September 4, 2025 • 16 mins
Songs of Paradise is like a 1950s movie that has time-traveled to the present day.
We discuss the film’s old-fashioned narrative and undemanding themes, the chasm of quality between Saba Azad and Sheeba Chaddha’s performances, and the limited ambition of writer-director Danish Renzu.
Songs of Paradise could’ve worked as a metaphor for post-Independence Kashmir, but instead, it’s like a bedtime story for five-year-olds.
—
Hosted by Akhil Arora and Rohan Naahar, The Long Take is fully bootstrapped. Please consider donating if you enjoy our work.
The Long Take is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Gaana, JioSaavn, Overcast, Pandora, RadioPublic, iHeart Radio, YouTube Music, and wherever you get your podcasts.
Follow The Long Take on Instagram, Facebook, Threads, and YouTube. Write to us at thelongtakepod@gmail.com.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:16):
Hi, welcome. And I'm.
Welcome to the long take. This week we're discussing the
new Amazon Prime Video movie Songs of Paradise, which stars
Saba Azad in the lead as a basedon a real ethical like a
Kashmiri even thinker like breaking out and and discuss me.
And it was directed by a little lone filmmaker called Danish
Anzu. Yeah, I have a couple of tiny
bit of complaints. I don't feel like I'm larger
(00:38):
than the movie is almost like too inoffensive for me.
What do you think of it all? Yeah, yeah.
It's not. It's sort of movie that, you
know, it's just feels like a wasted opportunity because there
is a story in there, but it's sort of written like it's
written for like 5 year olds like there is.
Yeah. Like.
It's just like, it's like it doesn't have a look of voice.
It's just like, yeah, I'm like, OK, what is it, a Wikipedia
(01:00):
article? It is a Wikipedia article.
It's a very boring, like plain sort of.
There is no interest in any sortof complexity of character or
any sort of challenge that you wouldn't normally expect to see.
Yeah. It's.
Too like. Fist level, like, you know,
there's no like friction, there's no like grey likeness in
characters or there's no like struggle within.
(01:21):
It's like, OK, like the story expect from like, you know, the
bare bones of a music biopic. And then she went through it and
movie over and I'm like, OK. Yeah, it's very strange because
if you were to read this, you know, without all the actual
singing or the visuals or the performances, if you were to
read this, you'd be like, absolutely not.
(01:43):
This is not getting produced. You know, it's not even, like,
it's not even, you're right. It doesn't have a voice.
It's not something that you would get angry at or it's not
something that you would praise.It's just, it exists.
It feels like a document that somebody came up with prior to
writing a script, you know. Yeah, Very strange.
Very, very, very strange. Because there is a big
(02:03):
disconnect in in what I felt like writing and the direction.
Like if there if this was a silent movie, it would have been
better. Yeah.
Oddly enough, I don't know how to explain that.
Like you have the songs, I suppose.
But then if you, if these peoplewere not to communicate at all
and just communicate through, you know, silent looks, it would
be, it would be a much better movie.
(02:25):
Maybe. Maybe they needed some another
writer to come in and, you know,just Polish the script.
Yeah, because they take this like window through like the
older Noor Begum being visited by like a young person who's
like really passionate, which wefeels like a stand in for the
director writer once you read about him.
And I was like, he is looking atthe story and he's like put
himself into the story, you know.
(02:46):
But like they don't do anything interesting with that like legs,
right? Like most of the movie exist in
the flashback, whatever to so tosay.
And they are in that flashback aso long at some like length that
I forgot that they were in the story through the lens of the
older Noor Beckham. Yeah, yeah, it's always.
Being really come back and I'm like, oh, wow, OK.
(03:07):
Like this person was in the movie, like this youngster who
was trying to write his thesis and I'm like, OK, why is he
still around there? What is he, what is what is
that? Why are they even showing the
scenes? Because those scenes contribute
absolutely nothing in the movie.They could have, you know, it
could have been like Titanic sort of situation.
