WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: Purana Mandir 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:08.800 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:13.039 --> 0:00:14.960 Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema. 0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:17.480 This is Rob Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:21.079 Today. This is an exciting intrigue in the Weird House 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:24.040 Cinema catalog because we are going to be covering our 0:00:24.200 --> 0:00:28.400 first film from India. It's always fun when we can 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:34.400 dive into a new film culture, a new national film tradition. 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:40.520 And I know, for me personally Indian cinema Bollywood in particular, 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:42.640 this is a whole area of film that I really 0:00:42.680 --> 0:00:46.120 don't have much of any exposure to. So I was 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:50.680 excited to watch this movie research it a bit because 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:54.200 not only is it is it Bollywood, it is Bollywood horror. 0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:58.800 We're going to be talking about Purana mandir A not 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:02.920 only a horror movie, but like the horror movie from 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:04.520 India from nineteen eighty four. 0:01:04.959 --> 0:01:08.880 This is also my first full viewing of a Bollywood movie. 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:11.080 I've watched a lot of clips from them before. Often, 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:14.240 like people will clip out really great musical numbers from 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:17.679 them and put them online, so I've seen plenty of those, 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:20.120 but yeah, this was the first time I've seen the 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:24.000 whole thing. But man, this movie was mostly great, at 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:27.800 some points awful and really got my mind cranking about 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:32.360 the what it means to have musical numbers in a film. 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:34.759 Yes, because one of the if you don't know anything, 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:38.039 or you don't know much about Indian cinema and Bollywood 0:01:38.080 --> 0:01:41.440 in particular, you may know that there are musical numbers. 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:44.480 It's a big song and dance numbers. And I think 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:46.280 at times this can be like knowing this can be 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:48.920 kind of like a barrier to entry. You might think, well, 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:50.160 I don't know if I'm up for that. I mean, 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:53.800 I'm not a musical fan. Or even if you decide, oh, 0:01:53.840 --> 0:01:55.600 well there's a horror genre I want to get into that, 0:01:55.640 --> 0:01:58.080 but then you realize there are musical numbers, maybe you're 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:00.840 going to hold back, but yeah, it's to sort of 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:03.040 break that down, like, well, how different is that from 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:05.960 anything we watch over here? You know, we have this 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:11.000 a genre of musical obviously that goes in various directions, 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:16.720 but also we have strong musical segments in various pictures 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:19.280 where you'll feature a particular track. It just maybe you 0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:23.000 don't have characters actually singing that song. 0:02:23.440 --> 0:02:25.120 Yes, I agree with all of that. I mean It 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:29.280 really got me thinking, why don't American horror movies tend 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:32.600 to have musical numbers in them? And if they did, 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:34.600 why would we say, well, actually, this is just a 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:38.120 totally different genre now it is a musical. Why couldn't 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:41.960 all genres have musical numbers, because, as you say, music 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:46.240 features in other movies, diagetic and non diegetic music features 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:49.720 in as long as the characters aren't singing, it's not 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:52.800 a musical. But there's no particular reason I think of 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:55.880 why the fact that characters do sing in a movie 0:02:56.280 --> 0:02:59.240 should make that a separate genre from whatever the narrative 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:03.320 content is. So yeah, I think we should have more fantasy, 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:07.560 sci fi movies, whatever, horror movies that have characters singing songs, 0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:12.440 because songs are great. Now that I've experienced a Bollywood film, 0:03:12.480 --> 0:03:15.160 it in no way takes away from my enjoyment of 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:19.200 this as a cheesy horror movie. And I don't really 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:22.280 see why you would resist. I think maybe there's one 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:25.120 impulse that says like musical numbers could take away from 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:28.360 the seriousness of the film. There's another that says it 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:32.280 could take away from the quote realism. I'd say, if 0:03:32.280 --> 0:03:35.160 you're overly concerned with either of those, maybe you shouldn't 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:36.960 be making a horror movie. 