The Other Banana – Details, episodes & analysis

In this episode writer Aditya Mani Jha joins Deepauk and Aditya to talk about two 2024 films, both Telugu originals, and adapted-inspired from two Hindu epics - Mahabharata and Ramayana.

One is Nag Ashwin's Kalki 2898 AD and the other is Prasanth Varma's Hanu-Man. One has a stellar pan-Indian star cast with the likes of Prabhas, Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan, Deepika Padukone et al while the other has Teja Sajja, Amritha Aiyar, Vinay Rai among others. One has big budget and larger scope. The other has a big heart and novel ideas.

We talk about what the films get right, what they do not and which Hindu epic is more interesting, adaptable and more. Listen on.

Participants:

Aditya

Deepauk

Aditya Mani Jha

Edited by Anantha.

Nithilan Saminathan returns after Kurangu Bommai with a bigger canvas and a bigger star. His talents are still visible, refined even, but his latest film with Vijay Sethupathi in and as Maharaja started a discourse about rape-revenge genre in cinema, gratuitous violence, depiction of sexual abuse, and the conspicuous choice of Vairamuthu as lyricist.

Aditya joins Deepauk and regular guest Subha Rao to talk about what irked them about the film, what they liked, and where Tamil cinema must do better. And how the audience reaction in the theatres didn't inspire much confidence. The discussion contains spoilers.

Listen on.

Participants:

Aditya

Deepauk

Subha Rao

Link to Subha's opinion piece on the film in The News Minute: https://www.thenewsminute.com/flix/opinion-vijay-sethupathi-film-maharaja-is-an-example-of-how-not-to-depict-violence-on-screen

The year for Tamil cinema hasn't been all that great so far but then comes along a film like Vinayak Chandrasekaran's Good Night.

A superb character study and exploration of dynamics, the film-also written by Vinayak-stars Manikandan, Ramesh Thilak, Meetha Raghunath, Balaji Sakthivel, Raichel Rebecca among others.

It also stars stand up comedian, actor, writer Jagan Krishnan who joined us for this episode to talk about the experience of auditioning, working in the film and what he thought about the various character dynamics in the film. He also shared some anecdotes while at it. Listen on.

You can find links to Jagan's work and information and tickets for his tour that's coming up here.

The Malayalam film referenced in the episode is Vadakkunokkiyantram.

Participants:

Deepauk

Anantha

Jagan

Edited by Deepauk.

 In part 1 of the discussion of the film, the gain delves into the key aspects that made the film Telugu cinema's cult hit of 2018. They try to get under the skin of the characters and the milieu before we bring on a special guest for part 2. 

 The cabal finally decided to sit down and wrestle with Super Deluxe this past weekend. We were ably aided in this quest by @NadikaNadja as we dove inextricable deeper and deeper into the universe created by Thiagarajan Kumararaja. While we've all tried to come to terms with what we experienced, I think we'll all be either watching the film in the theaters again or on some streaming platform as soon as it is available!

Big thanks to Nadika for joining us! Look forward to everyone's feedback and having an open discussion with our listeners on their thoughts.

 In this episode @complicateur and @gradwolf are joined by Ashwathy G to discuss Aashiq Abu and Syam Pushkaran's heart wrenching film - Mayanadhi. 

 In this episode, we take a look at one of the biggest hits in Telugu cinema for 2018. DIrector Sukumar's Rangasthalam starring RamCharan & Samantha. Our guests were columnist and friend of the podcast, @KrupgaGe and popular movie critic @crhemanth.

Listen in as we talk about the politics that the movie captures and how it addresses a lot of issues thanks to some stellar performances by the supporting cast.

The Cabal does a bilingual film in its true spirit - with a bilingual guest. We are joined by LTP aka @localteaparty to talk about the L.V Prasad classic MISSIAMMA(1955), one of the famous films from the golden period, made in Tamil and Telugu with different casts. 

In a fit of nostalgia, the Cabal revisits the 1985 Thamizh film classic, Aan Paavam. It also gives one of our members the opportunity to wax eloquent on the phenomenon that is Ilaiyaraja. Big thanks as always to @jestme for joining the crew to discuss one of her favorite films as well!

And all music in the pod composed by the indomitable Ilaiayaraaja.

 We couldn't get everyone together when Kaala released and published a blogpost instead. With Petta releasing, we wanted to ensure we did not repeat the same. So we hauled in everyone last weekend and some of us had pretty diverse opinions in this impromptu discussion on the film. We cover everything from the film references to the politics of the movie in the discussion!