While discussing LSD 2:

Abbas: This was the movie of our times.

Nainika: Maybe, if you can stomach the movie. It is NOT an easy watch.

Abbas: Ten minutes ago, you spoke about a movie where a woman gives birth to the anti-christ and THAT WAS FINE.

Nainika: That was easy because you know it’s not real.

This and a whole lot of awful and awesome as Nainika Rathore and Abbas Momin discuss the films LSD 2, Inside Out 2, and The First Omen. 

This episode is outside the paywall. Watch it, enjoy it, and subscribe to Newslaundry, so you can tune in every week.

Have something to say? Write to us at newslaundry.com/podcast-letters.

Timecodes

00:00 - Introductions

03:55 - Inside Out 2

12:18 - Announcement Newsable

13:00 - The First Omen

23:15 - Letter

25:16 - Announcement Kashmir ki Kahani 

25:32 - LSD 2

References

Subscribe to Newslaundry 

Newsable

How Newslaundry worked with its users to make its journalism more accessible

NL Store

Inside Out 2

The First Omen

LSD 2

Click here to download the Newslaundry app on Android. And here for iOS.

Produced and recorded by Shubang Gautam and edited by Samarendra K Dash.

355Audio

Sting: [00:00:00] This is a News Laundry Podcast, and you're listening to The Awful and Awesome Entertainment Rap.

Abbas Momin: Hello, 

hello, welcome to The Awful and Awesome Entertainment Rap, Episode 355. My name is Abbas. 

Nainika Rathore: And I'm Nainika. 

Abbas Momin: And when the guards are away, the inmates are away. is a line I haven't said in a long time. Yes. Because we haven't 

Nainika Rathore: recorded together in a long time. I'm back after like months. I don't know how long it's been, but I'm very happy to be back.

Abbas Momin: We skipped the entire election cycle. I did. I skipped the entire 

Nainika Rathore: election cycle. Yes. Uh, now I'm finally back. So if you miss me, please let me know. 

Abbas Momin: But before we move on Nainika, today we're going to talk about, uh, two films and, uh, actually three films. And, uh, I saw two of them and no, you saw one of them.

No, we both saw one and we, we both have seen it. Abbas, your numbers are a 

Nainika Rathore: bit off. I saw two of them and you [00:01:00] caught one in the theaters and one like on OTT. 

Abbas Momin: On OTT. Yes. But before we move into that, I just want to address, uh, the last episode that I did with, uh, certain allegations 

Nainika Rathore: that have been made against Abbas need to be addressed.

So 

Abbas Momin: not just me, actually equally to Rajshri also, but we reviewed Panchayat and neither of us were very. Positive on it. And I think what we did was both of us admitted, uh, did the mistake of admitting that we didn't see the show the whole way through. Okay. Rajshree was another level. Rajshree was like, I didn't even see season two.

I just straight away dug into season three, but the amount of, uh, criticism and mean comments that we have gotten for that, I think, I don't think I've gotten for any other episode of awful and awesome so far. So I can imagine. Uh, address it in like a, a short, a few minutes and then we can move on. So the major criticism that we got is that me and Rajshri are too elite to be, uh, to be reviewing a show like panchayat, which is set in a village because we don't, we the [00:02:00] Abbas, you are too 

Nainika Rathore: bougie.

You've been accused of being too bougie. So, 

Abbas Momin: well, so to my counter to that largely is that me being bougie should not stand Stop me from having an opinion about a show. And, uh, I said that I left after two episodes. Well, the show just wasn't good enough to keep me hooked for a third episode. What can I say?

So that is broadly my, uh, take on Punjab. So please keep the feedback coming, but I want to, I want to mention one comment, which was very funny. Somebody had written. about that particular episode that, uh, this show is a hidden gem, which should remain hidden. 

Nainika Rathore: It's not hidden by any means, but okay. Uh, sure.

Abbas Momin: So I thought that was very funny, but with that out of the way, uh, I'm sure actually we'll have more to say about it when she's on the show next, but, uh, today we're talking three films. We're talking about, uh, inside out two, which is the latest thing. Pixar outing, uh, which is a sequel to the first inside out film.

We'll be talking about, uh, a horror film called the first omen, which is a [00:03:00] prequel to the omen, which came out in 1969, if I'm not wrong, 76, 76. Okay. Our producer just corrected us. It came out in 1976. So after 20. or 38 years. Yeah. 70, 86, 96 to the after 38 years, uh, it's getting a prequel. Uh, so we'll talk about that and we'll be talking about the Dibakar Banerjee film LSD2, uh, which is love, sex or dhoka, which is also a sequel.

I just realized we're talking two sequels and one prequel and none of them are a Marvel movie. What a tragedy. Oh, I'm 

Nainika Rathore: fine. You know what, when we started the show and it was just like every week was me being tortured with one Marvel production after the other. And now they've finally gone quiet because they realize there are profit margins.

And I am so happy about it. So yeah, I mean, what more can I 

Abbas Momin: request the producer to bookmark Nainika and me for the Wolverine vs. Deadpool episode, which should be in 

Nainika Rathore: a few weeks. Don't 

Abbas Momin: do this to me. So let's start with the film that's in theaters right now, which is Inside Out 2. Um, uh, Nainika, I, [00:04:00] I am a big fan of Pixar, the studio, the animation studio, and I've seen Inside Out 1.

What is your relationship? Have you, do you remember any of the Pixar films that you've seen or which are close to your heart? 

Nainika Rathore: Was Monsters Inc. Pixar? 

Abbas Momin: Yes, Monsters Inc. was Pixar. Yeah, then I'd love that one. 

Nainika Rathore: Yes, I'd love that one. And I'm sure I've seen like, I've not seen Toy Story in its entirety for sure.

Uh, Monsters Inc. Any of them? There are four Toy Stories. Well, I haven't watched any of them in their entirety. So, well. Finding 

Abbas Momin: Nemo? 

Nainika Rathore: Yes, for sure. That one was a, that one's like a cult classic outside of the realms of like children's animation in general. So, Finding Nemo, of course. Yes. I haven't seen the sequel Finding Dory.

