional level of, like, melodra on top of it to the
(05:45):
sound. I mean, yeah, I feel like this
is a personal choice. That's how I prefer my films, I
guess. Very clearly it worked for you.
It actually worked for you more because of reducing.
Yeah, yeah, The movie worked forme more because of those
choices, right? Because I'm going and partially
conditioning, right? I'm going and expecting, I don't
know, a certain kind of movie, Isuppose, because the
(06:06):
sentimentality wasn't there in Monica or My Darling, for
example, right? But there was you could sense
the sentimentality, not on the surface, but you could sense the
sentimentality that he has for storytelling.
This is something he loves. Like that was palpable.
But here it's both. Like it's like a Dharma movie
plus, plus it's a Wasan Bala movie.
(06:28):
And I didn't know that such a thing could be possible.
And clearly, I mean, you were like, whatever.
Yeah, for me, I feel conflict inthe do as I mentioned, I think
that's what I keep coming back to is that I was like, no,
you're you're doing good in yourspace.
I feel like you don't need the Dharma of it to like make it
mainstream. You can do without it.
But again, I said, that's how I think I saw.
(06:49):
Yeah, I suppose I was. Yeah, I suppose I was kind of.
I I kind of bought into the world of the movie from the very
beginning because it doesn't start off as a stylistic
Vasanbala movie. It starts off as a Dharma movie,
right? It starts off with these two
characters and you kind of understand Kechaei and Kabon
hair. They're living in some foster
whatever relative's house and they they have each other's
(07:13):
backs, etcetera. We see them play basketball,
which is a good scene because itkind of tells you so much about
them. So that's how we enter their
lives, correct? Are you?
Scared the like scaredness and her like the fear right like she
knows that Kabir and the family are like not good for him and
she she's trying to be overprotective.
She's like, she's like coddled him, like stay in your room
(07:37):
almost like. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So it's a very like, highly likeDharma style kind of family
drama unfolding, right. Yeah, that was always a.
Kind of mother only at this point because they should they
never had any parents going out so.
I suppose if that's the entry point into the story, then
either you buy into it or you don't.
And then once it kind of becomesmore of a stylistic genre movie
(07:57):
after he gets arrested, etcetera, etcetera, and the
villain shows up and he's over the top.
He's very good by the way, the villain.
But I suppose people who don't like the movie would be like.
Yeah, I think that cartoon as a friendly you have to buy into I
think, which is like the movie sets it up I think fairly OK.
Like he like he really scale it up over like I think the two
hours they're like he starts offsort of normal of like, you
(08:19):
know, like I'm in good to cry bored and like I'll do the right
thing, you know, like I'm changing my gloves and all I'm
listening to you. I'll actually listen to the
rules saying haha, I bought intoyour you know, you read the rule
book thing and then he says massive like, you know,
exploration quickly, like name style.
He goes to like cartoon villa atthe end, like he almost dead
returns in the boat. Find dual guns like this is like
(08:40):
full like. Now it's fun right?
So if if see I can fully imaginewhen that moment happens that
he's supposed to be dead, but heshows up again and he's wielding
2 guns and firing like blindly at them and it's a boat chase.
I can fully understand a certainsection of the audience.
Like what the hell is this nonsense?
But that to me is like the essence of why this movie works.
(09:03):
It's just full. There's no like half measures
right in that moment because A, you're being a cartoon, B,
you're fully relying on the emotional investment that the
audience or you hope to have created for the audience at this
point. Because if you don't care about
Satya and the brother, then nothing is working in that
(09:24):
moment. So you I absolutely have to and
I think I really was, you know, and that's all down to just like
I said, you know, like there arethe choices that he makes.
The so-called interval of this movie is not like an action
scene, which it very easily could have been.
It's a flashback to their childhood.
And those are the kind of decisions that really left me
(09:44):
impressed. So you you want you really,
really are building towards a payoff at the end.
And it will only happen if you make these choices.
So I'm now looking forward to the payoff.
I think the other thing sort of I want to talk about is I feel
like it is like definitely over long.
So I mean like there are parts of it.
I just felt like like you could have trained and you don't need
(10:05):
to go in that direction. Like sure, like, you know, she's
trying to build do this like initial like legal route of
like, you know, I'll try to get my brother appealed and save
him. I'm just like, no, like when
she's going like you lose that momentum, right?
Because when they find out and then she's like, oh, like she's
the coach that my brother, he's there.
Because one of those, it's one of those necessary things,
right? Because I I there's an argument
(10:26):
to be made that, but it's up. Enough.
I think this fictional, I don't know Chinese mixed station
country whatever is that when she before she's even landed
there. I have a sense of that this
country is like cruel to everyone and doesn't really
care. It is care about like the book
and the opera by the book and they will not listen to
(10:47):
anything. So by showing us the whole legal
route and people like talking and a mix of like different
lawyers and like she opens everyand I'm like, I didn't learn
anything new. I thought.
I feel like I knew this country would not let you do this legal
route. And you have basically like
delayed the moment because when she's about to go on her flight,
I remember when that lawyer comes down the private jet and
she does this like move with herlike luggage towards him.
