The Long Take with Akhil, Rohan & Devika

Longlegs is the rare psychological horror movie that truly gets under your skin.

Featuring an instantly iconic performance by Nicolas Cage, the movie creates an ominous atmosphere with the help of a measured pace and an unsettling reliance on silence.

We discuss the film’s grounded first act and its rapid descent into full-blown supernatural horror. We also talk about director Osgood Perkins’ immersive framing and the film’s themes of parenting and childhood trauma.

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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, Amazon Music, Gaana, JioSaavn, Overcast, Pandora, RadioPublic, iHeart Radio, Google Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts.

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

They might as well have called Maharaj “Junaid Khan’s Launch Vehicle” because naming it after the villain makes even less sense.

We discuss the film’s many irredeemable flaws, which include shaming the victim of sexual abuse, projecting a red flag male character as the protagonist, and resorting to the problematic trope of “fridging.”

We also talk about the film’s obvious technical inadequacies, like flat visuals, a haphazard tone, and one-note acting performances.

Later in the episode, we discuss why Netflix avoided promoting it, and has essentially dumped it in the hope that nobody notices.

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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, Amazon Music, Gaana, JioSaavn, Overcast, Pandora, RadioPublic, iHeart Radio, Google Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts.

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

In its third and potentially final season, Kota Factory seems to be responding to past criticism.

We discuss the show’s sudden bout of self-reflection, and the confused manner in which it examines the harsh realities of towns like Kota and the industries they service. We also talk about its aversion to human moments, and why the handful of them this season stand out.

Later in the episode, we wonder why the show remains watchable on a very fundamental level, even though it often makes the same storytelling mistakes that it used to.

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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, Amazon Music, Gaana, JioSaavn, Overcast, Pandora, RadioPublic, iHeart Radio, Google Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts.

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

Dibakar Banerjee is going to have to make two good movies to compensate for whatever hellish assault on the senses Love Sex Aur Dhokha 2 was.

We discuss the film’s muddled social commentary, the frustration oozing out of every frame, and the general incoherence of the arguments.

We also compare LSD2’s aesthetic and thematic shortfalls, especially when compared to Banerjee’s past work, while wondering why he couldn’t find room for any self-reflection.

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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, Amazon Music, Gaana, JioSaavn, Overcast, Pandora, RadioPublic, iHeart Radio, Google Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts.

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

Crew, the new heist movie starring Tabu, Kareena Kapoor Khan, and Kriti Sanon, effectively weaponises middle-class angst against corporate overlords.

We praise the film’s dedication to punching up, the instant relatability that it is able to generate for its characters, and its tightly constructed first half.

But we also criticise its endless product placement, and the relatively disappointing second hour, which asks the audience to re-engage with the film through a whole new lens.

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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, Amazon Music, Gaana, JioSaavn, Overcast, Pandora, RadioPublic, iHeart Radio, Google Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts.

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

Writer-director Kunal Kemmu’s Madgaon Express smartly avoids taking the sleazy route and mostly succeeds in finding the soul of its cartoonish characters.

We talk about the film’s familiar set-up, and how it transports a Hangover-like premise to India.

We also discuss the performances of Divyenndu, Pratik Gandhi and Avinash Tiwary, while noting the tightrope walk actors have to pull off in absurd films like this.

We praise Kemmu’s handling of the climax, his gag-a-minute narrative, and his self-awareness, but also note flaws in the film’s central action sequence.

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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, Amazon Music, Gaana, JioSaavn, Overcast, Pandora, RadioPublic, iHeart Radio, Google Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts.

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

Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar, director Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s big-budget streaming debut, is yet another high-profile Netflix failure.

A summation and culmination of Bhansali’s lifelong ambitions, the show represents everything that is wrong with his sensibilities and style-over-substance storytelling.

We discuss the show’s flawed understanding of feminism, aestheticisation of female suffering, and haphazard structure.

We also talk about why the immaculate visuals and costumes that Bhansali is known for don’t contribute to his narratives.

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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, Amazon Music, Gaana, JioSaavn, Overcast, Pandora, RadioPublic, iHeart Radio, Google Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts.

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

In addition to being a thought-provoking movie about how close we are to disintegrating as a society, Alex Garland’s Civil War is a rollicking cinematic experience.

We discuss the film’s affection for journalism, the intricate character work that Garland is able to accomplish via action sequences, and the film’s stand-out moments.

One of them involves a scene-stealing cameo by Jesse Plemons, and the other is an extended climactic action sequence that works viscerally and emotionally.

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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, Amazon Music, Gaana, JioSaavn, Overcast, Pandora, RadioPublic, iHeart Radio, Google Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts.

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

Is Amar Singh Chamkila a long-awaited return to form for director Imtiaz Ali, or is it another let-down from the once-promising filmmaker?

We discuss the film’s inventive approach to the music biopic genre, if not narratively then at least formally. We also talk about Diljit Dosanjh and Parineeti Chopra’s central performances as the slain husband-wife folk singer duo and address the ‘Hindi gaze’ that Ali brings to this inherently Punjabi tale.

Along the way, we also discuss the nature of high and low art and the film’s many defences of Chamkila’s controversial music.

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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, Amazon Music, Gaana, JioSaavn, Overcast, Pandora, RadioPublic, iHeart Radio, Google Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts.

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

Aattam, the latest Malayalam-language gem that further solidifies the industry’s artistic stronghold on the cinema landscape of the country, offers an inventive spin on the whodunnit genre.

We discuss the film’s gripping narrative, ambitious social commentary, and director Anand Ekarshi’s bold voice.

We also talk about the many moral quandaries that the movie puts its characters in, and how willingly it invites audiences to gaze inward and participate in the proceedings.

We also debate the merits of its final moments, which we compare and contrast with Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon.

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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, Amazon Music, Gaana, JioSaavn, Overcast, Pandora, RadioPublic, iHeart Radio, Google Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts.

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