Ep 49- PK, Street Dancer 3D and The Forgotten Army
And now you can also listen to us on Hubhopper!
And now you can also listen to us on Hubhopper!
Episode 25 of the Khandaan podcast is also our last for the year 2018! Thank you for joining us this year as we made our way through the highs and lows of the three Khans of Bollywood. We hope to welcome 2019 with a few changes and some surprises but first, we need to wrap up this year.
As Sujoy is away exploring the New World, top friend Beth from BethLovesBollywood returns to the podcast to discuss the Khan movie of the hour: Zero.
Directed by Anand L. Rai and co-starring Khandaan faves Anushka Sharma and Katrina Kaif, this Shahrukh Khan film is already famous for the strong reactions it has elicited.
A Timeline:
• 4m 15s A short rant about disrespecting women, especially Katrina Kaif
• 15m 35s Book Preview: Yeh Un Dinon Ki Baat Hai: Urdu Memoirs of Cinema Legends by Yassir Abbasi
• 20m 05s Manikarnika, starring Kangana Ranaut
• 31m 35s The Legend of Maula Jatt starring Mahira Khan and Fawad Khan
• 49.00min 2018 Year End Review (the Khandaani’s)
• 1h 32min The main feature: Zero
Join us in 2019 for more Khandaani movies!
Show notes:
The Most Powerful Pakistani Film
The philosophy and methodology of Maula Jatt: https://medium.com/the-outtake/understanding-the-most-powerful-pakistani-film-of-all-time-55c5c19d8a9d
The vote for Ep 26 is still open!
Head over to
Welcome to Episode 23 of the Khandaan podcast in which we welcome Shivani Tripathi (@Shivani510) writer for The Aerogram, Brown Girl Magazine, The NRI and the return of friend of the show Anisha Jhaveri (@Jhavanis).
In this episode, we go back to one of the earliest releases of Aamir Khan, Raakh- directed by Aditya Bhattacharya. The movie is tough to find even though there was a Redux version released in theaters, the home release was stalled.
The movie also stars Supriya Pathak and Pankaj Kapur but they don’t share any screen time together. The movie was a box office failure but has been gaining some critical acclaim after the redux version released in festivals.
We also discuss how the latest season of Koffee With Karan has been working for us.
The emergence of box office draws Ayushmann Khuranna (Vicky Kaushal, Rajkummar Rao) and if there is a changing of the guard for Bollywood heroes.
Asim also forces everyone to watch the new song promo for Zero, Mera Naam Tu as he wants to talk about his favorites as usual.
If there are movies or guests you would like to see featured, do remember to drop us a line at upodcasting@gmail.com.
We have also brought back the listener’s poll so head out to the link below to choose which 2014 movie we’ll be discussing on the next episode!
For Episode 20, our guest is a fellow podcaster: Maxdavinci of The Lewd Cabal, your go-to podcast for an eclectic selection of topics including deep dives into South Indian cinema, food, sports, and a whole lot more to come. For his debut appearance on The Khandaan, Max chose an evergreen classic: 1992’s Salman Khan-starrer, Suryvanshi.
This legendary piece of cinema was allegedly a figment of Salman’s imagination – a film unmatched, as Max points out, in not only Hindi but in all Indian cinema for decades in its scope and concept. The costumes, the special effects, the homage to Arnold Schwarzenegger, the boundless racism, the indifferent songs that at least two of the four people on the podcast have seared into their lizard brain, the camera’s unerring eye for thrusting bosoms… this is a movie that offers much to the discerning viewer. Co-starring an extremely hammy Saeed Jaffrey, a disconcertingly excellent Amrita Singh, a sanskaari Sheeba, Sushma Seth, Shakti Kapoor, Kadar Khan, and Puneet Issar, Suryavanshi is a lot.
