Banter, Bollywood and Beyond
20 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 3 years ago -For over a hundred years now, India has been cranking out amazing films. You’ve got your black-and-white neo-realist character studies, ultra high-budget technicolour epics that David Lean would be proud of, and everything in-between, covering about a million different genres, languages, styles and actors, and all reflecting the country’s unique and diverse culture. But with that much choice, it can be difficult to know where to start. So, if you don’t know your Masala Movie from your Dishum Dishum, or don’t know your Satyajit Ray from your Guru Dutt- or if you just fancy a classic Indian movie but can't decide which- let us be your guides.
Welcome to Banter, Bollywood and Beyond, where once every two weeks, an English film fan and an Indian film fan take a deep dive through some classics Indian films you might not have seen but might like- not just Hindi films (even though we will cover some Bollywood, of course), but Bengali, Marathi and others. We may also even take viewer requests! We’ll talk about the story, the background, the bits we liked and some of the bits we maybe didn’t, who we’d recommend it to, and whatever else we fancy.
We’ll also do our best to shed some light on the aspects of Indian culture and cinema from the films. And if there are songs, we’ll let you know which ones we think you should watch. So, hey, if you want to learn about Indian cinema and culture, come and join us!
Intro and Outro Music: www.bensound.com
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Episodes
The Stranger and the Bhadralok
March 26, 2021 09:00 - 44 minutes - 42.4 MBThe Stranger (Agantuk) by Satyajit Ray is our first Bengali film on the podcast. Despite it being Ray's final film, it is a wonderful film on its own merits, as the great Utpal Dutt plays the charming visitor who, for reasons unknown, returns to a Bengali urban elite (or Bhadralok) family which may or may not be his own. With amazing dialogue, camerawork and performances, the film casts a humane and complex gaze on how the bhadralok respond to the ever-changing world outside Calcutta.
Raees
March 12, 2021 11:09 - 46 minutes - 53.3 MBYou can have it from us in writing, this is Raees! Smytta chooses full-on modern Bollywood (2017), firstly because she just feels like it, and secondly because this literally and figuratively meaty movie has plenty to get stuck into: Muslim and Gujarati identity, Shah Rukh Khan's particular brand of Gandhian secular politics and meaty filmmaking, and what makes a film Indian or non-Indian. So grab yourself a (legal) beer and dive in!
Chhoti Si Baat
February 27, 2021 15:37 - 52 minutes - 60.9 MBBack to Bollywood banger territory! For those of us in lockdown, Chhoti Si Baat (1976) is wanderlust and nostalgia catnip. Mumbai-native Smytta enjoys reminiscing over the Mumbai landmarks with Alex. Samovar café! Gaylord's! Eros Cinema! Another café with view of the Gateway of India! Ahhh... This film is a light, fluffy comedy about Arun (Amol Palekar), a shy worker bee who fantasises, in charming Amélie style, about telling the beautiful (Vidya) about his love for her, but being able to ...
A Death in the Gunj (2016)
February 12, 2021 15:43 - 45 minutes - 41.9 MBSorry we haven't gone back to Bollywood just yet! Smytta needed some young energy, so she chose A Death in the Gunj, the remarkable 2016 debut of Konkona Sen Sharma, daughter of the legendary Aparna Sen. Set in 1979, the story centres around Shutu (Vikrant Massey), who tries to recover from a few setbacks in his personal life through a vacation with his cousin Nandu (Gulshan Devaiah) and Nandu's friends and family at an Anglo-Indian house away from the city. However, things don't exactly go ...
Naseem
January 29, 2021 18:52 - 53 minutes - 62 MBWe're back! Sorry for the slight delay, but we were busy over the holidays. Our first episode back isn't a Bollywood banger (coming soon, promise), but the beautiful Naseem, made in 1995 by Saeed Ahktar Mirza. This is the story of a young muslim girl growing up in Mumbai, whilst elsewhere, in the months leading up to the demolition of the Babri Masjid mosque in Ayodhya. However, this film transcends its loaded context to become a beautifully observed story of innocence lost, as social...
