WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema Rewind: Purana Mandir 0:00:04.680 --> 0:00:08.440 Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb. 0:00:09.200 --> 0:00:13.039 We have another episode from the past for you here today. 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:18.200 This one originally published six thirty, twenty twenty three. In it, 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:23.080 we cover the Ramsey Brothers nineteen eighty four film Purana Mandar. 0:00:24.200 --> 0:00:26.840 This one is a lot of fun. This was our 0:00:26.960 --> 0:00:31.600 first dive into Bollywood horror. I say first, we haven't 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:35.720 actually done a second Bollywood horror film yet. So as 0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:39.479 we mentioned in this episode, if you have suggestions Ramsey 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:44.080 Brothers pictures or other examples of Bollywood horror or science 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:47.839 fiction that we should cover, write in with your suggestions. Okay, 0:00:48.040 --> 0:00:49.720 let's go ahead and jump right in. 0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:59.000 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:05.480 Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema. 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:08.000 This is Rob Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. 0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:11.640 Today. This is an exciting intrigue in the Weird House 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:14.600 Cinema catalog because we are going to be covering our 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:18.720 first film from India. It's always fun when we can 0:01:19.400 --> 0:01:24.920 dive into a new film culture, a new national film tradition. 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:31.039 And I know for me personally Indian cinema, Bollywood in particular, 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:33.120 this is a whole area of film that I really 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:36.679 don't have much of any exposure to. So I was 0:01:36.720 --> 0:01:41.199 excited to watch this movie research it a bit because 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:44.720 not only is it is it Bollywood, it is Bollywood horror. 0:01:44.920 --> 0:01:48.800 We're going to be talking about Purana mandir a if 0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:52.919 not only a horror movie, but like the horror movie 0:01:53.280 --> 0:01:55.080 from India from nineteen eighty four. 0:01:55.520 --> 0:01:59.400 This is also my first full viewing of a Bollywood movie. 0:01:59.400 --> 0:02:01.680 I've watched a lot of clips from them before. Often, 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:04.720 like people will clip out really great musical numbers from 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:08.200 them and put them online, so I've seen plenty of those, 0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:10.640 but yeah, this was the first time I've seen the 0:02:10.680 --> 0:02:14.519 whole thing. But man, this movie was mostly great, at 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:18.320 some points awful, and really got my mind cranking about 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:22.880 the what it means to have musical numbers in a film. 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:25.280 Yes, because one of the if you don't know anything, 0:02:25.440 --> 0:02:28.600 or you don't know much about Indian cinema and Bollywood 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:31.959 in particular, you may know that there are musical numbers. 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:35.000 It's a big song and dance numbers. And I think 0:02:35.000 --> 0:02:36.799 at times this can be like knowing this can be 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:39.440 kind of like a barrier to entry. You might think, well, 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:40.680 I don't know if I'm up for that. I mean, 0:02:40.680 --> 0:02:44.320 I'm not a musical fan. Or even if you decide, oh, 0:02:44.360 --> 0:02:46.120 well there's a horror genre, I want to get into that, 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:48.600 but then you realize there are musical numbers, maybe you're 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:51.280 going to hold back. But yeah, it's interesting to sort 0:02:51.320 --> 0:02:53.359 of break that down, like, well, how different is that 0:02:53.360 --> 0:02:56.200 from anything we watch over here? You know, we have 0:02:56.360 --> 0:03:00.480 this have a genre of musical obviously it goes in 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:06.400 various directions, but also we have strong musical segments in 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:09.320 various pictures where you'll feature a particular track. It just 0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:13.520 maybe you don't have characters actually singing that song. 