While discussing Ripley:
Abbas: So, Andrew Scott became famous as the hot priest in Fleabag.
Nainika: How can you forget he was Moriarty in Sherlock?
Abbas: Ah, right.
Nainika: A generation of girls on Tumblr were raised looking at Andrew.
Abbas: Tumblr. I can totally fill in the blanks.
This and a whole lot of awful and awesome as Nainika Rathore and Abbas Momin discuss the mini-series Ripley, the film Scoop, and election campaign songs. Abbas ends the episode with a summary of the latest WrestleMania.
This episode is outside the paywall. Watch it, enjoy it, and subscribe to Newslaundry, so you can tune in every week.
Have something to say? Write to us at newslaundry.com/podcast-letters.
General elections are here, and Newslaundry and The News Minute have a series of ambitious coverage planned. To support our journalism, choose an election project and contribute here.
Watch it here.
Timecodes
00:00 - Introductions
02:24 - Headlines
03:30 - Ripley
15:40 - NL TNM Election Fund
16:30 - Election campaign songs
29:10 - Scoop
35:10 - WrestleMania
References
The World of Wrestling by Roland Barthes
Click here to download the Newslaundry app on Android. And here for iOS.
Produced and recorded by Shubang Gautam, edited by Umrav Singh.
Nainika: [00:00:00] This is a News Laundry Podcast
Abbas: and you're listening to Awful and Awesome.
Hello and welcome to the Awful and Awesome Entertainment Wrap Episode 348. I'm Abbas. And I'm Nainika. And when the inmates are away, no, when the guards are away, the inmates will play. I always screw up this line. I don't know why.
Nainika: You almost forgot your punchline. That is, that
Abbas: is not done. I know. Or maybe I've turned into an authoritarian now and I see myself as a guard more than an
Nainika: inmate.
Yeah, I guess, you know, we've been doing this for a while. I think you have to come up with something new. Even the line is like, maybe it's not working out between
Abbas: us. All right. So, uh, we'll be talking about some, uh, pop culture stuff, uh, some releases that happened in the last week. We're going to be talking about Two major Netflix releases, one of them star Andrew Scott of Fleabag fame, uh, every woman's favorite man on the planet.
Uh, we're going to be [00:01:00] talking about scoop, uh, which is, uh, a new expose journalism film, uh, about the Prince Andrew, uh, scandal that happened, which is not related with the Hansal Mehta scoop that happened, that was released in India. Then we'll talk about some. Uh, add campaign songs that, uh, some major political parties have released.
Uh, we'll talk about whether they worked on us or not to vote for their respective parties. And finally, we'll be talking about something I requested for, which is Wrestlemania 40, which, uh, despite my best, uh, efforts, I wasn't able to have Nannika watch the full thing over the weekend. I
Nainika: mean, it just, it didn't make sense because I completely lack context.
Like I don't know what that is. The other day, my coworker, you know, apparently there's one of those WWE wrestlers where the history His, his tagline, his punchline is Booyaka, Booyaka, I didn't even know what that was. So you can, you can, you can realize how much context I lack to be watching anything close to wrestling.
So I was just like, maybe let's not dip my feet into it. I'll just let you talk about [00:02:00] it. I think that's
Abbas: far better. Yeah. That wrestler, by the way, was Rey Mysterio, who's a, who's a
Nainika: Latino wrestler. I keep confusing Rey Mysterio and Lothario for some reason. But
Abbas: yeah. Who once, by the way, had a mask. Mask versus mask match where the stipulation was that if you unmask them, then they lose the match.
But anyway, uh, that's a very
Nainika: different area of pop culture. The lore runs deep,
Abbas: clearly. Very, very, very deep. This is what happened in the world of entertainment and pop culture this week. Cruise starring Saadon has entered the 100 crore club within nine days of its release on the
Nainika: big screen. Curb Your Enthusiasm aired its final season 12 finale on Sunday on HBO.
Creator Larry David did a callback to his other iconic sitcom, The Seinfeld, in the final episode. Veteran
Abbas: cinematographer Gangu Ramse passed away on 7th April at the age of 83. He was part of the famous Ramse brothers known for their cult horror shows and movies like Zee Horror Show, Purani Haveli and Teykhana.
Nainika: Monkey Man, the Dev Patel directorial [00:03:00] which released in North America last week has recovered its modest budget of 10 million dollars in just three days of its release. And we're all cheering for that. I can't wait for this movie to be here. Abbas was the one who has always been, you know, Uh, sort of rooting for this movie to do well.
So are you happy to hear that it's doing well?
Abbas: I'm, I'm happy. It's got mixed reviews, but I'm excited to see it, but I don't know if it's getting an Indian
Nainika: release, so I don't think that's happening either fingers crossed, but otherwise we'll catch it on streaming. So that will happen.
Abbas: Yes. So let's start with, uh, let's start with Ripley.
Uh, you've seen five episodes and I've seen two episodes. Uh, Ripley is based on, uh, the, uh, I mean, there's a movie made, uh, on this, I think in the early two thousands
Nainika: called 1999. Uh, so it's actually, it's, uh, even Mr. Talent and Mr. Ripley is based on Patricia Highsmith's book. Uh, 1955 is when it came out and the book is also titled, uh, Talented Mr.
Ripley. So the show is based on that. I haven't watched, I'm really, uh, you [00:04:00] know, coming out here as someone who I haven't watched Talented Mr. Ripley. So I don't know how many emotives the movie carries from the original 1999 movie, but it's definitely based on the plot of the book. So
Abbas: yeah. So even. Even I haven't seen the original film and every listener right now is going and you call yourself a cinephile.
I'm sorry. Uh, I think the, uh, the 1999 film I think was based in the present time for, for that time in the nineties. Uh, this one is more faithful. To the, to the time period, the, the novels are set
Nainika: in. You see, if cell phones existed, the plot of the movie wouldn't exist. So it has to be faithful to a time where we can have complete suspension of disbelief about the happenings, about the ongoings of what is of the plot.