Amar Prem
January 02, 2021 00:00 - 36 minutes - 42.5 MBHappy New Year! How much can superstars and amazing music elevate a film? In the case of 1972's Amar Prem (translation: Immortal Love), the answer is "all the way to a classic." Superstars Rajesh Khanna and Sharmila Tagore, alongside Vinod Mehra, Om Prakash and a clutch of Bollywood bangers, alchemically transform what is, on paper, a typical prostitute-with-a-heart-of-gold story into something genuinely funny, charming and touching. In this episode, as well as the tunes and the icons, ...
Chupke Chupke
December 19, 2020 00:00 - 48 minutes - 56.7 MBFor our last episode of the year- look! It's a Hindi film released in 1975 and starring Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra! Sadly, it's not Sholay, but rather Chupke Chupke (or Hush Hush in English), a time-capsuletastic comedy of manners which also stars Sharmila Tagore and Amitabh's actual wife Jaya Bachchan. In this episode, we get stuck into why Sharmila Tagore is the original Elaine Benes, enjoy Om Prakesh getting bemused in as many ways as possible, and discuss the secret significance ...
Saaheb (1985)
December 05, 2020 00:00 - 49 minutes - 58.2 MBAfter two forays into parallel cinema, we're back to Bollywood baby! This episode, we dive into Saaheb, a 1985 drama starring Anil Kapoor as a goalkeeper with Elvis hair and a permanent Tom Baker scarf. The film starts funny, goes romantic, has a spot of dishum-dishum, some sport, some marriage drama and ends with a kidney donation, all the while mixing in some stonking disco-funk dance numbers. If that sounds confusing- well, it is, but it's fun too. In this episode, we cover the hallma...
Ek Doctor Ki Maut
November 21, 2020 00:00 - 1 hour - 71.6 MBOn October 3rd, 1978, a child called "Durga" was born. This wouldn't have been unusual except for one small fact: she was the first Indian child, and the second child in the world, to be born via IVF, or In Vitro Fertilisation, thanks to the amazing work of one Dr. Subhash Mukhopadhyay. However, fewer than three years later, this pioneering doctor had committed suicide. Ek Doctor Ki Maut, a 1990 film by Tapan Sinha and featuring Prankaj Kapoor, Shabana Azmi and a (very young) Irrfan Khan...
Mandi (Market)
November 07, 2020 00:00 - 1 hour - 69.9 MBSurprise! After our interview last episode, we return within a week's notice with Mandi, Shyam Benegal's 1983 surprisingly funny and touching story about brothel life and its political entanglements in Hyderabad. Look at the names on this film! Naseeruddin Shah! Smita Patil! Shabana Azmi! Om Puri! Saeed Jaffrey! This film is so bright it should be its own constellation. This wonderfully anthropological film poses many questions. What is the exact extent of the relations between broth...
The Lift Boy Interview with Director Jonathan Augustin
October 30, 2020 23:00 - 58 minutes - 67.8 MBWe don't just talk about classic Indian films in the Banter, Bollywood and Beyond household, oh no. As a result of Channel 4's Indian film season, we've had the pleasure of catching The Lift Boy late one night and getting spellbound by its easygoing, funny well-observed charm. So we thought: why not sit down for a chat with Jonathan Augustin, the film's director / writer / producer? Alex decided to focus on the influences and story of the film, whereas Smytta, a fellow Mumbaite, wanted to ...
Sadma
October 16, 2020 23:00 - 58 minutes - 67.2 MBThis episode Alex scratches a long held itch, which is that of watching a film featuring the late and legendary Sridevi. After consulting with Smytta, he went for this 1983 amnesiac classic by Balu Mahendra, which is itself a remake of his own Tamil film, Moondram Pirai. Srivdevi plays Reshmi, who regresses back to childhood after a pretty horrible accident. She makes the acquaintance of teacher Somu (Kamal Haasan, also a Pretty Big Deal) who rescues her from a pretty dismal future and ta...
Hera Pheri
October 02, 2020 23:00 - 19 seconds - 391 KBWe promised we wouldn't stay away from Bollywood for very long, and after last episode's minimalist experimental ghost story we go for something a lot more crowd pleasing. It's also our most modern, being released in 2000. Aren't we cheating though? Was that released long ago enough to consider it a classic? Well, seeing as it's a cult film with an 8.0 rating on imdb and was voted funniest film of all time by the Indian Express, we're going to say: yes. So join us as we navigate our way ...
Duvidha
September 19, 2020 00:00 - 30 seconds - 591 KBIf you're a bit knackered after successive historical epics, why not try Duvidha (Dilemma)?. Coming at a sprightly 82 minutes, the film springs from neither Bollywood nor its complimentary cousin, Parallel Cinema. Rather, it is that rarest of beasts- an Indian avant-garde ghost film, made by the singular Mani Kaul. The film adapts a Rajasthani folk tale about a ghost falling in love with a bride-to-be into an austere study of time, identity and love, with a cinematic language heavily inf...
Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam
September 04, 2020 23:00 - 30 seconds - 596 KBThis episode, we're once more shifting both place and time to Calcutta (now Kolkata) and the turn of the 19th-20th Century respectively. However, we remain fully in epic Bollywood mode, albeit of a very different tone, with Abrar Alvi's (or should that be partially Guru Dutt's?) 1962 masterpiece, Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam. This film has an heady, leisurely pace with plenty to unpack- Faded glamour, alcoholism and cat weddings all feature. Join us as we make our way through a mesmerising Meena...
Mother India
August 21, 2020 23:00 - 1 hour - 67.8 MBOh boy. Following last episode’s low-key character study, we decide to go full-on rural epic Bollywood mode and our longest episode to date. Mother India is enormous in every sense. The film centres on an iconic performance by Nargis as Radha, who selflessly overcomes endless obstacles, such as farming accidents, snakes, floods, and Sukhilala, an especially villainous moneylender. In fact, it was too a bit TOO enormous for Alex, who, poor soul, had to split the film over two nights. Try...
Pestonjee
August 07, 2020 23:00 - 56 minutes - 52.9 MBFor this episode, we go off the beaten Bollywood track a little- don't worry, we'll be back there again shortly- and look at Vijaya Mehta's 1988 drama, Pestonjee. The film is set in the Parsi community, a group which is frequently underrepresented in popular culture (although there was this guy you might know called Freddie Mercury who was of Parsi-Indian descent). Having grown up in Mumbai, which has a large Parsi community, Smytta takes this opportunity to explain their history, charact...
Find Out More, Pestonjee
August 07, 2020 22:59Every episode, we'll be adding some extra resources if you want to follow up on what we've covered in the episode. Find Out More 1. Encyclopaedia Britannica Page on Parsis A good starting point to read about Parsi history, including background, history and beliefs. 2. Art of Persia BBC 4 Documentary presented by Samira Ahmed. Many interesting facts about Parsee beliefs and origins in Persia. 3. Indian Express Article on Parallel Cinema An in-depth article on the contradicto...
Gol Maal
July 25, 2020 16:00 - 56 minutes - 77.7 MBIn Episode 2, we go a bit lighter and discuss Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s 1979 smash comedy Gol Maal (meaning “Messed Up” in English), a comedy where a sports-and-film obsessed chartered accountant switches between dual identities to keep his job and woo his boss’s daughter, Urmila. If you’re feeling, like us, that one of the best remedies for these trying times is a good comedy, then this might just be for you. Fake identity hijinks! Mocking Bollywood superstar cameos! An obsession with mousta...
Awaara
July 07, 2020 14:19 - 41 minutes - 57.7 MBFor our inaugural episode, we discuss Raj Kapoor's 1951 Hindi classic, which covers the trials and tribulations of a young Mumbai thief. We discuss exactly how many generations of the Kapoor family are present in the film, how empty Mumbai looked back in those days, family names, and a bit of Dickens and Chaplin. Alex also starts his (probably long-lasting) tradition of struggling to pronounce Indian names, and Smytta starts her (also probably long-lasting) tradition of correcting his p...