(11:10):
Yeah, that's actually there's like a this fighty spirit in her
right now, right. So she's just she's bubbling on
the surface. She's ready to like kill
everyone as to add brother, and you sort of deflate that moment
by landing in like this hunchy Dao and she going to like 7-8
different like offices. And I know it's jump into like
her first idea needs to be prison break and just like that
gives the movie like added like,you know, fire and like drive.
(11:31):
Yeah. And yeah, you could just insert
the the the bit about the legal route not working by like having
whatever the supporting character tell her that during
the. Yeah, because you already that
he's gaming the system, right? This is the only way to save.
He saved them before the justicemoment.
And even a court is a shamble, right?
It's like they're talking a different language.
(11:52):
Like they remind me of the moment where US have these
immigration courts where they round up people who come from
like Latin America and they don't even get a lawyer.
Judge talks in English. People don't know English who
are like the immigrants. They certainly like 3-4 year
old, like children don't know English.
Judge talks in English and just like, be like, huh, go back to
your country or like, deport or whatever, or like, go to like,
orphanage. And that reminded me of it, you
(12:14):
know? So you've shown that this
country is, like, bogus in this thing, right?
Like, they don't care really about justice.
It is not even giving him legal representation.
Who can talk in his language? It's like, yeah, let's just go
ahead with it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I understand.
I understand That could have been kind of altered a little
bit. Yeah.
But I remember watching, I watched it I think a couple of
days after the movie was released.
(12:35):
And by then people had already started complaining mostly.
And there was a lot of like, I don't buy this world type
complaints, you know, which is weird because it felt like
people were parroting each otherbecause some complaints, same
guys. So anyway, or everybody was kind
of saying I don't buy this world.
(12:56):
But then you're like, have you seen any like Bollywood movie?
Like, how do you buy that world?There OK, there like any like
sort of highest action movie, like even something as basic as
ocean 11 or like Extraction 2, which like this turns into at
the end, like those are hyper realistic, right?
You're not actually thinking that Chris Hansel is going into
some semi Eastern European prison and doing this nonsense
(13:18):
for 2-3 hours. Like you remember that movie?
They say, I think this they capture some like remote town
and they start throwing rockets at it or something in one
sequence. So there so that there are some
train details right even before that and the idea and I don't
even know what happens in that movie.
But so like, you're going into these movies to be like, yeah,
give me like, chaos, you know, like, give me chaos in all
levels so that I'm like, not an issue with.
(13:39):
We could set up like, yeah, thisperson who has nothing, like,
you know, like, I think she's bankrolled by this family.
Like, she asked for two crores flying off and she just ends up
in this country and like, yeah, I'm gonna do like, save the day.
Yeah, yeah. Like she's going to go
overboard. Yeah.
What did you think of her performance, which is very
different to say the performanceis around her?
(14:02):
I think that's like deliberate, right, in a way.
Like that part is probably the one part that it's closest to
those, I would say Hong Kong friends is that you have those.
You know, normally it's a male character in those movies.
It was like this does an immort just does his business?
Like that's how the movie starts, right?
We see he meets Satya and his business suit at her wedding.
She gets the job done. She doesn't like and then we
(14:23):
find out that she's family, likeconsidered a family and she's
behaving full professionally. So this is the character, right?
Like she's that version of that person who like comes in you,
you call her when you need to like things done and she will
get things done. So I think that deliberateness
and she conveys it properly, like the entire and we like
there is again, like my complaint is that if you don't
allow that symptomality here andthat then she doesn't have to
(14:45):
break characterful moments. But in a way it's a stretch.
Like I can understand like why she's feeling that way.
What they like. She's almost like you'd take
like a wet cloth and you like, you know, spin it up like with
your hands twisted becomes a little like that.
And those moments were otherwisefor like the bulk of it, for
like 80% of it. It's very good.
Yeah, it is very good. I thought she was because she is
(15:08):
like, like physically you wouldn't think of her as like a
action hero. But then.
They don't, they don't also put her in those situations.
I was like surprised. I was like, would they do like a
full stand double thing and justlike show us?
But like I think she gets like only like 2 action sequences.
She gets 2 action sequences, butat no point do you doubt that
this person could kick your ass.You know, which is a very
(15:31):
strange thing because she's a slight person, but just through
the performance. And I'm also talking about the
physical performance, right? Which like you just mentioned
that that trolley a moment and then then moment where where
she's with the that Dojo people like The Karate Kid situation
where she doesn't like she she kind of stands her ground.
(15:54):
And those moments are they do somuch like she doesn't lift a
finger. But then you understand this
person also like, oh, she's formidable.
And then when you introduce likethe Manoj Baba character, which
is so much fun. Well.
Comic Relief person for the movie.
Yeah, and it feels like the sensibilities in that moment are
(16:15):
so like, you know, like Rashad and everything.
But that's what we want. You know, people who grew up in
the 90s or 2000s kind of works on that level as well.