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:40.920 I think another sort of barrier to entry or sort 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:43.760 of expectation is that might be for many and it 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:45.600 was kind of this way for me. Is I expected 0:03:46.080 --> 0:03:49.440 going into a musical number to be clunkier and take 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:53.520 me out of the picture more. And there are sections 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:55.800 of the film that do manage to take me out 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:58.880 of the picture and are clunky, but the musical numbers, 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:01.240 like you get the impressional like this, this is down 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:06.120 to like an art just in Indian cinema in general, 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:08.920 And so if a movie's going into a musical number, 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:10.960 they know what they're doing. They like it's you're gonna 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:14.600 have a smooth takeoff and landing with the emotional arc 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:16.480 of whatever that particular song happens to be. 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:19.440 Every time a song kicked in, I was like, okay, 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:23.200 now we're cooking. Even the kind of sad, slower paced songs. 0:04:23.760 --> 0:04:26.679 Yeah, yeah, because it's it's it's not coming out of nowhere, 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:30.040 it's coming out of what's going on emotionally with the characters, 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:32.320 or especially towards the end of this picture, with like 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:34.200 the driving nature of the plot. 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:37.120 Oh yes, the human sacrifice song I think was my 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:38.840 favorite song in the movie. 0:04:40.080 --> 0:04:43.560 All right, So again, this was my first Bollywood film. 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:45.520 I'd never watched one in its entirety, like you had 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:47.680 seen some clips, so I had to I had to 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:49.560 do a little extra reading about everything. There's a lot 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:52.520 of things about Bollywood cinema that I was not familiar 0:04:52.600 --> 0:04:55.760 with and just did not know about. So, for instance, 0:04:56.640 --> 0:04:58.560 bear with me if you already knew all of this. 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:02.760 But when we talk about Bollywood cinema, we're talking about 0:05:02.800 --> 0:05:06.679 films specifically coming out of the Mumbai film industry. Mumbai 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:10.240 formerly known as Bombay. You get it, like Bombay plus 0:05:10.320 --> 0:05:14.320 Hollywood equals Bollywood. And while it's perhaps the most well 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:20.799 known internationally of the various Indian film centers, Indian cinema 0:05:20.839 --> 0:05:24.440 is not a monolith like India itself. India cinema consists 0:05:24.480 --> 0:05:28.920 of various languages and cultures and in the different cinematic 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:33.480 traditions and centers have like different strengths, different histories and 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:37.359 so forth. So with some of the various extras on 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:40.359 the disc or discs that we looked at for this 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:43.880 as well as some articles, it was a real learning 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:48.240 experience for me to familiarize myself somewhat with this. I 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:50.560 mean it goes beyond genre with this, just whole realm 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:51.640 of cinema. 0:05:51.880 --> 0:05:54.679 By the way, just as one example of other film 0:05:54.720 --> 0:05:57.120 subcultures of India, I know there is also the so 0:05:57.200 --> 0:06:02.080 called Tollywood, which refers to Tollywood with a tea, referring 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:06.720 to films made in the Telugu language, which is one 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:08.159 of the many languages of India. 