So I guess that's why you needed to be in that time. It's, it's. Scamster, correct? It's about, yeah, I mean, scamsters term. I think he's more just like your garden variety, uh, psychopath of sorts, like a scamster implies a certain degree of hustle. And [00:05:00] this guy was not hustling, like, let's be so real, poor Ripley, poor Ripley.
I mean, he did, he got rich, but you know, like a scamster, a grifter, a hustler is very different from someone who just like does minor identity theft once in their life. And even then they almost got caught. So not very good at their
Abbas: job. So it's, uh, I think six episodes, I think it's eight,
Nainika: six, eight, I'm not sure.
So
Abbas: I saw two of them and the first thing that strikes me, um, of course is the, is the look of the show. It's short and
Nainika: stark black and white. I wanted to talk about that as well. Go on
Abbas: Abbas, tell me. At least the first two episodes, uh, uh, feature. Uh, Italy, very prominent. Yes. Uh, I should mention the show is created by Steve Zalia and I think his name is and he's like one of the most legendary screenwriters, uh, in Hollywood.
He was, uh, his work with Scorsese, his work with Spielberg, I think he's been a writer on Schindler's list. So like the, the, the biggest of, uh, his
Nainika: resume is pretty decent.
Abbas: Yeah. So, [00:06:00] uh, he's the creator of this particular series and straight off the bat, you can tell. So the 1990 film, I think the runtime of that is under two hours, but this one, like you said, is eight episodes long.
They want to delve deeper into the, into the story and into the character. Yup. Yup. But let's address Andrew Scott, first of all. So he, of course, reached monumental, uh, levels of fame by playing the hot priest in, uh, in Fleabag.
Nainika: No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You're erasing a very important part of his career. He was Moriarty in Sherlock before he was the hot priest in Fleabag.
So there's like a generation of girls on Tumblr, especially who were raised looking at Andrew
Abbas: Scott. Even as Moriarty, he was
Nainika: hot Moriarty. No, he wasn't hot Moriarty, but he was a very Like psychologically twisted, very dark character. So there's like a, you know, like young women have real kinship with the fucked up characters.
So I think, uh, the moment
Abbas: you said Tumblr, you need, I filled up the rest of the [00:07:00]
Nainika: autofill. So he gained a lot of popularity doing that. And then he got mainstream popularity. playing the hot priest in Fleabag. And, uh, I mean, the caveat is like, you know, you did say that he's every woman's favorite man and to for like a certain demographic, that's 100 percent true.
And it's also strange because Andrew Scott is not straight. So that explains a
Abbas: lot. I feel like every woman finds this and like there's a, there's a rite of passage when every straight woman finds this out about Andrew Scott and then something in their heart breaks and, and, and then they're never the same.
Nainika: I guess maybe that is, that is true because he did play a very, you know, like, uh, I think after Fleabag is when that trend of like men written by women started because Fleabag, the Hot Priest's character was very, it was clearly written by a woman in the sense that he was a man who was very sensitive, listened to women, feminine side.
So, you know, he, he, he started the men written by women, um, trend and [00:08:00] he's been a little, he's a, Andrew Scott is pretty much part of the cultural lexicon at this point. So this is another wonderful project from him. I thought he was very good in the show, like his acting chops are pretty much there. He also just has that little.
Fucked up look about him, like something about him is just, you can't trust him fully. Um, and I think like, because he has good experience playing Moriarty. So there's that thing about him where you don't necessarily, um, put your full faith in him. And I think that makes him a great character, like a great, great character on screen.
What did you think about him? I mean,
Abbas: like I said, the first two episodes that I saw, the first episode takes its time to really establish what's going on. Um, Which I like, I think the fact that you have the liberty to do eight episode, eight hour long episodes, uh, you have the liberty to sort of build up the story.
Uh, but like I said, because it's shot so beautifully, it's not like you ever feel like switching it off. I mean, there's a, there's a sequence in the first episode where Ripley, uh, the [00:09:00] protagonist has to climb a set of stairs again and again for something. In a, in a, in a regular sort of imagination, you would be like a concern.
How many times will he climb the same stairs? And yet,
Nainika: and yet, and yet, it
Abbas: is just so gorgeous to look at. Uh, so I think it, uh, it, it takes its time to build up, but once it, it grabs you, it definitely holds you there. Um, I, the reason I haven't been able to watch the rest of the episode is just that I haven't been able to find the time.
It's not like I didn't, I don't want to watch the rest of them, which I will, uh, there's also a very peculiar cat in the, in the, in the first episode, which I'm told plays a big part in the future episodes.
Nainika: So, uh, I think, uh, Ripley, this particular short markets itself as a Noah show. So it completely makes sense that the pacing is very, very slow.
It absolutely will not lend to like somebody who's very attuned to binge watching or you're attuned to just finishing a [00:10:00] series query quickly. It does not lend itself to, you know, your standard, um, streaming episode. So the first episodes always have to be a little explosive and a little like they have to do something to garner the attention.
Ripley very much subverts that. It does not care about, you know, whether it locks and loads its um, audience completely. You could pause the show at any point and it's, it's a masterpiece. It's a gorgeous, gorgeous, it's beautifully shot. And I feel like the way it looks, the aesthetics of how it presents itself are a big part of the pull for it.
Cause I feel like shows are just not. beautiful anymore. You feel a certain amount of despair at the bottom of your stomach, knowing that the protagonist that you're watching on screen isn't necessarily a good person and you're not rooting, you're not going to see like something bright and wonderful happen on screen.
You're going to look at somebody who's a little, who's a little psychopathic and carry out what they will, which is a little far, far off. From the movie, Talented Mr. Ripley, because what little I seen of it, it's like very bright. It's very colorful. This one is not. It has a very clear air of despair about it, but I [00:11:00] do like that to a certain degree.