So, and I haven't seen Inside Out 1 or 2. So, when did Inside Out 1 come out, like the first one? 

Abbas Momin: Inside Out 1 came out, I think, 2018? 2018? 20 15 or 16. I think I 

Nainika Rathore: think I was in college by then and I back then I didn't watch as many movies So I definitely haven't watched I mean [00:05:00] definitely didn't make the trip to the theater to watch that one But I heard great reviews about it People spoke about it for the longest time as a very emotionally intense and beautiful movie even especially for children's entertainment so So I had high hopes from inside out too.

And also because I knew Io Adebire was playing like a important pivotal character in the movie, and I'm a huge fan of anything she does. So I knew she, I'm sure like the movie would have been good and her performance would have been good as well. 

Abbas Momin: So she's in this one, uh, Io Adebire is in Inside Out 2, she wasn't in one.

Okay. So very broadly for, uh, for the few people who might not know this, but Pixar's brand is, uh, that they make animated films for children. But they are very much aimed at adults also. And they make adults cry like babies, right? Like the, the montage from up, which is, uh, uh, which is this old man. Who gets married and they're about to have a baby and you have a miscarriage, and he passed.

The wife passes away, it's like one of the most viral clips of all time. So inside out one, I remember I saw it in the theaters back then. And for [00:06:00] me, that's top to your Pixar. I think that, uh, so in a nutshell, inside out is a, we get a view inside a young girl's mind. Uh, and. All the various emotions are characters.

So, um, so you have Amy Poehler who's playing joy, the emotion of joy, and then there's anger, there's disgust, there's fear, and there's sadness. So the, these five emotions kind of make up the, uh, the, they, they kind of show this idea where in her head, there is a control station and each emotion takes control.

And based off of that, this girl called Riley, Uh, makes her decisions. So the first movie in the first movie, Riley was about a preteen. She was, I think, a 10 or an 11 year old and her family has moved to a new place. So, um, like Pixar's imagination is just phenomenal. Like they, they deal with these things, like, uh, imaginary, imaginary friends, like children have imaginary friends.

And then why is it that when. We grow up, we [00:07:00] let go of the imaginary friend. So make, they make this whole backstory of this young elephant, uh, called Bing Bong, who makes the ultimate sacrifice and, uh, commit, commit suicide to make sure that the emotion of joy, uh, yes. In a children's 

Nainika Rathore: movie. 

Abbas Momin: In a children's movie.

So Bing Bong just does this one ultimate act of sacrifice and jumps in. I'm not sure whether we should 

Nainika Rathore: be making kids watch this stuff. Like, I know that's the first. I'm pretty, like, I'm pretty liberal when it comes to kids watching weird stuff. Like, my whole philosophy is you're taking, you can take a baby to watch anything, just hold her hand up over their eye for the weird stuff.

But even this is too much for me. 

Abbas Momin: So in the second movie, apart from the five emotions that we were introduced to in the first film, we also get introduced to, uh, anxiety, who is a big emotion in this one. We get anxiety. How old is this girl Riley 

Nainika Rathore: in this one? 

Abbas Momin: So now, now Riley is 13 years old. So that's the, that's the, 

Nainika Rathore: that's the, yes, 

Abbas Momin: yes.

Now that shows 

Nainika Rathore: up, 

Abbas Momin: [00:08:00] that's the film starts with these emotions going about their day. And suddenly there is a puberty alert that goes off and they don't know what this is supposed to do. And then suddenly you have these new emotions coming in. So you have anxiety, embarrassment. Uh, there's one more whose name I'm forgetting.

There's NUI, which is essentially this, uh, sarcasm, sarcastic. Bored of everything kind of a character. And they very cleverly give this character a French accent because being bored in French is in a French accent is so funny. Yeah, also because ennui 

Nainika Rathore: is a French 

Abbas Momin: word. Yes, and ennui is always on her phone all the time.

And 

Nainika Rathore: that is also very categorically teen emotion. Like that is when it gets introduced into your life. 

Abbas Momin: So, uh, so the film is like, like, Sort of divided into two narratives. We see what's happening in Riley's life, which is what's happened is she's gone to a summer camp for hockey players because she's, she's interested in hockey and she's kind of divided between going with the cool kids and staying with her old friends.

Right. So, and while [00:09:00] all this is happening, we go inside her head and we see See how the emotion of anxiety is trying to take control while joy, sadness, and these other, uh, old, old emotions are being pushed aside. So then they get sent away and they literally become bottled emotions. They are put in a bottle and they're put away in a bank, which is her memory bank.

Nainika Rathore: Okay. 

Abbas Momin: And then the rest of the film is about how joy and these original characters sort of, uh, they go to the, they go to the back of her mind quite literally, and they eke out the memories of her being a good person, which joy had inculcated in her as a child. And they try to bring it back while anxiety is taking control and the climax of the film.

And this is where Pixar. Like Excel. So well is a literal panic attack. This 13 year old girl is having a panic attack. And while she's having this, we see the literal, um, sort of struggle between anxiety and joy happening. So I'm giving a very simplistic version of what's [00:10:00] happening. When you see the film, I heard, uh, uh, the interview of, uh, of the director on a podcast.

And he said that he literally went through books written by, Uh, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung and all these philosophy majors, philosophy professors to kind of inculcate those little details in this. I love that. It is very, it is very, very well made. There's one particular sequence, which is very funny, where these emotions go to the back of Riley's head and she find, they find all these, Things that she has got, she had forgotten or gotten rid of.

So you will have her first video game character crush who is then animated like a video game character. Then there is a preteen, you know, like the Sesame street type of a character who's like, what kids, what are we playing today? You know, that kind of a character. So, uh, it's a very well paid film. Please watch it.

The animation style is phenomenal because it's Pixar. And I think Pixar needed this win because there, since the pandemic, they hadn't Uh, most of their stuff was going to, [00:11:00] uh, straight to Disney plus, but this one got a theatrical release and it's in theaters. It has done very well. It's got, I think 150 million opening and even the screening that I was, was full of kids and adults.

