The Awful & Awesome Entertainment Wrap

This week’s Awful and Awesome episode with Rajyasree is loaded with entertainment and a little bit of gossip. Abhinandan and Rajyasree talk about Raazi, Mother’s Day ads, and Rajyasree talks to Abhinandan about the celebrity wedding and engagement that flooded everyone’s social media feed, and lots more. The podcast starts with Abhinandan interviewing Meghna Gulzar, where she talks about her new film as a Director and Writer, Raazi. On being asked about the kind of positive reviews the film is getting and does it matter to her, Meghna says: "They will never not matter because you’re creating something to put out there for the people to opine on. That opinion will always be relevant and important. So yes, it is overwhelming because there’s been complete approval across the board barring one or two here and there. The numbers, the way the film is performing at the theatre, are still really growing so there’s a word of mouth. There’s an acceptance from the people. Then you come across messages which people are sending and forwarding, which say we were watching it in this theatre, the audience stood up and clapped at the end. That is my biggest payoff." Then she goes on to talk about her first film Filhaal, problems during the shoot of Raazi, nepotism and more. Abhinandan and Rajyasree then discuss the film that stars Alia Bhatt. While Rajyasree says “I didn’t think Alia acted well”, she also adds, “All the actors were very well cast… I just find it really nice that a mother and daughter played a mother and daughter on celluloid also”. Abhinandan, in agreement with Rajyasree, says, “All the reviews had built it up so much for me” and adds that “I really liked its politics… it kept me hooked throughout”. Rajyasree shares trivia about Hansal Mehta’s films Shahid and Omerta before moving on to the trailer of The Spy Who Dumped Me. Abhinandan comments on it, saying “very ordinary trailer… montage of funny moments”. However, he acknowledges that the movie has a “spectacular cast”, the kind that “will pull you in the cinema”. The Susanna Fogel movie starring Mila Kunis, Justin Theroux and Hasan Minhaj among others will definitely be “very funny”, according to Rajyasree. Chef Vikas Khanna makes his directorial debut with the film The Last Colour, starring Nina Gupta. Rajyasree says “the plot revolves around the Supreme Court order against the age-old tradition of not allowing widows in Vrindavan to play Holi”, which was apparently not obvious in the trailer. She feels the trailer was more of an ad for “Exotic India” and the movie is “highly avoidable”. Abhinandan says the “film is going to be below average”. Rajyasree talks about the “weddings we virtually attended” - of Sonam Kapoor with Anand Ahuja and the engagement of Isha Ambani to the “Piramal boy”. Rajyasree talks about the “romantic” engagement in the temple and Abhinandan talks about how these weddings and engagements went viral on social media. “Every third thing on that day was ‘watch the viral video of Nita Ambani dancing’,” he says. Mother’s Day celebrations catch Rajyasree and Abhinandan’s attention, with ads released by Mother Dairy and Kotak Silk. Rajyasree feels the first ad has a “nice concept” focusing on not just the mother, but “a galaxy of women that bring you up”. Abhinandan, however, calls it “too goody, goody nice acting”. Rajyasree confirms “they are very loving, these mothers I have to say… nobody has a natural reaction”. Abhinandan adds “there should be some reality to these ads”. The Google Assistant ad is the last on the agenda. Rajyasree talks about what is happening and “technology which makes you think you’re talking to a human” and how this feature may be the “beginning of the end of humanity”. Abhinandan agrees and says, “artificial intelligence has gone to a different level”. Lastly, they discuss RJ Naved’s latest prank and what's funny and what's not funny with such pranks.