So, yeah. But did you like the noir aspects of it? Like, you know, does it feel like a proper, I mean, you're somebody who really likes noir,
Abbas: so. I love noir, yeah. I was, I was just going to mention that. Um, yeah, I think the black and white photography of noir films, I mean, there's a lot of, uh, stuff about it online.
You can check it out. But there's that aspect of, you know, noir is about. Essentially, it's, it's a crime story,
Nainika: which is the pool of
Abbas: humanity. So it's, it's quite literally about the black and white of, of life and how, what are the depths of darkness a person can be pushed into is always a big, uh, uh, big aspect of it.
But I did wonder at times when I was looking at those gorgeous Italian locales where I was like, would this have worked if it was in color? And. I think we'll never know. But, uh, but I like that choice. I like that, uh, you know, that Netflix has given someone a budget to [00:12:00] shoot an eight episode series in black and white in a at a time when you said, uh, you know, there's the, the, the, the economy of eyeballs is so important for them that everything has to be bright and shiny and to catch your attention.
Correct. Uh, so it's, it's good to know that, uh, you know, as much as we criticize Netflix for We're throwing everything on the wall and seeing what sticks they are taking these little chances. They also did that film Roma Alfonso, which was also shot in gorgeous black and white. Um, so yeah, I think that's, that's an art form.
I think that, uh, if you Incorporated in a good way, you can do wonders with it. So I'm looking forward to it. I want to watch the rest of it and the music, the, the language, you know, when, uh, Andrew Scott Ripley's communicating with Italians without knowing a word of Italian, those are pretty funny, uh, well done scenes.
So overall, yeah, even I really liked what I saw. So if you are someone who is wondering whether to give it a shot, please do. I think Ripley will be quite rewarding for you.
Nainika: I mean, the whole point of the show is [00:13:00] that it is not, uh, it's going to subvert your expectation of what a show should look like and how it should behave, and it completely still surprises you.
I feel like another of those things is I'm not sure how profitable it's going to be. It's like a, it's a limited series, so there's going to be no part two, nothing. It's going to come out and then it's pretty much done. And I think it's aimed more towards like a slightly more serious audience because I think Netflix was losing out, um, I The street cred where people were joking about the fact that Netflix shows all look the same.
So I feel like, you know, uh, the average audience's taste have become a little too attuned to like, you know, something that can just play in the background. Netflix that can play in the background. This is the kind of show that you have
Abbas: to take out time for. This is so, this is so, I mean, I'm thinking that in a few minutes time we'll be talking about wrestling in a bit, so I'm just saying.
Sure. Let's go with talking about what grownups should watch. No, no, no,
Nainika: nothing about what grownups should watch, but just like Talent Ambassador Ripley's already been adapted. So this [00:14:00] wasn't that they were bringing something new to the screen. They were taking a somewhat well known story and, you know, just taking like a really luxurious amount of time with it.
Sort of living the story in an aesthetic sense that it needs to be done. So it really, in that sense, feels like somebody's passion project. And I think that is, Personally, for me, I think that really matters a lot. I love it when a show is just like, it's less about whether it's, um, whether it's going to have explosive popularity and more about the fact that whether it's beautiful and whether the person who made it really cared for it or not.
So I really, really rate Ripley highly for that. I'm five episodes done. Um, I do take issues with the pacing, but then I also realized that this is, uh, a creative choice. And rather than criticizing the show for being slow, I need to bring myself at peace and slow down a little to be able to watch it.
Another thing I will say that the characters are very beautifully well done, very thoughtfully designed. Like in this starting, um, Ripley clearly comes from a poorer background as compared to Dickie. [00:15:00] So he dresses like a poor person. You can see how he slouches, how he slumps, how his trousers fall on his body, that this is a guy not coming from money and how he has to adapt to Dickie's mannerisms.
And it's a guy who clearly comes from money. So he has to slowly, that obsession with how much he wants to, has to really embody the guy to be able to, you know, take his identity upon himself. So I feel that way. I feel like it's so beautifully done. So thoughtfully designed in every single motive of it's that you really have to bring your attention span.
You have to slow down and, you know, sort of tailor yourself to watch the show as opposed to the show being tailor made for something to you to watch on Netflix. So I really like that.
Abbas: All right, before we move on, I have a small announcement, which is about the TNMNL election fund. That's the News Minute and News Laundry election fund.
Ahead of the upcoming general elections, News Laundry has tied up with the News Minute yet again, to bring you important stories straight from the ground. This time, instead of one big fun project, we are doing smaller projects, so you can choose which [00:16:00] one you would like to We will have more than 15 reporters, producers, and editors from the NL and TNM team on the ground covering various states, including Manisha, Atul, Tania, and Soto.
And your contributions will directly par their work. So head to news laundry.com/ 2024 dash election fund. That's news laundry.com/ 2 0 2 4 dash election fund. Please head to the link to contribute so that you can get a good and fair assessment and coverage of the upcoming elections. All right. The next thing we're talking about is, uh, again, something that we usually don't review on this show, but, uh, since the elections are coming up, as I mentioned in the announcement, so all the major political, at least the three major political parties we'll be talking about have released their official songs.
So Neneka, uh, I believe you've heard. Two of the three songs that were
Nainika: sent to us. Yes, I have, I released, gave them a lot of time and a lot of thought. ,
Abbas: uh, by the way, I should [00:17:00] mention, so two of these songs, the Congress and the BJP songs are in Hindi. Mm-Hmm. . And the TMC song understand understandably, is in Bengali.
So, uh, since I think both of our Bengali is very limited, there's only and, and surprisingly, the, uh, the, uh, TMC song was on YouTube, but they haven't added captions. Oh. So you could understand, ask advice. But guys, if you're listening to this and if your song is Bengali, maybe just add the subtitles so that we can understand what you're listening to.
But, uh, let's start with the BJP song, which is the only one, I think that has an official title. It's called Mojika Parivar. Yes.