So it's doing relatively well. for 

Nainika Rathore: kids. I feel like kids should always have a theatrical experience. And I especially love the fact that, you know, the director was like, I researched so much and I feel like, you know, uh, like children's entertainment and children's art should be, I mean, it should be serious.

It should be just portrayed in a manner that is friendly to children, but I'm always like in complete support of children having an inner life, which, you know, I don't You know, which is allowed to be mature and allowed to have like a, you know, a strong voice, but it's also like friendly to children. So I'm happy.

And I hope, I mean, would you recommend it to parents who want to take their kids out for like the weekend? 

Abbas Momin: Oh, yes, absolutely. So that's the other thing that, uh, there are enough jokes peppered, which will make. Grownups laugh, but we'll be a little too, uh, like the kids will probably miss them. They're meant for the adults, but then there are enough jokes in there, which will make both the kids and [00:12:00] the adults laugh.

So I think, uh, there's, there's really good stuff in there. So, yeah. 

Nainika Rathore: So yeah, I guess Abbas recommends it. So take the kids in your family, your sons, daughters, nieces, nephews. 

Abbas Momin: Or go yourself. Another friend of mine was an adult 

Nainika Rathore: very much. Have fun at the movies. 

Abbas Momin: Okay. Before we move on, I have an announcement to make, which is about newsable.

We have a special announcement for you. The news laundry website and app are now accessible. Newsable is a set of features and system overhauls that make our website and app accessible to people with disabilities. The features include screen reader compatibility, voice search, transcripts. Color contrast settings, dyslexia mode, and a lot more.

Neiman lab has a story about our accessibility journey. So you can check that out as well. Uh, so that's something for you guys to check out in case you want to introduce the app and website to, uh, your friends who, uh, might have a disability. Uh, all right, cool. Let's move on to our next topic. So let's talk about the [00:13:00] first omen.

Uh, Danica, uh, I was a little surprised when you chose this one because I haven't I've seen you be very enthusiastic about horror before. Oh, I was actually, I was, 

Nainika Rathore: so yeah, I was actually going to get into that. Like, I'm not particularly super, super inclined towards horror movies. Cause I feel like I grew up on horror movies that were just like, like horror was B grade straight up.

Like you didn't even have to say B grade horror. You just kind of expected that it was a horror movie was going to be like a really, really bad production. What 

Abbas Momin: movies are you talking about? 

Nainika Rathore: It, I feel like what you're, um. Raaz and you're like, at least in Indian cinema, horror sort of has taken, you know, like a slightly lower rung when it comes to being like, it's not a prestige on a growing up.

And then, you know, uh, I think with the, I don't know when exactly, At least in my, like, recent memory, what I remember is, uh, when Get Out happened, uh, is when, you know, horror started being taken seriously as a prestige genre. It became something of like an awards [00:14:00] favorite. It became people realize that there is, you know, some density, there's some depth to it, which was missing for the longest time.

So now horror sort of taken a center stage of slightly better. I mean, we reviewed Nope in 2022, which I thought was one of like the most beautiful movies to come out of that year. Um, yeah. So, you know, so I decided to watch The First Home and I went into it completely unprompted. I wanted something to watch because we needed something to talk about.

And I was like, okay, I've been seeing some chatter about it. So I went into it completely blind. I'd seen like a few memes here and there, and people were talking about the movie here and there on social media. So I presume that if it's good enough to be talked about, then I'm sure it must not be completely blind.

Completely terrible. The movie is directed by Arkasha Stevenson and I think it's her first outing, uh, I think this is like her first time directing a feature film, I'm not sure exactly, but she has done such a. toning job of it. And again, I'm not opposed to horror as a genre, like I don't get squeamish because of things and I don't particularly even get scared easily.

So it's like, horror doesn't really tickle that spot [00:15:00] in my brain that I think it does for some people who go there for the thrill of seeing something scary. It doesn't particularly scare me. So I went into the movie expecting like, okay, if it is too gory, if it is too weird, maybe it won't be my style.

But turns out the movie is, I mean, it has gore. It's, um, It's not terrifying, but again, my, my threshold for fear is high, so I can't be the perfect judge of it. It doesn't have a lot of gore, it does have some gory scenes here and there peppered in, I think, um, you know, a statutory warning for that, I guess.

But the movie is so beautiful. Beautifully composed, like you can tell the people making it put a genuine effort into it. There are certain shots that just look so gorgeous on the screen that you can tell that, you know, every single shot was thought about by the director, by whoever was behind the camera to actually build something that makes for a coherent, beautiful narrative.

And you know, all this effort put into something that is essentially a prequel. Like, I think like the movie stand alone is also very, very good. It doesn't have to You know, borrow from the legacy [00:16:00] of it. I mean, the movie, of course, leads up to the birth of the Antichrist, which, uh, which 

Abbas Momin: spoiler alert for the first one.

If you haven't seen it 

Nainika Rathore: yet, if you haven't seen the first one, but I mean, it came out in 1976. So you could have gotten your act together. You had a lot of time, so let's be real. Uh, but I think the movie is beautifully composed. You cannot, uh, and I think the, sorry, not 

Abbas Momin: 38, it must be, I'm 36. I was born in 88.

Were you? Sorry, I'm getting my maths . 

Nainika Rathore: 40, 48 years. Christ. 40, 

Abbas Momin: 70. Oh my God. The seventies. I more than 40 years old. Sorry, I'm getting old. . 

Nainika Rathore: Well, that's a reality back brought to, back to the real 

Abbas Momin: horror of the Antichrist . 

Nainika Rathore: I thought the movie was beautifully composed, beautifully done. I think Tiger Nelfry is the name of the actress who plays the character of the Antichrist's mother and she's done such a beautiful job of it.

And there's the scene where she's finally, you know, like, Watch out. So they. 

Abbas Momin: So they show you the mother [00:17:00] in this one. 

Nainika Rathore: Yeah, that is the back story is how the mother comes to give birth to, um, so essentially that is the meat of the story that they, this is a nun and she realizes that, you know, there's like the church is breeding some sort of program to essentially bring the Antichrist into the world because they essentially think they'll be able to control the Antichrist.

