The Long Take with Akhil, Rohan & Devika

The Kriti Sanon-led Mimi is an improvement on the 2011 Marathi-language original, and still somehow downright terrible.

We discuss the disingenuous twists, its unwillingness to confront reality, and director Laxman Utekar’s embrace of tonal imbalance as a defining characteristic.

Along the way, we delve into the film’s irresponsible and egregious handling of surrogacy, suicide, bigotry, and other heavyweight topics.

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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 the politically-charged crime saga Malik—the latest Fahadh Faasil-Mahesh Narayanan collaboration, surprisingly picked up by Amazon Prime Video—an ambitious misfire or a brave success?

We discuss the film’s episodic structure, debate if it would’ve been better as a miniseries, analyse its kitchen-sink filmmaking, and list all its influences.

Later, we talk about the Emmy nominations, where everyone went home happy.

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 Black Widow a fitting farewell to Scarlett Johansson or a middling Marvel movie lacking a voice?

We discuss the film’s emotional underpinnings, Florence Pugh’s wry-humour character, the perfunctory handling of its themes, and Marvel’s persistent villain problem made large.

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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].

Not content with being a homage to Indian pulp fiction, Haseen Dillruba—the new Netflix movie starring Taapsee Pannu and Vikrant Massey—is also a mix of cringe comedy, ‘90s Bollywood romance, and C.I.D. infused with crime noir. Unsurprisingly, it does none of that well.

We discuss why Pannu needs a better director than Vinil Mathew, his inability to handle the motley of genres at play, and what’s going on with Kanika Dhillon’s screenplay, from the inadvertent undermining of the film’s feminist tone to the tone-deaf tackling of toxic masculinity.

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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].

Not all chapters in Netflix’s new anthology series, Ray—starring Ali Fazal, Manoj Bajpayee, Kay Kay Menon, and Harsh Varrdhan Kapoor—are worth watching. But are any of them actually good?

We talk about the uneven quality of the four episodes, how they deviate from Satyajit Ray's short stories on which they’re based, and who among the three directors—Srijit Mukherji, Abhishek Chaubey, and Vasan Bala—fares the best.

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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 director Amit Masurkar’s Sherni—starring Vidya Balan as a forest officer—a worthy follow-up to Newton?

We discuss the film’s ambitious ideas, Masurkar’s commentary on India under the Modi regime, and the film’s many passions, including environmental conservation, gender equality, and native representation.

Later, we talk about the behind-the-scenes reshuffle at Netflix India, and what that could mean for the streamer going forward.

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 The Family Man season 2 a breezy action series or a racist dog whistle for the far-right?

We discuss the indefensible failures of Raj & D.K., the series’ strong points—including those fascinating long takes—and the performances and characterisation of Samantha Akkineni and Manoj Bajpayee.

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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].

Does Cruella—the latest in the long line of Disney’s live-action reimaginings—earn its edginess?

We discuss the campy performances of stars Emma Stone and Emma Thompson, its derivative storytelling and myriad inspirations, and the film’s wall-to-wall soundtrack.

Later, we talk about Amazon’s $8.45-billion takeover of MGM, and what that could mean for the James Bond franchise going forward.

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].

Martin Prakkat’s Nayattu—our first film from the Malayalam New Wave, streaming on Netflix—is a genre-fluid thriller with grave undertones.

We debate the film’s plot holes, discuss its handling of the Dalit struggle, and dive into its broad socio-political themes.

Later, we talk about the teaser trailer for Marvel’s Eternals, and wonder why in the world they chose to ignore director Chloé Zhao—and her recent Oscar wins—altogether.

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].

Army of the Dead, Zack Snyder’s follow-up to his director’s cut of Justice League, is a bloated, boring mess.

We discuss the heist film’s simplistic plot, the lack of imagination in its depiction of zombies, and the thinly written characters.

Later, we talk about the state of piracy in India, prompted by Salman Khan’s angry tweet about Radhe.

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].