Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb.
Speaker 1: We have another episode from the past for you here today.
Speaker 1: This one originally published six thirty, twenty twenty three. In it,
Speaker 1: we cover the Ramsey Brothers nineteen eighty four film Purana Mandar.
Speaker 1: This one is a lot of fun. This was our
Speaker 1: first dive into Bollywood horror. I say first, we haven't
Speaker 1: actually done a second Bollywood horror film yet. So as
Speaker 1: we mentioned in this episode, if you have suggestions Ramsey
Speaker 1: Brothers pictures or other examples of Bollywood horror or science
Speaker 1: fiction that we should cover, write in with your suggestions. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's go ahead and jump right in.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema.
Speaker 3: This is Rob Lamb and this is Joe McCormick.
Speaker 1: Today. This is an exciting intrigue in the Weird House
Speaker 1: Cinema catalog because we are going to be covering our
Speaker 1: first film from India. It's always fun when we can
Speaker 1: dive into a new film culture, a new national film tradition.
Speaker 1: And I know for me personally Indian cinema, Bollywood in particular,
Speaker 1: this is a whole area of film that I really
Speaker 1: don't have much of any exposure to. So I was
Speaker 1: excited to watch this movie research it a bit because
Speaker 1: not only is it is it Bollywood, it is Bollywood horror.
Speaker 1: We're going to be talking about Purana mandir a if
Speaker 1: not only a horror movie, but like the horror movie
Speaker 1: from India from nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 3: This is also my first full viewing of a Bollywood movie.
Speaker 3: I've watched a lot of clips from them before. Often,
Speaker 3: like people will clip out really great musical numbers from
Speaker 3: them and put them online, so I've seen plenty of those,
Speaker 3: but yeah, this was the first time I've seen the
Speaker 3: whole thing. But man, this movie was mostly great, at
Speaker 3: some points awful, and really got my mind cranking about
Speaker 3: the what it means to have musical numbers in a film.
Speaker 1: Yes, because one of the if you don't know anything,
Speaker 1: or you don't know much about Indian cinema and Bollywood
Speaker 1: in particular, you may know that there are musical numbers.
Speaker 1: It's a big song and dance numbers. And I think
Speaker 1: at times this can be like knowing this can be
Speaker 1: kind of like a barrier to entry. You might think, well,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I'm up for that. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm not a musical fan. Or even if you decide, oh,
Speaker 1: well there's a horror genre, I want to get into that,
Speaker 1: but then you realize there are musical numbers, maybe you're
Speaker 1: going to hold back. But yeah, it's interesting to sort
Speaker 1: of break that down, like, well, how different is that
Speaker 1: from anything we watch over here? You know, we have
Speaker 1: this have a genre of musical obviously it goes in
Speaker 1: various directions, but also we have strong musical segments in
Speaker 1: various pictures where you'll feature a particular track. It just
Speaker 1: maybe you don't have characters actually singing that song.
Speaker 3: Yes, I agree with all of that. I mean it
Speaker 3: really got me thinking, why don't American horror movies tend
Speaker 3: to have musical numbers in them? And if they did,
Speaker 3: why would we say, well, actually, this is just a
Speaker 3: totally different genre now it is a musical. Why couldn't
Speaker 3: all genres have musical numbers, Because, as you say, music
Speaker 3: features in other movies, diagetic and non diegetic music features
Speaker 3: in as long as the characters aren't singing, it's not
Speaker 3: a musical. But there's no particular reason I think of why.
Speaker 3: The fact that characters do sing in a movie should
Speaker 3: make that a separate genre from whatever the narrative content is.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I think we should have more fantasy, sci
Speaker 3: fi movies, whatever, horror movies that have characters singing songs,
Speaker 3: because songs are great. Now that I've experienced a Bollywood film,
Speaker 3: it in no way takes away from my enjoyment of
Speaker 3: this as a cheesy horror movie, and I don't really
Speaker 3: see why you would resist. I think maybe there's one
Speaker 3: impulse that says, like musical numbers could take away from
Speaker 3: the seriousness of the film. There's another that says it
Speaker 3: could take away from the quote realism. I'd say, if
Speaker 3: you're overly concerned with either of those, maybe you shouldn't
Speaker 3: be making a horror movie.
Speaker 1: I think another sort of barrier to entry, or sort
Speaker 1: of expectation is that might be for many and it
Speaker 1: was kind of this way for me. Is I expected
Speaker 1: going into a musical number to be clunkier and take
Speaker 1: me out of the picture more. And there are sections
Speaker 1: of the film that do manage to take me out
Speaker 1: of the picture and are clunky, but the musical numbers,
Speaker 1: like you get the impression like this is down to
Speaker 1: like an art, just in Indian cinema in general, and
Speaker 1: so if a movie's going into a musical number, they
Speaker 1: know what they're do doing, like you're gonna have a
Speaker 1: smooth takeoff and landing with the emotional arc of whatever
Speaker 1: that particular song happens to be.
Speaker 3: Every time a song kicked in, I was like, Okay,
Speaker 3: now we're cooking. Even the kind of sad, slower paced songs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, because it's not coming out of nowhere, It's
Speaker 1: coming out of what's going on emotionally with the characters,
Speaker 1: or especially towards the end of this picture, with like
Speaker 1: the driving nature of the plot.
Speaker 3: Oh yes, the human Sacrifice song I think was my
Speaker 3: favorite song in the movie.
Speaker 1: All right, So again, this was my first Bollywood film.
Speaker 1: I'd never watched one in its entirety, like you had
Speaker 1: seen some clips, so I had to do a little
Speaker 1: extra reading about everything. There's a lot of things about
Speaker 1: Bollywood cinema that I was not familiar with and just
Speaker 1: did not know about. So, for instance, bear with me
Speaker 1: if you already knew all of this. But when we
Speaker 1: talk about Bollywood cinema, we're talking about films specifically coming
Speaker 1: out of the Mumbai Film industry Mumbai formerly known as Bombay.
Speaker 1: You get it, like Bombay plus Hollywood equals Bollywood. And
Speaker 1: while it's perhaps the most well known internationally of the
Speaker 1: various Indian film centers, Indian cinema is not a monolith
Speaker 1: like India itself. India cinema consists of various languages and
Speaker 1: cultures and in the different cinematic traditions and centers have
Speaker 1: like different strengths, different histories and so forth. So some
Speaker 1: of the various extras on the disc or discs that
Speaker 1: we looked at for this as well as some articles,
Speaker 1: it was a real learning experience for me to familiarize
Speaker 1: myself somewhat with this. I mean it goes beyond genre
Speaker 1: with this, just whole realm of cinema.
Speaker 3: By the way, just as one example of other film
Speaker 3: subcultures of India, I know, there is also the so
Speaker 3: called Tollywood, which refers to to Hollywood with a tea,
Speaker 3: referring to films made in the Telugu language, which is
Speaker 3: one of the many languages of India.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, And then likewise you have in Pakistan you
Speaker 1: have Lollywood that is centered in Lahore. I didn't know
Speaker 1: anything about Lollywood either until I started absorbing some of
Speaker 1: these extras on these discs. But this film Parana Mandha
Speaker 1: from eighty four is very much Bollywood. It is a
Speaker 1: Bollywood film, it is a Bollywood horror film, and it's
Speaker 1: going to be interesting to discuss exactly what all of
Speaker 1: that means, because, to a very large degree, the filmmakers here,
Speaker 1: the Ramsey Brothers, are pushing into an area that had
Speaker 1: traditionally been less successful and more of fringe within Bollywood cinema.
Speaker 1: But still it's going to have things in it that
Speaker 1: are very much part of the Bollywood blueprint, and that
Speaker 1: includes a compelling story of starcrossed lovers, a fair amount
Speaker 1: of family melodrama, multiple music numbers. Now this was interesting.
Speaker 1: I was looking at an excer where was an interview
Speaker 1: with a critic Omar Khan, and it out that eight
Speaker 1: or so musical numbers per movie is pretty standard.
Speaker 3: Oh so this seems under the average, right. I think
Speaker 3: there were maybe five in this movie?
Speaker 1: Is that right? I lost count after a little while,
Speaker 1: just because I'm not used to seeing any in my heart,
Speaker 1: but I saw something where he was talking about a
Speaker 1: later Ramsey Brothers film where he's like, well, there are
Speaker 1: only four musical numbers in this which may seem like
Speaker 1: a lot too outsiders, but like really it's like a
Speaker 1: half load. But on top of the music, on top
Speaker 1: of the horror, which we'll get to, we also have
Speaker 1: martial arts action, you got a little dancing. You've got
Speaker 1: some comedic segments which we're probably not going to talk
Speaker 1: about too much other than to say they are awful.
Speaker 1: But all of this comes together into what felt to
Speaker 1: me it's kind of like a circus, right. It's like
Speaker 1: you go to a circus. They're going to be a
Speaker 1: number of acts. You may not be there primarily to
Speaker 1: see the clowns. You may be there to see the
Speaker 1: trapeze act, but the clowns are going to be there
Speaker 1: because somebody came with the expectation of clowns. Within talk
Speaker 1: of Bollywood film in particular, i've seen this described as
Speaker 1: Massala film. That is a reference to the spice blend.
Speaker 1: You know, you're going to the theater to see this show,
Speaker 1: and by golly, it needs to deliver a little something
Speaker 1: for everyone. A little of this spice, a little of that,
Speaker 1: all under the big top of cinema.
Speaker 3: Now, if it sounds like that's a lot to fit
Speaker 3: into one movie. It is. This is a long movie.
Speaker 3: This is definitely the longest movie we've covered on Weird House, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it beats out Blade by twenty minutes, which I
Speaker 1: think is it's important to keep that in mind because
Speaker 1: it's not absurdly long like they are longer. Plenty of
Speaker 1: longer Bollywood films, and there are plenty of longer Western
Speaker 1: films as well. Avatar two is longer than Piranha Mander,
Speaker 1: so you know, don't necessarily let the length, you know,
Speaker 1: keep you away from these films. And there's an intermission too,
Speaker 1: so you got that.
Speaker 3: Going for Love an intermission.
Speaker 1: Now, the disc we watched this on and I'll give
Speaker 1: a full mention of that and just a bit here
Speaker 1: has an introduction from Indian horror expert Tim Paxton. He
Speaker 1: provides the intro and he points out that Parana Mandir
Speaker 1: is one of the most important films in Bollywood history
Speaker 1: and probably the most important film in the history of
Speaker 1: Indian horror cinema specifically. In one of the interesting things
Speaker 1: here is produced on a very modest budget, but it
Speaker 1: was a colossal hit. I was looking at some of
Speaker 1: the numbers and if I was doing my math correctly,
Speaker 1: it multiplied its budget in revenue on the scale of
Speaker 1: something like Rocky or Blair Witch Project like that level
Speaker 1: of success. Just did an amazing business.
Speaker 3: Have you read anything from somebody who knows about the
Speaker 3: Bollywood market like what audience has responded to so much
Speaker 3: about this movie in particular? Like why was it so popular?
Speaker 1: Well, Omar Khan gets into this a little bit on
Speaker 1: some of the extras from this Blu ray set, and
Speaker 1: a lot of it kind of comes down to luck,
Speaker 1: you know, Like the Ramses at this point had been
Speaker 1: pumping out horror content since seventy two, I believe, and
Speaker 1: none of those films had certainly had anything like this success.
Speaker 1: But they were out there. It was on the fringes,
Speaker 1: you know, And so I mean, I guess part of
Speaker 1: it is like by this point they definitely knew what
Speaker 1: they were doing with a number of these elements. They
Speaker 1: knew how to put together things, they knew how to
Speaker 1: do them a sola film offering, So they did have
Speaker 1: a little bit for everybody. And I don't know, it
Speaker 1: was just like the right time, Like audience has just
Speaker 1: really responded to it. And he described it as being
Speaker 1: like a generational date movie. Like if you were going
Speaker 1: to cinemas in India during this time period, you saw
Speaker 1: this movie and it was also he points out, you know,
Speaker 1: probably going to be especially for how mainstream it became.