Yeah, but I think or could I? Use it to like comment on like
how you know what Kashmiri musicplays has changed, like in I
(03:29):
don't know if it's more and morethe world because even that is
slightly feels older, but whatever the age that is, use
that to comment on like, you know, OK, sure, like do become
performed and this is decade we're looking at from this
decade like how it is whatever, but like no, there's nothing of
that. I mean, I don't really even care
about the music, right? Because it incidental to the
(03:50):
story. Like I honestly wanted to see
the older Nur Begum have some sort of depth.
Like there has to be a sense of a life lived, you know?
And a better actor would have probably elevated the writing
because the writing gives you nothing.
But it's not, it's not like the performance is kind of doing the
(04:11):
heavy lifting either in in the modern day scenes.
Like she is very, very, very stilited in this movie.
Yeah, Sonila's done. And and there was an opportunity
there to be like, you know, there is a sense of loss.
There is a sense of like sadness, being alone, you know,
being all over. Like having lived a life where
like she's lost most of her work, right, like that is
(04:33):
communicated as a kush twist at the end and not like
foreshadowed in any way. Like you could have
communicated, as you said, like,you know, you could have talked,
told her expressions. You could have felt like, oh,
there is something that happened, like dark Oh, this
work. But you don't feel that until we
see that scene like, oh, OK, this to her.
I don't think the movie. Is capable also of that it is
aware obviously that something bad happened to her.
(04:54):
But in the initial scenes when we meet her first, she comes
across as this bitter woman, right?
And almost like those entitled celebrities.
And I don't think that that is agreat I mean, even if that is
true, I don't think that's a great way to introduce a
character like this. Obviously we learned later on
(05:14):
isn't actually an entitled celebrity.
So why? Was this for like you wonder?
You want the audience to be endeared to her and you're
giving us nothing to begin with?Like maybe instead of starting
with the older one, maybe you should just jump into the
younger one, show her struggles and then show like the older
one. Then by then the people would
have locked down to her. Yeah, exactly.
I mean, you do. You don't need to frame it like
(05:34):
Titanic at all. Yeah, because in in Titanic,
when we meet rose roses like this, immediately you can tell
that this person has an incredible story and this person
is feeling this lifelong sense of, you know, sadness and
whatever. And and then we see the movie
and then we're like, Oh my God, yes, sure.
It's like you introduce me to somebody who's for no reason
(05:56):
being mean to a guy who's sayingthat met tomorrow final.
And then we cut to an entirely different person.
Yeah, there is no similarity between the older and the
younger version. And I'm not even talking about
the performance. That's a separate issue.
Yeah, I thought, I don't know ifyou agree, but I thought that
Saba Azad was like very spiking in.
Like she was miles above and ahead of what the movie is like.
(06:22):
She deserves a better movie around her.
Yeah. Yeah, that's.
Obvious from like I think the first scene she has with the
Master G and I'm more like, I'm like, like I'm waiting.
I'm like, how could she like give her more, give her more
like, you know, it's coming. The sea is over.
I'm like, no, why is she no more?
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, she's, she's doing
so much extra work here because the lines are terrible, the
(06:44):
beans are so flat, but she's doing so much extra work, right.
She's There is like, the sense of naivety and innocence and
also this kind of silent rebellion and courage and all of
those things are very difficult to kind of, you know,
communicate, especially when youhave, like, such a flat script.
Yeah. And worse, actors would have
gotten lost in the accent like that.
(07:06):
The performance would have been only the accent.
But here it feels like a real person.
Like it feels like such a real person when she's playing the
character. Too bad she's stuck in a movie
that was do anything for her. It does nothing inside
sabotaging the performance right.
But if you're if you're going toput her in scenes where she's
like mujibi equal pager here naenae mujibi credit dilwana hai.
(07:29):
And it's so basic like that's not.