0:06:08.800 --> 0:06:11.640 Yeah. Yeah, And then likewise you have in Pakistan you 0:06:11.720 --> 0:06:16.920 have Lollywood that is centered in Lahore. I didn't know 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:20.400 anything about Lollywood either until I started absorbing some of 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:24.839 these extras on these discs. But this film Purana Mandha 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:27.919 from eighty four is very much Bollywood. It is a 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:31.520 Bollywood film, it is a Bollywood horror film. And it's 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:33.520 going to be interesting to discuss exactly what all of 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:37.400 that means because to a very large degree, the filmmakers 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:40.480 the other here, the Ramsey brothers, are pushing into an 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:44.880 area that had traditionally been less successful and more of 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:49.120 fringe within Bollywood cinema. But still it's going to have 0:06:49.279 --> 0:06:51.640 things in it that are very much part of the 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:58.080 Bollywood blueprint, and that includes a compelling story of starcrossed lovers, 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:03.320 a fair amount of family melodrama, multiple music numbers, Now 0:07:04.120 --> 0:07:06.640 this was interesting. I was looking at an excer where 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:09.120 it was an interview with a critic Omar Khan, and 0:07:09.160 --> 0:07:12.280 he pointed out that eight or so musical numbers per 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:13.720 movie is pretty standard. 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:17.440 Oh so this seems under the average, right, I think 0:07:17.480 --> 0:07:20.240 there were maybe five in this movie. 0:07:20.000 --> 0:07:22.960 Is that right? I lost count after a little while, 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:25.320 just because I'm not used to seeing any in my heart, 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:27.960 but I saw something where he was talking about a 0:07:28.000 --> 0:07:30.120 later Ramsey Brothers film where he's like, well, there are 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:32.400 only four musical numbers in this, which may seem like 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:35.720 a lot too Outsiders, but like really it's like a 0:07:35.760 --> 0:07:38.800 half load. But on top of the music, on top 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:41.120 of the horror, which we'll get to, we also have 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:45.000 martial arts action, you got a little dancing. You've got 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:50.080 some comedic segments which we're probably not going to talk 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:52.120 about too much other than to say they are are 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:56.320 they are awful. But all of this comes together into 0:07:56.440 --> 0:07:59.280 what felt to me it's kind of like a circus. Right. 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:01.120 It's like you go to a circus, They're going to 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:03.480 be a number of acts. You may not be there 0:08:03.520 --> 0:08:06.560 primarily to see the clowns. You may be there to 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:09.680 see the trapeze act, but the clowns are going to 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:13.960 be there because somebody came with the expectation of clowns. 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:18.520 Within talk of Bollywood film in particular, i've seen this 0:08:18.600 --> 0:08:22.680 described as Massala film that is a reference to the 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:25.640 spice blend. You know, you're going to the theater to 0:08:25.680 --> 0:08:28.640 see this show, and by golly, it needs to deliver 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:31.080 a little something for everyone. A little of this spice, 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:34.360 a little of that, all under the big top of cinema. 0:08:34.440 --> 0:08:36.200 Now, if it sounds like that's a lot to fit 0:08:36.280 --> 0:08:39.440 into one movie, it is. This is a long movie. 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:42.880 This is definitely the longest movie we've covered on Weird House, right. 0:08:43.240 --> 0:08:46.600 Yeah, it beats out Blade by twenty minutes, which I 0:08:46.600 --> 0:08:48.560 think is it's important to keep that in mind because 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:52.760 it's not absurdly long, like they are longer. Plenty of 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:55.920 longer Bollywood films, and there are plenty of longer Western 0:08:56.000 --> 0:09:00.360 films as well. Avatar two is longer than Piranhamundi, so 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:04.920 you know, don't necessarily let the linth, you know, keep 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:08.360 you away from these films. And there's an intermission too, 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:10.920 so you got that going for you love an intermission 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:14.079 now the disc we watched this on, and I'll give 0:09:14.120 --> 0:09:16.760 a full mention of that and just a bit here 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:21.680 has an introduction from Indian horror expert Tim Paxton. He 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:25.640 provides the intro and he points out that Parana Mandir 0:09:25.920 --> 0:09:29.920 