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:15.640 Yes, I agree with all of that. I mean it 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:19.840 really got me thinking, why don't American horror movies tend 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:23.120 to have musical numbers in them? And if they did, 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:25.160 why would we say, well, actually, this is just a 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:28.640 totally different genre now it is a musical. Why couldn't 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:32.480 all genres have musical numbers, Because, as you say, music 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:36.760 features in other movies, diagetic and non diegetic music features 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:40.240 in as long as the characters aren't singing, it's not 0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:43.640 a musical. But there's no particular reason I think of why. 0:03:44.080 --> 0:03:47.240 The fact that characters do sing in a movie should 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:50.480 make that a separate genre from whatever the narrative content is. 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:54.120 So yeah, I think we should have more fantasy, sci 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:58.120 fi movies, whatever, horror movies that have characters singing songs, 0:03:58.160 --> 0:04:02.960 because songs are great. Now that I've experienced a Bollywood film, 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:05.680 it in no way takes away from my enjoyment of 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:09.720 this as a cheesy horror movie, and I don't really 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:12.800 see why you would resist. I think maybe there's one 0:04:12.840 --> 0:04:15.640 impulse that says, like musical numbers could take away from 0:04:15.680 --> 0:04:18.880 the seriousness of the film. There's another that says it 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:22.800 could take away from the quote realism. I'd say, if 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:25.719 you're overly concerned with either of those, maybe you shouldn't 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:27.480 be making a horror movie. 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:31.480 I think another sort of barrier to entry, or sort 0:04:31.480 --> 0:04:34.279 of expectation is that might be for many and it 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:36.120 was kind of this way for me. Is I expected 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:39.960 going into a musical number to be clunkier and take 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:44.039 me out of the picture more. And there are sections 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:46.360 of the film that do manage to take me out 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:49.400 of the picture and are clunky, but the musical numbers, 0:04:49.440 --> 0:04:51.919 like you get the impression like this is down to 0:04:52.600 --> 0:04:57.080 like an art, just in Indian cinema in general, and 0:04:57.160 --> 0:04:59.600 so if a movie's going into a musical number, they 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:01.680 know what they're do doing, like you're gonna have a 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:05.559 smooth takeoff and landing with the emotional arc of whatever 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:07.039 that particular song happens to be. 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:10.000 Every time a song kicked in, I was like, Okay, 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:13.760 now we're cooking. Even the kind of sad, slower paced songs. 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:17.520 Yeah, yeah, because it's not coming out of nowhere, It's 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:20.560 coming out of what's going on emotionally with the characters, 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:22.839 or especially towards the end of this picture, with like 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:24.720 the driving nature of the plot. 0:05:25.160 --> 0:05:27.640 Oh yes, the human Sacrifice song I think was my 0:05:27.720 --> 0:05:29.360 favorite song in the movie. 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:34.039 All right, So again, this was my first Bollywood film. 0:05:34.080 --> 0:05:36.080 I'd never watched one in its entirety, like you had 0:05:36.080 --> 0:05:38.680 seen some clips, so I had to do a little 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:41.040 extra reading about everything. There's a lot of things about 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:43.919 Bollywood cinema that I was not familiar with and just 0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:47.640 did not know about. So, for instance, bear with me 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:50.479 if you already knew all of this. But when we 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:54.560 talk about Bollywood cinema, we're talking about films specifically coming 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:58.520 out of the Mumbai Film industry Mumbai formerly known as Bombay. 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:03.000 You get it, like Bombay plus Hollywood equals Bollywood. And 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:06.960 while it's perhaps the most well known internationally of the 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:12.320 various Indian film centers, Indian cinema is not a monolith 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:16.360 like India itself. India cinema consists of various languages and 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:21.080 cultures and in the different cinematic traditions and centers have 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:26.280 like different strengths, different histories and so forth. So some 0:06:26.360 --> 0:06:30.120 of the various extras on the disc or discs that 0:06:30.160 --> 0:06:32.680 we looked at for this as well as some articles, 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:36.240 it was a real learning experience for me to familiarize 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:39.920 myself somewhat with this. I mean it goes beyond genre 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:42.120 with this, just whole realm of cinema. 