The Long Take with Akhil, Rohan & Devika

Shockingly, Tiger 3—the fifth overall instalment in the YRF Spy Universe—isn’t entirely unwatchable.

But the movie could’ve been so much better with just about any other star in the lead role instead of Salman Khan, who not only struggles to emote but also seems pained to move physically.

We talk about the film’s Pathaan-like progressive politics, flat visual effects, and Emraan Hashmi’s performance as the villain.

We also discuss Shah Rukh Khan’s cameo and wonder why even he wasn’t able to elevate the film.

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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 12th Fail actually one of the best Hindi movies of 2023 or is it massively overrated?

We find ourselves wondering why writer-director Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s latest film is getting rave reviews, because all we could see was a deeply problematic, all too simplistic story about a young man let down by society.

We also talk about Vikrant Massey’s performance, and the egregious brown-face makeup that he’s been coated with.

Along the way, we discuss the film’s flawed perspective and disinterest in examining the more complex aspects of what is an undoubtedly stirring true story.

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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].

Kho Gaye Hum Kahan, the new film from the team behind The Archies, is a rare Bollywood movie about millennial malaise.

But like its characters, it’s too distracted by social media and the desire to say something about our addiction to it.

We talk about the performances of its three leads—Siddhant Chaturvedi, Ananya Panday and Adarsh Gourav—and discuss the many ways in which it honours and undermines their experiences.

We also admire the effort that writer-director Arjun Varain Singh has gone through to ground the movie in a recognisable reality, as opposed to most Hindi movies of its kind.

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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].

Rebel Moon is the worst film of Zack Snyder’s career, and that’s saying something.

We talk about the director’s uninspired homage to the works of Akira Kurosawa and George Lucas, his unusually bland visuals, and the film’s wooden writing.

We also wonder why the project looks so cheap, seeing as it comes from a streamer that is often willing to invest $200 million on less-deserving movies, and why Snyder has cast seemingly his second and third choices for most roles.

We also discuss Netflix’s cynical approach to fashioning a franchise, and reverse-engineering a director’s cut movement, all at the cost of producing a cohesive cinematic experience.

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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].

Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla is the antithesis of Baz Luhrmann’s terrible Elvis movie.

We discuss Coppola’s sad-core storytelling, her determination never to leave Priscilla’s side, and her absolutely damning portrayal of the King of Rock and Roll.

We also talk about Cailee Spaeny’s central performance as Priscilla, Jacob Elordi’s menacing turn as Elvis, and the movie’s delicate handling of their very complex relationship.

But we also wonder if Coppola’s emotionally distant direction might have made the stirring true-life story a little unaffecting.

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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 The Archies, writer-director Zoya Akhtar disguises her politics behind teen romance.

But does this diffuse the impact of what she’s trying to say? We talk about the film’s coming-of-age themes, how each character is given definitive traits, and whether it’s successful in capturing teen angst.

We also discuss the cast of newcomers, and wonder if the movie will be offensive to certain sections of the audience.

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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].

Kaathal – The Core, directed by Jeo Baby, is shaping up to be a real word-of-mouth hit, purely on the strength of its sheer quality.

We speak about the many reasons why the new Malayalam-language drama left us so moved, and highlight the two central performances by Mammootty and Jyotika.

We appreciate director Baby’s command over visual storytelling, and how effectively he uses silences to convey volumes about his characters.

We also discuss the delicate tonal balance that the film strikes, making sure to not paint anybody as the “villain”.

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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].

Leo, the new Tamil-language blockbuster starring “Thalapathy” Vijay, is now on Netflix.

We discuss the film’s abysmal storytelling, the charmless central performance, and poorly designed action sequences. We also talk about the larger Lokesh Cinematic Universe and how shoehorned-in the references to the franchise feel.

Along the way, we attempt to dissect the Inception-level flashback sequence and discuss the strange decision to cast Sanjay Dutt as the villain, only to dub over his original voice and reduce his character to a motiveless henchman.

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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, Twitter, Threads, and YouTube. Write to us at [email protected].

Watching The Railway Men is like taking an express train back to Netflix India circa 2019 when the bottom of the barrel would be scraped week after week.

Almost unwatchable at even four episodes long, the new YRF-produced series is so inept that it makes you lose faith in the art of storytelling as a whole.

We discuss the show’s bizarre approach to a real-life tragedy, its wafer-thin characters, countless contrivances, and unintentionally hilarious plot devices.

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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, Twitter, Threads, and YouTube. Write to us at [email protected].

Is The Killer one of David Fincher’s most inconsequential movies?

We discuss the film’s subversive approach to the conventions of assassin cinema, Fincher’s clinical treatment of the subject matter, and the odd bursts of humour that he peppers through the two-hour narrative.

We also talk about Michael Fassbender’s statue-esque performance, and spend a considerable amount of time trying to decipher the meaning behind the meaninglessness.

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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, Twitter, Threads, and YouTube. Write to us at [email protected].