is one of the most important films in Bollywood history 0:09:30.720 --> 0:09:33.640 and probably the most important film in the history of 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:37.760 Indian horror cinema specifically in one of the interesting things 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:40.040 here is produced on a very modest budget, but it 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:43.000 was a colossal hit. I was looking at some of 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:45.000 the numbers and if I was doing my math correctly, 0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:49.280 it like multiplied its budget in revenue on the scale 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:53.559 of something like Rocky or Blair Witch Project. Like that 0:09:53.720 --> 0:09:57.559 level of success. Just did amazing business. 0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:00.160 Have you read anything from somebody who knows it was 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:03.000 about the Bollywood market, like what audience has responded to 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:05.600 so much about this movie in particular? Like why was 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:07.200 it so popular? Well? 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:09.400 Omar Con gets into this a little bit on some 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:13.720 of the extras from this blue ray set, and a 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:16.280 lot of it kind of comes down to luck, you know, 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:19.400 like the Ramsays at this point had been pumping out 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:22.480 horror content since seventy two, I believe, and none of 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:25.600 those films had certainly had anything like the success, but 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:27.480 they were out there. It was on the fringes, you know, 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:29.760 And so I mean, I guess part of it is 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:32.800 like by this point they definitely knew what they were 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:35.719 doing with a number of these elements. They knew how 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:37.480 to put together things, they knew how to do them 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:40.640 a sola film offering. So they did have a little 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:43.440 bit for everybody. And I don't know, it was just 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:46.520 like the right time, Like audience has just really responded 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:48.880 to it. And he described it as being like a 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:54.040 generational date movie, like if you were going to cinemas 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:56.920 in India during this time period, you saw this movie 0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:00.760 and it was also he points out, you know, probably 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:04.160 going to be especially for for how mainstream it became. 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:07.920 It was offering things people just hadn't seen before because 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:13.839 Western horror films could only really enter into like the 0:11:14.160 --> 0:11:17.800 the general zeitgeist there so much because they weren't coming 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:20.800 in on like satellite TV or anything. They were they 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:22.400 were coming in on it. They weren't being shown in 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:24.240 the theater for the most part. They were coming in 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:27.400 on VHS tapes and those were in rare, you know, 0:11:27.400 --> 0:11:29.000 and there were those were hard to get. Only certain 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:32.480 people had access to those. And so this is a 0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:35.079 film that has some really scary stuff in it, and 0:11:35.120 --> 0:11:37.360 you can just imagine how much more scary it is 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:40.880 if you didn't have direct exposure to say The Exorcist 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:44.600 or the first Evil Dead movie or something like that. 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:46.600 I can also see how it would be such a 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:49.720 great date movie since it has you know, it's like, 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:52.240 it's like scary, so the classical cliches. It gets you 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:55.520 hugging clothes because you know, because the same reason out 0:11:55.559 --> 0:11:57.520 here are about to do something evil. But it's also 0:11:57.559 --> 0:11:58.560 got a great love story. 0:11:59.160 --> 0:12:01.199 Yeah, yeah, you got again. You've got a romance of 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:03.480 the heart of it. You've got family melodrama the heart 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:05.559 of it. You've got the music, You've got the comedy, 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:08.120 you've got the dancing girl. You've got all these things 0:12:08.160 --> 0:12:12.200 that any given viewer is going to be wanting to 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:15.000 see out of a Bollywood film. But it's also offering 0:12:15.320 --> 0:12:18.600 something that is new, and that the newness ends up 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:22.400 being key because this kicks off a horror boom in India. 