Happy Sunday!!! Really hoping everyone is done with their stupid vacations and stupid family time and stupid other things that are “more important” than an internet watchalong with people you haven’t met in person. But if you are still wasting your life on “real world human interactions” or whatever, that’s cool too! That’s what the 15 minute rule is for.
Bigil! It’s on Prime, it’s almost 3 hours long (so have snacks and coffee), and I am very excited to make y’all watch it so we can talk about Atlee and what his Jawan version of Shahrukh might be.
In a few minutes at 7am Chicago time I will put up an “And PLAY!” comment and we will all comment along from there! Yaaaaay!
dontcallitbollywood 
That girl is having a tough time
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Goalie, not girl lol
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“Sons are no longer like their fathers” – I’m shocked I’m reading that line in a Tamil movie. Funny how family values changes depending on the scenario. But I know these family values are touching because the background music says so.
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HA! And yeah, ATLEE!!! All about political reform and progress and changes.
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I’m back! Just in time for the awesome Interval break!
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Has it been an hour and a half already?
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I have to say this is like the longest flashback ever!
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It’s an Atlee thing! Prepare for flashbacks and political messages and feminism.
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hmm, but he has to tell a MAN to get Michael/Hero/Bigil to save the team, he can’t just tell the team that because they were “emotional”. So a certain kind of feminism. Feminism that requires men to help women.
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Yeah, that kind. There’s also a song about respecting women because Motherhood. I hate that, we don’t say “respect men because Fatherhood”
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He said, the son of a shoemaker became the President of the United States, who is he talking about?
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I DON’T KNOW!!!! Maybe Hoover? I have no idea what Hoover’s Dad did.
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Lincoln
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I don’t think his Dad was a shoemaker? I thought he was a failed farmer? Shoemaker would have been a skilled middle-class job.
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Google says he was a shoemaker when Lincoln became president. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t ALSO a failed farmer.
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Ah, makes sense. Pretty sure he was a failed father no matter what.
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oooh, Appa getting killed is hard to watch.
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Welp, so much for clean living and a soccer career! Off to rowdyism for him.
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But only because they killed his father while he was off to play in the championship.
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Really terrible timing.
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I get building the tension, but why did he have to run like a mile in the train station to get to his father, seriously lol
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All train station platforms in India have a built in slow motion function.
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I feel like this movie needs more songs. We needed a soccer song. Two songs wasn’t enough.
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He took the shirt out of a trunk, but wasn’t he wearing it in the first scene, BEFORE all the flash backs?
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Ready for me to drop some KNOWLEDGE? India has a serious problem with the police and courts being underfunded and overwhelmed. Unofficial authorities are a necessity at this point and often recognized by the official authorities for the things they can’t do. A village may have an ancestral chief, and urban areas will have their Top Man. You go to them for the things that normally a civil court might decide, like inheritance disputes or unpaid business loans. It’s fast and fair and enforced by the power of the chief/gang leader. Of course, it can also easily go terribly wrong, but it’s not a situation of “Taking away” from the official authorities, but rather filling in the gaps where there is just choas.
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Just so I’m following, the father got killed, the son is avenging his death, and now the son wears his hair, the way the father did, and essentially now it looks like the father – how am I doing so far?
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Yep! But just now in the present, the son has to stop being a gangster and become a soccer coach.
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Intermission! Shoot, not even a five second pause. And by the way I still don’t understand why Angel and Michael broke up.
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I think we get a longer conversation later? But it’s something like “I can’t get married until I do….”, and Angel saying “fine, then I will marry someone else!”, and then this whole dance over and over.
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Oh, other knowledge! the sports system in India is SUPER messed up. Especially the women’s sports. Lots of bribery and sexual harassment and icky stuff. So the idea of a bunch of rowdies traveling along to protect an all female team isn’t that crazy.
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Is that a basketball court?
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So why are people after the hero all the time, because he is a rowdy? If India needs top men why are their lives so short?
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Because other people want to take their place as Top Men. And in this case, I think there’s another twist involving Jackie and the true evilness which is the rich upper caste.
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I was thinking that it was the soccer that was causing the attacks, NOT hero’s fiefdom. As if someone does not want them to win.
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I think you are on to something here.