This week’s Awful and Awesome episode ends the trauma of having “nothing good to watch or read”. Abhinandan’s favourite actress, Madhuri Dixit, takes the spotlight with the trailer of her upcoming Marathi film Bucket List. While Rajyasree says “she’s pretty much playing her age… her face moves”, Abhinandan comments on the issue of "dramatic" acting by “80s’ actresses when they act in 2018” and also says “this trailer is a really good trailer… although it seems like a regular, feel-good film, the plot seems interesting. There seem to be some really good humour points”. Rajyasree doesn't seem too impressed by Veere Di Wedding starring Kareena Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Swara Bhaskar and Shikha Talsania. Abhinandan says “it seems like a more fun version of Angry Indian Goddesses”. He talks about the “first-half comedy and second-half tragedy” approach used in Bollywood. Rajyasree talks more about Bollywood “moving away from the stereotype of portraying leading women as ‘good girls’”. Rajyasree gushes over Saif Ali Khan in his upcoming Netflix TV series Sacred Games, based on the book by Vikram Chandra “Not from NDTV, to be clear”. The story revolves around the two characters from the Bombay underworld and the Maharashtra Police. Next on the agenda is the Rajkumar Rao-starrer Omerta, in which the actor plays the criminal mastermind behind several major terrorist attacks around the world - Omar Sheikh. Abhinandan praises the works of director Hansal Mehta and Anurag Kashyap, but says, “kept (the movie) me hooked… it was really flat but wouldn’t want anyone else making it". Rajyasree feels Omerta is worth watching simply because Sheikh's is an “interesting ‘life”. Avengers: Infinity Wars makes it to this episode, having clocked a billion dollars in its opening week. While the world is going crazy over the movie, Abhinandan says it's “not my favourite”. Moving on to the world of literature, Rajyasree discusses the sexual harassment charges against author Junot Diaz. Rajyasree talks about the #MeToo movement and how it has helped people gather the courage to speak up. Abhinandan comments on how the “Nobel Literature Prize will not be given this year because of similar reasons”. Finally, Priyanka Chopra makes the news of the day with her comments on the controversy around the character “Apu" from The Simpsons. The controversy was triggered by a documentary released by Hari Kondavola addressing the issue. Rajyasree says: “Priyanka Chopra is doing the rounds of the talk shows and so on” for her upcoming season of Quantico. She talks about the actress coming from a privileged background and feels “her trauma is something I have not been able to wrap my head around". Abhinandan dwells more on stereotypes reinforced in Bollywood and the extent of political correctness. And then comes the advice that everyone should take into consideration – “If you’re so offended by Apu, then get a life”.

On Awful and Awesome this week, we bring to you from the archives Abhinandan in conversation with Sabrina Dhawan, who has written Monsoon Wedding, co-written Kaminey, Ishqiya and Rangoon and been a consultant for Haider. She also teaches screenwriting at New York University. The movie Monsoon Wedding shot her to stardom at a very young age in her career. They talk about the factors that make a film successful, what works and what does not. Films like Kaminey and Ishqiya did well at the box office while Rangoon didn't. Abhinandan questions what could be the reason behind a film's fall and success. Sabrina says: "Unlike writing a book, a film is an intensely collaborative medium. So the writing is one part of it. Even the directing is one part of it. Any one element can sink a film. Eventually, it is a good story that is well told. Because you can have a good idea but if it isn't well told, then that doesn't work. That said, even a great script is not director-proof, it's not casting-proof." Furthermore, she says it is a "miracle" if a movie does well because that means everything came together. Talking about the screenwriting course that she teaches at New York University, she discusses how screenwriting is a "craft" similar to carpentry or plumbing. She acknowledges that one needs to have stories to tell, nobody can teach you that. "What I am teaching them is how you actually craft your idea, a lot of it is also teaching them how to externalise or dramatise something because unlike a book, a script is a story told in pictures." Regarding Monsoon Wedding, she recalls the time when she pitched the idea to a bunch of executives. Her idea was appreciated but the executives felt the movie wouldn't be commercially viable. "But we made that film, super low-budget and it ended up finding audiences throughout the world. This taught me a really important lesson, that it's really important to write the story you want to write and write it as truthfully and authentically as possible,” she adds. Abhinandan asks about her challenges when she rewrote the script of Monsoon Wedding from film to theatre. Initially, she thought that since the film is a musical, it would only be a change in formatting because a film and play have different formats. "But it doesn't work like that at all. Going from screen to stage, the fact that you don't have a camera changes everything. You can't cut to location. Of course with sets and production like how many transitions and how do you transition, you can't just keep coming back to the location." Sabrina mentions her love for Zoya Akhtar’s film Luck By Chance. "I thought it was brave and incredibly compassionate. It had this great look and was very satirical and very dark. And the fact that it was made by someone who is an insider in that world and to look into the perspective of an outsider is incredible.” Other films lined up in her list of favourites are Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam and Deewar. Tune into Awful and Awesome for more!