Over 20 seconds. 20 seconds. Those scenes need to be like,
you know, like the big chapter, like bookend of your stories.
Yeah, this is what led her to like fight for this.
Those are presented like as and I'm like, wait, what?
No, no one second. Hold on.
Plus, it's all like they see biopic probes, right?
(07:51):
Where every scene has to have a beginning, middle and end and
it's like a string of short films kind of stitched together.
And doesn't have that like you're you're giving her like,
you know, the velour is almost like patriarchy.
There's no like person, right? It's almost like everyone around
her is almost like, and because we don't really know anyone.
So that antagonism just feels like, in a way, like, I don't
know, transparent. Like it's just like it's coming
(08:13):
from the general crowd around her.
It's not, yeah, it's sort of on a figure.
So I'm just like, OK, it's just the vault like that doesn't.
Even when it is no, even when itis a figure which is the radio
person and, and, or even the mother, it feels like just
similar to how the main character is also underwritten,
those people are also underwritten because the mother.
(08:35):
I got really one note, like she just literally has one scene.
She has one. She shout a lot and the entire
movie she does something else. Yeah, I mean, at least tell me.
At least try to tell me that themother has is just being
protective, right? She knows what the world.
Is like show that the mother is a product of a society where the
people environment around her. You know, like give me one scene
where Shiva dies with her by herself sitting around with
(08:59):
like, you know, other aunties ofthat area and what kind of talk
they have and what kind of, you know, level they live at.
Like this is this is they're a by product of the environment,
you know, like they're this is the world they're in.
But nay, it's just like she's always present around Noor
Bigger Aziba, and because of that she's always the witness
figure in that. Scene.
It's like a, like I said, no, it's like it's meant for five
(09:20):
year olds. This is what a bedtime story
would be like when you were, youknow, a child.
That's the issue. It's like written as like a
storybook. And here is the evil stepmother,
and she's yelling and the nice father comes.
Who is the first of them all? Yeah.
I mean, but but see The thing isthat those scenes with her and
her father, they're good. Make the entire movie about I
(09:41):
don't care about Ghana every twominutes.
This person, she has been written is an idea, right?
Is not a human being. Yeah.
And there is a version of this movie that can be made in which
she is an idea and she is a stand in for Kashmir.
And I thought about it, yeah. But I don't think this movie is
smart enough to. Yeah, it's not operating on that
(10:02):
level for a brief second when that because I don't don't
really foreshadow it in the first time like blasting or
whatever thing I found out here when they're sitting in the
cafe. And I thought that the filing
movies are about to introduce like, terrorism into the buoy
and like, Oh my God, we want to get to our political only.
But like it's, it leaves the audience to kind of fill in the
make it leaves, it leaves us to kind of derive more meaning out
(10:26):
of it because it is operating onsuch a flat level.
So you're, you're struggling to kind of be like, is this why I'm
watching the movie? Is there a, is there a better
reason for me to be watching this other than we already know
that she's kind of successful because she was very well known
because you introduced an older version of her first.
(10:46):
So we know. That so why?
Are we watching the story, the struggles?
Obviously she has overcome to a degree.
The set back, we don't realize until very late in the movie.
So the dramatic kind of tension of those scenes is just there is
nothing in there. There is no air.
So then when you start looking for like a metaphorical kind of
(11:07):
meaning in this movie, which is like, oh, so there's Kashmir
azadi kebab, there was a sense of optimism, etcetera, etcetera.
And things went from back worse than terrorism began.
Everything got destroyed. She got stuck.
She's no longer the person she used to be.
There was so much life in her. There's so much life in this
(11:28):
region and it's all been taken away.
None of it works. That's all you doing?
So I don't. Yeah.
I don't understand. It's such a, it looks like such
a nice movie, right? It's like it shot so nicely,
like all those interiors and everything.
And there is a patience to it, like it's not hurrying through
things. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That I'm preference. Like there are like scenes where
you just like, oh, 'cause you'rejust looking out the window.