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FYI, Jackie Shroff in real life was a Top Man in his neighborhood. He grew up in the slums, his older brother was the Top, the one who would run into a burning building or fight off rowdies or whatever. And then he died saving a kid from drowning, and Jackie took over. He didn’t move out of the slums until he got married I think, well into his movie star career.
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And now he plays a plethora of rich evil men roles.
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It’s hilarious, right? And the actual rich kids always play the slum kids.
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I understand from a movie plot perspective why our team always has to lose the first game before winning the finale. But I am confused from a tournament side. Doesn’t this mean they are going home?
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No. In a tournament all teams play at least a set number of games, 3-5, and then points are tallied and the teams with the most points get to the playoffs. Goals count as points but they aren’t the only points, you get more points for shut outs and sometimes points will be deducted if you win by too much.
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Thank you! I still don’t understand it, but now I understand that I don’t understand it.
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Remember how I said the reason the family is Christian is probably because they are low caste? Note the hand sanitizer after shaking hands.
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Response to being asked for a bribe, “that would tarnish my sons talent” is pretty dang good.
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Prepare yourself, Naked Jackie coming up. He is a very ropey old man.
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Jackie Shroff in his underwear!
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Which happens remarkably often in his career! Maybe Jackie is a bit of an exhibitionist?
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Hmmm. Not sure if beating someone up is better than bribing them. But I think I like the message of taking “I have to wash my hands after shaking yours” Jackie and humiliating him.
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Oh yeah, naked in his underwear in a toilet is a total Caste humiliation. Good for Vijay! Make that snotty Brahmin realize everyone is equal!
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Oh boy! It’s gonna be one of those “learn to play as a team and respect the coach” scenes!!!!
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Right. Except that the best coaches are often not the best players. And the idea that he will be a good coach by beating a whole crew of girls as one player is totally lame. It is as if the writers have never actually coached soccer.
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I think just possibly the writers have indeed never coached soccer. But they have watched sports movies
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soccer-soccer-soccer. I’m checking my email.
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Kinda think having them practice their kicks would work out better than exhausting them after each kick. Mind you being in aerobic good health is necessary for soccer, but this isn’t good coaching.
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I’m guessing the “twist” is that they have to succeed for their team and thus learn to love each other.
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I guess his friend wasn’t that good of a coach? If he has to do the whole inspirational “play as a team” thing?
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Right, because team spirit is more important than actual skills or plays. The general theme of all sports movies.
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I sense cynicism in you
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TAMIL NADU UBERALL!!! Again, I love that Tamil films are the most insanely nationalist films of all, but it’s just for the Tamil speaking region against the rest of India.
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Get ready for some sweet sweet mansplaining of feminism. So glad Vijay is here to explain the issues of married women to us.
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Wouldn’t it be nice if instead of a mansplaining speech, Vijay just punched this dude out and rescued his wife?
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No, it would be nice if she just left on her own accord.
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Yeah, why not just talk to her in the market place while she buys vegetables and say “hey, here’s a ticket, what’s the worst that can happen? Just go for it and join us!”
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Or, she could just divorce him and go off to play by herself….
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She can still play after an acid attack right?
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But, she’s so uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugly. Best to never let her be seen in public.
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Beauty is so important. You even need it to play sports.
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Truth.
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Oh, and there is no way a husband would be okay with sending his wife on a plane to go play with a man who just slapped him on the ass. Maybe it looks good for the movie to humiliate the man but it was ridiculous.
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Heartbreaking
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FYI, acid attacks on women are Shahrukh Khan’s pet issue. He read that it affects a few thousand women in India a year and thought “heck, I can take care of a few thousand women”. So he sponsors care/rehab homes, pays for education, and then funnels them into his companies. He also visits the homes regularly. And refuses to take donations, it’s all paid for out of pocket from him direct.
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More here – https://meerfoundation.org/
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The actress playing the mother is Rohini, who is very VERY good. She was the foster mother in Bahubali, and I’ve seen her in a lot of southern movies where she had significant complicated parts. And she is a major dubbing artist, she did the voice for Aish in her Ratnam movies.
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So the man that acttacked her with multiple witnesses is not in jail.
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Which is realistic. Thus the unofficial authorities requirement in India. Even if he was arrested and charged, the courts are so backed up he could be out on bail for literally decades before trial.
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Please please please throw the acid as his dick. Please don’t walk away.
