The Long Take with Akhil, Rohan & Devika

Just when we thought that Netflix and Dharma had made something that was merely mediocre and not downright terrible, The Fame Game, in its final episode, burst our bubble.

We discuss the new mystery series’ inept plotting, lack of insight into the film industry and the cult of stardom, and its problematic tendency to look down on the audience.

We also wonder if it was a wise move for Madhuri Dixit Nene to make her streaming debut with something this irrelevant, and what artistic statement Dharma is trying to make about celebrity culture.

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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].

We aren’t allowed to talk about all nine episodes of Severance—the new mystery box Apple TV+ show largely directed by Ben Stiller—but even if we were, we would show the same restraint.

We discuss the show’s social commentary and the many interpretations you could have of it. Is it, for instance, a takedown of religion or corporate culture? A representation of heaven and hell, or a Matrix-style hero’s journey?

We also wonder—semi-seriously—if creator-writer Dan Erickson is a front for someone really, really famous.

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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].

Just because they sold Gehraiyaan as an intense romantic drama doesn’t mean it actually is one.

We discuss the completely bonkers final act twist in director Shakun Batra’s new film—out on Amazon Prime Video—and how it derails a perfectly fine story about millennial love.

We also delve into the performances of its three central stars—Deepika Padukone, Siddhant Chaturvedi and Ananya Panday—as well as Batra’s handling of themes he’s never quite messed around with before.

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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 mere whiff of the words ‘Hotstar Specials’ is enough to make us wish for the sweet release of death.

This week, we rant about The Great Indian Murder—the new “murder mystery” starring Richa Chadha and Pratik Gandhi—and wonder what sort of moral bankruptcy enabled the creation of a disaster of such magnitude.

We discuss Tigmanshu Dhulia’s amateurish filmmaking, the strange structure of the plot, and the terrible performances of its central cast.

As we go along, we discover—much to our displeasure—that try as hard as we might, we can’t keep certain memories of the show repressed forever.

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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 Rocket Boys another win for SonyLIV—over a year since the release of Scam 1992—or is it too ambitious for its own good?

We discuss the show’s narrative scope, its progressive politics, and Jim Sarbh’s magnetic performance as Homi Bhabha.

We also debate whether Ishwak Singh could have been better as his foil Vikram Sarabhai, and if creator Nikkhil Advani deserves to be appreciated for changing his tune.

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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].

Kapil Sharma’s debut stand-up special for Netflix—I’m Not Done Yet—makes an incredibly strong case for why he should be.

We discuss the strange thought process that must have gone into putting something like this together, the safe material that Sharma (poorly) performs, and why this barely qualifies as a stand-up special at all.

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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].

Will Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth—available on Apple TV+—appeal to anyone but die-hard Shakespeare nuts?

We discuss what could have possibly motivated Coen to tackle the material at this point in his career, and the pointed visual aesthetic that evokes a very particular period in cinema history.

Along the way, we talk about the performances of Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand, and the environment that allows for these kind of auteur movies—Coen is writer, director, and editor—to exist.

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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 HBO Max’s Harry Potter reunion special a blatant cash grab or the jolt of nostalgia our pandemic-infected souls need?

We take the opportunity to look back—like Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson and the rest of the cast—on our memories of the Harry Potter movies and how they’ve evolved over the years.

We also talk about the impact directors Alfonso Cuarón and David Yates, in particular, had on the series—and conclude by imagining a dour future for J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World.

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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].

To close out the year, we list down our top 10 films of 2021—counting down from 10 to 1.

Our lists span from a Zoom movie to a stellar Malayalam New Wave title, and from a harrowing animated documentary to an impossible-to-describe fantasy epic.

Along the way, we also point out why lists such as this are so arbitrary, and how long we should ideally wait before discussing the best films of 2021.

And for those looking for deeper appreciation, listen to full episodes of some of the titles mentioned in the episode here: The Dig, The Disciple, Geeli Pucchi, The Green Knight, Madhyantar, Nayattu, and Sardar Udham.

Chapters

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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, JioSaavn, and wherever you get your podcasts.

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

Is Minnal Murali—the new Malayalam superhero movie on Netflix—a goofy sendup of the genre or an earnest attempt at creating a bold new homegrown franchise?

We discuss the film’s bloated length, its dedication to fleshing out both the protagonist and antagonist, and the various subtexts buried underneath its low-key charm.

We also talk about its failures (a lot of fat could be trimmed), its future potential and the unlikely nature of it, and lament about how Marvel has taken over the box office.

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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, JioSaavn, and wherever you get your podcasts.

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