(11:50):
The counters are staying on her.They're not like rushed to the
next scene, but then when the next scene comes, you're like,
oh, of the Absalom is Bobby. Yeah, this it, it begs to be
rewritten and re redone with the, I mean, you, this guy
Danish, I don't know who, if he's done anything, if I've seen
anything before of his, but he, he should be directing other
(12:14):
people's screenplays, not his own.
Yeah. Yeah, that's one of the
situations where like, yeah, he needs to like, let a little
control go and be like, no, OK, that work is great, let me do
that instead of like, because he's very attached to this stuff
because he's himself from Kashmir.
So like he became a director, I think, for the story from like
the writing angle of it. He's like, no, this story, no
one's telling it. I won't tell this story.
(12:35):
I have to tell the story. I'll become the writer also.
I'll come to that also. But then it's like a case of, as
you said, Tech doesn't have all those skills.
He has some of those. Skills.
He might have just discovered a skill that he does not have,
which is like. Yeah, I know how it works like
what I've read. Or like.
And excel people and world, but I know that they came late into
the production, like after the movie was done or something from
(12:56):
what I know. Damn.
So I don't know who was doing quality control before that or
he was big being short. This isn't like a Amazon
production. No, because there's no MGM.
No, it's a yeah. It's basically like it was made.
I would say. I think it was shown somewhere.
Excel people show it. They were like, OK, you like it.
And they're like, we have an existing relationship with,
(13:18):
guess what, Amazon, so we can take it.
There very strange. I don't know.
It's on paper it's a very bad movie, but I suppose because it
it's an unusual movie, so you kind of develop a soft corner
for it while you're watching it.Unusual in the sense, not in
(13:38):
terms of the story, but just unusual because we don't really
see movies like this. Yeah.
We don't get these movies anymore.
Yeah, yeah. I don't know.
It's kind of old fashioned, I guess this, if this were to be a
black and white movie in the 1950s, you could, it could exist
exactly like it is right now andit would not be kind of, it'd be
fine, you know? But that's completely by
(14:01):
accident. Like they're not trying to mimic
the 1950s. Yeah, or maybe like just push it
further and like make it 4 white, 3 black and white and
just like do title cards. My way ballroom.
Audio. That's the only way to save it
do. Just do instrumental, just like
instrumental stuff plays now andthen when you want to convey the
a song and the teams to all the songs.
Now I just do title cards like one one line word comes on
(14:24):
screen. Make it a silent question mark,
make it a silent movie and remove the bookends because Saba
Azad's face can can get away with it.
Like she can communicate enough.Whereas the other stuff which is
a lot of talkie, talkie, talkie,which we don't really
appreciate, like boring. Yeah, like, like you do like,
you know, physical, like gestures and like, be sure if
(14:45):
she's angry in like a Charlie Chaplin or whatever.
She was. She does frequently.
I don't know. For some reason I feel that
whenever she comes in a movie, she's angry.
Maybe that's just my impression.But it causes emotion now.
Yeah, but it's like so a you're going to be playing mothers.
I know that she played them in What's that movie?
(15:06):
Shubh Bangal Sada Sadan. But I.
But I don't. That one of those where she was
the nice mom, the understanding mom, but even then I just
remember her being so fierce, like she had a Shefalisha issue
where the resting face is just so angry.
I'm like what? They're like, we will cast you
as the person who will be angry or something.
Yeah, and it doesn't help when you don't like you just that's
(15:31):
not, that's the performance where the accent overpowers
everything because you're not looking for the.
Nuance. Oh God.
Whereas Saba Azaz is doing different things with her
accent. She was just doing the accent.
I was like, Oh my God, do something else.
Please find another dimension tothis person.
One more damage. How is?
(15:51):
She like invent the dimension and nothing is given to her.
To Corona Tamara Kamke to read lines.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's the thing.
You're an actor. But.
Yeah, with a back story. A very, very forgettable movie.
Maybe this guy yeah, yeah. Does something next, which is
amazing, but like, but now get a, get a, right?
(16:13):
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Don't repeat this mistake. Yeah, OK, Well that's all for
this episode of The Long Tech. You can find us on Facebook,
Instagram threads and YouTube atthe Long Tech Pod.
You can write to us at the Long techpod@gmail.com.
Please use a rating and review various episode and we will see
our speak. Thanks for listening.
Hi, welcome. And I'm.
Welcome to the long take. This week we're discussing the
new Amazon Prime Video movie Songs of Paradise, which stars
Saba Azad in the lead as a basedon a real ethical like a
Kashmiri even thinker like breaking out and and discuss me.
And it was directed by a little lone filmmaker called Danish
Anzu. Yeah, I have a couple of tiny
bit of complaints. I don't feel like I'm larger
(00:38):
than the movie is almost like too inoffensive for me.
What do you think of it all? Yeah, yeah.
It's not. It's sort of movie that, you
know, it's just feels like a wasted opportunity because there
is a story in there, but it's sort of written like it's
written for like 5 year olds like there is.
Yeah. Like.
It's just like, it's like it doesn't have a look of voice.
It's just like, yeah, I'm like, OK, what is it, a Wikipedia
(01:00):
article? It is a Wikipedia article.
It's a very boring, like plain sort of.
There is no interest in any sortof complexity of character or
any sort of challenge that you wouldn't normally expect to see.
Yeah. It's.
Too like. Fist level, like, you know,
there's no like friction, there's no like grey likeness in
characters or there's no like struggle within.
(01:21):
It's like, OK, like the story expect from like, you know, the
bare bones of a music biopic. And then she went through it and
movie over and I'm like, OK. Yeah, it's very strange because
if you were to read this, you know, without all the actual
singing or the visuals or the performances, if you were to
read this, you'd be like, absolutely not.
(01:43):
This is not getting produced. You know, it's not even, like,
it's not even, you're right. It doesn't have a voice.
It's not something that you would get angry at or it's not
something that you would praise.It's just, it exists.
It feels like a document that somebody came up with prior to
writing a script, you know. Yeah, Very strange.
Very, very, very strange. Because there is a big
(02:03):
disconnect in in what I felt like writing and the direction.
Like if there if this was a silent movie, it would have been
better. Yeah.
Oddly enough, I don't know how to explain that.
Like you have the songs, I suppose.
But then if you, if these peoplewere not to communicate at all
and just communicate through, you know, silent looks, it would
be, it would be a much better movie.
(02:25):
Maybe. Maybe they needed some another
writer to come in and, you know,just Polish the script.
Yeah, because they take this like window through like the
older Noor Begum being visited by like a young person who's
like really passionate, which wefeels like a stand in for the
director writer once you read about him.
And I was like, he is looking atthe story and he's like put
himself into the story, you know.
(02:46):
But like they don't do anything interesting with that like legs,
right? Like most of the movie exist in
the flashback, whatever to so tosay.
And they are in that flashback aso long at some like length that
I forgot that they were in the story through the lens of the
older Noor Beckham. Yeah, yeah, it's always.
Being really come back and I'm like, oh, wow, OK.
(03:07):
Like this person was in the movie, like this youngster who
was trying to write his thesis and I'm like, OK, why is he
still around there? What is he, what is what is
that? Why are they even showing the
scenes? Because those scenes contribute
absolutely nothing in the movie.They could have, you know, it
could have been like Titanic sort of situation.
Yeah, but I think or could I? Use it to like comment on like
how you know what Kashmiri musicplays has changed, like in I
(03:29):
don't know if it's more and morethe world because even that is
slightly feels older, but whatever the age that is, use
that to comment on like, you know, OK, sure, like do become
performed and this is decade we're looking at from this
decade like how it is whatever, but like no, there's nothing of
that. I mean, I don't really even care
about the music, right? Because it incidental to the
(03:50):
story. Like I honestly wanted to see
the older Nur Begum have some sort of depth.