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:25.000 The Ramsey Brothers end up coming out a lot of 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:29.480 additional horror films, they have competitors, and also, you know, 0:12:29.520 --> 0:12:32.160 other folks just jump in to try and ride that bandwagon, 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:34.920 and it actually they end up writing it out by 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:38.880 something like I want to say, ninety two, so the 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:42.000 boom doesn't last too long. But during that time, everybody 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:44.960 gets in there, and some of the films are supposed 0:12:44.960 --> 0:12:47.680 to be quite good, but there's a sort of sameness 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:49.680 to everything, and after a while people seen it and 0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:53.160 it loses that new edge that this film seemed to have. 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:55.360 I think a similar thing happened with some of the 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:57.840 biggest money making horror films in the United States in 0:12:57.840 --> 0:13:00.560 the eighties. Also kind of the Slasher for Me got 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:02.760 repeated and played out to death. 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:05.600 Yeah, or the or later on the speaking of Blair 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:10.400 Witch the found footage formula. Because you know, that's a 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:12.760 case where, for the most part, people hadn't really seen 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:15.280 a film like this. It was produced on a very 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:19.160 low budget, made tremendous money, and lots of folks jumped 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:24.000 in there to try and recreate that success, and God goodness, 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:25.680 off the top of my head, I'm not sure anybody 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:29.920 really did, so, yeah, I think it's a it's a 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:32.880 good comparison though only in terms of like sort of 0:13:32.960 --> 0:13:35.120 business and impact, not so much style. 0:13:35.679 --> 0:13:38.760 I think following the blair Witch model, the Paranormal Activity 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:43.160 franchise did pretty good, Okay, I think, hmmm, I'm trying 0:13:43.160 --> 0:13:46.040 to think of another one. I don't know. Yeah, I mean, 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:48.560 the found footage style is obviously very appealing because it's 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:53.080 cheap to make. But when people were trying to just make, 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:56.000 you know, cash in on found footage movies with very 0:13:56.080 --> 0:13:59.079 uninspired ideas, I think a lot of them missed out 0:13:59.120 --> 0:14:02.160 on how creative the original blair Witch project actually was. 0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:05.280 Yeah. Yeah, And I mean that's kind of like written 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:09.480 across the horror genre. Wherever you look, right, a successful 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:12.720 horror movie comes out and somebody's gonna think I can 0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:16.360 do that. Horror is easy. Horror films can't be that 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:19.240 hard to do, and there is an art to it. 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:22.440 There is a certain amount of style, and then there's 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:24.600 a certain amount of luck to hitting things just right. 0:14:25.040 --> 0:14:28.640 And that's what Perana Mander seems to have done. Let's 0:14:28.640 --> 0:14:31.360 see just a couple of other notes. Paxton points out 0:14:31.400 --> 0:14:36.320 that this movie, which deals specifically with a resurrected evil 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:41.920 decapitated wizard, does draw heavily on two prior films, One 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:44.840 American in one Spanish nineteen fifty eight is The Thing 0:14:44.880 --> 0:14:47.640 that Couldn't Die that stars Robin Hughes as the Wizard 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:52.040 Gideon Drew, and nineteen seventy two's Horror Rises from the 0:14:52.040 --> 0:14:57.200 Tomb starring Paul Nashy as the Wizard Alaak Demarnac. This 0:14:57.240 --> 0:14:59.680 is a film, of course, we discussed on Weird House Cinema. 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:02.800 Not expect that. Yeah, Paul Nashy plays the Wizard. He's 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:06.160 actually part of like an evil sorcerer power couple in 0:15:06.240 --> 0:15:08.200 Horror Rises from the Tomb. Right, he has a he 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:10.800 has like a wife or a girlfriend who's also a 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:12.560 powerful wizard. Yeah. 