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:45.240 By the way, just as one example of other film 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:47.640 subcultures of India, I know, there is also the so 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:51.680 called Tollywood, which refers to to Hollywood with a tea, 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:57.080 referring to films made in the Telugu language, which is 0:06:57.120 --> 0:06:59.080 one of the many languages of India. 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:02.200 Yeah. Yeah, And then likewise you have in Pakistan you 0:07:02.279 --> 0:07:07.479 have Lollywood that is centered in Lahore. I didn't know 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:10.960 anything about Lollywood either until I started absorbing some of 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:15.400 these extras on these discs. But this film Parana Mandha 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:18.080 from eighty four is very much Bollywood. It is a 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:22.040 Bollywood film, it is a Bollywood horror film, and it's 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:24.080 going to be interesting to discuss exactly what all of 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:28.320 that means, because, to a very large degree, the filmmakers here, 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:32.680 the Ramsey Brothers, are pushing into an area that had 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:38.200 traditionally been less successful and more of fringe within Bollywood cinema. 0:07:38.560 --> 0:07:40.520 But still it's going to have things in it that 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:45.520 are very much part of the Bollywood blueprint, and that 0:07:45.680 --> 0:07:50.400 includes a compelling story of starcrossed lovers, a fair amount 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:55.600 of family melodrama, multiple music numbers. Now this was interesting. 0:07:55.680 --> 0:07:57.720 I was looking at an excer where was an interview 0:07:57.760 --> 0:08:01.200 with a critic Omar Khan, and it out that eight 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:04.240 or so musical numbers per movie is pretty standard. 0:08:04.720 --> 0:08:07.960 Oh so this seems under the average, right. I think 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:10.520 there were maybe five in this movie? 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:13.480 Is that right? I lost count after a little while, 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:15.840 just because I'm not used to seeing any in my heart, 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:18.480 but I saw something where he was talking about a 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:20.640 later Ramsey Brothers film where he's like, well, there are 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:22.920 only four musical numbers in this which may seem like 0:08:22.960 --> 0:08:26.240 a lot too outsiders, but like really it's like a 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:29.360 half load. But on top of the music, on top 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:31.680 of the horror, which we'll get to, we also have 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:35.520 martial arts action, you got a little dancing. You've got 0:08:35.679 --> 0:08:40.600 some comedic segments which we're probably not going to talk 0:08:40.600 --> 0:08:43.520 about too much other than to say they are awful. 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:48.080 But all of this comes together into what felt to 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:50.360 me it's kind of like a circus, right. It's like 0:08:50.400 --> 0:08:52.160 you go to a circus. They're going to be a 0:08:52.240 --> 0:08:54.680 number of acts. You may not be there primarily to 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:57.360 see the clowns. You may be there to see the 0:08:57.840 --> 0:09:00.640 trapeze act, but the clowns are going to be there 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:06.680 because somebody came with the expectation of clowns. Within talk 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:09.800 of Bollywood film in particular, i've seen this described as 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:14.359 Massala film. That is a reference to the spice blend. 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:16.920 You know, you're going to the theater to see this show, 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:20.040 and by golly, it needs to deliver a little something 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:22.280 for everyone. A little of this spice, a little of that, 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:24.920 all under the big top of cinema. 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:26.760 Now, if it sounds like that's a lot to fit 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:30.000 into one movie. It is. This is a long movie. 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:33.400 This is definitely the longest movie we've covered on Weird House, right. 