Speaker 1: It was offering things people just hadn't seen before because
Speaker 1: Western horror films could only really enter into like the
Speaker 1: general zeitgeist there so much because they weren't coming in
Speaker 1: on like satellite TV or anything. They were they were
Speaker 1: coming in on it. They weren't being shown in the
Speaker 1: theater for the most part. They were coming in on
Speaker 1: VHS tapes, and those were in rare you know, and
Speaker 1: there were those were hard to get. Only certain people
Speaker 1: had access to those. And so this is a film
Speaker 1: that has some really scary stuff in it, and you
Speaker 1: can just imagine how much more scary it is if
Speaker 1: you didn't have direct exposure to say The Exorcist or
Speaker 1: the first Evil Dead movie or something like that.
Speaker 3: I can also see how it would be such a
Speaker 3: great date movie since it has you know, it's like,
Speaker 3: it's like scary so the classic cliches. It gets you
Speaker 3: hugging clothes because you know, because the sam reas out
Speaker 3: here are about to do something evil.
Speaker 1: But it's also got a great love story. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: you got again. You've got a romance at the heart
Speaker 1: of it. You've got family melodrama the heart of it.
Speaker 1: You've got the music, You've got the comedy, You've got
Speaker 1: the dancing girl. You've got all these things that that
Speaker 1: that any given viewer is going to be wanting to
Speaker 1: see out of a Bollywood film. But it's also offering
Speaker 1: something that is new, and that the newness ends up
Speaker 1: being key because this kicks off a horror boom in India.
Speaker 1: There the Ramsey Brothers end up coming out a lot
Speaker 1: of additional horror films. They have competitors, and also, you know,
Speaker 1: other folks just jump in to try and ride that bandwagon,
Speaker 1: and it actually they end up writing it out by
Speaker 1: something like I want to say ninety two, so the
Speaker 1: boom doesn't last too long. But during that time, everybody
Speaker 1: gets in there and and some of the films are
Speaker 1: supposed to be quite good, but there's a sort of
Speaker 1: sameness to everything, and after a while people seen it
Speaker 1: and it loses that new edge that this film seemed
Speaker 1: to have.
Speaker 3: I think a similar thing happened with some of the
Speaker 3: biggest money making horror films in the United States in
Speaker 3: the eighties. Also kind of the slasher formula got repeated
Speaker 3: and played out to death.
Speaker 1: Yeah, or the or later on the speaking of blair Witch,
Speaker 1: the found footage formula, because you know, that's a case where,
Speaker 1: for the most part, people hadn't really seen a film
Speaker 1: like this. It was produced on a very low budget,
Speaker 1: made tremendous money, and lots of folks jumped in there
Speaker 1: to try and recreate that success, and god goodness, off
Speaker 1: the top of my head, i'm not sure anybody really did, so, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's a it's a good comparison, though only
Speaker 1: in terms of like sort of business and impact, not
Speaker 1: so much style.
Speaker 3: I think following the blair Witch model, the Paranormal Activity
Speaker 3: franchise did pretty good, Okay, I think, hmmm, I'm trying
Speaker 3: to think of another one. I don't know. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 3: the found footage style is obviously very appealing because it's
Speaker 3: cheap to make. But when people were trying to just make,
Speaker 3: you know, cash in on found footage movies with very
Speaker 3: uninspired ideas, I think a lot of them missed out
Speaker 3: on how creative the original blair Witch project actually was.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, and I mean that's that's kind of like
Speaker 1: written across the horror genre. Wherever you look, right, a
Speaker 1: successful horror movie comes out and somebody's gonna think I
Speaker 1: can do that. Horror is easy. Horror films can't be
Speaker 1: that hard to do, and there is an art to it.
Speaker 1: There is a certain amount of style, and then there's
Speaker 1: a certain amount of luck to hitting things just right.
Speaker 1: And that's what Perana Mandir seems to have done. Let's
Speaker 1: see just a couple of other notes. Paxton points out
Speaker 1: that this movie, which deals specifically with a resurrected, evil
Speaker 1: decapitated wizard, does draw heavily on two prior films, one
Speaker 1: American in one Spanish nineteen fifty eight is The Thing
Speaker 1: that Couldn't Die that stars Robin Hughes as the Wizard
Speaker 1: Gideon Drew, and nineteen seventy two's Horror Rises from the
Speaker 1: Tomb starring Paul Nashy as the Wizard Alaak Demarnac. This
Speaker 1: is a film, of course, we discussed on Weird House Cinema.
Speaker 3: I did not expect that. Yeah, Paul Nashy plays the Wizard.
Speaker 3: He's actually part of like an evil source of or
Speaker 3: power couple in Horror Rises from the Tomb, Right he
Speaker 3: has like a white for a girlfriend who's also a
Speaker 3: powerful wizard.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean the thing about Paul Nashy films is
Speaker 1: Paul Nashy monsters you're supposed to feel some sort of
Speaker 1: sympathy for, you know, That's where he's coming from. He's
Speaker 1: coming from that love of universal horror and sympathy for
Speaker 1: the monster the wizard. In this film, Samri is unlovable.
Speaker 1: He is just a complete monster. Every crime that is
Speaker 1: committable he has done. We are not meant to have
Speaker 1: any sympathy at all for Samri. And ultimately, I have
Speaker 1: to say, even though the early stages of the film do,
Speaker 1: like the historical opening does kind of mirror the opening
Speaker 1: of Horizons from the Tomb, it ultimately goes in its
Speaker 1: own direction as opposed to being anything like a clone
Speaker 1: of that movie.
Speaker 3: Well, on one hand, yes, I agree, Samri is not
Speaker 3: sympathetic at all in terms of the narrative. He doesn't
Speaker 3: have like a tragic love story or anything like that.
Speaker 3: There's nothing likable about him except just his physical vibe.
Speaker 3: Like the presence of the actor who plays Summary in
Speaker 3: the opening is so cool.
Speaker 1: Oh absolutely, Yeah. The performance here by aj Agarwal is
Speaker 1: tremendous and this is a role that launched him as
Speaker 1: like a true monster actor for Indian horror cinema.
Speaker 3: We'll have to come back to him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll come back to him for sure, because he's
Speaker 1: at a light. There are long stretches of the film
Speaker 1: where he's not there, but when he is there, he's tremendous. Right.
Speaker 1: Just a couple other small points before we get to
Speaker 1: the trailer. Basically the film is predominantly in Hindi, though
Speaker 1: the characters do throw in a little English here and there,
Speaker 1: and the action ventures into a rural setting, so you'll
Speaker 1: hear some characters speaking another dialect or language. It's referenced
Speaker 1: in the Hindi dialogue as well, but I couldn't find
Speaker 1: an indicator of which language this is.
Speaker 3: I noticed something interesting in the movie where a couple
Speaker 3: of times somebody would say something in Hindi and then
Speaker 3: they would say the same thing again in Dash, almost
Speaker 3: as if for emphasis. And I don't know if that's
Speaker 3: like something specific to Bollywood movies or just a quirk
Speaker 3: of this movie in particular, or a convention of of
Speaker 3: Hindi language in general. I don't know, but I thought
Speaker 3: that was interesting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, with that, with that specifically and just generally out there,
Speaker 1: we'd love to hear from listeners after this episode. If
Speaker 1: you have more experience with Bollywood cinema, if you, if
Speaker 1: you speak Hindi, if you certainly, if you, if you
Speaker 1: have experience with the theater, experience of going to these films,
Speaker 1: all of that is on the table because I've heard
Speaker 1: it pointed out that it's one thing to watch like
Speaker 1: a Bollywood film or Bollywood horror film in your living
Speaker 1: room by yourself. But that, of course was not how
Speaker 1: they intended a film like this to be viewed. No,
Speaker 1: this was to be viewed in the theater.
Speaker 3: Can you imagine how much fun it would have been
Speaker 3: to see this in a pact theater of like young
Speaker 3: people out on date night?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah? And can you imagine how how afraid people were? Again,
Speaker 1: if you hadn't seen many horror films and you had
Speaker 1: to see Sammar I mean, he's he's terrifying almost all
Speaker 1: the time on the screen. He's at least unnerving, if
Speaker 1: not just outright terrifying. All right, Well, I mean the
Speaker 1: elevator pitch on this one is basically it's the biggest
Speaker 1: Bollywood horror film of them all. It's the It's the
Speaker 1: granddaddy of Bollywood horror films. It's your basic evil wizard,
Speaker 1: multi generational family curse romance film with added music and comedy.
Speaker 1: We have a trailer here. I don't think we're going
Speaker 1: to play at all, but we'll play at least a
Speaker 1: nice sampling of this so you can get sort of
Speaker 1: an audio taste of what's ahead.
Speaker 4: May shut out of how many? How about all right?
Speaker 1: Well, before we go any further, if you would like
Speaker 1: to watch this movie for yourself, if you'd like to
Speaker 1: check out here, go and see it and then come
Speaker 1: back to the rest of the episode. Well, you don't
Speaker 1: have to depend on some sort of weird stream to
Speaker 1: view this film, uh, Because there's a wonderful Bollywood Horror
Speaker 1: limited edition box set that is out from Mondo Macabre.
Speaker 1: And I checked out a couple of discs from this
Speaker 1: the disc for this film and then a disc for
Speaker 1: another movie that had some extras on it, and we
Speaker 1: rented these discs from Atlanta's own videodrome rental store.
Speaker 3: It's a great print, though it does warn you that
Speaker 3: there will be some variable quality and different scenes of
Speaker 3: the movie due to just like storage issues with the
Speaker 3: film over the years, so the restoration is a bit
Speaker 3: patchy in places, but for the most part it looks great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's one particular I don't even know what to
Speaker 1: call it, but there's some sort of an error in
Speaker 1: the final print that we have on the disc here
Speaker 1: that has almost kind of a psychedelic quality to it,
Speaker 1: and I didn't really I don't think i'd seen it
Speaker 1: on a film before, this particular kind of noise. So
Speaker 1: it's very watchable. Nothing in this gets in the way
Speaker 1: of your enjoyment of the movie. All right, Well, let's
Speaker 1: jump into the people involved here. The main ones to
Speaker 1: really highlight here are the Ramsey brothers, the directors. It's
Speaker 1: impossible to discuss Indian horror cinema without discussing the Ramsey brothers. Again,
Speaker 1: they had been doing this since seventy two, and this
Speaker 1: is the movie that kicked off an enormous boom in
Speaker 1: Indian cinema for horror, and even like contemporary horror movies,
Speaker 1: they still have connections to the work of the Ramsey
Speaker 1: brothers here. Now, Ramsey Brothers, I think can at times
Speaker 1: refer to just different sons and grandsons of f U Ramsey.
Speaker 1: But in particular the directors here are Shyam Ramsey and
Speaker 1: Tulsi Ramsey. Shyam lived fifty two through twenty nineteen and
Speaker 1: Tulsi lived nineteen forty four through twenty eighteen. Other Ramsey
Speaker 1: brothers would get in on the directing game at times,
Speaker 1: like Kishu and Kieran. But yeah, these are the main
Speaker 1: two we're talking about. They're the ones who directed horror
Speaker 1: films in the early seventies, with a nineteen seventy two film.
Speaker 1: In the title for this one translates to two yards
Speaker 1: under the ground, so already like kind of a grim
Speaker 1: beginning there. They followed this up with a string of
Speaker 1: horror and creature films. There's one from eighty two mat Kasaya.
Speaker 1: I'm probably mispronouncing that, but it looks interesting to me
Speaker 1: because it has some sort of like big creature water
Speaker 1: monster in it. I'm not sure this one is available
Speaker 1: widely in the West, but I put it on my
Speaker 1: radar because it looks interesting. Neat monster anyway. But anyway,
Speaker 1: all of these films that they were putting out, these
Speaker 1: were outliers. The horror pictures just weren't viewed as culturally viable.
Speaker 1: They weren't seen as potentially anything that would make money
Speaker 1: at the box office, so it was more fringe stuff.
