Hello, hello. Why are you starting? I will start. So hello, hello again. This is the Awful and Awesome Entertainment Wrap. Episode 412. And today is a momentous day. Because it is Abhinandan's Happy Birthday! And it's also momentous because his age is the same as his IQ now. It's so exciting. What is wrong with my starting? Because I'm supposed to start. You can't just change just because you're a man. So many times I've started. No, you have ended sometimes, but not started. Okay, fine. So, and I'm Abhinandan Sekhri and this is the awful and awesome Mediterranean Rap. You got the whole order only wrong. And it's your birthday. Happy birthday to you. So on my birthday, if you want to give me a gift, it is 4th of August. We are recording this on 4th of August, which is Tuesday. so you can subscribe here's a qr code you can subscribe to the news laundry and if you mail me abhinandasekari at gmail.com all who subscribe for the 1947 and give us our 1947 i'll explain later uh through this qr code i will send you if you're in india a personally handwritten book as in I won't have written the book I'll just write the first page with a sweet message to you for supporting journalism and before we get into the awful and awesome entertainment rap Rajshri said you also listen very carefully to this why do we have this give us our 1947 campaign which is you get a subscription for Rs.1947 because it's Independence Day next week correct now when I was interviewing Josie Joseph who is one of the finest journalists in India He said the following. you know, sailors and migrants and doctors and lawyers, but they were all journalists. Journalists who held their pen against the mightiest of the empire, right? So that got me thinking, Rajshri, almost all of our freedom fighters are journalists. Baba Ambedkar, Mook Nayak, he founded more than one publication. Bapu Gandhi, of course. And not just them, who else? Bal Gangadhar Tilak was an editor Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Also there some Bengalis also you be surprised to know G Subramanya Iyer journalist 1906 This is not a Bengali name. I know. He founded the Hindu, which is also, and it was an active freedom fighting newspaper. Shishir Kumar Ghosh and Motilal Ghosh. What is the name? Sorry. Shishir Kumar Ghosh and Motilal Ghosh. Motilal Ghosh. Motilal Ghosh. Amrita Bazaar Patrika. It was 1906. Heavily it used to advocate independence. K Ramakrishan Pillai. 1910 the newspaper was confiscated by the British and Pillai was arrested and banished to Tirunel Valley where he spent the rest of his days writing and campaigned for civil rights. So Madan Mohan Malavi also. He is popularly known as the founder of the Banarasundi University. His His contribution to journalism and freedom struggle is noteworthy. When the British government passed the Press Act and Newspaper Act in 1908, he starred in English daily titled The Leader. So in 1947, journalists fought for independence and got us independence. In 2026, the journalists are the other way. They are saying killer independence, legacy journalists. So now we want you to fight to make journalism independent. In 1947, journalists fought to give India independence. And to support journalists who are trying to be independent. Trying to be independent. So give us a 1947. Scan this QR code. Mail me abhinansacred at gmail.com. If you're in India, we shall courier you a book from our library upstairs. And have a thank you note written by me. I know it's not much of an incentive but it's all I can give. He is a fakir man. He will take a bag and go. Support News Laundry. Yeah. Truth or the same? No, first let's do the one that... Okay, she wants... We loved. Okay, let's start with bad and then go to good. So, we watched Dhurandar 2026 part 2. I watched it in 6 or 7... I watched it in 13 sittings. I who watches... Big Boss. No, no. Alliance. I have been watching Alliance. When I eat lunch, I can say I could not even watch Durand 2 for 10 minutes while having lunch. I had to stop and watch something else. It is by far the worst film. I just felt you don't care. Nobody cares whether this guy, what is his name? Hamza. Hamza lives or dies. You don't care for any character. The only thing that kept me like I was a little like used to when he'd come on screen, I look a little bit is Arjun Rampal because even the first film I had said to make Arjun Rampal look ugly is very difficult. So they've tried. But even that is not a successful attempt. It was very bad. Did you like it? So I mean of course a terrible film It just made no sense when I had to keep taking breaks and watching it The budget was huge It was like it was done at a very grand scale A bit like Odyssey Without the finesse. Also, the songs were not good in this one. Yeah, there were only four songs. All the one, Easy Easy, I liked that