The Pardesi Podcast

Movie review of the classic 1999 Mohanlal film Vanaprastham by Melanie on The Pardesi Podcast.

You can view the video review here, which includes a few short clips from the film.  My Youtube channel is Pardesi Reviews.

Vanaprastham - The Last Dance (English: Pilgrimage) is a 1999 Indian-French-German co-production Malayalam language drama film directed by Shaji N. Karun. It stars Mohanlal, Suhasini, Mattannur Sankarankutty Marar, Kalamandalam Gopi, and Venmani Haridas. The film's music is composed by Zakir Hussain. The film follows the tale of a lower-caste Kathakali artist Kunhikuttan (Mohanlal) during the 1940s era in Travancore. Subhadra (Suhasini), a member of an aristocratic family, falls in love with the character Arjuna played by Kunhikuttan. She views Kunhikuttan and the character he plays as separate individuals. Their affair eventually leads to the birth of a son, who is hidden away by Subhadra from Kunhikuttan for almost a lifetime. The film premiered at the Un Certain Regard section of the 1999 Cannes Film Festival on May 1999, and was theatrically released in India on December 1999. The film was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the American Film Institute Los Angeles International Film Festival (AFI Fest) in 1999. The film won three awards at the 47th National Film Awards: Best Feature Film Award, Best Actor Award (Mohanlal), and Best Editing Award (A. Sreekar Prasad). IBN Live ranked the film #9 in its list of greatest Indian films of all time. The film was screened retrospective, during the 2014 International Film Festival of India in the Celebrating Dance in Indian cinema section. Thank you for listening! Please Subscribe and comment!

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I am joined this podcast with Sal Salam and we talk about the Deepveer wedding, the Priyanka Chopra/Nick Jonas wedding, and the Ambani reception first videos were coming out just before we recorded.

Sal has written for BollyBrit and you can find her on twitter @salandthebadpun and her Tumblr page https://bollychudiyan.tumblr.com/

This episode is here also on my Youtube channel, if you'd like to see us, and not just hear us!  You can find more Indian Cinema reviews by Melanie on her Youtube channel: Pardesi Reviews: 

https://www.youtube.com/c/PardesiReviews

Please Subscribe and comment!

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/PardesiYT

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In this discussion with Margaret Redlich of https://dontcallitbollywood.com/ we discuss 2.0 and the trailer for the upcoming Hindi film Simmba starring Ranveer Singh.

I apologize that there is terrible audio when Margaret is speaking in about the first 12 minutes.  Then we disconnected and tried a new Skype connection which sounds much better for the remainder of the hour.  

Check out Ep. 14 for Melanie's 2.0 review.

You can find more Indian Cinema reviews by Melanie on her Youtube channel: Pardesi Reviews: 

https://www.youtube.com/c/PardesiReviews

Margaret Redlich has written the book Don't Call It Bollywood: An Introduction to the Hindi Film Universe: http://annorlundaenterprises.com/books/dont-call-it-bollywood/

Margaret writes extensively about Indian Cinema on her Blog:  https://dontcallitbollywood.com/

Movie review of the 2018 Hindi film Kedarnath starring Sushant Singh Rajput and Sara Ali Khan - by Melanie on The Pardesi Podcast.

To see the video review of Kedarnath go here.

Kedarnath (Hindi pronunciation: [keːdaːɾnaːtʰ]) is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language romantic drama disaster film written, directed and co-produced by Abhishek Kapoor. Featuring Sushant Singh Rajput and newcomer Sara Ali Khan in lead roles, it tells an inter-faith love story between a wealthy Hindu girl whose family owns a lodge and shops near the historic Kedarnath Temple in the Uttarakhand mountains and a humble Muslim boy who is a 'pithoo' (porter) working in the same vicinity. As their relationship grows closer, the pair face many obstacles, including familial disapproval and contrasting backgrounds; when the sudden rains of the 2013 Uttarakhand floods devastate the region, the couple are forced to survive against the elements and face the ultimate test of their love.