Nainika: And that's also like a, their election campaign of sorts. Like they really, they launched it for
Abbas: a while. That's what I want to talk about. It's less of a. Party song and more of an individual, a song praising an individual.
Even in
Nainika: 2014, when Modi came to power for the first time, the motive was Modi Sarkar. So I think BJP has always been very clear that they're going to project one person as the face of the party to sort of unite everybody's efforts to that one place. [00:18:00]
Abbas: At least there was Sarkar to it. Now it's like, even forget Sarkar.
No Sarkar,
Nainika: Parivar now. No Parivar, Sarkar se aagey bad gaye. Babas, like it's more holy now. It's more emotional. Sorry,
Abbas: sorry. Whether you know it or not, you are part of Modi's family. Absolutely.
Nainika: We're all part of Modi's
Abbas: family. But 2014, it was Ap Ki Baar Modi Sarkar. 2019, it was Phir Ek Baar Modi Sarkar. And this time it's Ap Ki Baar Char So Paar.
So what do you think of the song? I think it's a very, it's a, it's a very sort of supposed to be a soulful song. Yes. And it, uh, it comes with a video, of course, a music video.
Nainika: You can't just have a song. Nobody's going to listen to it on Spotify. It has to come with a music video so you can play it.
Abbas: Um, so the song [00:19:00] essentially is.
It's enumerating the, uh, the, what do you call the, the good things that the government has supposedly done. And then it comes and the, the, the, the, what do you call the tense, the, the voice of the song is, is praising, uh, the prime minister. Right. He said, he has done everything and he is doing it for you.
And then of course it cuts to the chorus where the man himself, they've taken an audio bite from a rally. Right. And then he says, Ki or something like Mo , and then the audience is like, Modi. Right, right. You know? Yes. Which I think was a little like, I mean like moi can do no wrong, but his register, the voice, they've not autotune the voice , like when it's singing in a, in a this thing and suddenly it's like.
Modica. And then you're like, at least match up the scale of the, of the song.
Nainika: Well, I guess you can criticize their creative choices quite a bit, uh, which is. While you can. While, yeah, fair. Uh, [00:20:00] I did, uh, think that the song was like a little catchy. Like I, in the end, they do this motive where you have people from a bunch of different languages saying that we are Modica Parivar.
So you have somebody in Bangla saying we're Modica Parivar, somebody in Tamil saying we're Modica Parivar. So sort of, you know, to pan India unity, to bring that on the forefront. And I think this Modi ka parivaar thing was a retort to somebody saying that he doesn't have a family.
Abbas: I think, yeah, I think when he was, when he or someone from his party was asked about this, I think the reply was Modiji ka doh hai.
Like a bunch of times we see women wearing hijabs, uh, lip syncing to the song. We see Modiji, I think putting a garland or a medal on it.
So for all intents and purposes, it's like a. traditional election song, which tries to reach out to everyone. Uh, [00:21:00] Nainika, on a scale of one to five, how much would you like to rate Modika Parivar? Are you
Nainika: asking me if it's a banger or not? Yes, I think it's a three on the banger scale. Like, uh, I may, you know, I'm, if somebody remixed it onto a DJ set at a house party.
Party. I would be like Curious choice, but I wouldn't hate it. ,
Abbas: will it make you vote for the BJP? Ooh.
Nainika: Hmm. Who knows? But, oh. But, uh, if, I think like if you expose somebody to the song for the first time, I don't think it's groundbreaking enough for a new person. Like somebody who was Exactly, that was my thing.
Also, it got an Indian citizenship. Yeah. Like they just got Indian citizenship and they'd be like, oh my God, this banger, this producer, I'm a hundred. I don't think that is, I don't think the song is that good. So I suppose they were supposed to tick off a box and build like a jingle. So they have managed to build a jingle and they put a lot of effort into the video.
So I guess [00:22:00] they definitely got like a good creative agency to do the work for it. So good for them on that regard. Uh, three on five banger, three stars, I guess. Good enough. Yeah.
Abbas: Okay. Let's come to the, the The Congress, uh, theme song or the election song.
Nainika: My first takeaway from this was, uh, it's a depression ballad. Like, let's be so clear about that. Can you
Abbas: blame it? It's
Nainika: a Congress song. Yeah, exactly. I was just like, it's a Congress song. So it completely checks out because the whole vibe is like, humein milega nyaye and you know, andheri se hokar ja. So essentially the whole vibe is very humko man ki shakti dena because you know, clearly they're down in the dumps.
So they need all that. The faith and hope that they can get right now, and that's what the song is trying to get to. So it's supposed to be like, it's very clearly like a depression [00:23:00] song, I guess. Uh, I don't think it's, it's not as high on the banger scale. Like I'm sorry. Okay. Did you like it? So did you think it was more of a banger?
Abbas: So I'll tell you what the BJP song and the Congress song, they both sound sounded to me like, uh, rejected songs by Preetam, where probably, I don't know, I think they sound
Nainika: rejected Prasoon Joshi songs, not Preetam. Oh, he composed them also? No, I don't think so. But maybe, I mean, I got the vibe because I think Prasoon Joshi is the guy who sang your Taare Zameen Par type songs, right?
Like, so, that's true.
Abbas: Family songs. Prasoon Joshi of Aap Um, but I was saying, so these two songs, they're like, they could be like on a, on your average Bollywood album, they will not be the most popular song, but they're in there as act as fillers. Correct. Also the music video for this, you can tell of course that the leading, the current government has way more budgets to spend on the Modi Parivar video, like I [00:24:00] said, it's shot in HD and they have the Kashmir values
Nainika: and it was shot specifically for the song itself.
So yeah, I mean, you can clearly see who is going through depression and who's thriving on
Abbas: a banger scale of one to five. How much would you rate the,
Nainika: I'm going to have to say two, it just didn't get me and because I can tell it's a depression ballad. I'm like, not fun. It's like, you know, when both the songs are the equivalence of when, you know, girls going through something.