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:14.720 I mean the thing about Paul Nashy films is Paul 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:18.440 Nashy monsters you're supposed to feel some sort of sympathy for, 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:20.600 you know, that's where he's coming from. He's coming from 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:26.240 that that that love of universal horror and sympathy for 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:31.160 the monster, the wizard. In this film, Samri is unlovable. 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:35.760 He is just a complete monster. Every crime that is 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:38.640 committable he has done. We are not meant to have 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:42.800 any sympathy at all for Samri. And and ultimately have 0:15:42.880 --> 0:15:45.000 to say, even though the early stages of the film do, 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:48.280 like the historical opening does kind of mirror the opening 0:15:48.360 --> 0:15:50.720 of Horizons from the Tomb, it ultimately goes in its 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:54.960 own direction as opposed to being anything like like a 0:15:55.000 --> 0:15:56.320 clone of that movie. 0:15:56.480 --> 0:15:58.720 Well, on one hand, yes, I agree. Samri is not 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:01.720 sympathetic at all in terms of the narrative. He doesn't 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:04.760 have like a tragic love story or anything like that. 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:09.200 There's nothing likable about him except just his physical vibe. 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:11.920 Like the presence of the actor who plays summary in 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:13.680 the opening is so cool. 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:19.040 Oh, absolutely, Yeah. The performance here by aj Agarwal is 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:22.280 tremendous and this is a role that launched him as 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:27.320 like a true monster actor for Indian horror cinema. 0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:28.680 We'll have to come back to him. 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:31.160 Yeah, we'll come back to him for sure, because he's 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:33.720 at a light. There are long stretches of the film where 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:37.960 he's not there, but when he is there, he's tremendous. Right. 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:40.080 Just a couple other small points before we get to 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:45.040 the trailer. Basically the film is predominantly in Hindi, though 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:47.320 the characters do throw in a little English here and there, 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:50.680 and the action ventures into a rural setting, so you'll 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:54.360 hear some characters speaking another dialect or language. It's referenced 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:57.320 in the Hindi dialogue as well, but I couldn't find 0:16:57.320 --> 0:16:59.120 an indicator of which language this is. 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:02.560 I noticed something interesting in the movie where a couple 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:06.880 of times somebody would say something in Hindi and then 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:10.440 they would say the same thing again in English, almost 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:13.400 as if for emphasis. And I don't know if that's 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:16.680 like something specific to Bollywood movies or just a quirk 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:19.879 of this movie in particular, or a convention of of 0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:22.520 Hindi language in general. I don't know, but I thought 0:17:22.560 --> 0:17:23.240 that was interesting. 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:26.880 Yeah, with that, with that specifically and just generally out there, 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:29.919 we'd love to hear from listeners after this episode. If 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:33.400 you have more experience with Bollywood cinema, if you, if 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:36.439 you speak Hindi, if you certainly, if you, if you 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:40.280 have experience with the theater, experience of going to these films, 0:17:41.080 --> 0:17:43.320 all of that is on the table, because I've heard 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:46.040 it pointed out that it's one thing to watch like 0:17:46.080 --> 0:17:48.920 a Bollywood film or a Bollywood horror film in your 0:17:48.960 --> 0:17:52.040 living room by yourself, But that of course was not 0:17:52.640 --> 0:17:55.320 how they intended a film like this to be viewed, No, 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:56.800 this was to be viewed in the theater. 0:17:57.400 --> 0:17:59.440 Can you imagine how much fun it would have been 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:01.600 to like see this in a pact theater of like 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:03.000 young people out on date night? 