Uh, so it's a story of how, you know, she figures out and then there's the scene where the mother is, you know, uh, giving birth. It's very intense. Like it's actually like, kind of like, Oppressive to watch in the sense that, uh, I mean, it's kind of supposed to be like a gory, but that's just any 

Abbas Momin: childbirth.

Sorry. 

Nainika Rathore: Yeah. Okay. I guess 

Abbas Momin: that is that an anti feminist? No, it's 

Nainika Rathore: not. It's not. I mean, it has been Practically biological horror, so yeah, can't do anything about that. Uh, but you know, so long ago, back when I was like a child and I couldn't like watch a lot of movies, but I had free access to reading newspapers.

I remember this, uh, very famed, uh, [00:18:00] director of Kaushik Mukherjee, who goes by the name Q. Who I've never taken seriously. Yeah, I'm sorry. Unfortunately, I'm sorry to say that, but I've never taken him seriously. But I remember reading something in the newspaper. So he was talking about, you know, when somebody goes to the theater, I want them so physically activated by my new movies that they want to play.

And I was like, and back then I didn't exactly understand. I was like, whatever, sure. You're just talking, you're just talking off your ass. Uh, but then I watched this movie and then there's that childbirth scene going on and I was watching the movie on like a laptop screen in the middle of the day. And I was just like, yeah, this is gross.

Like, it's actually causing me, like, it's giving me the feeling of wanting to retch. Uh, so I feel like, you know, maybe if a movie is, So well made and so intense that it actually creates a physical sensation of like wanting to throw up. I feel like it's pretty good. I feel like the job, it's an extremely well done job.

So thumbs up to this one. If you can handle horror, please go ahead and watch it. If you can't handle horror, I can't give you like a number rating of [00:19:00] how scary it is, but I still do think it's a very beautifully made film that deserves your attention. So yeah, watch. I have a question. So 

Abbas Momin: does it have a lot of jump scares?

Nainika Rathore: No, it doesn't. And that is why I like, I feel like when I, this is one of my things about horror and comedy, and which is why I also think horror and comedy as genres are kind of similar, is that if you, if you have to rely on jump scares or slapstick humor or sort of just, you know, being in your face, then I just feel like you're not doing a very good job because true horror should like, Sort of creep up on you.

It should build into you and to build into your surroundings in a way that makes you genuinely afraid as opposed to just, you know, relying on the anxiety of the viewer, which is why I really love the remake of Suspiria with Dakota Johnson as well. Yeah, and I thought it was a very good film. Like it doesn't, it has a little bit of gore here and there.

It has a bunch of body horror, but I don't think it relies on jump scare. It's just like that foreboding sense of something being wrong, just builds up on you. So, yeah, I mean, two thumbs [00:20:00] up. It has a lot of wonderful, beautiful female characters in the sense that, um, I feel like, again, horror is a genre that belongs to women in the sense that, you know, women live a life with a lot of fear and it ties to fears of, like, you know, your body.

Yeah, there's 

Abbas Momin: this new strain of horror again, which is like this prestige horror, like a sub genre of this prestige horror thing where a lot of the, um, protagonists are women. And the, the, the difference being that in the seventies and eighties, the woman used to be like the victim, like she was always running away from the, from the slasher.

Right. And now it's almost like they're reclaiming the space. Yeah, absolutely. The, uh, the, uh, the other. Monster or the other manifestation of the monster in many cases. 

Nainika Rathore: Yeah, I mean, so again, it plays on those themes that, you know, you're right. Absolutely. That I had to point, uh, women were the flesh upon which that was being preyed upon in slasher fix and slasher horror, uh, flicks.

But now in the sense that it gives women a lot more. agency. Uh, it allows women to be monsters. It allows [00:21:00] women to at least like be like the final girl type of characters, which I think makes a very interesting story telling. And even this movie narratively, it's set in like a little church, which is also a little convent for like little orphanage for little girls.

So it's like, you see all this like horrifying shit happening with the background of like just little girls playing around. So it just really, you know, braids that narrative of something being truly, truly wrong and otherwise positive seeming surroundings. So I feel like the movie was pretty solid. 

Abbas Momin: Can I tell you two interesting facts about the original Omen?

Nainika Rathore: Oh yeah, I haven't watched that one. So I'm completely, what did you think about it? And please tell me the facts as well. So 

Abbas Momin: it's, I have a soft spot for seventies horror. I think the Exorcist is one of my favorite films of all time, not just horror films. Uh, the Omen is not as scary, but like, Quite legendary, but interestingly, so the soundtrack of the omen had these very creepy Gregorian chants and surprisingly that song, the Gregorian chant song actually reached, I think, number one on the billboard charts.

That's how, that's [00:22:00] how successful the film was. That all these pop stars are behind. And the second interesting thing is, so there's a very pivotal scene in the, in the first woman, again, spoiler alert guys, where the father of the child comes to know that the child is an antichrist while the child is sleeping and he goes to the bed and he parts the child's hair.

And he sees, he sees the number 666 tattooed on his scalp. Okay. And after the movie came out, there were numerous cases of parents actually going and checking their children. 

Nainika Rathore: Did anyone find the 666 tattoo? 

Abbas Momin: I don't know. It's a great way to. Uh, to sort of, uh, you know, this thing to 

Nainika Rathore: fun fact, fun fact about me.

I have two bumps on my skull exactly where like devil horns would be. You know what? When you 

Abbas Momin: said I was a child and you told me the Q story, I thought you were going in that direction. When I was a child, I was once taken over by the devil. 

Nainika Rathore: That's really believable for a lot of people, I presume. But, [00:23:00] uh, I mean, I don't know if you ask my parents, they'd be like, yeah, she was definitely controlled by the antichrist for a while.

Abbas Momin: Okay. So I'll check out. It has been on my, uh, watch. You have to watch it. We 

Nainika Rathore: have to talk about it whenever you have a level, so 

Abbas Momin: I'll check out the first woman. Uh, okay. Before we move on, we have a, uh, email, a subscriber email, which comes from Tanya. So Tanya says, hi, Rajshree and Abbas. I wanted a bus to know that.