So they start putting cryptic stories on their Instagram. So it's like that, like the Congress song is very much like going through something, but still having hope, rose emoji, heartbreak emoji, kind of a vibe to it. So
Abbas: yeah, I'd give this The 2.5, I think I give the previous one. Three because like brownie points for the BJP team to cutting to Modi G saying Correct
Yes. You know, incorporating the slick. Yes. You know? Yeah. Now we, you haven't heard the TMC
Nainika: song, right? [00:25:00] Right. How is it
Abbas: the TMC song? is a banger. Like a certified
Nainika: 5 Like
Abbas: mix it with the DJ It's not Korbol Orko Jeet Gore, but it is like the, the, the BJP and Congress is like, you know, soulful. Like you said, they're urging people to please come vote for us. Right. EMC is like, we're going to bang drums. We want to get, if people don't vote
Nainika: for us, we don't care.
Like it's a war cry. It's not a ballad. It's not like, it's not a Sanskrit shlok. It's like, no, [00:26:00] no, no. Let's get out of here. Also the
Abbas: BJP song and the Congress song, the BJP is praising Modi. The Congress one is like, Oh, Rahul Gandhi is amazing. The TMC, of course, right up front, you see Mamata Banerjee walking to a rally.
Within the first 20 seconds, it takes a dig at Amit Shah. Okay. Which none of the others do. It's a diss track.
Nainika: It's a diss track. It's a proper rap diss
Abbas: track. So again, I couldn't. I could make out, uh, like, uh, uh, like very vaguely what they're saying, right? Because the song is in, uh, Bengali and a lot of Bengali words are very similar to Hindi, right?
So I could tell they're talking about corruption and I, I dunno, I said corruption. .
Nainika: Okay,
Abbas: okay, . That's how good the song is. Then
Nainika: it's Bengali corruption flavor to it too.
Abbas: It's taking a dig at the opponents and it's also glorifying not just Mamata Banerjee, but you also see a lot of a couple of other TMC leaders also.
But I liked that, you know, you can play this at Durga Pooja, you can play this at Pandal [00:27:00] and it will instantly get people dancing. So right out there for me, if you had to rank these songs, the TMC one is like way above the other. On the banger scale. Okay. On the Bangor scale, because it's, it's right up there.
So maybe I don't know much about TMC's politics, but, uh, they, they know how to
Nainika: get a. So if you walked into India and the moment you walked in and they handed you like a voter ID and they're like, okay, listen to three songs on basis of that, you will vote for a government. Will you go for TMC?
Abbas: Without question.
I was like, these people know how to party and these people know how to fight. So I'm
Nainika: going there. I'm going for that. Huh, and
Abbas: whatever, whatever, what I don't want, like this, these people,
Nainika: but have you ever had any other political campaign song that you really?
Abbas: Oh, my favorite was, of course, uh, he's not, not going through the best times right now, but Paath Saal Kejriwal by Vishal Bhatlani was also a banger.
Like, have you heard it? I
Nainika: haven't actually, I might go back and listen to it, because if it's Vishal Dadlani, then I presume that it's like a [00:28:00] bit of a, like a desi rock banger of sorts. Yeah, yeah, it
Abbas: was, it was. The chorus was like, paanch saal, kejriwal, kejriwal. It's like that again. Okay. So yeah, it was a, it was a banger.
So yeah, that's the one I remember. I remember, uh, Udit Narayan in 2014 had this thing. Uh, I don't remember the chorus was, it was for the BJP and this chorus was like, Modi aane wala hai. So that's,
Nainika: that's all I remember. Interesting. Interesting. Another thing, I think very important that I thought about the BJP song was like, you know, everybody, like a bunch of minorities, like, Uh, he got me a job.
He got me this. He gave me Sahara and this and that, but almost it's like, uh, he's a God to the family. Like he's like the presiding, like, you know, the father figure, the patriarchal father figure to the family. I was like, very nice. It's a good way to mythologize yourself. Very interesting. But
Abbas: yeah, I think the links of these songs will be in the description.
So you can check them out yourself and tell us what ratings you would give purely on a [00:29:00] musical scale, guys,
Nainika: purely on a musical scale, like whether it's a banger or not. And if you just walked into India with a voter ID, would the song make you want to vote for them or not? Please write to us and tell us about that.
Abbas: Uh, okay. Let's talk about, uh, the next Netflix thing we're talking about, which is a film called Scoop, uh, which stars, uh, Gillian Anderson, uh, Billy Piper, uh, Rufus Sewell, a couple of, uh, people in this star cast are also, uh, well known. Uh, of course, Gillian Anderson is the most well known name. I was wondering where I've seen Billy Piper who plays, uh, the,
Nainika: you have seen her in Dr.
Abbas: Who. I have seen her in Dr. Who. Yeah. How did you guess that?
Nainika: Because that is, that was her breakout role, right? Correct.
Abbas: Yes. She plays the, uh, the sidekick to the doctor. I forgot what she's called. But Scoop is about the Prince Andrew scandal that broke out where his connections with Jeffrey Epstein were addressed in this one BBC interview.
And although it was speculated since a long time that he was involved in this, that one interview is like the pivotal moment where [00:30:00] It was sort of established that, uh, you know, there's something fishy going on. Uh, I've seen about 40 percent of the film and I was very skeptical going in. Cause I'm like eight interview pay, like how much of a narrative can you correct?
But it actually kept me quite engaged. I thought it was very, it's also, I'm slightly biased to these journalists. Uh, expose kind of films like, uh, spotlight is one, right? Uh, that comes to mind. Uh, and yeah, whenever journalists are doing their job well in a movie, I'm like, yes. You go,
Nainika: yes, go for it. You go, good, you go girl.
Abbas: Jin also, there was that film that was that show, right? The Aaron Hawkin show. Um, the Newsweek, no, uh, newsroom. Newsroom. Newsroom. Newsroom, right? Yeah. Which was very, uh, which, which I like a lot. Nainika, did you see it and what did you think of it? So
Nainika: I watched the full movie. I think I was preoccupied with something halfway there, so it didn't feel as laborious to me for sure.