On Awful and Awesome this week, Abhinandan and Rajyasree are joined by our very own Deepanjana Pal (DJ). This time, she's back as a guest to talk about her first novel Hush a Bye Baby, a thriller about a gynaecologist, Dr Nandita Rai, who is accused of conducting sex-selective abortions. Sekhri and Sen question DJ about her choice of genre. In response to which, Pal says, “So, at a very basic level, I think it’s fair to say that Hush a Bye Baby is kind of in the middle of many genres. It is a thriller, I hope. But it is also a social drama like you’re describing. It does have a lot to do with the society in which all of this is taking place. It isn’t a conventional murder mystery which is what most thrillers tend to be. There are no dead bodies in this. In many ways, it’s a little bit of a cross-genre kind of a thing.” After having discussed the novel extensively, and DJ’s view on abortions and a woman’s autonomy over her own body, Sekhri and Sen move on to discuss the bizarre, shocking, and extremely disappointing comments made by Bollywood celebrities on rapes in India. The greatest superstar of the country, Amitabh Bachchan, also the brand ambassador of ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’, when asked to comment on the Kathua rape case, said: “‘Don’t bring up this issue, it is terrible to even talk about it.” While it is a disgusting incident, that doesn’t mean you don’t comment on it. As Sekhri commented: “He is a superstar and we respect him but he is like every other uncle.” Next in line is Saroj Khan, who had something to say about the existence of the casting couch in the industry: “Tum film industry ke peeche kyu pade ho. Woh kamse kam roti toh dedeti hai. Rape karke chorh toh nai deti”. To Sen, the justification that she is making is hardly some salvation. While Bachchan’s and Saroj Khan’s old age can be held up as an excuse for making such statements, what reason does Ranbir Kapoor have? Speaking about the casting couch, the Rockstar actor said: "I don’t know if it exists. I have never been expected to do it” and then laughed! Sen had a very obvious remark to make to that, “For everyone who comes from a level of privilege in their sphere of life, to say I’ve never seen this deprivation is ridiculous.” Moving on, the duo discusses the teaser of Ranbir Kapoor-starrer Sanju, produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra and directed by Rajkumar Hirani. Both are highly impressed by the actor’s uncanny resemblance to Sanjay Dutt, but the teaser fails to make a mark on them. According to Sen, “I didn’t think much of the teaser. I thought it was a bit farcical. Like they had just slapped it together. And for some reason, I got the feeling that it was making a hero out of Sanjay Dutt’s stupidities. Because I do think he’s a silly man. He came from the lap of privilege and went wayward. That has been made into a virtue.” Sekhri, however, is less harsh in his opinion on the teaser, “What they’ve attempted is very clever. His life is more tragic than comic. But rather than make the trailer tragic, they attempted to make it almost farcical. I don’t think it works. But it was a clever thing to have tried.” Next, the new Durex Kohinoor Meetha Pan condom ad is reviewed. For Sekhri, the ad is "wrong in all sorts of ways". He also adds, “Ever since Pooja Bedi’s Kamasutra ad, nobody has come up with a classy condom ad. All condom ads have been sleazy.” Talking of advertisements, the next topic of discussion is a print ad commissioned by the ministry of health, to promote healthy eating and being slim. But of course, it’s only directed at women. No surprises there. Sekhri brings out the fallacies that this ad, which shows two women of different sizes, displays. Lastly, Sen talks about an Amazon original that she watched, written and acted in by Sumukhi Suresh, called ‘Pushpavalli’.