You know it kind. It's kind of weirdly not statue
for making stuff. Yeah, like I remember, I think
the cutest more between them is like towards the end of the
(16:38):
standing outside, you know, they're about to like Ram.
The present has like the genitals are not failed.
And she goes to him and she's like hello Bhatia Sir, hello,
Bhatia Sir. And I'm like, what's her?
What is she trying to do when and she like she wants his
blessing And I'm like what? This character was seen for like
120 minutes wants an elder in his blessing.
Like that would have not like gone to my head.
Yeah, but it's it's full, like it's a choice, right?
(17:02):
And which is what I was impressed with the whole time.
Maybe he dies. I was sad.
Like I was like, oh, no, Bhatia,Sir.
Yeah, for a minute. I thought they were gonna kill
like Satya herself on the rooftop because like when you're
running at 4 characters like Trinity style in the matrix, I'm
like how can no one get one bullet in them?
(17:24):
Which like. That is the genius what I was
talking about, right? Because you've kind of been sold
that Satya is this formidable, like unshakable force of nature,
right? Nothing will kind of get in her
way. And it's during that rooftop, a
gunfight, when you actually begin to wonder for the first
(17:46):
time, who is she going to die, right?
Which is deliberate because thenduring the boat chase, they
fully set it up as if you're theguy.
And that's when I kind of realized what this movie has
achieved, right? Because by setting up the
possible death of Satya during those last 1520 minutes, it has
(18:07):
shown to me how much I care about her, right?
It's kind of making you feel that, oh, I don't want her to
die because I've gone on this journey with this person who has
this one mission and through some kind of film making magic,
I have got like grown to care for her and definitely,
(18:28):
definitely want you to care for her in that moment because she's
about to die. And if I suppose you, you, if
that works for you, then then it's kind of successful on an
emotional level. And that is the most important
thing for any movie, right, If you care about the characters.
And I thought about that now like, yeah, works it's and I
think done what it wants, yeah. We do make it work because of,
(18:49):
like, what you sent before, right?
That's also like the time, the references to their childhood,
like, yeah, they really, like, evoke that.
Like, you know, they'll cut to like the young versions of Satya
and Unconsumni and then you'll be like, Oh yeah, like, you
know, inside, like we all have that like version of ourselves.
Like it's not like we grow up like 3040 lbs, just that person.
No, we have 25 year old insiders.
(19:10):
We have 15 year old insiders. We are talking.
So depending on who we are interacting with, that
personality sort of comes out. Which is why when she is in the
prison in that rear sort of sequence where like, I think you
attach the camera to Alia Bhatt's body, she briefly turns
into that little girl right in the prison, MD.
And she's for a moment, she's not Satya like the powerful,
(19:33):
like woman anymore. She's actually like, scared.
Yeah, because nobody has been around to protect her.
Her and her job, the entire however long she's lived mostly
is to protect the brother and the move and.
Take on the rule of both the bears, Right?
Like, felt like they lost the mother.
Yeah. Like, I'm guessing in someone's
boat, essentially, that's what it's implied like, And then the
(19:55):
dad leaves them. I'm guessing they're both 10 or
under. So since then it has been like
her as the sister, as the mother, as the father, like it's
everything. Yeah, yeah.
And that's what that's exactly what worked in the movie for me,
that sentimentality and just that how you can rely on
literally exactly one thing, right.
(20:15):
It's it's a very like expansive movie.
It's long also, it's got so manythings happening.
But then the core is just singular, right?
It's very, very lean in that way.
Like it keeps it turning to thatone moment of drama, right?
Which is, oddly enough, like Queen's Gambit.
(20:35):
I don't know if you remember, but they kept throughout that
journey of that character, she kept having flashbacks of the
moment where her mother essentially ran her car into a
truck and with the intention of killing not only herself but
also her. Right.
(20:56):
Similarly, it's just that one moment that kind of flips and
kind of establishes who you are going to be as a person.
And then the kind of understandsthat.
Yeah, that's. Why it's true for us to like,
you know, like you need to like,loop that thread and close it.
Which is why, like, if you don'treturn in the end to this
cobwebbed house, like, which tells you that they've never
(21:17):
stepped foot since that moment there, that like, encapsulates
that. Like, yeah, it's all good.
Like finally the journey is likedone Now they can come here and
heal. Yeah, it's so good.
I really liked it. You know, it's just wish they
would take out the mainstream Bollywoodness of it.
I would have loved it more. But then the ending is
mainstream Bollywood and they returned to the.
(21:37):
That's something I'm saying every the visuals can work
without the oral. Mistakes possibly.
I like the, the, the, the music motif and everything.
The same song plays everything. It's weird.
Like if you're going to feed me like mainstream Bollywood, this
is kind of the dish dish here. To do it.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, fair, right.
(21:59):
And then wrap it up. Yeah.
OK, that's on for this episode of The Long Take.
You can follow us on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Threads
at the Long Take part. You can direct to us at the Long
takepart@gmail.com. Please leave us a rating and a
review when episode and we will see you next week.
Thanks for listening.
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