I felt like the plot was rather concise. It didn't, I think the movie runtime isn't even a [00:31:00] lot. It's one, one and a half hours at best. It's a one hour, 40 minutes. Yeah, it's, it's not a long movie at all. But also to be very honest, there's not
It's the fact that they were hustling like this sort of, essentially the story is that they're trying to make sure that the interview happens and it's not, I mean, if you're a BBC, it's not very difficult to get an interview with a member of the royal family, like, let's be real about that, but essentially the rest of the movie is about how they prepare for the interview and how Prince Andrew is very clearly, uh, you know, Not in the right and how they sort of nail him on that show, they cross question him to a degree and he clearly fumbles and, you know, just, uh, reveals himself to be to be who he is.
And, uh, that way I felt like Gillian Anderson, she's done like a decently good job. I really enjoyed, I really enjoy seeing Gillian Anderson and anything she does. So I think that way the movie was decent, but it wasn't out of the world for me. I think partly [00:32:00] also because ever since the Epstein scandal has broken, I feel like there's a certain section of society or I suppose like liberal society that considers the Epstein scandal to be like a little thing that they can, like they don't necessarily care about the women who were victimized by the scandal, but more they like the aura of how the people who were revealed to be complicit in the scandal are just like rich characterless freaks and less about the fact less about the victims of the scandal.
Abbas: So I don't disagree with anything you anything you said right now. I think it's very, very true. Relevant that, like, even I didn't think of it the way, like you said, right now that, uh, the, the, the survivors of this or the victims of this has have almost become secondary, but the Epstein case is almost like a genre of entertainment in itself.
Yes, it is. Right. Uh, so, so then, I mean, [00:33:00] Hasn't that ship sailed a little bit where it's like, like, if you, if you really had to, and, and the media is also to blame for it, the media and the internet, the fact that this, this whole thing, uh, like it's the kind of stuff you, it's every conspiracy theorists. Wet dream.
Yes, exactly.
Nainika: It's literally a conspiracy theory at this point more than the fact that you know what happens to the victims happen to the victims. It's like they'll pull out flight logs to be like, this person was at the island. Okay. Yes. This person's at the island. What are you doing about it? As opposed, you know, just like pointing fingers, you know, those people are going to go completely scot free.
It doesn't change anything for you. You just like to be able to point out, look at the flight logs and be like, Oh, all the rich are in some sort of cahoots with each other and they secretly abuse. But then, but then isn't.
Abbas: Isn't bringing the, uh, the objective to bring down these powerful men also a means to sort of give justice to the, to the people?
I think
Nainika: for what Newsnight actually did on its own, you know, bringing Prince Andrew having this interview so that he ended up being [00:34:00] stripped of his royal duties is definitely like, I think they did something valuable there. But this movie being made, which had like a very, anyway, I mean, I'm not debating the morality of it.
I don't think
Abbas: the movie What I do get at is that, like you said, that You know, they're going to, these powerful men are probably going to go scot free. Yes. Isn't that the root of the problem that we're trying to get at? Yes. Yes. Yeah. This, this man had access to ex presidents and, you know, the movie producers and whatnot.
And in the social structure that we live in, we've seen that these men barely, if ever pay the price for them. Correct. Possibly horrible things they did. So wouldn't you then say that this being reiterated again and again, like, I feel like every three months as a new list, which is released of Epstein's clients.
So, and then the cycle of jokes starts again, like there was this whole thing with Stephen Hawking was in, in, in one of the lists. I know that was quite like, Oh, Stephen Hawking was freaky or like to get freaky or whatever.
Nainika: And the jokes that came out of it were very nasty, like I'm not particularly someone who's offended by it, it's fine by me if you want to [00:35:00] make jokes about it, but the jokes were nasty, like let's be real.
Abbas: Alright, so those were our opinions about the film Scoop, which is on Netflix right now. Uh, all right. So to wrap this up, uh, let's get to
Nainika: Wrestlemania. I can tell that you've been itching to talk about it. You have a big smile on your face. You insisted on it. So, so before we get into it, you have to explain it like I'm fine.
What is Wrestlemania? Is it connected to WWE?
Abbas: I was, I was prepared for this. Um, okay. So, uh, all right. I'm assuming a lot of listeners and viewers right now probably are not the biggest wrestling fans. So WrestleMania is essentially the biggest live event that the WWE puts out. It happens generally either from the last, uh, like between the last week of March and the first week of April.
Uh, And it is like, you can say it's the season finale of all the storylines of all the, all the magnificent big budget stuff that they want to do. [00:36:00] The WWE puts its show. It used to be a one night event. Now it's because they have so much to do and so much to say, it's Turn into a two night event. So
Nainika: is it televised?
Is it live? Can you get tickets to go and watch it?
Abbas: Yes. Can you get tickets? Like the tickets go, uh, like they're sold out within seconds. And then there's a whole industry online, which, uh, sells tickets. Yes. So it happens that. Uh, uh, like this, this weekend it happened in Philadelphia. It happens in, in a new place, uh, in a new city every year.
Um, I forget the name of the, uh, ski Do the Cities bid for
Nainika: it, like the Olympics, like the LA has put in, LA has put in a bid, like I'll give 5 million to actually, so,
Abbas: oh, again, so.
Nainika: I was just going to make a joke. I didn't realize they take it very seriously.
Abbas: That's the thing about wrestling, right? WWE, uh, initially, uh, WWE used to do, uh, the, the events in like whatever arenas and whatever, but now [00:37:00] mayors.
Like for WrestleMania to come to their show.
Nainika: So it's like the Olympics in that sense. That's lovely. I mean, it
Abbas: is kind of like the Olympics of wrestling in a way, uh, with, with a lot more like razzmatazz and, and, and, and camp thrown in. Uh, but there's, it's a whole week long activity. So they, The essentially camp out in this one city.