The Awful and Awesome is back this week to give you a dose of the latest pop cultural updates. Rajyasree and Abhinandan take you through three Hollywood trailers, two films (A Quiet Place and October), the National Awards and Beyonce’s performance at Coachella. Starting with ‘A Quiet Place’, the duo believed it wasn’t half as good as the trailer promised. Regardless, both Sen and Sekhri did appreciate the skill required to direct and act in a horror film with minimum dialogue. Abhinandan says, “I won’t say I hated it but when you take up such a difficult job, you have got to be super brilliant to pull it off.” Then we have Sen reviewing Shoojit Sircar’s ‘October’ alone because Abhinandan has pledged to not watch a Varun Dhawan film again (the last Dhawan film he watched was ‘Judwaa 2’, that must explain it). Sircar’s direction and Juhi Chaturvedi’s writing is back after Piku in this film. Dhawan plays a grumpy and disgruntled hotel trainee, Dan. When one of his fellow trainees goes into a coma after an accident, he suddenly finds a purpose in life. Sen finds it difficult to relate to this unusual obsession but liked the way Sircar portrays Delhi. Commenting on Varun’s acting, she says, “He has acted better than he has acted before.” Rajyasree and Abhinandan also discuss the National awards, which started off with understandable awardees such as Newton for best Hindi film and Baahubali for best action, direction and special effect. But Sridevi getting the best actor female award for Mom, according to the two, reeked of sentimentality. Moving on, both our reviewers were highly impressed with the trailers of ‘The Wife’ starring Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce, and ‘Can you ever forgive me?’ starring Melissa McCarthy and Richard E Grant. For the former, Sekhri says, “It is one of the most compelling trailers I have seen in a long time. Think it is going to be great. I hope it is not like ‘A Quiet Place’ where the trailer was 20,000 times better than the film.” However, the two were quite unhappy with the trailer of ‘Solo’, next in the series of Star Wars. A new Star Wars film every year is a ‘money-making machine for Disney’, feels Sekhri. Sen then discusses Beyonce's performance at Coachella and how this was the first time since 1999 that a black woman had headlined the fest. But that wasn’t the only reason why Coachella was making news. Philip Anschutz, the owner of Coachella’s parent company, is, in fact, a Republican donor and a huge supporter of anti-LGBT groups. Which has been all over the news lately. Regardless, Beyonce’s two-hour-long power-packed performance, in which she went through five outfit changes (and also nail polish changes), was definitely worth a watch. Listen up now for all this and more at The Awful and Awesome, and as Sen rightly said, “Pay for free news and better jokes”.

The Awful and Awesome has a lot in store this week. A special treat for all book lovers is Rajyasree Sen’s interaction with Seema Goswami, author of ‘Race Course Road’, followed by a discussion on the IPL, Salman Khan, ‘Missing’, and Russell Crowe’s genius. Starting off with the book, Goswami’s past work experience with ABP and Sunday Magazine is reflected in her approach towards politics in this fictional political thriller, which starts off with the assassination of Prime Minister Birendra Pratap Singh, and goes on to answer the questions -- Who was behind it? Who will become the next PM? Although fictional, Rajyasree finds the characters mirroring many Indian politicians and doesn’t hesitate in naming them. According to her, these characters are obviously inspired by real-life personalities -- there’s an Arnab, a Barkha Dutt, and there is definitely, definitely a Mamata Banerjee. Sen feels that the book surpasses other thrillers by dealing with themes like the invasion of privacy, the treatment of women in politics, and the role of media. Moving on, we have our dear own Abhinandan Sekhri joining Sen. The ‘Awful and Awesome’ duo makes it a point to discuss as much of ‘awful’ as ‘awesome’ and comments on the glamorisation and commercialisation of cricket, which Sekhri does not even consider a sport (thank you, IPL!). The grand opening ceremony with performances by Varun Dhawan, Jacqueline Fernandes, and Mika Singh are not spared, with Hrithik Roshan being the only one praised by our hard-to-please reviewers. If all this isn’t enough, there are two awards -- ‘the most stylish player award’ (Gautam Gambhir seemed as disgusted receiving it as Sen and Sekhri felt discussing it), and the ‘Star Plus nayi soch award’ (what does that even mean?). Abhinandan had one answer to all this, “We just fuck up everything.” Further, Sen and Sekhri have both had their own shares of torture this week, watching ‘Midnight Sun’ and ‘Missing’ respectively. The former has nothing to offer except a cliché teen story where nothing bad happens. The latter, on the other hand, is a disappointing psychological thriller about a child who goes missing during a family ‘business trip’ to Mauritius. As Sen says, Missing can easily go ‘missing from the halls’. Next, they go on to discuss the new iPad advertisement that shows the gadget's use in homework for children -- much to Abhinandan’s distaste, and the commonwealth film by Edelweiss Group, which again fails to impress Mr Sekhri due to its ‘terrible writing’. Of course, this week had to have a discussion on the media coverage of the conviction of our beloved Bhai. It was, as Sekhri puts it, ‘news as entertainment about an entertainment superstar’. Apart from Khan’s non-discrimination among species and colour of skin, unnecessary details (his popularity in China, his earnings from Big Boss) given by the media are discussed. Priya Gupta, co-producer of movies like Blackmail, gets a special mention for her defences given for the superstar. Sen goes on to enlighten us about the innovative method that Russell Crowe has come up with to pay his divorce alimony of 20 million dollars by an auction called the ‘Art of Divorce’, that, ironically, he opened on the day of his wedding anniversary. All in all, the awful and awesome will take you through all this and more, including books, movies, advertisements, and mastering the art of divorcing your wife in style.