Speaker 1: And you know a lot of these pictures, particularly Ramsey
Speaker 1: productions at the time, they were also pushing boundaries of
Speaker 1: what was accepted in Hindi cinema at the time. As again,
Speaker 1: as omar Con points out, most Indian film viewers had
Speaker 1: little or no exposure to Western horror films and Indian
Speaker 1: horror films were barely a thing. In fact, I saw
Speaker 1: an interview with aj Aguah, the main monster actor in
Speaker 1: this picture, and he said that he didn't know the
Speaker 1: difference between horror films and regular films before being cast
Speaker 1: by the Ramses. Like that's how little horror was established
Speaker 1: in like the general audience's mind. But with this movie,
Speaker 1: again it hits it just the right time, takes off.
Speaker 1: Nineteen eighty four becomes a huge hit, a generational date movie,
Speaker 1: as Con describes, it sets off this massive boom that
Speaker 1: doesn't really subside till ninety two. The Ramses continue to
Speaker 1: apply their trade, tons of competitors and imitators trying to
Speaker 1: get in on the craze as well, until overexposure kicks
Speaker 1: in and the Boom ties out. The Ramses followed this
Speaker 1: movie up with nineteen eighty five's Telephone nineteen eighty five's
Speaker 1: three D Summary, which is obviously the Yeah, the three
Speaker 1: D sequel of sorts to this movie. Well, but I
Speaker 1: thought the evil wizard was destroyed at the end of
Speaker 1: this movie. If an evil wizard makes you enough money,
Speaker 1: there's no destroying him. He will come back. There's a
Speaker 1: nineteen and I'm not Also, I haven't seen three D Samary.
Speaker 1: I assume it's Samri because it's the title is the
Speaker 1: name of the character. But you know, sometimes a movie
Speaker 1: like this, maybe it's not a direct sequel. Maybe it's
Speaker 1: a spiritual sequel. I'm not sure. But there are a
Speaker 1: slew of interesting looking features that they came out with
Speaker 1: in the wake of Parana Mandhir, including Takhana from eighty six,
Speaker 1: Verana from eighty eight, Pirani Haveli from eighty nine, and
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety's Bond Darwazo, which is said to be quite
Speaker 1: good more of a traditional Dracula style film, and after that,
Speaker 1: the well kind of drives up. One of their last
Speaker 1: big films, if not their last big film, was a
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety four movie titled Mahaka, which a number of
Speaker 1: you might be familiar with because it is to be kind,
Speaker 1: it is very inspired by Nightmare on Elm Street. It
Speaker 1: is at least a strong homage to Nightmare on Elm
Speaker 1: Street and features a Freddy Krueger esque character on the cover.
Speaker 1: So I think this one has gotten some amount of traction.
Speaker 1: If nothing else, you might have seen some clips or
Speaker 1: the poster art.
Speaker 3: It does have a guy with knives for fingers.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, yeah. And if you're not sure, like how
Speaker 1: to spell that title and you want to look it up,
Speaker 1: just do a search for like Bollywood Freddy Krueger and
Speaker 1: you will. You'll find it all right. The screenplay on
Speaker 1: this one was written by another Ramsey, Kumar Ramsey, who
Speaker 1: lived thirty six through twenty twenty one. He was the
Speaker 1: screenwriter and a number of their films. This is one
Speaker 1: of those situations where you know the brothers and the
Speaker 1: family here they'll often draw in some of the same talent,
Speaker 1: so this Ramsey also wrote Somari three D in a
Speaker 1: movie called Guest House. There are also three other contributors
Speaker 1: also credited here, but I couldn't find out much about them.
Speaker 1: But there's a story credit, there's a dialogue credit, and
Speaker 1: there's an assistant dialogue writer. All right, let's get into
Speaker 1: the cast. So we've talked about him already. But aj
Speaker 1: Agarwall I believe Aj is short for Annarud. He was
Speaker 1: born in nineteen forty nine. As of this recording is
Speaker 1: still out there. I think he's retired now, but yes,
Speaker 1: he plays our dark wizard of evil who's eventually going
Speaker 1: to rise from the tomb and get his head back
Speaker 1: and go on a rampage. He only acted in three
Speaker 1: Ramsey Brothers films. He played a monster in two of them,
Speaker 1: in Barana Mandir of course, in the follow up Samari
Speaker 1: three D or three D summary in eighty five. He
Speaker 1: also played more of a traditional dracula in that nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety film Band Do Waza, and he continued to act
Speaker 1: through twenty ten. Is retired now but mostly just almost
Speaker 1: exclusively in Hindi films. But he does have a role
Speaker 1: in Steven Summer's The Jungle Book from nineteen ninety four.
Speaker 1: I included a picture here for you, Joe. As you
Speaker 1: can see, he's playing heavy of some sort in this.
Speaker 1: He's standing next to the villain holding Lena Hetty by
Speaker 1: the arms.
Speaker 3: Well, that's also Carrie Elwis. I know all three of
Speaker 3: these actors. I don't think I would have recognized a
Speaker 3: single one of them in the screenshots.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, they're very young. I mean, especially Lena. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't have recognized her. But anyway, yeah, he's in it.
Speaker 1: He's very tall. He was like six four six', five,
Speaker 1: so especially among a lot of, actors he's pretty. Towering
Speaker 1: andy has just very pronounced. Features i've read this might
Speaker 1: have been due to like some sort of underlying medical
Speaker 1: condition as well that sort of gave him pronounced facial. Features. Also, yeah,
Speaker 1: again very tall and based ON i read an article
Speaker 1: about him AND i was looking at an interview conducted with,
Speaker 1: him and basically he made two goes at getting into
Speaker 1: acting before and after earning a civil engineering certificate or
Speaker 1: degree of some, sort but at both times he didn't
Speaker 1: have any. Luck until he had some sort of ill
Speaker 1: health or injury while working In, muntumbai and he looked
Speaker 1: even more haggard. Afterwards i'm not sure if he had
Speaker 1: some sort of like facial bruising or whatever the case may,
Speaker 1: be but someone came up to him and, said, hey
Speaker 1: you look pretty. Tough you should be in. Movies and he's, like,
Speaker 1: well that's What i've been trying to, do but nobody
Speaker 1: will hire. Me and they, said, say, well you know,
Speaker 1: what you need to go talk to The ramsey brothers
Speaker 1: because they will give you a. Chance and so he.
Speaker 1: Went he talked to The ramsey, brothers and The ramsey
Speaker 1: brothers at that point were apparently six months into Shooting Piranha,
Speaker 1: mandir but they hadn't done any of the horror sequences.
Speaker 1: YET i guess they didn't even have A samari. Castow
Speaker 1: and they leaned heavily on masks and makeup in previous,
Speaker 1: films but then in walks a man who who doesn't
Speaker 1: need as much, makeup you, know and like He's we've
Speaker 1: seen this in time and time again in various horror
Speaker 1: cinema periods and, settings where somebody comes in and they
Speaker 1: just have that unique look where you don't have to
Speaker 1: do much to, them you, know just a subtle amount
Speaker 1: of makeup and right lighting and the right lighting and
Speaker 1: effects and you're already in the horror. Realm and that's
Speaker 1: what he offered to them.
Speaker 3: Here it's interesting, because as we were saying, earlier this
Speaker 3: character is in no way likable or. Sympathetic they just
Speaker 3: make him an absolute, demon like pure, evil not like
Speaker 3: charismatic or, anything except in the opening sequence before he
Speaker 3: gets transformed into a More frankenstein type. Creature the Human
Speaker 3: somary evokes strong rock star. Charisma he has kind of
Speaker 3: a Shaggy Keith richard's, haircut and the back of his shirt.
Speaker 3: Sparkles it's got this Like Sequin wolfman. Motif it looks
Speaker 3: kind of like Something David bowie would have. Worn and
Speaker 3: he's just like tall and has a kind ofind, of you,
Speaker 3: know lead guitarist. POSTURE i don't, know he seems very.
Speaker 1: Cool, yeah he's at least a head taller than everybody around.
Speaker 1: Him at, times he kind of felt like he had
Speaker 1: kind of A Boris karloff kind of of presence to,
Speaker 1: him you, know and you, know and also reminds me
Speaker 1: of various other you, know actors with unique. Appearances but,
Speaker 1: yeah very strong screen presence from this. Guy and and
Speaker 1: when he shows back, up he just keeps looking more
Speaker 1: and more, monstrous and the, lighting the effects are always
Speaker 1: just really on point whenever he's on. Screen so he's very.
Speaker 1: Terrifying so That's. Somary that's our. Monster but to have
Speaker 1: an effective, monster you have to have a bunch of
Speaker 1: mortals that are in peril or cursed by seid. Monster
Speaker 1: and so the next major character of note here Is
Speaker 1: Suman singh played By Ardi gupta's she's our HEROIN i
Speaker 1: guess you. Know she's the born into a long line
Speaker 1: along cursed lineage of sings. Here it's a very charismatic.
Speaker 1: Performance she's a lot of fun on the. Screen the actor, Here,
Speaker 1: gupta would come back for THREE d summary and also
Speaker 1: apparently produced a few films much, later including two thousand
Speaker 1: And seven's A Mighty heart Starring Angelina.
Speaker 3: Jolie, YEAH i Think Artie gupta is. Great she conveys
Speaker 3: a lot of, emotion especially in the musical. Numbers THOUGH
Speaker 3: i was, wondering do you know if the actors in
Speaker 3: this movie sing their own parts in the musical numbers
Speaker 3: or are they sort of lip singing along to professional.
Speaker 1: Singers it is my, understanding and AGAIN i invite further
Speaker 1: education On bollywood by anyone out there, Listening but it's
Speaker 1: my understanding that it's almost it's usually not the actor
Speaker 1: doing the singing that that's added, Later AND i think
Speaker 1: that would make sense given that if you have if
Speaker 1: there's no real division between films and, musicals it just
Speaker 1: makes sense to do. That and of course this is
Speaker 1: not unprecedented In western musicals as. WELL i MEAN i
Speaker 1: think Of Oh, Brother We're Art, thou which is a tremendous,
Speaker 1: musical But George clooney is not doing his own singing
Speaker 1: in that.
Speaker 3: Film and it works great in both. CASES i, MEAN i,
Speaker 3: know sometimes for some reason people talk disparagingly about lip.
Speaker 3: SYNCING i think they talk about it like that when
Speaker 3: it's like a band is faking doing a live, performance
Speaker 3: just like full on trying to trick people that they're playing.
Speaker 3: Live but in a, movie, no there's no problem at.
Speaker 1: ALL i like. It, Yeah AND i imagine there Are
Speaker 1: bollywood films where at least some of the actors are
Speaker 1: doing their own. SINGING i, mean it makes, sense BUT
Speaker 1: i did not get a sense of that from looking
Speaker 1: at the credits for this. Movie all, Right so we
Speaker 1: Have suman Sing she's our. Heroine her, Father Thakhor singh
Speaker 1: is played by Pra Deep, kumar who live nineteen twenty
Speaker 1: five through two thousand and. One this Is suman's, father
Speaker 1: a loving but overly protective, fare but he's overly protected
Speaker 1: for reasons that go beyond the norm and get into
Speaker 1: the realm of, supernatural multi generational, curses as we'll. Discuss
Speaker 1: But Kumar hero is a Veteran indian actor with credits
Speaker 1: going back to the late nineteen. Forties apparently highly, regarded
Speaker 1: though largely lacking in like highly successful. Roles he often
Speaker 1: acted in period dramas and seems to have just always
Speaker 1: boasted a meticulously trimmed. Mustache just a, real, real gorgeous
Speaker 1: and stylish mustache on this.
Speaker 3: Man and it's a mustache of the thin, style WHICH
Speaker 3: i feel like is hard to pull, off but it
Speaker 3: looks good on.
Speaker 1: Him, yeah kind of like a swashbuckling Old hollywood kind
Speaker 1: of a. Mustache. Yeah all, Right so we have the,
Speaker 1: daughter we have the, father but now it's time to
Speaker 1: talk about the daughter's secret, Boyfriend, sanjay played By Manish,
Speaker 1: bell who was born in nineteen sixty. One he plays
Speaker 1: a low born, photographer but he's, handsome he's a good.