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:37.120 Yeah, it beats out Blade by twenty minutes, which I 0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:39.080 think is it's important to keep that in mind because 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:43.280 it's not absurdly long like they are longer. Plenty of 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:46.480 longer Bollywood films, and there are plenty of longer Western 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:50.679 films as well. Avatar two is longer than Piranha Mander, 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:55.200 so you know, don't necessarily let the length, you know, 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:58.880 keep you away from these films. And there's an intermission too, 0:09:58.960 --> 0:09:59.600 so you got that. 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:01.480 Going for Love an intermission. 0:10:01.679 --> 0:10:04.640 Now, the disc we watched this on and I'll give 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:07.320 a full mention of that and just a bit here 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:12.199 has an introduction from Indian horror expert Tim Paxton. He 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:16.160 provides the intro and he points out that Parana Mandir 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:20.440 is one of the most important films in Bollywood history 0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:24.160 and probably the most important film in the history of 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:28.240 Indian horror cinema specifically. In one of the interesting things 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:30.600 here is produced on a very modest budget, but it 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:33.520 was a colossal hit. I was looking at some of 0:10:33.520 --> 0:10:35.520 the numbers and if I was doing my math correctly, 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:39.920 it multiplied its budget in revenue on the scale of 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:44.560 something like Rocky or Blair Witch Project like that level 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:47.920 of success. Just did an amazing business. 0:10:48.440 --> 0:10:50.960 Have you read anything from somebody who knows about the 0:10:50.960 --> 0:10:53.959 Bollywood market like what audience has responded to so much 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:56.960 about this movie in particular? Like why was it so popular? 0:10:57.520 --> 0:10:59.760 Well, Omar Khan gets into this a little bit on 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:03.320 some of the extras from this Blu ray set, and 0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:06.600 a lot of it kind of comes down to luck, 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:09.120 you know, Like the Ramses at this point had been 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:12.720 pumping out horror content since seventy two, I believe, and 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:16.040 none of those films had certainly had anything like this success. 0:11:16.040 --> 0:11:17.800 But they were out there. It was on the fringes, 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:20.000 you know, And so I mean, I guess part of 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:23.000 it is like by this point they definitely knew what 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:25.200 they were doing with a number of these elements. They 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:27.720 knew how to put together things, they knew how to 0:11:27.760 --> 0:11:30.800 do them a sola film offering, So they did have 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:33.720 a little bit for everybody. And I don't know, it 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:35.960 was just like the right time, Like audience has just 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:38.880 really responded to it. And he described it as being 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:43.840 like a generational date movie. Like if you were going 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:46.880 to cinemas in India during this time period, you saw 0:11:46.960 --> 0:11:50.960 this movie and it was also he points out, you know, 0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:54.680 probably going to be especially for how mainstream it became. 0:11:55.160 --> 0:11:58.440 It was offering things people just hadn't seen before because 0:11:58.720 --> 0:12:04.360 Western horror films could only really enter into like the 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:08.400 general zeitgeist there so much because they weren't coming in 0:12:08.440 --> 0:12:11.520 on like satellite TV or anything. They were they were 0:12:11.520 --> 0:12:13.040 coming in on it. They weren't being shown in the 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:14.880 theater for the most part. They were coming in on 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:18.040 VHS tapes, and those were in rare you know, and 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:19.800 there were those were hard to get. Only certain people 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:23.280 had access to those. And so this is a film 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:25.760 that has some really scary stuff in it, and you 0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:28.319 can just imagine how much more scary it is if 0:12:28.360 --> 0:12:31.720 you didn't have direct exposure to say The Exorcist or 0:12:32.640 --> 0:12:35.120 the first Evil Dead movie or something like that. 