The film is produced by Ronnie Screwvala of RSVP Movies and Abhishek Kapoor of Guy in the Sky Pictures, along with Pragya Kapoor and Abhishek Nayyar; it was co-written with Kapoor by Kanika Dhillon. The film's production began in June 2017, and principal photography commenced on 5 September 2017. The film released on 7 December 2018 to mixed reviews, with praise directed towards Khan's debut performance.[

 

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Movie review of the Tamil Shankar film 2.0 starring Rajinikanth and Akshay Kumar by Melanie on Pardesi Podcast

This is part two of my long chat with Sunny of Sunny's Starlight Youtube Channel.  In this podcast we discuss what the flop of Thugs of Hindostan means to Aamir Khan's career, and what films he's slated to do next.  We also discuss our love of South Indian cinema, and the history of South Indian actresses in Hindi cinema, and the old studios where Hindi films were made in Chennai.

Listen to the first part of our discussion in Episode 12, the previous podcast, where we discuss Kedarnath's trailer and songs, and the debut of Sara Ali Khan.

Check out Sunny's Starlight here on Youtube.

And follow Sunny on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sunnysstarlight 

Please Subscribe and comment!

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This is the first conversation with Sunny of Sunny's Starlight Youtube Channel.  Sunny was a commenter and viewer since the beginning of my Pardesi channel, and just recently started his own channel.  He has a depth of knowledge about the history of Indian cinema.  In this first chat, we talk about the trailer and song videos out for Kedarnath and our impressions of Sara Ali Khan.

This conversation continues in the next episode where we discuss South Indian cinema.

Check out Sunny's Starlight here on Youtube.

And follow Sunny on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sunnysstarlight 

Please Subscribe and comment!

Social Media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/PardesiYT

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PardesiYT/

Movie review of the Hindi and Telugu film The Ghaza Attack starring Rana Daggubati.  It's currently streaming on Amazon Prime.

The Ghazi Attack (Ghazi in Telugu) is a 2017 Indian war film written, and directed by Sankalp Reddy. The film based on the mysterious sinking of PNS Ghazi during Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 is shot simultaneously in Telugu and Hindi and dubbed into Tamil. The film stars Rana Daggubati, Taapsee Pannu, Kay Kay Menon and Atul Kulkarni The film was released worldwide on 17 February 2017 to positive reviews. The Ghazi Attack is inspired by true events from the Indo-Pakistani war of 1971. The story is about an executive naval officer of the Indian Submarine and his team, who remain underwater for 18 days. The film explores the mysterious circumstances under which submarine PNS Ghazi sank off the coast of Visakhapatnam in 1971. The film is an underwater tale of the courage and patriotism of the men aboard the Indian Submarine INS Karanj which destroyed the Pakistani PNS Ghazi when it ventured into Indian waters to destroy INS Vikrant on the shore of R. K. Beach, Visakhapatnam. Pakistan maintains that PNS Ghazi was destroyed by her own underwater mine. The epilogue indicates that the day after the Ghazi incident, Pakistani fighters bomb Indian airfields, marking the beginning of the 1971 Indo-Pak war for liberation of Bangladesh. At the 65th National Film Awards 2018, the film won the Best Feature Film in Telugu.

Episode 10 of The Pardesi Podcast is another conversation with Margaret Redlich of Don't Call It Bollywood.  We discuss the film Thugs of Hindostan, and if it marks a transition in Hindi cinema, a look back at Main Hoon Na, and Juhi Chawla, whose birthday is Nov. 13th.

You can find more Indian Cinema reviews by Melanie on her Youtube channel: Pardesi Reviews: 

https://www.youtube.com/c/PardesiReviews

Margaret Redlich has written the book Don't Call It Bollywood: An Introduction to the Hindi Film Universe: http://annorlundaenterprises.com/books/dont-call-it-bollywood/

Margaret writes extensively about Indian Cinema on her Blog:  https://dontcallitbollywood.com/

Review of the 2018 Telugu comedy-horror film Taxiwaala starring Vijay Deverakonda.

You can watch the video of my review here on the Pardesi Reviews Youtube channel.

Taxiwaala is a 2018 supernatural comedy thriller film written and directed by Rahul Sankrityan. The film stars Vijay Deverakonda, Priyanka Jawalkar and Malavika Nair in the lead roles. Ravi Prakash and Uttej appear in supporting roles. Music is composed by Jakes Bejoy. The film is jointly bankrolled by UV Creations and Geetha Arts. Please Subscribe and comment!

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