The Long Take with Akhil, Rohan & Devika

Liger—with Vijay Deverakonda and Ananya Panday—is easily the worst movie we’ve covered on the podcast, and nothing we say can communicate the utter depravity of what this “film”—from writer-director Puri Jagannadh, and producer Karan Johar—has to offer.

We discuss the shocking level of entitlement that can convince people that it’s okay to release something like this, the casually offensive nature of the entire project, and how it’s so bad that it makes Sadak 2 and Laxmii look like better alternatives.

—

Hosted by Akhil Arora and Rohan Naahar, The Long Take is fully bootstrapped. Please consider donating if you enjoy our work.

The Long Take is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Gaana, JioSaavn, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow The Long Take on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Write to us at [email protected].

Jogi is our second brush with director Ali Abbas Zafar after the truly unbearable Prime Video series Tandav, and we should’ve known better than to expect the filmmaker behind Tiger Zinda Hai to deliver a sensitive political drama.

We talk about Zafar’s timid filmmaking, his muddled political commentary, and the film’s lack of focus.

We also discuss the ways in which Jogi pulls punches, and wonder if it would’ve been better if it had made Diljit Dosanjh’s titular protagonist more of an archetype.

—

Hosted by Akhil Arora and Rohan Naahar, The Long Take is fully bootstrapped. Please consider donating if you enjoy our work.

The Long Take is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Gaana, JioSaavn, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow The Long Take on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Write to us at [email protected].

Thor: Love and Thunder is now out on Disney+, which gave us an opportunity to finally figure out if it was a worse theatrical experience, or an at-home viewing experience.

Taika Waititi’s second Marvel movie remains a disjointed affair that appears to have solid 10-minute chunks missing. It’s almost as if the old DC Films crew took over.

We discuss the film’s messy narrative, its disservice to the characters of Jane Foster, Gorr the God Butcher and Valkyrie, and its tendency to frequently undermine its own serious themes.

—

Hosted by Akhil Arora and Rohan Naahar, The Long Take is fully bootstrapped. Please consider donating if you enjoy our work.

The Long Take is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Gaana, JioSaavn, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow The Long Take on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Write to us at [email protected].

Is Amazon’s big-budget The Lord of the Rings prequel—The Rings of Power—the lavish fantasy series that fans were hoping for, or is it an unmitigated disaster?

We discuss the show’s slow-paced opening two episodes, the connections— both visually and stylistically—to Peter Jackson’s trilogy, and how well the series handles the multiple storylines that it throws the audience into.

We also talk about how The Rings of Power compares to House of the Dragon, and wonder if it is taking a leaf out of the Star Wars playbook.

—

Hosted by Akhil Arora and Rohan Naahar, The Long Take is fully bootstrapped. Please consider donating if you enjoy our work.

The Long Take is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Gaana, JioSaavn, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow The Long Take on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Write to us at [email protected].

Is Jordan Peele’s Nope—out now in Indian theatres—a meta commentary on his own career, or is it merely his tribute to blockbuster films?

We discuss the sci-fi thriller’s deeper themes, its spectacular IMAX cinematography, and theorise about that Gordy’s Home sequence.

We also talk about its Steven Spielberg influences, how it treats its central mystery, and where we place Nope on Peele’s filmography.

—

Hosted by Akhil Arora and Rohan Naahar, The Long Take is fully bootstrapped. Please consider donating if you enjoy our work.

The Long Take is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Gaana, JioSaavn, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow The Long Take on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Write to us at [email protected].

The Bear, one of the best new shows of the year, has arrived in India two months late, on Disney+ Hotstar. Even though it’s made by FX, owned by Disney. Streaming works in mysterious ways.

We discuss the show’s tense storytelling, Jeremy Allen White’s terrific lead performance, and draw parallels with not just other films and series about chefs, but also The Godfather and Uncut Gems.

Update: The Bear can now easily be found on Disney+ Hotstar, after a less-than-ideal rollout on launch day. Guess it was a mundane reason after all.

Malayankunju—the new Fahadh Faasil movie, now out on Amazon Prime Video—is less the survival thriller that it was marketed as, and more like a surrealist character study.

We discuss the film’s disjointed halves, its near-wordless experimental narrative, and whether the detestable protagonist deserves a redemption arc at all.

We also talk about A.R. Rahman’s dissonant score, and how the film uses metaphor and symbolism to tell a story about the environment and those who live on the fringes of society.

—

Hosted by Akhil Arora and Rohan Naahar, The Long Take is fully bootstrapped. Please consider donating if you enjoy our work.

The Long Take is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Gaana, JioSaavn, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow The Long Take on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Write to us at [email protected].

Darlings—the new Netflix film starring Alia Bhatt—is yet another Hindi-language comedy that doesn’t know how to navigate serious themes.

We talk about the film’s tonal imbalance, the disrespect with which it treats its protagonist, and director Jasmeet K. Reen’s under-confident handling of some very intense ideas.

We also discuss why rape-revenge films are morally thorny, and how Vijay Varma is able to elevate his underwritten character through performance alone.

—

Hosted by Akhil Arora and Rohan Naahar, The Long Take is fully bootstrapped. Please consider donating if you enjoy our work.

The Long Take is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Gaana, JioSaavn, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow The Long Take on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Write to us at [email protected].

JugJugg Jeeyo—the new Dharma movie starring Varun Dhawan, Kiara Advani, Anil Kapoor, and Neetu Kapoor—is in constant conflict with itself.

Is it a comedy or a drama? Does it want to portray emotionally evolved modern characters, or does it want to be a slapstick Govinda film from the ‘90s? Does it really want to expose patriarchal mindsets, or does it want to devote its entire runtime to torturing its female characters instead?

We unpack this—and more—as we talk about JugJugg Jeeyo’s tonal inconsistencies, the terror that it feels every time it comes close to examining a serious theme, and the tall claim that it is Dharma’s answer to Marriage Story.

—

Hosted by Akhil Arora and Rohan Naahar, The Long Take is fully bootstrapped. Please consider donating if you enjoy our work.

The Long Take is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Gaana, JioSaavn, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow The Long Take on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Write to us at [email protected].

Yet another big-budget stinker from Netflix, The Gray Man—the new film from Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo—is so anonymous, it’s like it was literally birthed by an algorithm.

We discuss The Gray Man’s utter lack of personality, the incoherent action sequences, and deathly dull plotting.

We also talk about how it assembles some of the world’s most talented movie stars—Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, and Ana de Armas to name a few—only to rob them of every last ounce of charisma.

—

Hosted by Akhil Arora and Rohan Naahar, The Long Take is fully bootstrapped. Please consider donating if you enjoy our work.

The Long Take is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Gaana, JioSaavn, and wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow The Long Take on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Write to us at [email protected].