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:37.120 I can also see how it would be such a 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:40.240 great date movie since it has you know, it's like, 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:42.760 it's like scary so the classic cliches. It gets you 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:46.079 hugging clothes because you know, because the sam reas out 0:12:46.080 --> 0:12:47.440 here are about to do something evil. 0:12:47.559 --> 0:12:50.200 But it's also got a great love story. Yeah yeah, 0:12:50.200 --> 0:12:52.080 you got again. You've got a romance at the heart 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:54.240 of it. You've got family melodrama the heart of it. 0:12:54.559 --> 0:12:56.360 You've got the music, You've got the comedy, You've got 0:12:56.400 --> 0:13:00.240 the dancing girl. You've got all these things that that 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:02.720 that any given viewer is going to be wanting to 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:05.520 see out of a Bollywood film. But it's also offering 0:13:05.840 --> 0:13:09.120 something that is new, and that the newness ends up 0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:12.920 being key because this kicks off a horror boom in India. 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:15.439 There the Ramsey Brothers end up coming out a lot 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:20.000 of additional horror films. They have competitors, and also, you know, 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:22.719 other folks just jump in to try and ride that bandwagon, 0:13:23.240 --> 0:13:25.520 and it actually they end up writing it out by 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:29.440 something like I want to say ninety two, so the 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:32.600 boom doesn't last too long. But during that time, everybody 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:35.120 gets in there and and some of the films are 0:13:35.120 --> 0:13:37.679 supposed to be quite good, but there's a sort of 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:40.080 sameness to everything, and after a while people seen it 0:13:40.120 --> 0:13:43.400 and it loses that new edge that this film seemed 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:43.679 to have. 0:13:44.120 --> 0:13:45.880 I think a similar thing happened with some of the 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:48.360 biggest money making horror films in the United States in 0:13:48.400 --> 0:13:51.960 the eighties. Also kind of the slasher formula got repeated 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:53.319 and played out to death. 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:56.439 Yeah, or the or later on the speaking of blair Witch, 0:13:56.559 --> 0:14:01.480 the found footage formula, because you know, that's a case where, 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:03.679 for the most part, people hadn't really seen a film 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:06.439 like this. It was produced on a very low budget, 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:10.000 made tremendous money, and lots of folks jumped in there 0:14:10.040 --> 0:14:14.760 to try and recreate that success, and god goodness, off 0:14:14.800 --> 0:14:19.040 the top of my head, i'm not sure anybody really did, so, Yeah, 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:22.440 I think it's a it's a good comparison, though only 0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:24.840 in terms of like sort of business and impact, not 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:25.680 so much style. 0:14:26.240 --> 0:14:29.320 I think following the blair Witch model, the Paranormal Activity 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:33.680 franchise did pretty good, Okay, I think, hmmm, I'm trying 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:36.560 to think of another one. I don't know. Yeah, I mean, 0:14:36.600 --> 0:14:39.080 the found footage style is obviously very appealing because it's 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:43.600 cheap to make. But when people were trying to just make, 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:46.480 you know, cash in on found footage movies with very 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:49.600 uninspired ideas, I think a lot of them missed out 0:14:49.640 --> 0:14:52.680 on how creative the original blair Witch project actually was. 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:55.440 Yeah. Yeah, and I mean that's that's kind of like 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:59.440 written across the horror genre. Wherever you look, right, a 0:14:59.480 --> 0:15:03.080 successful horror movie comes out and somebody's gonna think I 0:15:03.120 --> 0:15:06.760 can do that. Horror is easy. Horror films can't be 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:09.800 that hard to do, and there is an art to it. 0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:12.960 There is a certain amount of style, and then there's 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:15.160 a certain amount of luck to hitting things just right. 0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:19.160 And that's what Perana Mandir seems to have done. Let's 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:21.840 see just a couple of other notes. Paxton points out 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:26.840 that this movie, which deals specifically with a resurrected, evil 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:32.480 decapitated wizard, does draw heavily on two prior films, one 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:35.400 American in one Spanish nineteen fifty eight is The Thing 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:38.200 that Couldn't Die that stars Robin Hughes as the Wizard 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:42.560 Gideon Drew, and nineteen seventy two's Horror Rises from the 0:15:42.600 --> 0:15:47.720 Tomb starring Paul Nashy as the Wizard Alaak Demarnac. This 0:15:47.760 --> 0:15:50.280 is a film, of course, we discussed on Weird House Cinema. 