In this episode, we bring you a full dose of entertainment and cinema. Rajyasree discloses her illegal access to cinema, while Abhinandan’s habit of name- and place-dropping is pointed out by Aditi, our Awful & Awesome enthusiast. Sekhri and Sen review Call Me By Your Name, which was banned from being shown at the Beijing Film Festival for no good reason. And they discuss James Ivory’s comment on the lack of full frontal nudity and normal sex scenes in the film. According to Sen, “The film stars a very beautiful man called Armie Hammer whom we’ve seen play the Winklevoss twins in the Facebook film, it also stars Timothée Chalamet, whom we saw in Lady Bird as the rebel boyfriend." She also gives us a sneak peek of the plot, “Timothée Chalamet plays a boy called Elio whose father is a professor. Armie Hammer plays Oliver, is a graduate student of Elio’s father...It’s about the love affair that starts between both of them” and is an “extremely well scripted, beautiful film”. Sekhri and Sen also discuss the significance of the year 1983, which the movie is set in. There’s also talk of why the trailer of Nude was in the news and why it was pulled from the International Film Festival Of India in November. According to our Awesome & Awful duo, the film has a “spectacular trailer”. Sekhri says, "It makes you watch the film. The plot unfolds with a brilliant cast, it’s beautifully shot with perfect lighting. It has a promise to make a political statement but not an in your face sort of political statement.” There’s a little insight about the trailer of the film, Dundee, with Sekhri giving millennials a bit of context about Crocodile Dundee which was a pop culture phenomenon when he was in school (in the Dark Ages). Then, of course, there’s the man for all seasons, Salman Khan’s Being Human summer campaign – Look Good Do Good - where he promotes people who are trying to change the world by doing noble things. Sekhri says, “Salman Khan is ‘looking good’ and others are ‘doing good’”…The purpose of this campaign is to change Salman’s image.” Unsurprisingly, Tetley’s green tea advertisement starring Deepika Padukone is Sekhri’s favourite campaign of the week. There’s an interesting anecdote from Sekhri about Tea and Egypt! There’s also Anurag Kadhyap’s Karta, a short film presented by Kashyap and directed by Randeep Jha – which Sen quite enjoyed. The pièce de résistance though, is a musical rendition of a Punjabi song by Sekhri, while commenting on Punjab government’s proposal to set up a committee to eradicate vulgarity from Punjabi songs. And there’s Sen’s question with an un-Googleable answer (or so she hopes) at the end. Much to look forward to this time.

Films, ads, magazines, trailers, radio shows, adult film stars and playmates. There's much to discuss this time around. Rajyasree has a lot to say about Rani Mukerji's comeback film, Hichki. There's the Pulse candy and Star Sports commercials, both of which Abhinandan shockingly seemed to like. There's much excitement over a new show on the "Eton of India" and can't decide whether it's a documentary or a reality show. There's movie talk with Cobra Kai, Missing and High Jack's trailer and a new radio show on Radio Mirchi with Pooja Bhatt and Mahesh Bhatt named Bhatt Naturally. And how could they possibly not discuss Stormy Daniels' and Karen McDougal's interviews with Anderson Cooper. Listen up!