As usual, we also discuss some of the new releases and trailers – Thugs of Hindustan and Bazaar, as well as Sui Dhaaga, Chekka Chivantha Vaanam and Pataakha. We discuss the sheer and welcome reliability of filmmakers such as Vishal Bhardwaj and Mani Ratnam before somehow ending with plans to watch 1990’s Tum Mere Ho.
If there are movies or guests you would like to see featured, do remember to drop us a line at upodcasting@gmail.com
Give Away: If you want to win 1 of 3 Sui Dhaaga- Made In India goodie bags, head over to the Kenz Now Website by clicking here
To hear more from Max you can head over to the Lewd Cabal page
After many troubles Ae Dil Hai Mushkil finally released this weekend and we’re joined by Anisha Jhaveri (@Jhavanis) writer for Indiewire, to talk about Karan Johar’s new movie starring the all star cast of Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Fawad Khan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.
We talk about:
Anisha’s review of Ae Dil Hai Mushkil can be found on Indiewire or you can follow her on twitter.
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Pakistan’s most famous Qawwali singer Ustad Rahat Fateh Khan, the nephew of the late, world-renowned singer Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, will perform his greatest hits live for the first time at The O2 on Sunday 14 August 2016.
Tickets go on sale at 9am on Friday 22 April and are available at AXS.com or by calling 0844 856 0202 or from www.theo2.co.uk.www.theo2.co.
But we have a pair of tickets to give away for Free! and it couldn’t be easier.
Just click on the banner below and sign up with your email adress, and the lucky winner will be randomly drawn. Deadline for the the competition is 8th of August! So sign up ASAP!
The performance will coincide with Pakistan and India’s independence weekend celebrations and will be Ustad Rahat Fateh Khan’s only London show this year. Discussing his forthcoming show Ustad Rahat Fateh Khan said; ”I’m very excited to be performing at The O2, London, for the second time, following my sold out tour in 2013.
“Coming to the UK is always a thrill for me and my performance is timed to fit the Independence Day celebrations for both Pakistan and India. I have a fantastic team of musicians joining me and will be performing my greatest film hits and new material, as well as my esteemed Uncle, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s popular Qawwali numbers, to rock the arena.”
Ustad Rahat Fateh Ali Khan was chosen at birth by his uncle Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan for tutoring in the traditions of qawwali music, a form of Sufi devotional popular in South Asia. Six weeks after his uncle’s death in 1997, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan took his position as leader of the group and has since become one of the most talked about Pakistani artists in the world.
Ustad Rahat Fateh Ali Khan has performed on a variety of recordings, and his songs and vocals have featured in numerous hit Hollywood and Bollywood films including Bodyguard, My Name is Khan, Dabangg, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Drishyam, the Hollywood film Apocalypto and many more.
The maestro has released over 50 albums with over 100 hits in Bollywood and has been presented with numerous awards including Star Screen Awards for Best Male Playback 2010 and the IIFA award for best male vocalist 2011. He has also been a judge on top TV shows in India such a Chhote Ustad and Junoon, Kuch Kar Dikhaane Ka. He was the headline performer at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in 2014 and recently performed at the United Nations General Assembly Hall in March 2016.
In 2014, Ustad Rahat Fateh Ali Khan released his latest album ‘Back 2 Love’ which sold millions of copies worldwide.
The ticket will also include access to a variety of free live events and activities including Bollywood dance workshops, DJs, specially selected street food stalls and more.
For this week’s major Bollywood release Sultan, directed by Ali Abbas Zafar and starring Salman Khan and Anushka Sharma, we are joined by Sujoy (@9e3k) and Anisha (@jhavanis) to break down a myriad of topics:
We gingerly discuss the topic of “Bhaicot”
The stand out supporting characters
Diversity and inclusion in Bollywood
We discuss Pradeep Menon’s article about Anushka’s feminism which you can find here
Ali Abbas Zafar and the stable of YRF directors
Sultan’s soundtrack
Spoiler section
What are hopes are for Dangal
You can listen/stream/download the episode below.
Or subscribe to our feed in iTunes and never miss a show.