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:52.880 I did not expect that. Yeah, Paul Nashy plays the Wizard. 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:55.320 He's actually part of like an evil source of or 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:58.200 power couple in Horror Rises from the Tomb, Right he 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:01.360 has like a white for a girlfriend who's also a 0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:02.120 powerful wizard. 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:04.880 Yeah. I mean the thing about Paul Nashy films is 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:08.200 Paul Nashy monsters you're supposed to feel some sort of 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:10.680 sympathy for, you know, That's where he's coming from. He's 0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:16.760 coming from that love of universal horror and sympathy for 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:21.680 the monster the wizard. In this film, Samri is unlovable. 0:16:21.720 --> 0:16:26.320 He is just a complete monster. Every crime that is 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:29.160 committable he has done. We are not meant to have 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:33.400 any sympathy at all for Samri. And ultimately, I have 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:35.560 to say, even though the early stages of the film do, 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:38.840 like the historical opening does kind of mirror the opening 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:41.280 of Horizons from the Tomb, it ultimately goes in its 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:45.920 own direction as opposed to being anything like a clone 0:16:46.000 --> 0:16:46.840 of that movie. 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:49.280 Well, on one hand, yes, I agree, Samri is not 0:16:49.400 --> 0:16:52.240 sympathetic at all in terms of the narrative. He doesn't 0:16:52.280 --> 0:16:55.280 have like a tragic love story or anything like that. 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:59.720 There's nothing likable about him except just his physical vibe. 0:16:59.840 --> 0:17:02.480 Like the presence of the actor who plays Summary in 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:04.200 the opening is so cool. 0:17:04.480 --> 0:17:09.560 Oh absolutely, Yeah. The performance here by aj Agarwal is 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:12.800 tremendous and this is a role that launched him as 0:17:12.920 --> 0:17:17.840 like a true monster actor for Indian horror cinema. 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:19.359 We'll have to come back to him. 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:21.680 Yeah, we'll come back to him for sure, because he's 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:24.040 at a light. There are long stretches of the film 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:28.560 where he's not there, but when he is there, he's tremendous. Right. 0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:30.600 Just a couple other small points before we get to 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:35.560 the trailer. Basically the film is predominantly in Hindi, though 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:37.840 the characters do throw in a little English here and there, 0:17:38.240 --> 0:17:41.200 and the action ventures into a rural setting, so you'll 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:44.880 hear some characters speaking another dialect or language. It's referenced 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:47.840 in the Hindi dialogue as well, but I couldn't find 0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:49.639 an indicator of which language this is. 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:53.080 I noticed something interesting in the movie where a couple 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:57.400 of times somebody would say something in Hindi and then 0:17:57.440 --> 0:18:00.960 they would say the same thing again in Dash, almost 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:03.960 as if for emphasis. And I don't know if that's 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:07.200 like something specific to Bollywood movies or just a quirk 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:10.399 of this movie in particular, or a convention of of 0:18:10.480 --> 0:18:13.080 Hindi language in general. I don't know, but I thought 0:18:13.080 --> 0:18:13.800 that was interesting. 0:18:14.040 --> 0:18:17.400 Yeah, with that, with that specifically and just generally out there, 0:18:17.680 --> 0:18:20.439 we'd love to hear from listeners after this episode. If 0:18:20.440 --> 0:18:23.919 you have more experience with Bollywood cinema, if you, if 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:26.960 you speak Hindi, if you certainly, if you, if you 0:18:27.119 --> 0:18:30.800 have experience with the theater, experience of going to these films, 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:33.840 all of that is on the table because I've heard 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:36.560 it pointed out that it's one thing to watch like 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:39.680 a Bollywood film or Bollywood horror film in your living 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:43.360 room by yourself. But that, of course was not how 0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:45.840 they intended a film like this to be viewed. No, 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:47.320 this was to be viewed in the theater. 