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:06.920 Oh yeah? And can you imagine how afraid people were 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:09.919 again if you hadn't seen many horror films and you 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:13.600 had to see Sammary. I mean, he's terrifying almost all 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:16.640 the time on the screen. He's at least unnerving, if 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:19.359 not just outright terrifying. All right, well, I mean the 0:18:19.400 --> 0:18:22.280 elevator pitch on this one is basically it's the biggest 0:18:22.280 --> 0:18:25.639 Bollywood horror film of them all. It's the it's the 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:30.880 granddaddy of Bollywood horror films. It's your basic evil wizard, 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:37.640 multi generational family curse romance film with added music and comedy. 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:40.119 We have a trailer here. I don't think we're going 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:41.919 to play at all, but we'll play at least a 0:18:42.040 --> 0:18:44.119 nice sampling of this so you can get sort of 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:46.159 an audio taste of what's ahead. 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:05.760 How many another. 0:19:19.119 --> 0:19:50.640 Shaw man? How about rights? Gonna be all right? Well, 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:52.840 before we go any further, if you would like to 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:55.680 watch this movie for yourself, if you'd like to check 0:19:55.720 --> 0:19:57.640 out here, go and see it, and then come back 0:19:57.640 --> 0:19:59.320 to the rest of the episode. Well, you don't have 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:03.080 to depend on sort of weird stream to view this film, 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:07.600 because there's a wonderful Bollywood Horror limited edition box that 0:20:08.680 --> 0:20:12.560 is out from Mondo Macabre, and I checked out a 0:20:12.600 --> 0:20:14.800 couple of discs from this, the disc for this film 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:16.399 and then a disc for another movie that had some 0:20:16.560 --> 0:20:20.639 extras on it, and we rented these discs from Atlanta's 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:22.320 own videodrome rental store. 0:20:22.960 --> 0:20:25.080 It's a great print, though it does warn you that 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:28.159 there will be some variable quality and different scenes of 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:31.320 the movie due to just like storage issues with the 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:35.199 film over the years, so the restoration is a bit 0:20:35.280 --> 0:20:38.000 patchy in places. But for the most part it looks great. 0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:40.879 Yeah, there's one particular I don't even know what to 0:20:40.960 --> 0:20:44.119 call it, but there's some sort of an error in 0:20:44.800 --> 0:20:47.119 the final print that we have on the disc here 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:49.399 that has almost kind of a psychedelic quality to it, 0:20:49.520 --> 0:20:51.159 and I didn't really I don't think i'd seen it 0:20:51.240 --> 0:20:55.200 on a film before, this particular kind of noise. So 0:20:55.359 --> 0:20:58.360 it's very watchable. Nothing in this gets in the way 0:20:58.480 --> 0:21:08.880 of your enjoyment of the movie, all right, well, let's 0:21:08.920 --> 0:21:11.680 jump into the people involved here. The main ones to 0:21:11.760 --> 0:21:17.600 really highlight here are the Ramsey brothers, the directors. It's 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:22.200 impossible to discuss Indian horror cinema without discussing the Ramsey brothers. Again, 0:21:22.600 --> 0:21:25.639 they had been doing this since seventy two, and this 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:29.440 is the movie that kicked off an enormous boom in 0:21:30.040 --> 0:21:34.280 Indian cinema for horror. And even like contemporary horror movies, 0:21:34.640 --> 0:21:37.120 they still have connections to the work of the Ramsey 0:21:37.240 --> 0:21:41.920 brothers here. Now, Ramsey brothers, I think can at times 0:21:42.040 --> 0:21:45.719 refer to just different sons and grandsons of f U Ramsey. 0:21:46.640 --> 0:21:50.080 But in particular the directors here are Shyam Ramsey and 0:21:50.160 --> 0:21:54.920 Tulsi Ramsey. Chyam lived fifty two through twenty nineteen and 0:21:55.040 --> 0:21:59.040 Tulci lived nineteen forty four through twenty eighteen. Other Ramsey 0:21:59.080 --> 0:22:01.359 brothers would get in on directing game at times, like 0:22:01.880 --> 0:22:05.160 Kishu and Kieran. But yeah, these are the main two 0:22:05.160 --> 0:22:08.320 we're talking about. They're the ones who directed horror films 0:22:08.320 --> 0:22:12.399 in the early seventies, beginning with a nineteen seventy two film. 0:22:12.920 --> 0:22:15.560 In the title for this one translates to two yards 0:22:15.680 --> 0:22:18.600 under the Ground so already like kind of a grim 0:22:18.880 --> 0:22:20.840 beginning there. They followed this up with a string of 0:22:20.960 --> 0:22:26.520 horror and creature films. There's one from eighty two Matt Kasaya. 0:22:26.800 --> 0:22:29.440 I'm probably mispronouncing that, but it looks interesting to me 0:22:29.520 --> 0:22:31.680 because it has some sort of like big creature water 0:22:31.800 --> 0:22:34.760 monster in it. I'm not sure this one is available 0:22:36.080 --> 0:22:39.159 widely in the West, but I put it on my 0:22:39.280 --> 0:22:42.840 radar because it looks interesting. Neat monster anyway. But anyway, 0:22:42.840 --> 0:22:44.240 all of these films that they were putting out, these 0:22:44.280 --> 0:22:47.399