Speaker 1: Lad you, know he's our lover. Boy this was only
Speaker 1: his fifth, credit but he went on to act in
Speaker 1: more than one hundred.
Speaker 3: PICTURES i think it's interesting that they try to what
Speaker 3: seemed to me to like fit in a very standard
Speaker 3: forbidden love, dynamic even though it's only like a red.
Speaker 3: Herring so, like for the first bit of the, Movie
Speaker 3: suman And sanjay understand That suman's father disapproves of their
Speaker 3: relationship because she is a rich. Girl she's from a you,
Speaker 3: know a high class, family and he's middle. Class he's
Speaker 3: not rich like. Them so that seems like a very
Speaker 3: standard kind of romance. Obstacle but then there's a twist
Speaker 3: which is, like, oh, no actually he's opposed to their
Speaker 3: romance because there's a curse on the family and if you,
Speaker 3: know she gets, married she may one day have a,
Speaker 3: child and that means she will. Die, well actually she
Speaker 3: will turn into like a witch and then. Die, yeah
Speaker 3: but it seemed interesting that it's almost like they were
Speaker 3: trying to fit like a second like short romance movie
Speaker 3: into the beginning of this.
Speaker 1: Movie, well he lets viewers know where they. Stand it's
Speaker 1: kind of Like sons Of, anarchy, right you jump into
Speaker 1: Watching sons Of anarchy and it's, like, oh it's Like shakespeare.
Speaker 1: Bikers that doesn't really hold on to The shakespeare aspect
Speaker 1: of the. Thing for the most, PART i guess it
Speaker 1: comes back towards the, end but a little, bit but
Speaker 1: it's Still it gives you sort of an initial footing
Speaker 1: on which to proceed with the. Picture or in the
Speaker 1: case Of sons Of anarchy THE tv, series all, right
Speaker 1: we've got the, monster we've got the, father the, daughter
Speaker 1: the daughter's. Boyfriend now it's time for the boyfriend's best.
Speaker 1: Friend this is the Character anand played By Plunette isar
Speaker 1: born nineteen fifty. Nine, yeah he plays a best, friend
Speaker 1: martial arts and personal fitness. Enthusiast the actor here outside of,
Speaker 1: this is apparently well known In india for his role
Speaker 1: in The MAHABARAT tv show that ran eighty eight through nineteen.
Speaker 1: Ninety he Played duri, o'hanna eldest of the, caravas one
Speaker 1: of the two feuding houses in that. Epic he's also, written,
Speaker 1: directed and, produced and is especially known for his negative.
Speaker 1: Roles this is a TERMINOLOGY i was not familiar with
Speaker 1: UNTIL i started reading about Different bollywood. Actors but, apparently
Speaker 1: like when you talk about somebody being like a great
Speaker 1: villain or being great at villain, roles you talk about
Speaker 1: how they're great at playing negative, roles WHICH i thought
Speaker 1: was an interesting turn of phrase.
Speaker 3: There SO i Thought Punita sar was one of the
Speaker 3: highlights of the. Film, actually my favorite stuff about this
Speaker 3: movie is sort of like the, tall macho guys in.
Speaker 3: It SO i like the. VILLAIN i Love anon a Nod,
Speaker 3: Is so he's, yeah he's the main dude's best. Friend
Speaker 3: but in a, way it's a movie where the side
Speaker 3: the so called, sidekick actually does most of the. Heroism
Speaker 3: it's Like Big trouble In Little, china and every Time
Speaker 3: anon shows up to save the, day it is it's increasingly.
Speaker 3: Hilarious there's like an amazing scene Where sanjay is getting
Speaker 3: beaten up by twelve guys or you, know they're all
Speaker 3: were like these guys in fancy red footman's, uniforms these red,
Speaker 3: jackets and they're all ganging up On, sanjay and then
Speaker 3: suddenly A noond appears sort of over the top of a.
Speaker 3: Mountain he's, like comes up on this ridge overlooking the whole,
Speaker 3: scene and he's, like, oh my, friend and then charges
Speaker 3: down into the fracas to just slam, me just like
Speaker 3: beat beat all these guys, up which he can do
Speaker 3: pretty much single. Handedly he is the center of a
Speaker 3: number of martial arts scenes THAT i think are actually quite.
Speaker 3: Good and there's also a really funny scene where they
Speaker 3: have a they're on a road trip and they have a.
Speaker 3: Car they have a flat, tire and it's clear that
Speaker 3: they staged this just so a. Nod it could be, like,
Speaker 3: hey it's no problem that we don't have a, car,
Speaker 3: Jack i'll just lift the car while you fix the.
Speaker 1: Tire, yeah and he's, yeah he's he's he's basically the
Speaker 1: the the action star of the, film While sonjay is
Speaker 1: the romantic star of the. Film and Ann, yeah he's
Speaker 1: a lot of. Fun these martial arts sequences are. Cool
Speaker 1: he's got these really long, legs so he's one of these.
Speaker 1: Guys when he's throwing, kicks it's like he manages to
Speaker 1: kick around you and then kick you on the other
Speaker 1: side of your face kind of a. Thing and he's
Speaker 1: also able to somehow pull off the leather vest over
Speaker 1: a bare chest. Look he also wears a lot of
Speaker 1: FUN t, shirts but sometimes NO t, shirt just the.
Speaker 3: Vest in the scene where he intervenes to Save sanjay
Speaker 3: and beats all the guys, UP i think he's wearing
Speaker 3: a sleeveless polo shirt tucked into.
Speaker 1: Jeans somehow he makes it work all. Right, Now, anon
Speaker 1: his character has a, wife and the wife Is satna
Speaker 1: played by And i'm mostly sure on. This this character
Speaker 1: in this actor was not listed in some of the
Speaker 1: DATABASES i was looking, at so like not ON. IMDb
Speaker 1: i had to go to another. Database But Pretty Sapru
Speaker 1: walia born nineteen fifty, SEVEN i believe is the actor
Speaker 1: playing his. Wife she wishes he was a little less
Speaker 1: into martial arts and personal fitness and more into love,
Speaker 1: making which makes for at least one amusing sequence in the.
Speaker 1: Film you, know it's a fun. PERFORMANCE i think she
Speaker 1: has only a couple of scenes to really shine, in
Speaker 1: but she does. Shine oh, yeah she's.
Speaker 3: Good it's a real bummer when the Evil wizard throws
Speaker 3: her off the top of a.
Speaker 1: Building, yeah going, away it's, like you, know she's SHE'S
Speaker 1: i guess she was, dimmed you know from the, start like,
Speaker 1: this somebody's got to be killed by the. Monster we've
Speaker 1: got to, give you, know the certain plot elements have
Speaker 1: to be put in.
Speaker 3: Place the two main lovers go on a road trip
Speaker 3: with their two friends to go stop the Evil. Wizard
Speaker 3: what do you think is going to? Happen to the two.
Speaker 1: Friends, yeah, now do we have a creepy groundskeeper in the, Film,
Speaker 1: yeah we kind of have two of, them because we
Speaker 1: also have a, creepy creepy. Woodcutter the creepy Woodcutter i'll
Speaker 1: mention really quickly Is sanga played By Satish shah born
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty. One, basically he's just a scarred woodcutter who
Speaker 1: really would like a bit of that. Treasure but the
Speaker 1: main grounds keeper at the haunted mansion where everyone ends
Speaker 1: up is this Character durjon played By sadashev A'm rapokur
Speaker 1: who lived nineteen fifty through twenty. Fourteen there's something about his.
Speaker 1: Performance at FIRST i didn't pick up on, it but you,
Speaker 1: know it has kind of like a nice haunted. Vibe
Speaker 1: he has kind of haunted eyes and WHEN i looked him,
Speaker 1: up apparently he made a name for himself playing villains
Speaker 1: or negative ones or negative roles in various. Films in,
Speaker 1: FACT i saw a twenty Fourteen Indian express article that
Speaker 1: called him Quote bollywood's most memorable. Villain so oh.
Speaker 3: Interesting, yeah not a villain in this, though, no just.
Speaker 1: More of he's the, local that, is the haunted local
Speaker 1: who knows more about goings on than the main characters
Speaker 1: in the.
Speaker 3: Film at one, point he quite crucially hides a trident
Speaker 3: in a, chandelier AND i did not understand why he did,
Speaker 3: that but it comes in.
Speaker 1: Later he just knew that it would come in handy.
Speaker 1: Later somebody's going to need to drop this chandelier. Sometimes, yeah,
Speaker 1: SOMETIMES i guess it's just the film logic of the. Thing,
Speaker 1: now there are a lot of other actors in, this
Speaker 1: And i'm not going to go through all of them.
Speaker 1: HERE i will say that we do have a bandit
Speaker 1: character Name MACHAAR i, believe and he is played by
Speaker 1: this actor who went by the Moniker Jack. Deep this
Speaker 1: is An indian actor and comedian who appeared in more
Speaker 1: than four hundred, films INCLUDING i think some Various Ramsey brothers.
Speaker 1: Films this is our sort OF i don't, Know Benny
Speaker 1: hill esque misogynistic slapstick specialist that is brought in for
Speaker 1: at least, two maybe three long segments of the film
Speaker 1: that are concerned only with, comedy that do not really
Speaker 1: connect much at all with the rest of the film
Speaker 1: and are really difficult to.
Speaker 3: Watch. AGREED i had read in multiple commentaries that the
Speaker 3: comedy segments are by far the low point of the,
Speaker 3: film and they are for the most, part extremely, unpleasant
Speaker 3: not funny and just like a lot of jokes about sex.
Speaker 1: Crimes yeah, yeah so's it goes beyond, like, oh this
Speaker 1: is out of keeping with the main vibe of the.
Speaker 1: Picture is just like content, wise it's. Gross SO i
Speaker 1: would advise if you're just casually watching this, movie you,
Speaker 1: know feel free to get up and get a snack
Speaker 1: during the comedy. Segments don't necessarily bother reading the subtitles
Speaker 1: during these, segments and feel free to skip them all. Right,
Speaker 1: finally the music For piranha Mandir Ajit. SINGH i don't
Speaker 1: THINK i was able to find any dates for, him
Speaker 1: but he worked on Subsequent ramsey pictures as, well Including
Speaker 1: takana in eighty, Six Perani haveli in eighty, nine and
Speaker 1: a friendly yetty movie that came out in ninety one
Speaker 1: that looked pretty interesting as. Well but the music in
Speaker 1: this picture IS i guess at times IT'S i loved.
Speaker 1: It it's a little, abrasive like at times the synth
Speaker 1: come on really, strong BUT i still can't fault it too,
Speaker 1: Much like it definitely gets in there and it comes
Speaker 1: at you with its.
Speaker 3: Clause oh, YEAH i really liked a lot of the.
Speaker 3: Music there's one theme that really stuck in my head
Speaker 3: that was not especially complex, melodically but it was just
Speaker 3: like a real rubbery synth tone as the characters were
Speaker 3: like exploring a secret passageway AND i was grooving on
Speaker 3: it really.
Speaker 1: Hard samri has a pretty strong theme as well THAT
Speaker 1: i Think Omar, KHAN i think it Was Omar khan
Speaker 1: compared it to the main theme from The Omen not
Speaker 1: but it's directly that or reuse of, that but maybe
Speaker 1: has hit similar notes of that.
Speaker 3: Score all, right so you wanted to talk about the plot, now,
Speaker 3: yeah let's do.
Speaker 1: It.
Speaker 3: Okay so one thing is we absolutely cannot do the
Speaker 3: kind of granular commentary we do with some, movies especially
Speaker 3: like seventy minute drive in movie or this episode would
Speaker 3: be six hours. Long AND i want to say this
Speaker 3: is not only because this is the longest movie we've ever.
Speaker 3: Done i'd also, ARGUE i wonder if you'd agree with,
Speaker 3: this that it's in the running for the densest movie we've,
Speaker 3: done meaning that the amount of plot or stuff happening
Speaker 3: per minute of run time is unusually.