I too remember watching the Jangli Toofan tyre puncture as a kid. Wow! Uh, Tanya, you're the first person who has admitted to it. I'll fill, uh, Nainika up in a minute. Uh, she continues to say it used to air on Zee TV and some dialogues from the show are etched in my brain. Like, we're not mad, we're paagal.

Also, who remembers subscribing to Target magazines as a kid? I used to love reading Gardhap Das, Moochwala, et cetera. Tanya, I don't remember Target magazine, but I used to subscribe to Lotport and they used to have characters like Motu, Patlu, et cetera, who I remember. Tanya continues to say you guys should [00:24:00] host a deep dive into pop culture of the 80s and 90s from TV cult classics like Bhyomkesh Pakshi, Malgudi Days and even Chandrakanta to the syndicated US shows we watched.

For the first time, like I dream of Jeannie, Doogie Houser, The Wonder Years, to film song countdowns like Philip's Top 10 and Channel V. Channel V is bheja fry. And call Abhinandan too, who can represent the 70s. Wow, okay. He can also tell us about The Omen, maybe. Oh yeah! Thank you so much, Tanya. So, uh, uh, Neneka, I had last episode, I asked, uh, uh, the watchers and listeners of, uh, ANA that, uh, there used to be a nineties puppet show, uh, called the junglee to find tire puncture, because we were talking about, uh, Benedict Cumberbatch, where he plays a puppeteer and there's this show, which used to come on.

I have, I felt like I was the only one who remembers that because nobody else I've met has memory of this, but now Tanya has written in telling us that she has memory of this. So thank [00:25:00] you so much, Tanya. Uh, the, uh, TV cult classics from nineties and eighties. Maybe we should look at doing it. Yeah, we should.

I mean, I'm not the curator here. So Shubhang, our producers.

Nainika Rathore: In additional news, we have another announcement. We have new prints of the book Kashmir Ki Kahani by Sumit Kumar. For the unacquainted, it is a collection of rare stories of Sumit infusing a sense of the absurd and dark humor into the grave narrative. Order your copy at newslaundry. com slash store. 

Abbas Momin: Our last movie for this episode that we're going to be talking about is, uh, Love, Sex or Dhoka Part 2, which is directed by Dibakar Banerjee.

This is an anthology which explores a number of issues related to our increasing dependence on social media and virtual reality. This is a very bare bones, one line synopsis of the film. Uh, Nainika, before I Ask your opinion. I have to give you my opinion because I have lots to say. 

Nainika Rathore: I got a feeling you would have a lot to say about it.

Go [00:26:00] ahead. 

Abbas Momin: Okay. I will be straightforward without wasting much time. I think this is the my favorite film of this year so far. 

Nainika Rathore: Okay. Okay. Okay. We're six months into the year. So that's a tall claim. 

Abbas Momin: That's a very tall claim. I know, but I am anyway a Big fan of Dibakar Banerjee. I think for my money, he's the best, uh, director working in Hindi cinema today.

I think he doesn't get enough credit that, uh, that he deserves. What's your 

Nainika Rathore: favorite Dibakar film? 

Abbas Momin: My favorite Dibakar 

Nainika Rathore: film? OI heard. Yeah. Yes. 

Abbas Momin: But I think he's not made a bad film so far. In fact, every film of his, I take away something. Uh, I think I was one of the few people back in 2009 or 10, whenever the first LSD came out who went in the theater to watch it.

Mm-Hmm. , I remember it was an extremely polarizing film. Have you seen the first LSD. 

Nainika Rathore: Dude, I was, I think I was in sixth grade, so there is no way I could have watched that one. 

Abbas Momin: Actually, a wrong, bad question, so I take it back. Uh, but the first LSD [00:27:00] also had a profound impact on me. That one was, uh, same sort of concept, anthology of three stories.

Each story was a found footage film. Uh, and it blew me away. It, uh, it dealt with, uh, topics like honor killing and, uh, you know, uh, societal hypocrisy and all of that. I think LSD too is that, but like on steroids, I think the steroids part I 

Nainika Rathore: will hundred percent relate to. It 

Abbas Momin: is such a great, uh, Depiction of like this Orwellian nightmare that we are living in right now, where everybody just wants, uh, this approval from people, strangers on the internet.

Uh, it touches upon reality shows. It touches upon homophobia. It touches upon this very extreme sort of, uh, the sort of dark place that we are pushing our youth into. Um, But without giving further away, uh, Nainika, what did you think of it? I mean, I got so bored. It's such a shame that this barely got to play in theaters.

I think it was in the halls for like a [00:28:00] week and then it was out. But man, I was blown away. Dibakar, I love you. If you're watching this. 

Nainika Rathore: Okay. So Abbas is clearly, uh, yeah. Abbas's profession of love is something that we just got to hear. Yeah. I will. Okay. I honestly, I'm, I think I'm still digesting the movie.

Like it's not still at a place where I can comment, comment on it, but I will definitely say that when I watched it, it stayed with me. It was not a film that you could just easily watch and forget. And it did feel like it was a bit of a crime that it never got to play in theaters because I feel like it would have been even more hard hitting if it got to play in the theaters.

It, um, yeah. Initially, I was like, okay, maybe does it borrow like a certain amount of themes from Black Mirror, etc. And I haven't exactly watched Black Mirror. I think I watched like one season of it, maybe here and there. Uh, but even then I was just like, I don't think it's exactly like Black Mirror. I mean, the themes are similar, but it would be reductive to compare it to that because it is not about, you know, human interfacing with technology.

I think it's about [00:29:00] technology, sort of the background character of everything that happens here. But it's still very much about, you know, You know, human vulnerability, human desire to perform, human desire to survive, you know, what it means to want to, you know, how you interact with fame, how you interact with being known and not knowing how to handle fame or what fame means.

So I felt like the themes were very complicated and technology or reality TV or the thing about being a spectacle was sort of the background notes of this entire process. I thought it was, you know, intense to watch. I mean, I, I'm still processing it. It was triggering for me, like, especially the last one.

I think there are bits and parts of it that are very difficult for me to digest emotionally, but I still do think that it was, I feel like it's a movie that will gain its laurels through time. 