So Monday, uh, the televised shows, uh, that WWE has two televised shows called raw and SmackDown. So there's Monday night raw before WrestleMania, that there's SmackDown before WrestleMania on Thursday, then on. Friday night, they do the hall of fame ceremony. Then on Saturday, they do a two hour pre show.
And then the first night of WrestleMania happens, which runs for four hours. Then they, the next night they give out the slammy awards, which are like these internet awards for like whatever best entrance, best performer of the year, whatever, whatever that happens on Sunday afternoon. Then they do four hours of WrestleMania again, uh, that, that night, Sunday night, which is the big, big finale.
Then. Less than [00:38:00] 24 hours. They do another episode of Monday Night Raw, which addresses the fallout of all the storylines that, uh, that were wrapped up in WrestleMania. Anyway, so these people have no, uh, time to like rest, no time to sleep. Essentially, whatever city they pick becomes the Mecca of WrestleMania.
Why was WrestleMania 40 important? Okay. Three reasons. Firstly, because of course it's the 40th year of them doing this show. So it had to be like grand and big and all of that. Now the next two reasons, one is an on screen reason. One is an off screen reason. The on screen reason was that Dwayne Johnson, the Rock, returned.
Right. To again, sort of, uh, dip his toes in WrestleMania and now here's something you should understand the Rock is the biggest movie star on the planet.
Nainika: So now what was his last Marvel movie, Adam something?
Abbas: No, that was not Marvel. That was DC. I'm just going to list very, very calmly. Yeah. Okay. Sorry.
Nainika: What was his last DC movie?
Black Adam. Right. It flopped so hard. He was like, I might as well go back to make my losses, [00:39:00] to cover my losses.
Abbas: Yes. So not only has The Rock come back in WWE, he's the WWE recently changed their ownership. They are now owned by a company called TKO. Okay. And The Rock is now on the board of directors of TKO.
So it's literally your boss showing up at work to wrestle his employees and, uh, you can't do anything about it. The Rock shows up. The Rock in the last 10 years has been playing this movie star persona. When he comes, he gets, says the famous lines, he gets the cheers and then he fucks off. Okay. Right. And then he takes a few years off.
Nainika: And cash is a big check in the process.
Abbas: Sorry, uh, cashing checks. Yes. This time around when he came, he was supposed to fight a match with Roman Reigns, who's been the WWE champion for the last three and a half years. There's a whole big story, which I would not like to go into. Now his challenger was supposed to be this third guy called Cody Rhodes, who comes from a lineage of wrestlers.
He's the son of a very legendary wrestler called Dusty Rhodes. And there was a fan backlash [00:40:00] online where people were like, Oh, just because The Rock is a movie star and a board of directors of TKO, he can just come and take a championship match. So The Rock and the writers of WWE pivoted and spun this whole story around so that now The Rock is the bad guy.
in the WWE storyline. And he played the bad guys so well, like forget Black Adam, this should have been like his
Nainika: Oscar nomination. Magnum opus, his academy.
Abbas: He would show up in cities and basically diss the crowd and because it's The Rock and he's so good at like playing with the crowd, he started randomly beating up wrestlers backstage, making them bleed, dropping the F bombs, which are all things that WWE has stayed away from.
They wanted to be a family friendly product. But because of the rock coming back, all this edgy stuff has come out. And Cody Rhodes, who's been trying to get the championship for two years, finally won the match at WrestleMania 40. And it was not just like, he didn't just win the match. All the previous legends of WWE came back to [00:41:00] help him.
John Cena came back. The Undertaker came back. Uh, there's a character called Seth Rollins who has a different B story with the, with the champion Roman Reigns because he betrayed him 10 years ago because, because of which Roman Reigns turned into a villain.
Nainika: Did Hulk Hogan come back or is he not a WWE
Abbas: character?
Oh, he didn't. Hulk Hogan didn't come back. But the rock fought the night before and the rock won the match. Anyway, long story short, the matches were brilliant. It was one of the best nights of wrestling. That's the onscreen reason is the wrestling was great. The characterization was great. The offscreen reason is the WWE was run by a man called Vince McMahon.
Okay. Okay. Vince McMahon used to play a villain on screen. in the WWE product, but he was the owner of the company. And it was an open secret that Vince McMahon is a terrible, terrible person. Okay. And a bunch of women and ex employees have come out with their allegations a couple of months ago this year, in January this year.
And they [00:42:00] have sued Vince McMahon. And if you read that chart sheet, it is horrible. There are allegations of Vince McMahon defecating on his employees. Okay. Like that's the level of, um, insane. And for people who know Vince McMahon, they're like, yeah, of course he's the kind of man. So Vince McMahon had to let go of all of his, uh, and he's the one running wrestling for the, like, The 39 years of the 40 years of WrestleMania, he's has been the one in charge.
This was the first WrestleMania without Vince McMahon. So there was this air of,
Nainika: will they be able to do it? Will they be able
Abbas: to pull it off? Yes, that. And it was a sigh of relief that finally we get to do things the way we wanted. The evil bad man is out. The people. So the right now, the guy who's in charge of WWE is a, is, is a wrestler called Vince Paul Leveque, who goes by the ring name Triple H, any wrestling fan from the late nineties or early 2000s would know Triple H was one of the most legendary bad guys who was married to Vince McMahon's daughter, by the way, Stephanie McMahon.
And it's considered that Stephanie [00:43:00] McMahon and Triple H actually had been trying to get Vince McMahon off the ownership board for a long time. There's a whole internal business succession tussle that has been going on, which you can read about online. That's a whole different WWE worthy story that's been going on offstage.
So this was the first WrestleMania where the wrestlers actually, uh, got like the ringmaster is gone. Now the, now the, now the circus animals can actually have their day in the sun.
Nainika: So the guards are away. The inmates will play. Yeah. The inmates
Abbas: got to play. Yes, exactly. So, uh, if you see the last 10 minutes of WrestleMania 49, two, Uh, you can find clips on Twitter online.