Speaker 1: High, Yeah, yeah everybody gets their stuff in on this,
Speaker 1: film and again it's it's having to deliver all of
Speaker 1: the various. Spices so, yeah there's a there's a lot
Speaker 1: that happens in this, movie and to just cover every
Speaker 1: bit of it we just wouldn't have time. For and
Speaker 1: certainly we're going to skip over stuff like the comedic,
Speaker 1: segments which you, know the less said the.
Speaker 3: Better, Okay first of, ALL i like a film that
Speaker 3: begins by showing you its. Papers the first thing we
Speaker 3: see here is a is a scan of the certificate
Speaker 3: from The Central board Of Film certification of The indian.
Speaker 3: Government seem to recall seeing similar paperwork at the beginning
Speaker 3: of Like british movies from the, thirties like those Old
Speaker 3: Alfred hitchcock movies that show you the certificate from The
Speaker 3: British board Of Film. Censors, YEAH i.
Speaker 1: AGREE i really like this and makes it feel kind
Speaker 1: of like more like a cultural, artifact you. Know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah so the narration begins two hundred years. Ago
Speaker 3: Bijapor sultanate was ruled By Raja Hariman. Singh in those,
Speaker 3: days the fear of ghosts and demons prevailed in the
Speaker 3: hearts of. People the most feared demon of all was Called.
Speaker 3: Somri and as they mentioned these different, people we see
Speaker 3: like painted portraits of. Them samri's portrait has a kind
Speaker 3: of purple, glow so he is emitting rays of evil
Speaker 3: magic even in painted. Likeness the action begins with a
Speaker 3: historical flashback Where Hariman singh is traveling with his Daughter
Speaker 3: rupali and his retainers when his chariot breaks. Down, unfortunately
Speaker 3: it breaks down in the middle Of somri's, land and
Speaker 3: even worse than, that his daughter wanders away while the
Speaker 3: carriage is being fixed and fearing for her, life The
Speaker 3: rajah sends his men out looking for. Her they, are
Speaker 3: of course attacked and picked off by the Evil. Sorcerer
Speaker 3: AND i just want to say this. Again one THING
Speaker 3: i noticed immediately about the opening segment is the extremely
Speaker 3: high energy editing and pacing of each. Shot so the
Speaker 3: cuts between shots are, frequent and the action in each
Speaker 3: shot develops very, quickly so it's this kind of near
Speaker 3: frantic pace for the first couple of. Minutes but it's
Speaker 3: not just, fast it's also, loud full of like screaming
Speaker 3: and blasts of, music like slamming the audio into the
Speaker 3: Red it's just a. Lot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah i've Seen Sam Raimi's Evil dead for maybe
Speaker 1: one mentioned as an influence on The Ramsey brothers as
Speaker 1: well as the films Of Wes, Craven SO i don't,
Speaker 1: know maybe we see a little bit of those influences
Speaker 1: in this editing.
Speaker 3: Style it's not going to keep up at quite this
Speaker 3: pace and level of intensity for the rest of the,
Speaker 3: movie but, overall, uh for this, film The Ramsey brothers
Speaker 3: do stick to a pretty fast moving and intense editing.
Speaker 3: Style it always feels. Energetic things are always happening really.
Speaker 3: Quickly there's not a lot of establishing or waiting. Around.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah and you don't have to wait to see
Speaker 1: Samri he's. There he's going to disappear for a while
Speaker 1: for reasons that will that makes, Sense but, yeah he's
Speaker 1: there from the get, go and you get to you
Speaker 1: get a good look at, him and and, boy it's
Speaker 1: he's just a great sight to take.
Speaker 3: In AS i said, earlier strong evocations of rock. Stardom
Speaker 3: he's like he is singing devil. Music but, Okay samary
Speaker 3: is running. Around he kills all Of Harry Mun singh's,
Speaker 3: men and then he vamps Through. Polly Harry Mun singh's.
Speaker 3: Daughter how are we supposed to understand what happened to?
Speaker 3: HER i don't know, Exactly like he leans over her
Speaker 3: as if he's biting, her and then there's blood on
Speaker 3: her face and her eyes look. Different there's sort of
Speaker 3: like her eyes have turned, white as if she's in
Speaker 3: a kind of magical.
Speaker 1: Trance one THING i loved About somre just throughout the
Speaker 1: picture IS i never really know what the rules are with.
Speaker 1: Him he's just overpoweringly, evil like he, yeah he can
Speaker 1: drink your, blood but it's just he just looks at.
Speaker 1: You if you just think about him too, much you
Speaker 1: may just lose your. Soul and then in terms of
Speaker 1: like what he, is, yeah there's the Basic gahara rises
Speaker 1: from the tomb undead sorcerer aspect of the whole. Thing but,
Speaker 1: like especially when he starts showing up, LATER i, mean
Speaker 1: he already has things at this, point and then later
Speaker 1: on in the, movie his body becomes even more monstrous
Speaker 1: in ways that don't line up with just pure like
Speaker 1: decay and, Resurrection like his body becomes just increasingly like
Speaker 1: just materially.
Speaker 3: Evil, yeah his later form is Part, frankenstein part decaying,
Speaker 3: zombie and part pro.
Speaker 1: Wrestler, yeah with like some bigfoot thrown in.
Speaker 3: There yeah, yeah. Yeah, Anyway Harry munsingh comes back with
Speaker 3: his full forces and they capture the. Demon they capture,
Speaker 3: summary taming him with holy things like there is a
Speaker 3: priest chasing him with a, trisula the trident Of, shiva
Speaker 3: and there is an altar with a statue Of, shiva et.
Speaker 3: Cetera and he's ultimately held in. Chains they stand him
Speaker 3: up for a kind of trial while the accusations against
Speaker 3: him are read before the. Crowd, basically he did everything.
Speaker 3: Bad he did, murder, rape, cannibalism all of, it all
Speaker 3: in service of his, evil demonic.
Speaker 1: MASTERS i liked how the priest is reading these charges
Speaker 1: out and finally stumbles a, bit reading the charge of
Speaker 1: digging up graves and eating.
Speaker 3: Corpses that doesn't seem like the worst of, them.
Speaker 1: No but at that point he's this is too. Far
Speaker 1: we're not used to this. One we don't even have
Speaker 1: this one on the. Books i'm not sure this is technically.
Speaker 1: Illegal it's just bad. Manners.
Speaker 3: Now there was a cultural and language question here that interested.
Speaker 3: Me in The english subtitles of this, scene it says
Speaker 3: That samri is accused of using His satanic powers to
Speaker 3: create terror among the. People it says that he slaked
Speaker 3: His satanic thirst by drinking the blood of, children and
Speaker 3: it says he is so vile that Even satan would shun.
Speaker 3: Him so given The hindu context, here and it seems
Speaker 3: very much in A hindu, context like there are other
Speaker 3: scenes where you, know there are, temples the temples Of,
Speaker 3: shiva people offering prayers To shiva in order to help.
Speaker 3: THEM i kind of wonder whether they actually Said satanic
Speaker 3: And satan in these. SCENES i guess they could, have
Speaker 3: BECAUSE i kept hearing a word in the audio that
Speaker 3: sounded like. Shatan SO i was just, curious what's going on,
Speaker 3: Here like what is the most direct translation of what they're. Saying,
Speaker 3: because of, course in the context of like A christian
Speaker 3: culture horror, movie it's very, normal like the evil sorcerer
Speaker 3: is understood to get his powers From satan or some
Speaker 3: kind of demonic. Force in The hindu, context where does
Speaker 3: the evil sorcerer's, power where's it understood to come?
Speaker 1: From, YEAH i had the same thought. HERE i, thought,
Speaker 1: well maybe they're just referring to mentions Of satan And western,
Speaker 1: films which would have obviously been an influence, here and
Speaker 1: THEN i was, thinking, well maybe it's there's An arabic
Speaker 1: loanword at play. HERE i looked up to some basic
Speaker 1: stuff in. Translation, AGAIN i do not know What i'm
Speaker 1: doing with The hindi language at, all but it does
Speaker 1: seem like we do have this term, chatan which means, devil, satan, freaks,
Speaker 1: beasts or. Demons SO i guess that's what we're talking about. Here.
Speaker 3: Interesting, okay, again The hindi speaking listeners please write in
Speaker 3: let us know.
Speaker 1: At any, rate he's done all the bad things and
Speaker 1: something's got to be done about.
Speaker 3: It, Right So Harryman sing's advisors all they argue about
Speaker 3: the best way to punish this evil. Sorcerer the priest,
Speaker 3: says you, know why don't we burn him to, ashes
Speaker 3: that'll purify him with. Flame Harryman singh, Says, No i've
Speaker 3: got a better. Idea we're gonna cut his head off
Speaker 3: and keep it in a different building than his, body
Speaker 3: and that way we'll know that his head and body
Speaker 3: can never possibly be. Reunited there you.
Speaker 1: Go sounds like a winning.
Speaker 3: Plan and then the holy man suggests using the trident
Speaker 3: the trisula to guard his. HEAD i think they're gonna
Speaker 3: like lay it over the top of the. Box okay,
Speaker 3: again sounds sounds. Good that's a good way to secure.
Speaker 3: It then the prologue. Ends suddenly lightning strikes and there
Speaker 3: are more. Credits after these, credits we get the story picks,
Speaker 3: up but it's still in the historical, prologue and we
Speaker 3: see them Leading samri off to his, fate and then
Speaker 3: they're sort of leading him in procession and, chains and
Speaker 3: then he stops to rage at everyone like he rages
Speaker 3: At Harryman, singh and he issues a curse upon his,
Speaker 3: household which is he says that all of his female
Speaker 3: heirs will die in childbirth Until samri's head and body
Speaker 3: are joined. Again note that in the scene they haven't
Speaker 3: been separated. Yet, also he, says on the day that
Speaker 3: his head and body are joined, again that will be
Speaker 3: the end Of Hariman singh's. DYNASTY i guess meeting he
Speaker 3: will destroy them. All then they do. It they cut
Speaker 3: his head off and they bury the body in the
Speaker 3: ruins of a. Temple they say It's Shunkar's polygot, temple
Speaker 3: and they take his head to throw it in a
Speaker 3: trunk wrapped with. Chains and then they hide that in
Speaker 3: the dungeon of The raja's, palace and then they of
Speaker 3: course put The trishula as she was wholly, trident on
Speaker 3: top of the trunk and they wall it up Like.
Speaker 1: Fortunado all in, all a pretty great historical prologue that
Speaker 1: then leads us into modern Day aka in an early Eighties.
Speaker 3: Bombay, Right so we meet our modern day. Characters there
Speaker 3: Is Takur ranbier. Sing he is the descendant of The
Speaker 3: raja from the, prologue so the curse has passed down
Speaker 3: through his. Family he's a rich. Man he loves his,
Speaker 3: family but he is preoccupied with fears about the ancestral.
Speaker 3: Curse there Is ranbier's, Daughter, suman who is a college.
Speaker 3: Student she's got a kind of sunny, disposition and her
Speaker 3: father laments her growing up because that means that she
Speaker 3: may marry and try to have children and then the
Speaker 3: curse Of samri will kill. Her then there Is suman's Boyfriend. Sanjay,
Speaker 3: again he is not, rich but he is handsome and,
Speaker 3: brave loyal and. Scrappy and then there Is sanjay's Friend
Speaker 3: anand who this is a buff guy who cuts the
Speaker 3: sleeves off of all of his, shirts not all of.
Speaker 1: Them he's got some. Sleeves some slaves are, kept but
Speaker 1: most of them they just get in the.
Speaker 3: Way so we See suman And sanjay being in. Love
Speaker 3: they go out on dates they, like go to a pool,
Speaker 3: party they go out to a night club where there's
Speaker 3: a dancer dres And, Gold and here we get our
Speaker 3: first musical.