Abbas Momin: That's true. Yeah. I, I really hope so. Uh, I just want to like, Talk about each of the stories in a nutshell. So the first one is like this hybrid reality show, which is a cross between Bigg Boss, Indian Idol and Dance India.

True. They sort of just like 

Nainika Rathore: an algorithmic [00:30:00] mix of all, you know, if you asked AI to be like, okay, can you come up with like one Indian reality TV show? And this is the response. It's like a weird sort of a thing where you can, you can be, you know, online for as long as you want. You can have people looking at you as long as you want, or you can choose to go offline, etc.

And then there is the, you know, that you are still performing to the audience. People are coming in, looking into what you've been doing, and they They ask you questions, you're supposed to do things, bring your, the reality of your life out to people. It's very complicated, like even I didn't understand the rules of it entirely, but it's very intense to watch because it features a trans woman.

And, uh, the, the story starts off with her saying that, you know, I'll bring in my mother who clearly, you know, is not somebody she has maintained contact with ever since she transitioned. No, actually 

Abbas Momin: it's the, it's the, it's the show people who are like, why don't you bring in the mother? Because then we'll have this extra angle.

Yeah. So she does it for TRPs. 

Nainika Rathore: Exactly. So she does it for TRPs at OKL Reconcile. I'll try to attempt to reconcile with my mother who I haven't seen ever since I began transition. And, uh, [00:31:00] you know, the mother comes in and it's like a lot of friction because the mother is still struggling to accept that the child has transitioned.

The mother has, has her own issues. And, uh, so 

Abbas Momin: Danica, I think we spoke about this before. I, you're not, you're not a big boss watcher. Are you? 

Nainika Rathore: I've watched like the early seasons, I think a little bit here and there, but never after that. What about you? 

Abbas Momin: I thought I, uh, I mean, same, uh, early big boss, ardent watcher of, uh, the early seasons, the later seasons, it's like, it's one of those, like everything I know about big boss, I've learned against my will, you know, because there's so many people.

I feel like, okay, I'll 

Nainika Rathore: be honest. I feel like it fell in prestige through each season and it didn't have a lot of prestige to begin with, let's be honest. But at least, at least the first few seasons they were still able to pull like respectable people to come and star in it. And then over time it just sort of devalued where they realized it wasn't exactly family entertainment.

Because even I remember during one of the initial seasons they had to change the timing slot from 8 to 9. later in the night to 9 9 30 because they were like, this is not family entertainment. [00:32:00] So to sort of, you know, keep bringing in the TRPs, keep juicing in the TRPs, they had to move away from the TV segment.

Eventually it became an OTT, sort of like TV plus OTT and now it's purely OTT. If I'm not confused. Now it's both. There's a, there's a 

Abbas Momin: TV version and there's an OTT version. I think they're both happened within a span of a couple of months of each other. Uh, but the reason I brought that up is because I think the big boss inspired scenes that they, they have done for LSD.

Oh, 

Nainika Rathore: those are very spot on. Very 

Abbas Momin: realistic. Yeah. And then they, they cut to these three judges who are played by Anu Malik, Tushar, Kapoor and Sophie Chaudhary. And, uh, I don't know how the Barker shot them. I don't know how much Anu Malik is in on the joke that he's playing a version of himself. He is playing a version of 

Nainika Rathore: himself for sure.

Abbas Momin: Yeah, it's absolutely bizarre. It's absolutely very well done. Uh, the thing is, he's also inserted these helicopter shots from shows like Khatron Ke Khiladi and all for no reason. Yeah, as I said, you know, 

Nainika Rathore: AI algorithmic mix of things. And you know, it's so well done because I even It's so well done. It's so well [00:33:00] done.

The way the camera works, et cetera. Like there's a specific harsh sort of focus on each contestant, which is emblematic of reality TV shoots as opposed to the rest of the anthology, which is short, a little differently. So you can tell that he's like, he's really, even the graphics, they look kind of campy and sketch like they always do.

Abbas Momin: Uh, impactful is happening. There's a graphic saying, okay, op. Exactly. Yeah. 

Nainika Rathore: And it's all like a very campy looking graphic. Also, when they have like, you know, cuts and bits and pieces from the news, so they also have those. Stickers running on the side. So I feel like, you know, great, uh, attention to detail for this.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So hundred percent movie gets it for that. Uh, the second, 

Abbas Momin: the second story is about, uh, and again, it has a transgender character at the, at the helm of it. Mm-Hmm. . And it deals with, uh, uh, this transgender character works at a. It's implied that there is a crime that has been committed and, uh, our protagonist is kind of involved with that.

And then there's this secondary character who's sort of like, uh, [00:34:00] she's the in charge of the, of, of, of the, of the committee that takes care of the, uh, the, the, the wellbeing of the station. She's, she's like the corporate head. Right. And what debugger plays with is that. Again, while watching this, of course, I will connect more with the English speaking elite woman than with the, with the trans character.

And he does this thing where it's like, For, for, for, uh, we will act as if we're, we're fighting for the rights and for the justice of the oppressed people, but the background is entirely selfish. Exactly. The moment that, uh, particular, uh, situation changes and you come under the radar, you are going to, you know, uh, flip in a second, but that is when your privilege will come and sort of.

Yeah. Take hold of you. And you're like, I don't, I want none of this. Uh, I, I just want to mention the name of the actor who plays, uh, Yeah, Bonita 

Nainika Rathore: Rajpurohit is a trans woman and [00:35:00] she plays the character, which is different because the contrast, because Noor who plays the trans woman in the first one is play is a cis male actor.

I think it's Paritosh Tiwari. I, if I'm not mistaken at the name, so there's that also that contrast that they've chosen a trans character to play a trans character. And there's also, you know, one anthology where that's not the case. Uh, so I felt like that was interesting. That was a choice for sure. 

Abbas Momin: And the third story, which is, uh, of, of this case.

Carry Minati like gamer character, which is played by Abhinav Singh and the character goes by the name of Game Papi. Uh, I just want to talk about Nainika the last 15 minutes of this film. I don't want to give this away because if you haven't. It was a very 

Nainika Rathore: difficult one for me to watch. Like, not in the sense that it was bad, in the sense that it's emotionally quite intense.