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:50.000 Can you imagine how much fun it would have been 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:52.400 to see this in a pact theater of like young 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:53.520 people out on date night? 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:58.160 Oh yeah? And can you imagine how how afraid people were? Again, 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:00.639 if you hadn't seen many horror films and you had 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:04.160 to see Sammar I mean, he's he's terrifying almost all 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:07.160 the time on the screen. He's at least unnerving, if 0:19:07.200 --> 0:19:09.919 not just outright terrifying. All right, Well, I mean the 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:12.800 elevator pitch on this one is basically it's the biggest 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:16.119 Bollywood horror film of them all. It's the It's the 0:19:16.200 --> 0:19:21.400 granddaddy of Bollywood horror films. It's your basic evil wizard, 0:19:22.880 --> 0:19:28.160 multi generational family curse romance film with added music and comedy. 0:19:28.600 --> 0:19:30.679 We have a trailer here. I don't think we're going 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:32.439 to play at all, but we'll play at least a 0:19:32.560 --> 0:19:34.639 nice sampling of this so you can get sort of 0:19:34.640 --> 0:19:36.639 an audio taste of what's ahead. 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:40.880 May shut out of how many? How about all right? 0:20:41.000 --> 0:20:43.199 Well, before we go any further, if you would like 0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:46.000 to watch this movie for yourself, if you'd like to 0:20:46.080 --> 0:20:48.000 check out here, go and see it and then come 0:20:48.040 --> 0:20:49.800 back to the rest of the episode. Well, you don't 0:20:49.840 --> 0:20:52.600 have to depend on some sort of weird stream to 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:56.800 view this film, uh, Because there's a wonderful Bollywood Horror 0:20:56.800 --> 0:21:00.960 limited edition box set that is out from Mondo Macabre. 0:21:01.640 --> 0:21:04.040 And I checked out a couple of discs from this 0:21:04.440 --> 0:21:06.040 the disc for this film and then a disc for 0:21:06.080 --> 0:21:08.639 another movie that had some extras on it, and we 0:21:08.720 --> 0:21:12.919 rented these discs from Atlanta's own videodrome rental store. 0:21:13.520 --> 0:21:15.639 It's a great print, though it does warn you that 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:18.720 there will be some variable quality and different scenes of 0:21:18.720 --> 0:21:21.959 the movie due to just like storage issues with the 0:21:21.960 --> 0:21:25.760 film over the years, so the restoration is a bit 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:28.960 patchy in places, but for the most part it looks great. 0:21:29.200 --> 0:21:31.480 Yeah, there's one particular I don't even know what to 0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:34.639 call it, but there's some sort of an error in 0:21:35.320 --> 0:21:37.720 the final print that we have on the disc here 0:21:37.760 --> 0:21:40.000 that has almost kind of a psychedelic quality to it, 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:41.720 and I didn't really I don't think i'd seen it 0:21:41.760 --> 0:21:45.840 on a film before, this particular kind of noise. So 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:48.920 it's very watchable. Nothing in this gets in the way 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:59.400 of your enjoyment of the movie. All right, Well, let's 0:21:59.440 --> 0:22:02.240 jump into the people involved here. The main ones to 0:22:02.280 --> 0:22:08.120 really highlight here are the Ramsey brothers, the directors. It's 0:22:08.160 --> 0:22:12.840 impossible to discuss Indian horror cinema without discussing the Ramsey brothers. Again, 0:22:13.119 --> 0:22:16.280 they had been doing this since seventy two, and this 0:22:16.320 --> 0:22:19.960 is the movie that kicked off an enormous boom in 0:22:20.560 --> 0:22:24.840 Indian cinema for horror, and even like contemporary horror movies, 0:22:25.160 --> 0:22:27.680 they still have connections to the work of the Ramsey 0:22:27.760 --> 0:22:32.520 brothers here. Now, Ramsey Brothers, I think can at times 0:22:32.560 --> 0:22:36.320 refer to just different sons and grandsons of f U Ramsey. 0:22:37.200 --> 0:22:40.679 But in particular the directors here are Shyam Ramsey and 0:22:40.720 --> 0:22:45.520 Tulsi Ramsey. Shyam lived fifty two through twenty nineteen and 0:22:45.600 --> 0:22:49.560 Tulsi lived nineteen forty four through twenty eighteen. Other Ramsey 0:22:49.600 --> 0:22:51.719 brothers would get in on the directing game at times, 0:22:51.840 --> 0:22:55.479 like Kishu and Kieran. But yeah, these are the main 0:22:55.520 --> 0:22:58.600 two we're talking about. They're the ones who directed horror 0:22:58.600 --> 0:23:03.000 films in the early seventies, with a nineteen seventy two film. 0:23:03.440 --> 0:23:06.119 In the title for this one translates to two yards 0:23:06.200 --> 0:23:09.360