Speaker 1: Number, yeah this is kind of a cabaret. Number the
Speaker 1: dancer Is Lena das and it's a pretty Fun indian
Speaker 1: disco type musical. PERFORMANCE i GUESS i really enjoyed. IT
Speaker 1: i turned the volume up a little bit on this.
Speaker 3: ONE i was thinking though about this night club. Here
Speaker 3: it's a strange mix of inside it seems cool but also.
Speaker 3: CLAUSTROPHOBIC i think maybe the claustrophobic aspect comes from like
Speaker 3: the solid black walls and what felt like a sort
Speaker 3: of low. Ceiling but it's got these cool like red
Speaker 3: bench seats and then posters on the wall for movies and,
Speaker 3: stuff like there's a poster For superman up on the.
Speaker 1: Walls yeah, Yeah and we also we get a little
Speaker 1: bit Of sonjay is looking at the dancer maybe a
Speaker 1: little bit too, much And suman is so it was
Speaker 1: a little bit. Jealous this is a recurring. Motif, yes
Speaker 1: whole songs will be sung about this later.
Speaker 3: On So suman And sonjay are in, love But suman
Speaker 3: has to lie to her father about where she's going
Speaker 3: when she heads out on dates with. Him, however her
Speaker 3: father finds out Ron beer is not, pleased and he
Speaker 3: forbids her to See sanjay. Again but of course she's in.
Speaker 3: Love there's no stopping, her so she's not going to
Speaker 3: just leave her boyfriend. Hanging and so this is an
Speaker 3: ongoing conflict at the beginning of the. Movie and, again
Speaker 3: AS i mentioned, earlier there's a misunderstanding about the reason
Speaker 3: her father forbids the. Romance she and like the young
Speaker 3: people think it is a class, thing that she's rich
Speaker 3: and he's. Not actually it's a demonic curse, thing but
Speaker 3: they don't know that.
Speaker 1: Yet, yeah he won't tell her about, that he's keeping that. Secret,
Speaker 1: instead he just says things, like, hey our family name
Speaker 1: is not so deluded that our blood can just flow
Speaker 1: directly into the gutter and things like, that and of
Speaker 1: course that just pushes her further. Away he won't tell
Speaker 1: her the real demonic curse rationale that is behind his.
Speaker 3: Fear but then we get like a love song on
Speaker 3: a beach or it's on rocks near the, shore Where
Speaker 3: sanjay is singing about his love For. Suman, yeah and it's,
Speaker 3: nice you, Know it's like just a nice music video.
Speaker 3: Break somewhere in here we get the first martial arts,
Speaker 3: scene and this is with Uh. Okay so the basic
Speaker 3: situation is Ron bier. Again he Forbids sanjay And suman to,
Speaker 3: date but then he catches them. Together so he sends his,
Speaker 3: men who are all dressed up in these cool red,
Speaker 3: jackets to beat Up sanjay and then on on to
Speaker 3: like comes over the mountain. Top it comes over like
Speaker 3: a ridge looking down on them and runs into the.
Speaker 3: Rescue and then together they beat up all of the
Speaker 3: all of the bad. GUYS i guess they're not bad.
Speaker 3: GUYS i don't. Know the guy's working for her.
Speaker 1: Dad they're Just dad's goon squad that's to beat Up.
Speaker 3: Sanjay but we see a lot of signs Of Ron beer's,
Speaker 3: worries like he has a freak out dream sequence with
Speaker 3: a giant beast sammary. Head and this is where we
Speaker 3: start getting signs of What samri will look. Like his
Speaker 3: in his sort of undead, form which is again less
Speaker 3: rock star and more kind OF i don't, yeah like,
Speaker 3: bigfoot pro wrestler.
Speaker 1: Zombie, yeah just seething in, darkness just these great, eyes
Speaker 1: just in this pronounced. Brow it's just a tremendous. Look
Speaker 1: AND i can just imagine moviegoers screaming when they see
Speaker 1: this on the.
Speaker 3: Screen but eventually the curse is revealed To suman And,
Speaker 3: sanjay and they have a bunch more you, know back
Speaker 3: and forth about how Ron beard disapproves of, them but,
Speaker 3: eventually like there's one scene where he's repeatedly getting a
Speaker 3: gun off the, wall but eventually he breaks down and
Speaker 3: confesses to them what's really going. On he explains the,
Speaker 3: curse and there are, exchanges like one that was funny
Speaker 3: was he's, like you, know it's a, secret and they
Speaker 3: say what's the secret and he, says it's ONE i can't,
Speaker 3: reveal and they're, like but you must reveal. It but
Speaker 3: then when he, does it's. Horrifying there's a horrifying flashback
Speaker 3: to When ronbier reveals that After suman was, born her
Speaker 3: mother was transformed into some kind of devil creature with
Speaker 3: these long. Fingernails these claws and like barnicle on her
Speaker 3: face and then she.
Speaker 1: Died, yeah there's. Nothing it turns out there's nothing ambiguous about.
Speaker 1: IT i thought they were more setting up a situation
Speaker 1: where it's, like, oh you're you know you're your mom
Speaker 1: died in childbirth and there is this ancient curse. Thing
Speaker 1: SO i put one and two. Together, no, no, no she
Speaker 1: like straight up practically explodes in some sort of like just,
Speaker 1: awful you, know cursed flesh type of. Death and it's
Speaker 1: it's it's a lot to, Watch.
Speaker 3: Like all the doctors and nurses run out of the.
Speaker 3: Room there's no.
Speaker 1: End it's they're, like it's out of our. Hands this
Speaker 1: is straight up wizardry going on in.
Speaker 3: Here so Ron bier explains To, sanjay you, know if
Speaker 3: you really Love, suman you will leave her, alone, Right
Speaker 3: and So sanjay does because he really does love. Her
Speaker 3: but then very next scene it cuts straight To anon
Speaker 3: is lounging on a bed or. Something he's wearing a
Speaker 3: sweatshirt and he, says so you left, her you lose.
Speaker 3: Her what'll she think of? You? Now should we do
Speaker 3: a sidebar On anon's? Shirts he wears a lot of interesting,
Speaker 3: shirts some of them Have english riding on them and
Speaker 3: interesting logos and pictures and. Stuff he wears one shirt
Speaker 3: that just says, styles and he wears another shirt that
Speaker 3: Says Golden. Rule he who has the gold makes the.
Speaker 1: RULES hm very cool and it's.
Speaker 3: Weird Because anon in many ways does have a heart of,
Speaker 3: gold as we will. See but also he IS i don't,
Speaker 3: know he is. Indifferent scenes shown to be vain and
Speaker 3: highly covetous of, money even doing very shady criminal things
Speaker 3: to get.
Speaker 1: Money, yeah though those occur either within or within close
Speaker 1: proximity to the comedic, segments And i'm never sure how
Speaker 1: much of THAT i should actually pay attention, To like
Speaker 1: does that? Count is that real a noon or is,
Speaker 1: that like some a different version of a non just
Speaker 1: for the comedic segments of the. MOVIE i don't.
Speaker 3: Know well, Anyway suman shows up and she's got a
Speaker 3: better idea Than sanjay just leaving. Her she Convinces sanjay
Speaker 3: that they should break the. Curse, hey great. Idea so
Speaker 3: it's now a road trip To, bijapur driving down the
Speaker 3: highway in a red. Convertible the road trip buddies are
Speaker 3: the four of, Them, Suman, Sanjay annan and his Wife.
Speaker 1: Sapna so at this point it's kind of A Scooby
Speaker 1: doo road trip kind.
Speaker 3: Of a, movie which, is, yeah and all you know
Speaker 3: on the, trip we See anon is such a good.
Speaker 3: Friend sanjay is, like why would you risk your life
Speaker 3: to help? Us And, ANON i, think threatens to beat
Speaker 3: him up for saying. This he's, Like, hey what are friends.
Speaker 3: FOR a friend has to help you break the curse
Speaker 3: on your, family even if that means laying down his own. Life, Yeah,
Speaker 3: meanwhile this is. Funny sapna is happy to come along
Speaker 3: because she is confident that the curse is Just suman's
Speaker 3: father having a. Delusion SO i guess it's just a
Speaker 3: regular road trip.
Speaker 1: For, Her, yeah just to get out of. Town this married.
Speaker 3: Couple they have extremely different ideas of the stakes of
Speaker 3: this this road. Trip.
Speaker 1: Yeah he's, LIKE i am ready to die and she's,
Speaker 1: LIKE i am ready to see the. Countryside.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Meanwhile ron be are back at. Home he has
Speaker 3: visions of Samary as in his kind of altered beast
Speaker 3: form and has a heart. Attack he, survives but the
Speaker 3: doctors say he must, rest AND i think they use
Speaker 3: this to explain why he doesn't chase after the youths
Speaker 3: to stop them on their. Quest, yeah but then we
Speaker 3: go into a part of the movie where basically the
Speaker 3: four friends are investigating the different. Settings so they go
Speaker 3: to an old. Temple they noticed that the statue in the,
Speaker 3: temple WHICH i believe is Of shiva or maybe Of
Speaker 3: shivshankar maybe they say, later is missing its. Trident and
Speaker 3: then you, know so they look around, there they have
Speaker 3: some visions of scary. Things they drive around and just
Speaker 3: have encounters with scary, people like they meet a woodcutter
Speaker 3: who just freaks them out by smiling at them and
Speaker 3: holding an. Axe and then finally they reach the palace
Speaker 3: and they explore that and Meet dirjan the, watchman who
Speaker 3: shows them around and tells them sort of family, history
Speaker 3: and they start having repeated freaky reactions to portraits OR
Speaker 3: i guess mainly it's Just suman that. Does like she
Speaker 3: sees a portrait of her ancestor and it zooms in
Speaker 3: on her eyes and it's knowing whoa, whoa whoa.
Speaker 1: Whoah is this the scene where the eyes follow? Her
Speaker 1: and they do it by having clearly two separate, paintings
Speaker 1: one with eyes looking straight ahead and one with eyes
Speaker 1: looking off to the.
Speaker 3: Side, YEAH i loved. IT i really like these scenes.
Speaker 1: Because we know the viewer knows that behind that, painting
Speaker 1: behind the bricked up wall is going to be the
Speaker 1: head Of, samary sealed up in a box With trishula
Speaker 1: leaned against it to keep it from coming out and wreaking.
Speaker 3: Havoc the next, day there's a funny scene Where sopna
Speaker 3: is annoyed Because anon won't stop doing workouts and martial,
Speaker 3: Arts like she's doing one handed push ups and practicing martial,
Speaker 3: arts and she's just, Like, wow really really great romantic
Speaker 3: vacation you took me.
Speaker 1: On, yeah this is a fun sequence, though because then
Speaker 1: she kind of has this where she fantasizes about him
Speaker 1: being more into romance and less into personal, fitness which
Speaker 1: WHICH i thought was pretty.
Speaker 3: Fun then oh, my here things start taking a left. Turn, well,
Speaker 3: first a bunch of guys from the forest Attacks sopna
Speaker 3: from out of, nowhere and Then anon gets to come
Speaker 3: to the rescue and beat them all. Up and then
Speaker 3: we go and meet this bandit commander WHO'S i think
Speaker 3: giving the guys in the forest. Orders it starts with
Speaker 3: a lot of over the top slapstick comedy and then
Speaker 3: descends into this rivalry between the bandit and a local
Speaker 3: official in the. Village this is the barely related comedic
Speaker 3: side plot that we were discussing, earlier and to be,
Speaker 3: frank as many reviewers have, MENTIONED i found it extremely.
Speaker 3: Unpleasant i'm not going to make much effort to recount.
Speaker 3: It but it's a lot of jokes about like a
Speaker 3: guy not having arms and another guy who does sex.
Speaker 1: Crimes, yeah that's basically. It and they just keep driving
Speaker 1: home these plot points and and it's it's very. SKIPPABLE
Speaker 1: i highly recommend you skip it if you watch this.