It's just when Cody Rhodes won that championship, the entire locker room showed up to lift him on his, uh, lift him on their shoulders. You could see a palpable joy in everybody, because this was like the culmination of a fight. They'd been fighting backstage and, and in the locker room where they like, finally, we have a winner who's worthy and we can get behind him and we are [00:44:00] happy.
So Wrestlemania 2, this is it. This, this, this sport of this fake sport of where men and women beat each other up ended with like grown up men crying man tears of like, Oh, finally we get
Nainika: to be free.
Abbas: Yes. The bad guys will pay the price. The good guys will end up on top. And it was all just so, so, so emotional, emotional.
They had all these, um, Previous wrestlers show up. So if you've been someone watching, uh, uh, wrestling since you were a kid, it was like so much catharsis that everybody showed up and yeah, WrestleMania 40. Uh, who was everything I wanted it to be. You know, do you
Nainika: have any questions? If we had this conversation like a year ago, I would have been like, I don't think I would have had any sympathy for what you were feeling right now.
But last year I got into, I made the decision to get into sports and I sort of understand how important and vulnerable and [00:45:00] emotionally important the human element of sport and the narrativizing of the human element of sport is because ultimately it's a story about human persistence and human moxie, right?
So, uh, so. Good for you, Abbas. I got really emotional. And Cody Rhodes
Abbas: won and then his mom came into the ring and he gave his championship to his mother and the whole thing was because The Rock, as the bad guy, had been taunting his mother saying, I'll beat him up in front of you, I'll make him bleed and all of that.
So then, and then The Rock got Chokeslammed by the Undertaker so that he can not do anything and Cody Rhodes gave the championship to his mother. It was it was just and his his nephews and nieces and wife and kids were in the ring and he was surrounded by all the good guys. It was just so heartwarming.
Nainika: I'm glad that worked out. I do not know enough about wrestling to be commenting on this, but
Abbas: you know what? So I, I, I'll say this for anybody who's not even, you're not into wrestling, please check out the last 10 minutes of the [00:46:00] final match of night two, uh, and, and just, just, just see the. The, the, the, the, the jubilation, a lot of emotions, the jubilation that happened.
Yeah, it was, it was wonderful. Like 70, 000 people in the stadium who all go nuts when Cody Rhodes wins.
Nainika: Interesting. Sport as a spectacle is always something that's been very close to my heart, which is why when I found out that, you know, we're talking about wrestling, I remember that Roland Barthes essay about the world of wrestling and how it plays up emotions.
So the audience has, you know, the audience is aware that It's not an authentic storytelling, but they sacrifice it because they love that exaggeration of it because they love the notion of justice that comes with wrestling and it's exaggerated emotions. And I feel like this one is very much about, um, the justice of it.
If you read the article, like at the very end, it says that, you know, when you're anonymized, like, you know, your wrestler will play up his persona for the ring. And then eventually he'll just leave with his wife like an anonymous person and you know, all your notions of justice have been satisfied and all your notions [00:47:00] of what is, what is a spectacle have been satisfied and you realize it's, you know, very similar to, to, to morality and to, you know, what, what humans have been trying to accomplish with God.
So I feel like, yeah, I mean, I, I understand that. Because I mean, I'm a recent sports fan, so I understand why it is so valuable and I'm glad you got to, you along with, I don't know, 70,
Abbas: 000, 80, 000, however many fans. 70, 000 just in the stadium.
Nainika: Millions watching. I mean, millions of awards. So I'm glad that you and millions others got to have their catharsis and to watch like something they so beloved, some beloved childhood storyline conclude in this wonderful manner.
So And wow, I'm kind of emotional right now. You know, I get it. Uh, I get it. I thought I was going to joke about it, but you know what? I get it. Okay. Okay. I quickly have to ask, who is your favorite wrestler? Is that a thing? Is that the thing I can
Abbas: ask? The rock, which is why I got back to watching, uh, week to week.
Like I used to marginally keep up with what's happening in the storyline, [00:48:00] but the rock showing up again was like the pivotal point where I got back in and. He was just so like, none of us wanted, none of us expected him to become a bad guy again, because I'm like, Oh, he's, he's selling beauty products. And he's like the face of so many brands.
There's no way he'll become a bad guy again, but he did. And he did the bad guy so well. And him playing the bad guy so well is why the good guy winning makes it so much
Nainika: more special.
Abbas: So yeah, but yeah, the rock is, uh, is my favorite wrestler. And he showed up So this morning, the fallout, what happened was The Rock has now gone away to shoot a few movies, but before going, he has, uh, issued a challenge to Cody Rhodes.
Oh, that
Nainika: I'm going to come back as they, as they say, sports got me through a bad time in life by making it worse.
So I guess, you know, I can't afford another obsession, but you can come back and tell me what happens next. And, uh, and yeah, I think I'll ask Shubham to just unnecessarily link the Roland Barthes essay about the [00:49:00] world of wrestling. Yes, please. Because I can, I want to be boring and pedantic. So please go and read that.
It's quite interesting, actually. And it actually does play about the emotional spectacle of the sport, which is quite interesting to me
Abbas: always. All right, that brings us to the end of, uh, this week on that very, uh, emotional wrestling note, uh, that brings us to the end of, uh, this particular episode. Um, thank you, Ms.
Nainika: Rathore. Thank you, Mr. Momin.
Abbas: And that's a wrap.
Thank you for your subscription. You're changing the world by changing the way news is funded. For the smoothest News Laundry experience, download the News Laundry app. It is the best way to listen to our paywall podcasts. And you'll also get access to all free News Laundry shows. Keep us ad free and subscriber funded.
Help us grow. Tell people who listen to you to pay to keep news free. Subscribe to News Laundry. Keep journalism [00:50:00] independent.
Newslaundry is a reader-supported, ad-free, independent news outlet based out of New Delhi. Support their journalism, here.