Music, movies and more. Abhinandan and Rajyasree have a lot to say about the remix version of Ek Do Teen and Daler Mehendi's side-business of human trafficking. Sekhri shows us why he could be a music producer, if it wasn't for his day job at Newslaundry. There's movie talk with Omerta's trailer and Danny Boyle's new gig directing a woke James Bond. From the world of Netflix, there's the brand new stand-up special by Ricky Gervais Humanity and documentary Wild Wild Country about the cult leader, Osho, his Oregon ranch and the deadly team of ladies who managed his Ashram. And there's Kunal Kamra's excellent new stand-up show, Fresh Thoughts. And let's not forget Snapchat's disastrous ad which tried to make a buck off Rihanna being beaten up by Chris Brown, only to find the tables turned.

It's a surfeit of women on this episode thanks to International Women's Day. Abhinandan and Rajyasree discuss Barbie's new "woke" range of dolls, Jane Walker whisky, the strange housewives of Maggi's new ad and Reliance Fresh's #JeeLeZara campaign. There's movie talk with Coco, which Sen finally watched and recommends, and Rajnikanth's new film Kaala's trailer, which they have a lot to say on. There's a new ad-cum-music video for Apple directed by Spike Jonze. Rajyasree also discusses Rajdeep Sardesai's interview with Karishma Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor Khan and Abhinandan tells us why he couldn't watch the full interview. All this and more. Listen up!

In this episode, Abhinandan and Rajyasree discuss two new advertisements - All Out's # StandByToughMums and Peek Freans ‘Cake Up’. They aren't too pleased by Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird, although Abhinandan has a change of heart about Black Panther. It's also awards season with #Oscars 2018 and HT India's Most Stylish Awards. To prove that they both read as well, they discuss Grihlakshmi's cover of model Gilu Joseph breastfeeding a baby, and the backlash to the campaign. And there's Monica Lewinsky's latest Vanity Fair article on the #MeToo campaign. And there's a look at the world of Netflix with Tu Hai Mera Sunday and Icarus which won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Listen up!

In this episode, Meghnad and Rajyasree discuss Sridevi's legacy and the coverage of her death. They move on to discuss Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, the extremely tedious Filmfare Awards and why it was the worst award show in the last few years. They also talk about the video of singer Papon kissing a child contestant and Papon's response. There's the video criticising AIB's casting of mainly male characters... and to save the best for the last, there's Amruta Fadnavis' song featuring her husband Devendra Fadnavis, the Maharashtra chief minister, and sundry civil servants. A mixed bag of goodies if ever there was one. Listen up.

Abhinandan Sekhri is back from America to discuss all things pop culture with Rajyasree Sen in this week's podcast. In this week's podcast, does it all add up when it comes to Tinder, Facebook, Pan Bahar and PNB's new commercials? And there's a very special advertisement starring a superstar and a good friend of Sekhri's and Sen's in it. Abhinandan also explains why Black Panther wasn't all it was touted to be. From the world of Netflix, Rajyasree talks about Ryan Murphy, Chris Rock's Tamborine and Netflix's first Original Hindi film, Love Per Square Foot. And of course, there's the BAFTAs and a new question for all Black Panther fans. Listen up!

In this episode of Awful and Awesome, we have Meghnad making his debut. Rajyasree and Meghnad start the discussion with Padman and Akshay Kumar's acting in the film. Rajyasree talks about movie Peter Rabbit and why the "allergy communities" have taken offence. They also talk about a TV series, Swami Ramdev: Ek Sangharsh, web series Breathe, Queer Eye and Lost.

In this podcast, Abhinandan Sekhri and Rajyasree Sen start their discussion with Ram Gopal Verma's God, Sex and Truth: A philosophical Treatise of Mia Malkova. Abhinandan talks about RGV's genius-to-insane journey. With reference to it, he talks about a brilliant shot from the movie Shiva. They also talk about Steven Soderbergh's Unsane which was shot on an iPhone, entirely. In addition, Rajysaree talks about critically-acclaimed horror movie Hereditary and Reema Kagti's Gold, in which Akshay Kumar plays the role of a Bengali. Apart from this, she talks about advertisements and Superbowl and Justin Timberlake's hologram tribute.