Speaker 1: Movie but but it. Is it really throws you off
Speaker 1: when you first hit it because when the bandit's men show,
Speaker 1: up they have like like dime Store halloween mask on
Speaker 1: the back of their, head and you're just, like, what
Speaker 1: what what is? Happening DID i switch channels? Somehow this
Speaker 1: is an error on the. Disk, no you've just you've
Speaker 1: just descended into the comedic. Subplot but don't. Worry you
Speaker 1: will eventually rise out of. It but then you're gonna
Speaker 1: fall into it at least one more, time and then
Speaker 1: you'll fall out of it again without anything in the
Speaker 1: comedic plot ever really impacting THE a plot or getting.
Speaker 3: Resolved, YEAH i mean there's a little bit of, interaction
Speaker 3: like it does develop to where the bandit and A
Speaker 3: noon have a have a twoco and blondie plot From The,
Speaker 3: good The, bad and The, ugly where LIKE A noon
Speaker 3: repeatedly turns the bandit in for a bounty and then
Speaker 3: freeze him before, execution and then does it again to
Speaker 3: keep collecting.
Speaker 1: Money, yeah and then the whole time you're just like
Speaker 1: a non stay out of this. Subplot you don't need
Speaker 1: to be, here just stay In PLOT a with the
Speaker 1: rest of.
Speaker 3: Us so in this middle, section we get some some
Speaker 3: delivery of lore from The Watchman dirgent at the. Palace
Speaker 3: he tells some backstory about the connection between the palace
Speaker 3: and the. Temple. Uh there are also sections here where
Speaker 3: it seems like maybe the heroes kind of lose track
Speaker 3: of what the road trip was, For like instead of
Speaker 3: furiously hunting down the body of the Evil, sorcerer Like
Speaker 3: sanjay is fishing for food And suman is doing like
Speaker 3: a couple's photoshoot Of anan And.
Speaker 1: Sopna mm. Hmm, yeah it's like there's a. Curse there's
Speaker 1: a deadline, here. Guys we gotta stay on.
Speaker 3: This. Oh but in this, scene it starts with a
Speaker 3: thing where there's a woman in the, water and at
Speaker 3: FIRST i, thought, oh is she a? Mermaid but she's
Speaker 3: like biting fish with her teeth and then trying to
Speaker 3: give them To sanjay uh AND i And suman gets
Speaker 3: jealous of this woman because she clearly is Into sanjay
Speaker 3: and she's like a beautiful local.
Speaker 1: WOMAN i, guess, yeah beautiful local woman that MAYBE i
Speaker 1: think maybe we're supposed to assume that she's kind of
Speaker 1: a bad, girl definitely a threat to their, romance but
Speaker 1: ultimately we're gonna find out she has a heart of,
Speaker 1: gold even if she's kind of like doomed to. Die
Speaker 1: like like like other characters in the, film.
Speaker 3: General spooky dou ins are. Afoot There's suman has more
Speaker 3: freak outs when looking at the. Portraits and then there
Speaker 3: is the blood shower.
Speaker 1: Scene, YES i love this because first of, all it's
Speaker 1: the middle of the night time to take a, shower
Speaker 1: But suman also is gonna take that shower in a,
Speaker 1: swimsuit and you just know the way that the camera's
Speaker 1: zooming in on the shower. Head i'm like that that
Speaker 1: water's turned into. Blood there's no way that water's not
Speaker 1: turned into, blood and of course the water turns to.
Speaker 3: BLOOD i knew exactly what was, coming but it's it's
Speaker 3: a pretty fun scene. Nonetheless so, yeah she's like then
Speaker 3: in the, tub, screaming covered in blood in the, swimsuit
Speaker 3: and Then annan And sanjay run into the rescue and
Speaker 3: they like lift her out of the blood tub by
Speaker 3: her arms and legs and then put her directly on the.
Speaker 3: Bed AND i was, thinking.
Speaker 1: Oh, no you're getting blood all over the. Blanket that's
Speaker 1: a white, blanket. Y'all come.
Speaker 3: On but Then dirgen comes in to explain that the
Speaker 3: blood tub incident proves the curse is. Real you, know
Speaker 3: you've got to take it seriously, now AND i think he,
Speaker 3: says you've got to talk to the locals to find
Speaker 3: out more about the. Curse and then.
Speaker 1: Intermission, yeah so setting up, basically like if the story
Speaker 1: game Of Arkham harr or, something the research portion of
Speaker 1: the adventure where you just got to go around talking
Speaker 1: to people and find out how the ancient evil.
Speaker 3: Works so that comes into play right after the, intermission
Speaker 3: but it leads to a lover's quarrel Between suman And.
Speaker 3: Sanjay Because sanjay goes to talk to one of the
Speaker 3: local villagers and who does he pick to talk, To,
Speaker 3: well it just happens to be what's her Name, beaeshley
Speaker 3: the beautiful woman who was bathing in the river, earlier
Speaker 3: and she's bathing in the river, again and he's, like,
Speaker 3: HEY i need, to you, know talk to you about a.
Speaker 3: Curse and she's, Like, SANJAY i love, you marry.
Speaker 1: Me he dead knows no his way. Around you're supposed
Speaker 1: to go talk to the haunted drunk, guy old drunk
Speaker 1: guy in The he's the one who has the secret
Speaker 1: knowledge to. Share but now he goes to the attractive
Speaker 1: lady from the water that is also offering him.
Speaker 3: Drinks, yeah so she takes him back to her, house
Speaker 3: gives him some kind of alcoholic, beverage and then he
Speaker 3: watches her dance in front of a. Fire he's clearly
Speaker 3: being romantically. Tempted suman is jealous and, heartbroken and she
Speaker 3: sings there's another musical. Number she sings a forlorn. SONG
Speaker 3: i was, wondering did you detect this? Song maybe cutting
Speaker 3: off before the song was finished OR i don't. Know
Speaker 3: it seemed like something was. Missing it ended rather.
Speaker 1: ABRUPTLY i didn't notice That i'd have to go back
Speaker 1: in the.
Speaker 3: Look Maybe i'm, Wrong but, anyway After sanjay finds out
Speaker 3: some more lore from the, villagers he returns To suman
Speaker 3: and they.
Speaker 1: Reconcile their love is tested but remains. Strong.
Speaker 3: Yes, now later that, Night suman is sleeping and then
Speaker 3: there's a cat, scare like literally somebody throws a cat at,
Speaker 3: her just jumps on her, bed and she like screams
Speaker 3: and wakes, up and she's in a kind of, oh
Speaker 3: kind of a, day is wandering around and then she
Speaker 3: ends up stabbing the portrait Of Hariman singh that's on the.
Speaker 3: Wall and after, This anon realizes he looks up at
Speaker 3: the wall and realizes she stabbed through the wall behind
Speaker 3: the portrait as. Well and Then anon And sanjay bust
Speaker 3: down the. Wall they investigate the secret passageway. Within this
Speaker 3: is the scene WHERE i mentioned there's some really cool
Speaker 3: kind of rubbery synth. Music there's some cool bits Like
Speaker 3: anon gets a snake attack to the. NECK a snake
Speaker 3: wraps itself around his neck and they have to fight it.
Speaker 3: Off but then they find the. Trishula they find the
Speaker 3: trident Of shiva on top of the trunk wrapped in.
Speaker 3: Chains they bust it. Open inside they find the severed,
Speaker 3: head And sanjay concludes that it must be the head
Speaker 3: of some brave soldier and it must be there out of.
Speaker 1: Respect, Oh sanjay couldn't be more.
Speaker 3: Wrong bad. Decision, yeah but then there's, like so the
Speaker 3: woodcutter from earlier is looking on and he decides he
Speaker 3: sees the box and he thinks it's full of treasure
Speaker 3: and he wants, treasure so he comes back in the
Speaker 3: middle of the night to get, treasure and instead the
Speaker 3: head hypnotizes him and turns his eyes into ping pong
Speaker 3: balls and makes him attack.
Speaker 1: People the ping pong pong eyes were pretty, hilarious AND
Speaker 1: i don't think they were meant to be. Hilarious but
Speaker 1: they're also out of keeping with what they did with
Speaker 1: other people's possessed, Eyes like they did some sort of
Speaker 1: like contact, EFFECT i guess with everyone, else but this
Speaker 1: guy got ping pong. Eyes, yeah and it's a questionable.
Speaker 3: Choice Like rupauli's eyes were creepy, looking they like they turned,
Speaker 3: white but they were you, know, yeah so those were.
Speaker 3: Different he just has like they're like bulging and they
Speaker 3: look like.
Speaker 1: Plastic, yeah they're, like we couldn't get a hold of
Speaker 1: our contact guy for. Today what else we? Got what's
Speaker 1: the backup? Effect it's ping pong.
Speaker 3: Balls this leads to a great chase scene THAT i.
Speaker 3: Loved so it's The it's like a horse drawn carriage
Speaker 3: with driven by the woodcutter carrying the wizard head in
Speaker 3: the carr, bridge riding through the forest at, night and
Speaker 3: Then sanjay in an ond in a red convertible chasing after.
Speaker 3: It so it's machine versus.
Speaker 1: Horse it's. Great but then they are also supernatural environmental
Speaker 1: effects that come into play as.
Speaker 3: Well that's all, Right so like The sorcerer's HEAD i
Speaker 3: think causes a tree to fall down and block their
Speaker 3: path as they pursue the, head so they can't keep
Speaker 3: up with. It, meanwhile something happens in here Where dershan
Speaker 3: hangs the trisula up on the. Chandelier, yeah unsure.
Speaker 1: Why he's kind of, LIKE i got to hide this
Speaker 1: away for later so that it can play a dynamic
Speaker 1: role in the showdown or. Something, yeah so the only
Speaker 1: logic that makes.
Speaker 3: Sense so the hypnotized woodcutter like digs Up samri's. BODY
Speaker 3: i guess he knows where it is because the head
Speaker 3: has hypnotized. Him then he grabs the, head he puts
Speaker 3: the head on the. Body he pokes himself with a
Speaker 3: dagger and bleeds on the neck, stump and this kind
Speaker 3: of glues the head back on and Then samar wakes
Speaker 3: up and now it's it's clober and.
Speaker 1: Time that's, right it is. On body and head are
Speaker 1: back together. Again his. Body at this, point LIKE i
Speaker 1: alluded to, earlier it's the evil is just completely. Manifest
Speaker 1: it's it's now this hairy demonic Sasquatch frankenstein creature that
Speaker 1: that ultimately really. Works like if the Way i'm describing
Speaker 1: it makes it sound like it's kind of patchwork and
Speaker 1: and maybe you, know can't decide what it wants to,
Speaker 1: be but, no whatever it is it, is it totally
Speaker 1: succeeds as being. That it's just. This this is evil.
Speaker 3: Incarnate samri is wickedness and Malevol i'd say he's. Bad, hey,
Speaker 3: everybody we just had to take a quick, break but
Speaker 3: we we're back. Now so if we sound, different that's.
Speaker 3: Why but we're finishing the. Episode so uh, yeah the
Speaker 3: plot is kind of in monster mode right. Now this
Speaker 3: is when The frankenstein starts shambling, around, grunting looming and killing.
Speaker 1: People, Yeah samri has, returned has full body, again has
Speaker 1: great lights and effects And scynth backing him. Up so
Speaker 1: it's just terrifying anytime he's on the. Screen he's not
Speaker 1: interested in reasoning with anybody or. Negotiating he is here
Speaker 1: to in. Dynasties he doesn't care what has happened in
Speaker 1: the world over the past few. Centuries he has a
Speaker 1: pretty straightforward. Agenda, OH i didn't even think about.
Speaker 3: That, like he hasn't been, around so he doesn't know
Speaker 3: about the moon landing or. Anything, okay so, yeah he's killing. People,
Speaker 3: unfortunately he Makes sopna jump off the roof of the
Speaker 3: palace to her. Death. BUMMER i Like. Sopna and Then
Speaker 3: anon is obviously very upset about, this so he like
Speaker 3: runs up to the roof of the palace to fight,
Speaker 3: him But samri is. Gone and from here there is
Speaker 3: a blood sacrifice. Subplot the villagers decide they want to
Speaker 3: do a human sacrifice Of sanjay And suman in order
Speaker 3: to appease the monster and save, themselves and here we
Speaker 3: get a human sacrifice musical, number WHICH i liked quite a.