Like there has to be a sense of a life lived, you know?
And a better actor would have probably elevated the writing
because the writing gives you nothing.
But it's not, it's not like the performance is kind of doing the
(04:11):
heavy lifting either in in the modern day scenes.
Like she is very, very, very stilited in this movie.
Yeah, Sonila's done. And and there was an opportunity
there to be like, you know, there is a sense of loss.
There is a sense of like sadness, being alone, you know,
being all over. Like having lived a life where
like she's lost most of her work, right, like that is
(04:33):
communicated as a kush twist at the end and not like
foreshadowed in any way. Like you could have
communicated, as you said, like,you know, you could have talked,
told her expressions. You could have felt like, oh,
there is something that happened, like dark Oh, this
work. But you don't feel that until we
see that scene like, oh, OK, this to her.
I don't think the movie. Is capable also of that it is
aware obviously that something bad happened to her.
(04:54):
But in the initial scenes when we meet her first, she comes
across as this bitter woman, right?
And almost like those entitled celebrities.
And I don't think that that is agreat I mean, even if that is
true, I don't think that's a great way to introduce a
character like this. Obviously we learned later on
(05:14):
isn't actually an entitled celebrity.
So why? Was this for like you wonder?
You want the audience to be endeared to her and you're
giving us nothing to begin with?Like maybe instead of starting
with the older one, maybe you should just jump into the
younger one, show her struggles and then show like the older
one. Then by then the people would
have locked down to her. Yeah, exactly.
I mean, you do. You don't need to frame it like
(05:34):
Titanic at all. Yeah, because in in Titanic,
when we meet rose roses like this, immediately you can tell
that this person has an incredible story and this person
is feeling this lifelong sense of, you know, sadness and
whatever. And and then we see the movie
and then we're like, Oh my God, yes, sure.
It's like you introduce me to somebody who's for no reason
(05:56):
being mean to a guy who's sayingthat met tomorrow final.
And then we cut to an entirely different person.
Yeah, there is no similarity between the older and the
younger version. And I'm not even talking about
the performance. That's a separate issue.
Yeah, I thought, I don't know ifyou agree, but I thought that
Saba Azad was like very spiking in.
Like she was miles above and ahead of what the movie is like.
(06:22):
She deserves a better movie around her.
Yeah. Yeah, that's.
Obvious from like I think the first scene she has with the
Master G and I'm more like, I'm like, like I'm waiting.
I'm like, how could she like give her more, give her more
like, you know, it's coming. The sea is over.
I'm like, no, why is she no more?
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, she's, she's doing
so much extra work here because the lines are terrible, the
(06:44):
beans are so flat, but she's doing so much extra work, right.
She's There is like, the sense of naivety and innocence and
also this kind of silent rebellion and courage and all of
those things are very difficult to kind of, you know,
communicate, especially when youhave, like, such a flat script.
Yeah. And worse, actors would have
gotten lost in the accent like that.
(07:06):
The performance would have been only the accent.
But here it feels like a real person.
Like it feels like such a real person when she's playing the
character. Too bad she's stuck in a movie
that was do anything for her. It does nothing inside
sabotaging the performance right.
But if you're if you're going toput her in scenes where she's
like mujibi equal pager here naenae mujibi credit dilwana hai.
(07:29):
And it's so basic like that's not.
Over 20 seconds. 20 seconds. Those scenes need to be like,
you know, like the big chapter, like bookend of your stories.
Yeah, this is what led her to like fight for this.
Those are presented like as and I'm like, wait, what?
No, no one second. Hold on.
Plus, it's all like they see biopic probes, right?
(07:51):
Where every scene has to have a beginning, middle and end and
it's like a string of short films kind of stitched together.
And doesn't have that like you're you're giving her like,
you know, the velour is almost like patriarchy.