This week we dissect Shah Rukh Khan’s latest movie Jab Tak Hai Jaan where he starts along side Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma (After Rab Ne Banadi Jodi).
Unfortunately this became legendary film director Yash Chopra’s final movie.
To talk about JTHJ some amazingly talented and well-spoken guest joins us, Daniel Pillai from Omni’s Bollywood Boulevard and WSJ India Real Time, Priya Joshi from Digital Spy who make their debut on Upodcast.
Joining for the 2nd time is Sujoy Singha, who has his own hilarious Hindi Movie Podcast called the Tripple Eggs Podcast and of course his gifs on Bollypop and Geekiness on OneKnightStand.
Let us know what you think of the show in the comment section below or drop us an email to Upodcasting@gmail.com
You can download/listen/ share below:
The trailer for the most looked forward to movie for the rest of the year is finally out after so much teasing and marketing strategizing. And when you finally watch it, you wonder, why didn’t they just show us the trailer straight away without all the ridiculous “We don’t have a title yet” strategy as the trailer really does stand on it’s own.
Lush visuals of Ladhak, the famous SRK arm stretch in London, a bubbly Anushka Sharma in booty shorts, Katrina Kaif playing the lover lost who you danced with in the rain in a bikini top laced over Shahrukh’s voice over of the poem written by producer Aditya Chopra that was released a couple of weeks ago with the poster, accompanied by the guitar of an AR Rahman soundtrack.
First some quick thoughts before I get into a bigger talking point:
I think I’ve cracked the ShahRukh Khan mystery to a certain degree after watching this trailer.
Like most of us he has 2 distinct sides to his personality. The first is the ambitious orphan underdog/outsider that came to Mumbai to chase the love of his live (Lets’ call him Scrapper ShahRukh) and the other is the guy that became the biggest superstar in the Indian Film Industry after a certain Big B (AKA Superstar SRK).
Scrapper ShahRukh takes chances, give us an abundance of emotions, can romance a tree and make us believe that his mom did actually say that there are 2 paths in life, one good and one bad, the bad one is easy, the good one is hard but the only right one. (Darr, Baazigar, Swades, Chak De India)
Superstar SRK on the other hand has grand ambitions as a producer is cockier, loves his action mixed with his own brand of smarmy charm and wants to create the biggest film and effects studio in India. (He also wears Fedora’s and makes gay security guards think he’s wearing a Prince Albert)
In the past few years Scrapper SRK didn’t want to get bogged down in Raj/Rahul roles and after loosing some of his long-term collaborators, his inherent competitive streak mutated to Hulk like proportions making him implode into Superstar SRK what seemed like a permanent transformations.
Even working with Karan Johar and to a certain degree Aditya Chopra, we end up getting disjointed movies that never find a compromise with that internal tug of war. (Rab Ne Banadi Jodi almost being a play by play of this theory)
When Superstar SRK takes over a project (as the superstars doesn’t star in movies but projects), he will include in the package a blitzkrieg media campaign; an oversaturation of “I am the best and the rest is shit” quotes, and promote the movie in every village, country, city and social media platform until he wears himself out physically and emotionally.
I strongly believe most people don’t like this Shahrukh. (not including fanboys and girls as they are crazy loons)
Only the relationship people that knew him from way back when (Farah Khan, Ashutosh Gowariker, Aziz Mirza, Juhi Chawla and Yash Chopra) can tap into Scrapper Shahrukh again and when he let’s go of the reins, cinematic magic happens.
All that to say, I’m really happy we seem to be getting scrapper Shahrukh as I’ve really missed him.
Movie is in UK theaters 13th of November.
Color us EXCITED.
Ranveer Singh, Anushka Sharma and director Maneesh Sharma come together once again under the YRF banner after their sleeper hit of last year Band Baaja Baarat, Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl is called a Rom-Con puntastically and banks heavily and is pretty much built around the popularity of the leading man, after Ranveer’s debut which almost ecplipsed his co-star unfairly.