Uh, and, uh, yeah, I mean the last 15 minutes Go ahead, . 

Abbas Momin: No, but why was it, why, why was it, why was this section more difficult for you? I think 

Nainika Rathore: personally because they have that scene of that child, uh, that wasn't something that I was okay with. 

Abbas Momin: Okay. [00:36:00] Uh, no. Last 15 minutes. I mean, look, this, this film is produced by Iha Kaur, and I'm like.

Ekta Kapoor, kudos to her for giving the director this wild rain of going absolutely nuts in the last 15 minutes because you will never see coming what's gonna happen. Oh yeah, you will not, 

Nainika Rathore: absolutely. Also, I feel like Ekta Kapoor as a producer maybe trumps Ekta Kapoor as a director. 

Abbas Momin: Absolutely. Yes. I give a hundred percent agree with you.

I think she's very smart. She has taken way more chances when she's producing films. So the first LSD was also produced by, yeah, and I think she's, she's produced the last couple of debunker energy films. And Otherwise also like, of course we can call her out for making television regressive through Saaz Bahu serials and the Ullu app, which is essentially a soft porn app and all of that.

But I, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think Ullu was a Balaji app, which was like full of these salacious soft porn programming. I 

Nainika Rathore: had no clue. Interesting. [00:37:00] Now you do. 

Abbas Momin: But I think, but when she takes a swing, I think she does. I think she's very, she's 

Nainika Rathore: a great business woman, but she also has. So she does interesting, tasteful things on the side.

And uh, I mean, a question to be raised, I'm just being too flippant here, but you know, who's, uh, who's had a better, you know, filmography in terms of projects they've supported, Zoya Akhtar or 

Abbas Momin: Rekhta Kapoor? Rekhta Kapoor? Wow. Okay. Uh, what's the question? Who's had the most successful run? 

Nainika Rathore: Who's had the more, you know, impactful, I suppose, in terms of Oh, impactful.

Abbas Momin: Impactful. I think both are catering to different audiences. I think Zoya is very much Yeah, the bougie audience that you were just accused of 

Nainika Rathore: being 

Abbas Momin: And I think uh Ekta knows that she can reach both. So I think she picks and chooses She does that thing 

Nainika Rathore: where she knows that she'll make money with the kind of business decisions she's taken.

Uh, and she also has, I mean, surprisingly, she has great discernment and good taste, [00:38:00] which is, I feel like her, uh, qualities. Creative partnership with Dibakar Banerjee is something quite valuable because I do think Dibakar Banerjee makes pretty solid films. So yeah, absolutely. 

Abbas Momin: But yeah, last 

Nainika Rathore: 15 minutes of this particular last third anthology.

Abbas Momin: Yeah, I mean, look, I don't want to give anything away, but the film takes a like it goes into the realm of What should I call it? Make believe it takes a leap. It's a massive leap and you will either buy into it or you won't. But my thing was, man, I can only imagine how Dibakar Banerjee sold this idea to them that this is how the film will end.

It's just, it's just absolutely bizarre. Please watch the film only for those last 15 minutes. It's, it's one of the most. Uh, inspiring. So I do want to ask, like, 

Nainika Rathore: it's definitely a twisted film that I'm not sure if I'd be open to recommending to others purely because I just, I feel like it's, um, it's too sharp.

It's too incisive in certain ways. So I want to hear, like, what do you, would you like blindly recommend [00:39:00] tell everyone just like shout from the rooftops that you go and watch it or what do you, what are your disclaimers? 

Abbas Momin: I will say this, I will take this any day over your Bade Miya, Chhote Miya, your That's okay, you know, that's, you're hitting too low Your barrage of propaganda action films, the nationalistic propaganda where you can do a tick mark of Oh ha, now they'll Make a, now they'll sing a patriotic song.

Now he will do some dialogue where he will abuse Pakistanis and do this and do that. I'm like, Bollywood is so bankrupt. Hindi cinema is so bankrupt with ideas right now. That's something as ballsy as this, uh, when it comes along. I'm like, sure. It's a difficult film to watch. I'm not saying it's a feel good film by any stretch of the imagination, but.

Please support this kind of cinema, otherwise you'll be stuck with getting this bland sort of, you know, either it'll just be your nationalistic propaganda films or it'll be a bland kind of whatever, Mr. And Mrs. Mahi type of like, no, no shade on the people who are making that kind of film, but those [00:40:00] films don't have ideas or those films don't have, uh, 

Nainika Rathore: yeah, 

Abbas Momin: they are made for palatable audiences.

That's fine most of the time, but man, it's, I mean, LSD2 just blew me away. I was like, this is the film of our times. This is very much what I want to see, uh, being represented, what's happening in the country right now. And what's, uh, what we're surrounded with. I was blown away. 

Nainika Rathore: Interesting. I do. I mean, I will hesitate a little to call it like, you know, the movie of our times.

I mean, it definitely, uh, I felt like, isn't 

Abbas Momin: it? I mean, I mean, it definitely see 

Nainika Rathore: again, it definitely dwells in the topics that you need to, but I personally think that even the topics that they're dealing into, there's like a touch of irony or a touch of distance to it. Like, you know, even when they're dealing with these topics, it's sort of like.

Observing the topics from a certain distance and then making a film about it. It doesn't fully, probably like all aspects of it don't feel as real or believable to me, not in the sense that it's done wrong at all. I just feel like, you know, [00:41:00] again, how perfect can you go with the narrative or story that is already a bit convoluted.

So, you know, nothing against the people who made this film. I still think it's quite valuable. I still think it's brilliant. I do still think it maintains a little bit of distance from the subjects it's trying to capture, but that's okay. I don't think that gets in the way. Of a good, uh, of a good movie. I still think it's quite valuable to watch.

I mean, if you have the stomach to like, if you can stomach like slightly like a movie that it isn't easy, that it isn't easy to watch, you can just want to, I just want to 

Abbas Momin: remind that 10 minutes ago you were like, I saw a movie where there was a woman giving birth to an antichrist and that was fine. 