There's no like person, right? It's almost like everyone around
her is almost like, and because we don't really know anyone.
So that antagonism just feels like, in a way, like, I don't
know, transparent. Like it's just like it's coming
(08:13):
from the general crowd around her.
It's not, yeah, it's sort of on a figure.
So I'm just like, OK, it's just the vault like that doesn't.
Even when it is no, even when itis a figure which is the radio
person and, and, or even the mother, it feels like just
similar to how the main character is also underwritten,
those people are also underwritten because the mother.
(08:35):
I got really one note, like she just literally has one scene.
She has one. She shout a lot and the entire
movie she does something else. Yeah, I mean, at least tell me.
At least try to tell me that themother has is just being
protective, right? She knows what the world.
Is like show that the mother is a product of a society where the
people environment around her. You know, like give me one scene
where Shiva dies with her by herself sitting around with
(08:59):
like, you know, other aunties ofthat area and what kind of talk
they have and what kind of, you know, level they live at.
Like this is this is they're a by product of the environment,
you know, like they're this is the world they're in.
But nay, it's just like she's always present around Noor
Bigger Aziba, and because of that she's always the witness
figure in that. Scene.
It's like a, like I said, no, it's like it's meant for five
(09:20):
year olds. This is what a bedtime story
would be like when you were, youknow, a child.
That's the issue. It's like written as like a
storybook. And here is the evil stepmother,
and she's yelling and the nice father comes.
Who is the first of them all? Yeah.
I mean, but but see The thing isthat those scenes with her and
her father, they're good. Make the entire movie about I
(09:41):
don't care about Ghana every twominutes.
This person, she has been written is an idea, right?
Is not a human being. Yeah.
And there is a version of this movie that can be made in which
she is an idea and she is a stand in for Kashmir.
And I thought about it, yeah. But I don't think this movie is
smart enough to. Yeah, it's not operating on that
(10:02):
level for a brief second when that because I don't don't
really foreshadow it in the first time like blasting or
whatever thing I found out here when they're sitting in the
cafe. And I thought that the filing
movies are about to introduce like, terrorism into the buoy
and like, Oh my God, we want to get to our political only.
But like it's, it leaves the audience to kind of fill in the
make it leaves, it leaves us to kind of derive more meaning out
(10:26):
of it because it is operating onsuch a flat level.
So you're, you're struggling to kind of be like, is this why I'm
watching the movie? Is there a, is there a better
reason for me to be watching this other than we already know
that she's kind of successful because she was very well known
because you introduced an older version of her first.
(10:46):
So we know. That so why?
Are we watching the story, the struggles?
Obviously she has overcome to a degree.
The set back, we don't realize until very late in the movie.
So the dramatic kind of tension of those scenes is just there is
nothing in there. There is no air.
So then when you start looking for like a metaphorical kind of
(11:07):
meaning in this movie, which is like, oh, so there's Kashmir
azadi kebab, there was a sense of optimism, etcetera, etcetera.
And things went from back worse than terrorism began.
Everything got destroyed. She got stuck.
She's no longer the person she used to be.
There was so much life in her. There's so much life in this
(11:28):
region and it's all been taken away.
None of it works. That's all you doing?
So I don't. Yeah.
I don't understand. It's such a, it looks like such
a nice movie, right? It's like it shot so nicely,
like all those interiors and everything.
And there is a patience to it, like it's not hurrying through
things. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That I'm preference. Like there are like scenes where
you just like, oh, 'cause you'rejust looking out the window.
(11:50):
The counters are staying on her.They're not like rushed to the
next scene, but then when the next scene comes, you're like,
oh, of the Absalom is Bobby. Yeah, this it, it begs to be
rewritten and re redone with the, I mean, you, this guy
Danish, I don't know who, if he's done anything, if I've seen
anything before of his, but he, he should be directing other
(12:14):
people's screenplays, not his own.
Yeah. Yeah, that's one of the
situations where like, yeah, he needs to like, let a little
control go and be like, no, OK, that work is great, let me do
that instead of like, because he's very attached to this stuff
because he's himself from Kashmir.
So like he became a director, I think, for the story from like
the writing angle of it. He's like, no, this story, no
one's telling it. I won't tell this story.
(12:35):
I have to tell the story. I'll become the writer also.
I'll come to that also. But then it's like a case of, as
you said, Tech doesn't have all those skills.
He has some of those. Skills.
He might have just discovered a skill that he does not have,
which is like. Yeah, I know how it works like
what I've read. Or like.
And excel people and world, but I know that they came late into
the production, like after the movie was done or something from
(12:56):
what I know. Damn.
So I don't know who was doing quality control before that or
he was big being short. This isn't like a Amazon
production. No, because there's no MGM.
No, it's a yeah. It's basically like it was made.
I would say. I think it was shown somewhere.
Excel people show it. They were like, OK, you like it.
And they're like, we have an existing relationship with,
(13:18):
guess what, Amazon, so we can take it.
There very strange. I don't know.
It's on paper it's a very bad movie, but I suppose because it
it's an unusual movie, so you kind of develop a soft corner
for it while you're watching it.Unusual in the sense, not in
(13:38):
terms of the story, but just unusual because we don't really
see movies like this. Yeah.
We don't get these movies anymore.
Yeah, yeah. I don't know.
It's kind of old fashioned, I guess this, if this were to be a
black and white movie in the 1950s, you could, it could exist
exactly like it is right now andit would not be kind of, it'd be
fine, you know? But that's completely by
(14:01):
accident. Like they're not trying to mimic
the 1950s. Yeah, or maybe like just push it
further and like make it 4 white, 3 black and white and
just like do title cards. My way ballroom.
Audio. That's the only way to save it
do. Just do instrumental, just like
instrumental stuff plays now andthen when you want to convey the
a song and the teams to all the songs.
Now I just do title cards like one one line word comes on
(14:24):
screen. Make it a silent question mark,
make it a silent movie and remove the bookends because Saba
Azad's face can can get away with it.
Like she can communicate enough.Whereas the other stuff which is
a lot of talkie, talkie, talkie,which we don't really
appreciate, like boring. Yeah, like, like you do like,
you know, physical, like gestures and like, be sure if
(14:45):
she's angry in like a Charlie Chaplin or whatever.
She was. She does frequently.
I don't know. For some reason I feel that
whenever she comes in a movie, she's angry.
Maybe that's just my impression.But it causes emotion now.
Yeah, but it's like so a you're going to be playing mothers.
I know that she played them in What's that movie?
(15:06):
Shubh Bangal Sada Sadan. But I.
But I don't. That one of those where she was
the nice mom, the understanding mom, but even then I just
remember her being so fierce, like she had a Shefalisha issue
where the resting face is just so angry.
I'm like what? They're like, we will cast you
as the person who will be angry or something.
Yeah, and it doesn't help when you don't like you just that's
(15:31):
not, that's the performance where the accent overpowers
everything because you're not looking for the.
Nuance. Oh God.
Whereas Saba Azaz is doing different things with her
accent. She was just doing the accent.
I was like, Oh my God, do something else.
Please find another dimension tothis person.
One more damage. How is?
(15:51):
She like invent the dimension and nothing is given to her.
To Corona Tamara Kamke to read lines.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's the thing.
You're an actor. But.
Yeah, with a back story. A very, very forgettable movie.
Maybe this guy yeah, yeah. Does something next, which is
amazing, but like, but now get a, get a, right?
(16:13):
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Don't repeat this mistake. Yeah, OK, Well that's all for
this episode of The Long Tech. You can find us on Facebook,
Instagram threads and YouTube atthe Long Tech Pod.
You can write to us at the Long techpod@gmail.com.
Please use a rating and review various episode and we will see
our speak. Thanks for listening.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!