Here we follow grifter Ricky Bahl (Ranveer Singh) under his different guises as he cons Daddy’s Girl Dimple in Delhi (Parineeti Chopra) as a gym trainer, no non-sense business lady Raina in Mumbai as an art critic (played by former model Dippanita Sharma) and before that as shy garment manufacturer from a small village so where he duped the innocent Saira played by Aditi Sharma in Lucknow (Probably the most “evil” of cons).
The swindled ladies want to get back their money, respect or “boyfriend” back and hire salesgirl Ishika (Anushka Sharma) to con the “conner”.
Up to this point in the story (which is pretty much the interval) the movie is a joyous ride of the different cities, accents, get-ups, cultures and each of the different scams of which especially the one in Delhi is fun to watch. We see firecracker Ranveer proving his debut was not a fluke and he truly is a guy to watch out. Anushka makes an energetic introduction in Jazba, shaking her behind in front of dubbawhala’s in a station and Parineeti has us pretty much cracking up in every scene she is in almost playing a spoilt version of Shruti Kakkar, or is just that no nonsense Delhi accent she puts on? It makes certainly makes us look forward to her forthcoming movie Ishqzaade with Arjun Kapoor.
But then things start to go downhill as soon as the focus shifts to the duped trying to get back at Ricky.
As we discussed during our Matchstick Men Upodcast about con movies, a con movie is only as good as the con, and here there is not a moment that you truly believe that these girls will be able to have the upper hand on Ricky. What remains is the love story, which is underdeveloped, and when it does pop up, it comes out of nowhere.
If the pacing of a movie engrossing you don’t realize some loopholes but this is not the case in Ladies vs Ricky Bahl and the pace actually drops in the scenes were Ranveer isn’t present.
Although the supporting actresses are talented, and Saira was channeling a bit of Yasmeen from Dhobi Ghaat)
Both Anushka and Ranveer look great but as an audience member you almost feel cheated as I didn’t feel there was enough of them in the 2nd half of the movie. We never really get to understand Ricky and in a very “500 Days of Summer”- way we only see the version of Bloody Kamina that the victims of his cons show us. Making it that even the climactic scenes of character growth feel like they materialized out of thin air. I do think Ranveer was trying to channel a bit of Tanni from Rab Ne Banadi Jodi (before the reveal) looking at everything with mysterious glances, is he aware that he is being conned? Or is he just playing along? But this is probably just the performance trying to add more to an underdeveloped script.
Anushka is radiant, and there was lots of talk of her weight loss, some going as far as to shout anorexia but she manages to fill the screen with a positive energy that no other contemporary actress has. Some actresses ooze class, some sensuality, Anushka manages to do both and adds a girl next-door charm.
And god that smile… too bad Ishika, the character, doesn’t live up to the talent of this amazing performer.
The visuals are glossy as Christmas ornaments; every scene has the popping energy that we are used to YRF studios (I do wonder if this is a look that will translate to the US movies they are now producing)
The songs are mediocre although choreographed marvelously. I did feel that the undershirt dance in title track was reminiscent of the studios massive hit Dhoom 2′ s “Dhoom Machale”. The song placement is balanced and the performances by the leads against are so energetic they are enjoyable even though you wont be buying the soundtrack anytime soon (something I haven’t done either, although that jazz sample in the title track is pretty awesome)
Every close up is shot with lots of fans so hair is always flopping around, something I might have found more annoying as I was sitting super close to the screen. (I could actually see a couple of nose hairs poking out of Ricky’s pulling me totally out of the moment, I hope I didn’t spoil any moments)
All in all Ladies vs Ricky Bahl is quite fun and enjoyable even though I don’t imagine it ending up on any best of 2011 lists. Something I am preparing for a future Bollywood Upodcast so keep checking us out. Maneesh Sharma needs a better screenplay next time but it’s quite tough to capture lightning in a bottle. If you don’t go with the expectations of another Band Baaja Baraat, you will have a great time.
Something more: