The Awful & Awesome Entertainment Wrap

Talking about Olivia Newton-John of Grease fame: Rajyasree: Like all singers, because they strain their voices so much, she got cancer of the vocal chord. Abhinandan: One second, hang on. Rajyasree: What? Abhinandan: If you’re listening to this podcast, any medical insights you get from this show, or tech insights, or even pop culture insights – please ignore them. They are just bullshit! Abhinandan and Rajyasree burst out laughing. This and a lot more as Abhinandan Sekhri and Rajyasree Sen discuss Paris Hilton’s show Cooking With Paris, Rohan Joshi’s standup special Wake N’ Bake, trailer of Love Aaj Kal 2, Deepika Padukone’s TikTok challenge, Jonas Brothers’ new music video What A Man Gotta Do, the Netflix original Killer Inside, and a whole lot of other stuff awful and awesome.

Talking about the popularity of Punjabi songs: Abhinandan: My Tamil niece and nephew got married. I went there and I was aghast that they were dancing to Punjabi songs. I said, “If these guys can dance to punjabi music, we are fucked.” There is no one that can withstand that onslaught… Rajyasree: (Interrupting) But no Bengali will dance to Punjabi music. They are too classy and cultured. Abhinandan: Because your steps would be just… Abhinandan starts singing in Bengali (read gibberish). Abhinandan and Rajyasree burst out laughing. This and a lot more as Abhinandan Sekhri and Rajyasree Sen discuss Ricky Gervais’s Golden Globes speech, Cadbury, Licious and Canara HSBC ads, and the BJP’s ad campaign defending the citizenship law. They also talk about Season 2 of Inside Edge, and a whole lot of other stuff awful and awesome.

Talking about The Mandalorian: Jefferson: They’re going way back to when Yoda was a little baby. Abhinandan: Oh my god! Are you serious, they have gone back then? Jefferson: Yeah. Abhinandan: Ok, good! I’m done. I don’t even want to go there. I’d rather die meeting Deepika Padukone and remembering Yoda the way he was. A wise old man. I don’t want to see a baby Yoda or an Old Deepika. I’m just done. I can die now. Ae rabb chakh le! Abhinandan and Jefferson burst out laughing. This and a lot more as Abhinandan Sekhri and Newslaundry subscriber Jefferson Simon discuss Netflix's adaptation of the book series, The Witcher, by Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski. They also talked about Google’s Year in Search 2019, YouTube Rewind 2019, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Chhapaak, and a whole lot of other stuff, both awful and awesome. PS: Abhinandan met Deepika Padukone, Vikrant Massey and Meghna Gulzar, and managed to get an interview. You cannot miss this!

Abhinandan: Before we tell you about the top ten, fifteen or whatever of 2019... Rajyasree: I have eleven! Abhinandan: You have eleven? I have many things. I also have a special surprise list! Don’t cheat. Don’t look at my notes. Rajyasree: How come you have four sheets of paper? You asked me to prepare one... Abhinandan: No, no… Rajyasree: Such a sidie you are! Abhinandan and Rajyasree burst out laughing. Abhinandan Sekhri and Rajyasree Sen discuss their best and worst picks from what they watched in the year gone by, among a lot of other stuff awful and awesome.

Talking about how pop culture is a part of political discourse, Rajyasree explains what propaganda is: Abhinandan: Oh, that is what propaganda is. I thought it was... Rajyasree: It’s propping up people? Abhinandan: ...a rhinoceros that went to finishing school! Rajyasree: Oh, like that! Ganda, you’re saying. Abhinandan: Well, the audience got the joke about five minutes ago, and the penny is still dropping. Abhinandan and Rajyasree burst out laughing. This and a lot more as Abhinandan Sekhri and Rajyasree Sen discuss the films Knives Out and The Two Popes, the new BMC commercials by Lowe Lintas, how celebrities have responded to the Citizenship Amendment Act discourse, Salman khan as Pepsi’s new brand ambassador, and a whole lot of other stuff awful and awesome.

Talking about the new Nike ad: Abhinandan: Those of you who follow football like I do would know Mbappé is the superstar, superfast striker for PSG. He also plays for the French national team... Anjlin: (Interjects) Also super cute! Abhinandan: Super cute, is he? Anjlin: Yeah, yep! Abhinandan: Okaay. And he did a phenomenal job at last year’s World Cup and Nike has come out with an ad, which is the Mbappé ad. So, what did you think of it, Anjlin? Do you think it did justice to his cuteness, haaan? Abhinandan and Anjlin burst out laughing. This and a lot more as Abhinandan Sekhri and Newslaundry subscriber Anjlin Sahni discuss the Netflix series Pose, the movie The Report, the podcast My Favorite Murder, and a whole lot of other stuff awful and awesome.

While talking about the DC Extended Universe: Abhinandan: Underwater Man bhi inka hi hai na? Prakash: Aquaman. Abhinandan: Aquaman. Sorry. Wo bhi inka hi hai, na? Usne to bhadd hi peet di! Usne to duba diya. Aquaman ne duba diya. See the layers of the joke? It has got depth also. Like water...there’s meta depth. It’s a water joke, for those of you who are not getting it. Prakash: (Reluctantly) I think they got it. Abhinandan and Prakash burst out laughing. This and a lot more as Abhinandan Sekhri and Newslaundry subscriber Prakash Iyer talk about The Irishman; trailers of No Time to Die and Wonder Woman 1984; Jerry Seinfeld; Harper Collins India’s short film Parcel, and a whole lot of other stuff awful and awesome.

Talking about the kids featured in one of the videos sent by Ananya: Abhinandan: The kids are such brilliant performers. I find it amazing that a child that young can dance so well. Rajyasree: Abhinandan used to be a dancer. Abhinandan: But I can’t do the kind of moves they did. Rajyasree: Okay. Because when we do our live recording... Abhinandan: I’ll show my moves... Rajyasree: So, we will have a segment where I will sing because we will have a captive audience and we’ll lock the door… Abhinandan: There will be a riot, Rajyasree. Let’s not push it! Abhinandan and Rajyasree burst out laughing. This and a lot more as Abhinandan Sekhri and Rajyasree Sen talk about I Lost My Body, Sky’s Christmas ad, Nredwriter1’s video essay, Servant, American Music Awards, and a whole lot of other stuff awful and awesome.

After reading Jay’s letter correcting Rajyasree’s pronunciation of ‘Le Mans’: Abhinandan: So Rajyasree Sen, he has corrected your pronunciation. So obviously you hate Jay. Jay, you are now on the… Rajyasree: Hitlist! Abhinandan: Rajyasree’s ‘I hate’ list. You are there because you corrected her pronunciation. Because no one dare correct her pronunciation. So just telling you, in case you’re ever alone, wandering the streets where you live, and suddenly someone arrives from the sky sitting on a broom… Rajyasree: And throws a dictionary on your head… Abhinandan: yeah, and you pass out, you know who it is! Abhinandan and Rajyasree burst out laughing. This and a lot more as Abhinandan Sekhri and Rajyasree Sen talk about Hotel Mumbai, One Mic Stand, Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator, Utsav Chakraborti, Out of Love, Amazon Prime's censorship of Madam Secretary, Gillette's new ad campaign and Durex, among other stuff awful and awesome.

Rajyasree: I actually told you all that I’ll record the second week, and you said I’d rather record by myself with the subscribers. But even the subscribers complained and said please come back, because Abhinandan is saying any shit on the podcast. And I actually listened to the podcast and you trashed me in the first five minutes. And then I stopped! Abhinandan: So welcome back and all of you who were saying where’s Rajyasree, lo, she’s back, ab khao kadhi! Abhinandan and Rajyasree burst out laughing. This and a lot more as Abhinandan Sekhri and Rajyasree Sen talk about Apple TV+, The Morning Show, Drive, season 3 of The Crown, Prince Andrew’s interview, Ford vs Ferrari and Bhuvan Bam’s music video Ajnabee, among all other stuff awful and awesome. PS: Abhinandan is back at recommending Punjabi songs, on popular demand.

Inderpreet: So the award you got, it was based on votes? Abhinandan: I don’t think it’ll be based on anything else. Abhinandan, Tanya and Inderpreet burst out laughing. Inderpreet: So we should tell Modi ji, Jan sankhya vispot ka hume to faida ho gaya! Abhinandan: Beshak! This and a lot more happens as Abhinandan Sekhri and Newslaundry subscribers Inderpreet Singh and Tanya Bahuguna talk about the new Under Armour ad, Korean TV shows, Netflix shows Living With Yourself and Trump: An American Dream, the latest episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, among other stuff awful and awesome.

This week on The Awful and Awesome Entertainment Wrap, Abhinandan Sekhri is joined by Amrita Roy and Aditya Relangi to discuss Season 3 of the series Atypical, Tamil movies Asuran and Kaithi, the album Khulle Naagde by the Bandish Projekt, and three advertisements which have become the talk of the town. Referring to Atypical, Amrita says the sitcom series is “more representative of the world we live in”. “It’s brave to pick up a subject like this because it’s very easy to get it wrong,” she adds. Aditya applauds the makers of Asuran for the intense visuals of the film. Up next is the Knorr soup commercial starring Karan Johar. Amrita argues that it is a “fine, lowkey and funny ad” that is also progressive. “KJo maintains his way of making fun of his wishy-washy stand on being homosexual,” she notes. The panellists also laud the latest Australia Tourism ad as having the perfect ingredients to attract an Indian audience. The discussion moves on to a major Tamil release of 2019, Kaithi. Aditya argues, “Kaithi is a gritty film, a suspense thriller, they were able to hold the suspense through the entire 2.5-hour film.” This episode also features the bilingual Netflix documentary American Factory, the Citibank ad plagiarism row, and Bandish Projekt’s Khulle Naagde album.

In this episode of The Awful and Awesome Entertainment Wrap, Abhinandan Sekhri and Rajyasree Sen review the film Saand Ki Aankh, which hit theatres last Friday. “Tushar Hiranandani, whose directorial debut this is, demonstrated that it is clearly his directorial debut because I think this material under a more adept director would have made a fantastic film,” Abhinandan says. They also discuss interesting advertisements they watched recently. One is an ad by an Australian insurance company featuring Domuts, donuts for dogs. Both Abinandan and Rajyasree agree that it was definitely worth a watch. Another ad that caught their eye is the Puma ad featuring Indian sportswomen such as Mary Kom, Dutee Chand. “I thought it was a very cool jingle, but one can’t help but compare it to the previous Nike commercials,” says Abhinandan. Rajyasree complains that the production quality of the ad is bad. A special episode of the Netflix show My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman featuring Shah Rukh Khan is a topic of discussion as well. “This is by far one of the worst interviews of SRK I have seen and he is an extremely interesting interviewee,” Rajyasree says. They also review the Dabbang 3 trailer and agree that it all but gives away the gist of the film. So one doesn’t need to watch the film when it releases.

This episode of Awful and Awesome Entertainment Wrap features Rajyashree Sen and Abhinandan Sekhri. The podcast kicks off with the duo discussing The Sky is Pink. Shonali Bose, the director also directed the movie Amu which Rajyashree quite liked. Rajyashree says that the movie will appeal to people who have lost somebody close. However, both humorously also add, “You don’t have to be a lion to appreciate Lion King,” or “You don’t have to be a zebra to appreciate Madagascar”. Safi’s recent advertisement has Abhinandan caught up with its catchphrase, “Taste karoge hate, face banega great." They also review the viral Project Streedhan, an advertisement that targets women suffering from anaemia and urges them to invest in their health. Abhinandan, however, comments, “It is a fantastic piece of audio-visual production, it has nothing to do with the messaging”. They also discuss Amazon Prime’s Modern Love that is based on the essays on The New York Times column that goes by the same name. While Abhinandan is not all praises for it, Rajyashree says, “It’s like Love Actually but not as good." Amongst others, they also talk about Netflix’s series The Laundromat and another documentary Tell me who I am. Rajyashree also reviews a few Zomato Originals episodes that she watched.

In this episode of The Awful and Awesome Entertainment Wrap, host Abhinandan Sekhri is joined by two of our subscribers, Ekta Gulyani and Abinash Chakraborty. The Awful and Awesome Entertainment Wrap has been nominated for the Best Podcast award at the Asia Podcast Awards. Please click on the link (https://asiapodcastawards.com/) to ensure the podcast that YOU have helped us create wins. They begin with a discussion on Mere Pyare Prime Minister, which is directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. Ekta says, “There are very amazing elements of niceness and humanity which we don’t see in city life.” She adds later that it is a feelgood film despite being about such a dark topic. On Oppo drawing flak for its ads, Abinash says he wonders why Caucasian actors were chosen for the ads when the Chinese company has a huge market in India and China. Abinash then talks about El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie. He says although the movie is good, the sequel was a long time coming. “There are inside references or jokes that I rarely remember,” he says, adding that the film is meant for a small audience. They also delve into the similarities in the trailers of upcoming movies, Bala and Ujda Chaman. Wondering why men are so self-conscious about their receding hairline, Abhinandan remarks, “I think it’s because deep down hair is a sign of virility. And this is why it is so deeply etched in the subconscious of men.”