Nainika Rathore: Well, that was easy.

Cause you like, cause you know, it's not real. 

Abbas Momin: That's a, that's a good distinction. Yeah, that's, that's far removed from reality. Exactly. And this one is not 

Nainika Rathore: removed from reality. Like this scary stuff is stuff that could 100 percent be happening around you in really twisted ways. And you know, another thing was very interesting that a lot of like, a lot of those stories [00:42:00] just seem like a newspaper, like bizarre newspaper headlines.

You'd read at some point, like a child did this or, um. This is what happened and you know, so you're just like very much, you very much accept the reality of everything that can happen in this nation and, uh, in this nation I'm using liberally because I'm sure I'd know for a fact that a decent chunk of the movie was like shot in Noida.

So I'm like, yeah, this kind of stuff can happen in Noida for sure. Even the metro platform was the aqua line that famously travels through Noida. So I was like, Oh, of course, not surprising. Actually, you know 

Abbas Momin: what, that's That's the thing about Dibakar Banerjee is like, I'm, I have someone who doesn't live, hasn't spent much time in Delhi, but for me, I think he represents the Delhi ness of cinema so well.

Is he even from Delhi? I'm 

Nainika Rathore: surprised. I don't know. Is he from Delhi? Okay. He is. He must 

Abbas Momin: be from, he must have lived in Delhi I remember my friend 

Nainika Rathore: told me the story that he was watching Titli, I think, where like some characters being murdered and in the background you can see a building and he's [00:43:00] Background building is where I used to live.

So it's, uh, so Noida is pretty, pretty much, well, so 

Abbas Momin: maybe, maybe that's why it's too close, literally too close to home 

Nainika Rathore: for a lot of people, including me. 

Abbas Momin: Cool. Okay. So definitely recommendation from me, thumbs up and Anenika's. Also recommending it with but with caviar. A cautious 

Nainika Rathore: recommendation. Like don't be like, okay, I'm looking for something to watch with my dinner.

Let me fire up LSD too. No, just like, you know, like clear up your mind, declutter like take a bath and then sit down to watch it. So like, sort of, you know, I feel like I'll be digesting the movie. I do not know if I have the balls to revisit it. I, I honestly, I'm not sure if I have the emotional composition to do that.

It's 

Abbas Momin: not the kind of film I'm like, I want to watch it, rewatch it again right now. I want to Like have my distance from it, but I will revisit it at some point. But, uh, yeah. So at the end of the year, 

Nainika Rathore: if it still remains your favorite movie that came out of Bollywood or not Becausecause, I am [00:44:00] quite curious, but it's interesting, uh, that you know, you like it enough to say, I'm saying it's 

Abbas Momin: my favorite movie, Bollywood Hollywood, all combined.

That it my favorite of the year? Yes. Okay. Quite, it's quite intense. 

Nainika Rathore: I'm sad it flopped in the theaters. I think, uh, because all the actors also, I feel like they've done it. Decently good job. I feel like they weren't as many big names associated with the project. So it probably I don't know people didn't feel the need to go and watch it and definitely like the marketing was abysmal because I didn't even know there was a sequel to LSD coming out at any point.

I only got to know about it when I found out that we'll be watching it for the episode. So I feel like the marketing was abysmal and even Netflix didn't put anything into kind of, you know, Do you know Netflix 

Abbas Momin: is sitting on a Dibakar Banerjee film, a fully made Dibakar Banerjee film that they're not releasing?

Why 

Nainika Rathore: are they not releasing it? 

Abbas Momin: It's called Peace. It's about three generations of a Muslim family. Oh yeah. I can tell why they're not releasing it. So they're not releasing because Dibakar was told that this is not the correct time, correct time in quotes to be releasing this. So he's shopping the film around.

But yeah, Netflix, [00:45:00] man. Man up and release the film if that's what they did. 

Nainika Rathore: I think that's what they were going to do with monkey man as well. Right? 

Abbas Momin: Monkey man thought they gave away. Yeah, 

Nainika Rathore: they gave away because they were like, there's no way we're going to release this in India, 

Abbas Momin: which actually is a little thing that we didn't discuss, of course, but Two of the films were in the news recently, which was, one was, uh, Maharaj, which was the Junaid Khan film, which has been stayed, uh, the release has been stayed by the court.

And another was Hamare Bara, which has also been, uh, stayed by the Supreme court to, uh, for release. So, yeah, these are the times we live in where, uh, 

Nainika Rathore: we live in where there's like, uh, unprecedented censoring of movies. I feel like India also was, I remember reading about it a long time ago. ago that India was the nation that banned the most number of books.

And I think the controversy. I 

Abbas Momin: mean, India was the first nation that banned Salman Rushdie's satanic verses before even the fatwa was issued. We are 

Nainika Rathore: uniquely censorious. It's for like a fully [00:46:00] functioning, fully fledged democracy, which I mean, again, uniquely 

Abbas Momin: censorious is a, is a very mild way to put it, but yes, 

Nainika Rathore: well, we're not China.

So 

Abbas Momin: much 

Nainika Rathore: to 

Abbas Momin: point that's, if that's the benchmark that I don't think, but, 

Nainika Rathore: uh, 

Abbas Momin: but yeah, sure. That brings us to the end of this week's episode of The Awful Analysis. 

Nainika Rathore: Full episode like I think everything we watch we recommend it because usually a lot of times 50 percent of the stuff is just like don't even bother with this shit.

Do not even spend a single second of your time on this shit. Definitely don't pay for this shit. 

Abbas Momin: Especially if it's Panchayat. I 

Nainika Rathore: see you're still coming in with the punches despite the criticism. So I feel like you really stand on your opinion. I respect that. I do. I do. 

Abbas Momin: All right. With that, we come to a close on this week's episode.

Nainika Rathore: Thank you so much to Shubhang and Anil sir for all the behind the scenes work for this episode. 

Abbas Momin: Thank you, Ms. Rathore. 

Nainika Rathore: Thank you, Mr. Momin. 

Abbas Momin: And it's a wrap.[00:47:00] 

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