Speaker 1: Lot, yeah this one is. GOOD i believe they're looking
Speaker 1: to sacrifice To klie and it looks it looks like
Speaker 1: our heroes might be might be doomed once. More but
Speaker 1: someone comes to save him right in the naked, time.
Speaker 3: Right so they're like tied up awaiting, death and you,
Speaker 3: know the drums kick, in and then suddenly here's this
Speaker 3: lady from. Earlier the one is her Name, BEACHLEY i
Speaker 3: think the one who was in love With, sanjay like
Speaker 3: he went to her house, earlier and she's dancing around
Speaker 3: singing this very, jolly upbeat song about how the man
Speaker 3: she loved is unfortunately going to have his blood spilled
Speaker 3: and she doesn't want. That and then there's a string of.
Speaker 3: Reversals so first of, all she comes to save the
Speaker 3: day because she Cuts sonjay free and says she loves
Speaker 3: him and tries to let him, free but then he
Speaker 3: gets caught by the. Mob but then her, brother who
Speaker 3: is sort of the guy leading the, mob says that
Speaker 3: he will still Kill suman Unless sanjay beats him in
Speaker 3: a sword. Fight and then they get out. There they're
Speaker 3: fencing swords and they fence for a. Bit the sword
Speaker 3: fight is, okay it's not really on the level Of
Speaker 3: an's martial arts. Scenes and then at the end of
Speaker 3: the sword, Fight sanjay sort of, wins but the brother
Speaker 3: tries to throw a dagger At sanjay's back to kill,
Speaker 3: him but yet, again the sister who Loves sanjay. Intervenes
Speaker 3: she steps in front of the dagger and takes it
Speaker 3: for him and.
Speaker 1: Dies oh, no, yeah bad girl with a good. Heart
Speaker 1: redeems herself through. DEATH i also like that the sword,
Speaker 1: fight like you, say is very different from anything we've
Speaker 1: seen in the film up to that, point and it feels,
Speaker 1: like once, again this is the little something for everybody
Speaker 1: going on where it's like we need to have a
Speaker 1: traditional swashbuckling act in the picture and this is the
Speaker 1: place to situate. It, yeah it makes.
Speaker 3: Sense so, Anyway sanjay And suman run, away the mob
Speaker 3: searches after. Them you, know there's kind of a lot
Speaker 3: of running around and hiding and chasing in the, woods
Speaker 3: and then here comes another a noon. Fight he is
Speaker 3: a nod is captured by the leader of the mob
Speaker 3: and then there's some fighting and on lets out some
Speaker 3: really weird martial arts moves in this, Fight like there's
Speaker 3: one WHERE i think he steps on a guy's. Head
Speaker 3: it's kind of.
Speaker 1: Gross, well he's just completely powered up with vengeance at this,
Speaker 1: point like he's more lethal than.
Speaker 3: Ever, right and so he's, yeah he's angered by the
Speaker 3: death of his. Wife he is motivated by defending his,
Speaker 3: friends so he's fighting super hard and there's a really
Speaker 3: awesome moment where the leader of the mob tries to
Speaker 3: stab him with a, dagger But anon grabs the dagger
Speaker 3: by the blade and disarms. Him.
Speaker 1: Excellent he just cannot be stopped at this.
Speaker 3: Point but, unfortunately even Though anon prevails in this, fight
Speaker 3: there is immediately more. Peril So sanjay And suman are
Speaker 3: chased in the Dark bysomri the, demon And anon comes
Speaker 3: to rescue. Them he ends up giving his life so
Speaker 3: that they can, escape just like he said he would.
Speaker 3: Earlier so a true friend to the. End samary kind
Speaker 3: of strangles, HIM i, think and then his eyes turn.
Speaker 1: White so now it's just our two lovers pursued by
Speaker 1: the Demon.
Speaker 3: Somri but an earlier character, returns So suman's dad is
Speaker 3: back on the scene and he shows. Up he's like
Speaker 3: a better from my heart. Attack now there is only
Speaker 3: one person who can Beat. Samri and that Is Lord.
Speaker 3: Shiva so cut to another musical. Number Now Ron deier
Speaker 3: is singing to an altar Of shiva OR i think
Speaker 3: they were also calling this God Shiv, shankar Which i'm not,
Speaker 3: sure but maybe like a manifestation Of, shiva maybe Like
Speaker 3: shiva the destroyer of. Evil, Perhaps i'm not.
Speaker 1: Sure at any, rate this seems like the bright call
Speaker 1: Get shiva and on this that then we're dealing with
Speaker 1: a pretty, powerful supernatural evil force. Here we're going to
Speaker 1: need just a little.
Speaker 3: Bit of, help, right praying for The god's, help and
Speaker 3: we get cutaways to the surviving, characters but then also
Speaker 3: cutaways to like a bloody sheet which is presumably covering
Speaker 3: up the dead body of An. Ond.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah AND i have to, say on paper or
Speaker 1: just us describing, this you might question whether it makes
Speaker 1: sense to throw in a religious musical number this late
Speaker 1: in the, film building up to the final showdown with the.
Speaker 1: Monster BUT i thought it it would. WORK i thought
Speaker 1: it really worked because the musical number itself has this
Speaker 1: way of kind of revving up and has this kind
Speaker 1: of rhythmic quality to it kind of works the people
Speaker 1: in the scene into a, frenzy you, know to unleash
Speaker 1: our would be monster, slayers and you feel a little pumped.
Speaker 1: Up you're, like let's do, this let's finish this, Up
Speaker 1: let's let's Get.
Speaker 3: Somri, ABSOLUTELY i mean AS i said, AGAIN i mean this.
Speaker 3: UNIRONICALLY i fully encourage more filmmakers to make horror movies
Speaker 3: that are seriously scary but also have musical. NUMBERS i
Speaker 3: think that's a great.
Speaker 1: Idea, also it's probably a good way to overpower some
Speaker 1: of our Traditional western movie villains Like Jason. Vorhees how's
Speaker 1: he going to react to full blown musical. Numbers he's
Speaker 1: not gonna know it's. Him this is better than like psychic.
Speaker 1: POWERS i would love.
Speaker 3: That, yeah fully like a religion musical number before somebody
Speaker 3: goes up Against, jason where they're they're like invoking the
Speaker 3: power Of.
Speaker 1: Christ you. Know we had something kind of similar without
Speaker 1: the music In The Devil rides Out. Right they basically
Speaker 1: have A sunday school lesson before the big, confrontation just
Speaker 1: to set everything.
Speaker 3: Right we should mention by the way that the lyrics
Speaker 3: of the song point out the like remind the audience
Speaker 3: that the statue Of shiva is missing its. Trident. Uh
Speaker 3: and this Gives sanjay the idea that the way to
Speaker 3: destroy the monster is to use the, trisula which is
Speaker 3: which again was. Hidden it was in the hidden passage
Speaker 3: behind the painting on top of the trunk that had
Speaker 3: the head in. It and So sanjay And suman go
Speaker 3: looking for the. Trident so there's a bunch of more.
Speaker 3: Scares they're like looking around in the palace and they
Speaker 3: are screamed at by taxidermied, animals and samm. Reappears he
Speaker 3: chases them. Around he is about to in the in
Speaker 3: the very last, moment hipn ties and Vamp. Souman but
Speaker 3: Then sanjay sees that the trishula is hidden in the
Speaker 3: chandelier and he wields. It he Drives samri into his
Speaker 3: coffin and they trap him inside with the power of the.
Speaker 3: Trident and then the villagers come collect the, coffin take
Speaker 3: it to the village. Square then they Tie samary to
Speaker 3: the steak and burn him huge burning fire and the
Speaker 3: demon is.
Speaker 1: Vanquished, yeah they just they burn him, up And dad's
Speaker 1: there pumping his fist in the. Air the monster. Burns.
Speaker 3: Yeah in the, End ronvier Accepts sanjay because now the
Speaker 3: threat to his daughter's life has has. Passed so he,
Speaker 3: Says i'm proud of, you, son you destroyed the curse
Speaker 3: that haunted my family for two hundred. Years and then
Speaker 3: this is one of those cases where he says something
Speaker 3: that he just said again but In, english so he
Speaker 3: says In, English i'm really proud of, you my.
Speaker 1: Son it's such a it's not such a sweet, ending you. Know,
Speaker 1: granted a lot of people died to get us, here
Speaker 1: but it's getting back into like just the straight thing
Speaker 1: family melodrama aspect of. It it's a nice place to end.
Speaker 3: Things, yeah So sonjay And, suman we see them, married
Speaker 3: and then it ends very. ABRUPTLY i was kind of
Speaker 3: thinking there would be an ending music, number you, know
Speaker 3: but there was, not or AM i remembering?
Speaker 1: Right was?
Speaker 3: THERE i don't think there.
Speaker 1: WAS i don't think there was a full on musical
Speaker 1: number to end it. Out it was just kind of
Speaker 1: like we end on more of a traditional note where
Speaker 1: good is victorious and they kind of get a nice
Speaker 1: snapshot of everyone together and then we close it.
Speaker 3: Out so all in, ALL i greatly Enjoyed Piranhamunder. AGAIN
Speaker 3: a great love, story great evil, wizard good family melodrama and.
Speaker 3: Stuff love the musical, numbers comedy segments, awful martial arts.
Speaker 1: Awesome, yeah and then of course the monster is. Amazing
Speaker 1: so all in, ALL i feel like this was a
Speaker 1: pretty solid entry Into bollywood. Horror so who. Knows you
Speaker 1: have to do some more. Research maybe at some point
Speaker 1: in the future we'll come back and do Another Ramsey brothers.
Speaker 1: Film there's also From blinking on his name at the,
Speaker 1: moment but there was another like top tier competitor to
Speaker 1: them that put out a number of movies as, well
Speaker 1: and some of those looked, Interesting so who. Knows it's either.
Speaker 1: Way i'm glad we got to dive in to the
Speaker 1: cinema Of india here On Weird House. Cinema and once,
Speaker 1: again if you want to get into into some of,
Speaker 1: THIS i have to point out there's An instagram account
Speaker 1: For bollywood crypt and that was one of the first
Speaker 1: PLACES i started looking. AROUND i found that, account AND
Speaker 1: i was seeing what this account was sharing related To
Speaker 1: bollywood horror and kind of getting a taste for what
Speaker 1: seemed to be. Important and then from THERE i found
Speaker 1: out about this awesome blu ray set that's out From Mondo.
Speaker 1: MACABRO i recommend checking that. Out and if you're In,
Speaker 1: atlanta LIKE i, said you can go To Video drom
Speaker 1: and rent some of these bad. Boys they just got
Speaker 1: them on the. Shelf all, Right we're going to close
Speaker 1: the book, here but we'd love to hear from you
Speaker 1: out there. Again if you have experience With bollywood cinema in,
Speaker 1: General bollywood horror, specifically or you know particular memories or
Speaker 1: things to share About Piranha, mandir let us know we
Speaker 1: would love to hear from. You in the, meantime we'll
Speaker 1: also remind you That stuff To Blow Your mind is
Speaker 1: primarily a science podcast with core episodes On tuesdays And.
Speaker 1: Thursdays On mondays we do listener. Mail On wednesdays we
Speaker 1: do short form artifactor or monster fact, episode and On
Speaker 1: fridays we set aside most serious concerns to just talk
Speaker 1: about a weird film On Weird House. Cinema you can
Speaker 1: look us up on letterbox BEST L E T T
Speaker 1: E r boxd dot. Com we have an account there
Speaker 1: called Weird, house and we have a nice list of
Speaker 1: all the movies we've covered over the. Years you can
Speaker 1: pull them up and you can also organize them. Anyway
Speaker 1: this is HOW i was able to really quickly see,
Speaker 1: like what is the longest film we've ever covered and
Speaker 1: what is the? Shortest without a, Doubt Piranha mandir is the,
Speaker 1: longest but only beats Out blade by twenty.
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