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No, on his bike. A woman’s face=a man’s bike
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Why didn’t the writers have her throw acid on her attacker?
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I think because they wanted to have a message of a) no acid attacks are good at all, and b) she has moved past this incident and her life is bigger than that now.
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B is difficult to swallow as she only just stepped out of her house. I think encouraging violence against violent men by women is justified. I remember when I took self defense classes in college there were actual men quoted in papers as saying women might beat up poor men in parking lots for no reason. This was 1995. Men are very scared of women, even the movie writers apparently.
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Have you seen Akira? That’s maybe the best acid attack response film. The acid thrower isn’t punished with acid, but instead a school girl who becomes a martial arts master and beats up him/publicly humiliates him. Acid is just such a NASTY weapon, I am okay replacing it for vengeance with something less nasty like martial arts.
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Oh, and to your second point, there’s also the “what if women join the work force and take your job?” thing. HOW BAD ARE YOU AT YOUR JOB THAT THIS IS A WORRY????
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I saw Akira a few years ago, I remember mostly her being treated like a male hero by the camera and loving it.
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Yes! And part of that was her origin story. She didn’t get acid thrown on her, her cousin-sister did. She was the one to avenge the attack in a massive fight scene, that got her sent to juvie. Just like a male hero.
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I’m assuming this is an Indian film you’re talking about not the Japanese anime?
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Yep! Although I get confused too, when you google it the anime comes up first. Not sure why the Indian film picked that name.
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Okay, big female power anthem!!! Sung by male voices. It was certainly well-intentioned, but I like the female voice power anthems better.
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That was Rahman and the playback singer appearing for a second.
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Can I ask for check on the time in the movie? I might skip over this song to catch up
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2:12
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We started right at 7, so we are holding stead of however many minutes past that it is.
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This movie is a giant Apple Watch advert.
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Or, motorcycle. But then to some degree all Indian movies are motorcycle ads.
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I’m really digging this cameo by Apple Watch like it plays a very special part in the movie!
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The ugly foul wasn’t really that ugly, kinda typical for players to knock legs together. Now a side tackle with a cleat to a knee, THAT would have been a ugly foul.
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But would it have been cinematic?
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Oh yeah in slo mo – it would have made everyone flinch!
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I don’t understand the soccer strategy part at all, but I’m not gonna worry about it. Our team is Good and Will Win, the other team and Jackie Shroff are Bad.
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I can’t believe Gayatri is playing with sindoor in her hair. Sure, a married woman can play, but she better signify that she is MARRIED at all times, even on the soccer field.
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I should note that I hate Soccer. It is too anxiety producing. I only see my kids’ games if my spouse can’t make it, and as he coaches and we have three kids that means I have to watch my kids games more than I would like. But I have seen 4 seasons of a soccer soap opera from argentina that my boys watch, and I have heard numerous soccer podcasts on coaching and on Messi, and have watched world cup games.
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Children: They Open Your World!!!! Luckily my parents never had to watch sports for me, but they have learned to suffer through sooooooooooooooooooooooo many Indian movies.
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Oh, and of course Nephew A is teaching the whole family about Twucks and Cahs.
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That’s the kind of fence I am thinking of getting for the front yard for Albie Dog. Only just 4 feet tall. It’s cheap and effective, imagine Albie Dog running against it like Vijay is. He would just bounce off.
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They should make trampoline fences.
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Albie Dog would loooooooooooooooove that. He would just run into it and bounce all day. Come to think of it, Nephew A would love that as well.
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forcibly injecting liquid cocaine. I didn’t even know it was possible! I know nothing of drugs. The 11 year old was asking me questions and I realized I know nothing of cocaine. “Rich people use it and it is bad”. That was basically all I could tell him.
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I think Hitler liked it too? So there’s another reason not to try it.
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The 14 year old discovered that the 8 year old didn’t know who Hitler was yesterday. Unlike the 11 year old he has no interest in wars.
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Did this make the 14 year old feel superior? That’s the purpose of younger siblings, to make you feel all smart. Nephew A greatly enjoys lording it over Nephew B how he knows so much more about twucks.
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And all that Coke flying through the air or you’d think it would cause a problem
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Wouldn’t be cost-effective, certainly. how much does coke cost per quantity that they can just throw it away like this?
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