song. It was a good song. Easy Easy. Easy, easy. That was fantastic. I thought the it was just unnecessarily long. There was historically inaccurate. And I guess they're saying it's, you know, fiction, then sometimes it's not fiction. I mean, I'm just shocked at what has become of Bollywood. In case you're wondering how Bollywood became like that. third part of our series on Bollywood going from Amar Akbar Anthony to Kerala story is out this is what its AI design looks like that is the article image do read it to understand which is the company the individuals who have been deputed to create this image of Mr. Modi whether it is through news or whether it's through the entertainment industry. It is a fantastic investigation done by Prateek Goyal. Please check it out. So enough about Durandhar and the shit that they churn out. But now we'll talk about something a little bit more intellectual. I don't know about being intellectual. I don't know if it was intellectual. A little bit more than Durandhar too. The bar is very low. But Odyssey is directed by, like I said, Christopher Nolan. It has a phenomenal cast. It is based on Homer's Odyssey. It's got Matt Damon, Tom Holland, who's Spider-Man, Anne Hathaway. Zendaya. There's Robert Pattinson, who plays the main villain. Then there's Lupita Nyong'o, who plays Helen of Troy and her twin sister. And her twin sister. And I've seen her in which other film? She was in that Avengers. Not Avengers. I think she was in, wasn't she in Get Out? But we'll come to that. She was in Get Out. I don't know. No, but she was in that. She's with that Black Panther. Isn't which? Avengers. So she's in that. So then there's Samantha Morton, Zendaya, who is Athena, who doesn't have to act. She does that acting. And there's Charlize Theron, who is so beautiful. Man, each time I see her, she's stunningly beautiful. And what a face she has. But she's dressed in Adidas gear or something. The cinematography is Hoyt Van Hoytema. He's Dutch-Swedish cinematographer. And editing is Jennifer Lehm. music is by Ludwig I cannot pronounce his name but it is phenomenal the music and the background score is really amazing and I watched it on IMAX so Rajshri Sen what did you think of this film that everyone from Elon Musk to Ezra Klein to I don't know whether Trump has said anything everybody has a view on it Trump has not understood so I thought it a great watch as in it a great cinematic experience I just going to go through the things which I spotted. I'm sure there are 20 other things that are there. When Elliot Page's character, which is Sinon, is shown Sinon is not even in the Odyssey. Sinon is in Virgil's Enid in the Trojan War. So he's just picked up a character and put it in here okay helen's face never got scarred in any version of uh odyssey which is written the other thing is he leaves out so a lot of uh people's characters because i don't think you can get into everyone's character arc then it would have been a seven hour film helen the criticism that has always been there about helen is that this war was fought for her because she went off with so many people die paris now she was not which they refer to in the thing that did she get kidnapped or did she go on her own because there is a theory which is even in homer's odyssey it is hinted at that she went off with paris so she leaves menelaus she goes with paris while she is with paris when paris gets killed in the battle of droid she married her brother die focus no hector was my dogs here Die for first. Then when Menelaus comes she dumbs Die for first and so she's a very friendly person. Then she goes to Achilles and then to Hercules. No then the other thing is, so I loved Agamemnon which is Benny, Benny what is his name? Safdie. Who's this very well-known filmmaker himself. So they don't show manisaf these face he's in that beautiful uh costume and that the spine which is shown is supposed to be uh supposed to be his daughters that's not that's he is cinematic this thing but again i saw that interpretation but it doesn't make sense to me because he was wearing that helmet yeah so even when he's holding the daughter it can't be her spine no but it's supposed uh Nolan also said that it's supposed to, it's just supposed to symbolically remind people of the fact that his daughter was sacrificed for him for getting favorable winds to take the trip forward. But the inaccuracies aside, this whole thing of the spectacle that is put up is, I felt, very engrossing. the emails and recommendations and critique of subscribers. So if you're a subscriber, mail us at podcasts at newsloin.com or you can click on the link in the show notes below. Please try to keep your email less than 150 words. And like I said, we have this. Give us our 1947 campaign. Here's a QR code. And since it's my happy birthday, my happy birthday.
