Happy New Year Final

Two friends, Kim and Katie, discuss the Bollywood movie "Happy New Year." They praise the film for its entertaining dance numbers and Abhishek Bachchan's performance. They also discuss the rest of the cast and make a drinking game based on the movie. They then go on to summarize the plot of the film, focusing on the main character Charlie and his plan to steal diamonds. I was, okay, yeah, sorry. I lost myself for a little bit there. Let's do a humor. Possessed by a ghost. I'm back now. The ghost is gone. Hello and happy new year, everyone. Welcome to Two White Girls Talk Bollywood. I'm Kim. And I'm Katie. And we're here to talk about singing and dancing and Bollywood boys. Big time. It's the biggest time. Also, I want to echo your happy new year. It's a happy new year of my own. Great. It's weird because we're recording this at the end of 2023. And so I'm trying to get myself into a place of like a new year 2024. Yeah, I am not there yet. I'm like, we've got two more weeks of December staring us in the face. But this movie definitely did help. It does help this movie. Happy new year. Happy new year. Which I do love. We consider it a new year's film. But it really isn't other than that being the time of year it takes place. Right, yeah. There's literally not even a ball dropping. There's nothing to do with it actually being the new year. Yeah. There's like rebirth and fresh start. I guess that's true. I suppose in a way like people finally accomplishing their goals of revenge and theft. And then getting to move forward with their lives in the new year. You know how we all end our years with a really intense, elaborate diamond heist. Slash dance competition. Slash dance competition, exactly. Yeah. That's why we're recording early because we need to leave so much time. And dance competition. Yeah, because we're just humans. We're like everyone else. Gotta get to Dubai right quick. Anyway, so yeah, happy new year. This is, you know, it's a classic for us. We would never claim that this is a high quality, high brow cinema. But what I do think, you know, it's super ridiculous. And some of the humour at times is like, really? That's a little much. But what I think makes this movie a cut above many others is that the soundtrack and the dancing is just phenomenal. Some of my absolute favourite dance numbers in this movie. Many of which I hadn't watched for quite a while. So it was really fun to go back to them. I agree. I really enjoyed them. I also just really enjoyed Abhishek Bachchan's performance. I am so glad that you said that. Because I was also like, I don't think I'd ever really paid much attention to his character before. But something about this time I was like, Abhishek, yes. Feel in this. I could do without the throw up. Absolutely. And to be fair, I haven't watched a ton of Abhishek Bachchan films. So I don't really feel like I can make a generalization about the characters that he plays. But based on what I have seen him in, he's usually the straight man. Other people are goofy around him. And so it's so funny and enjoyable to see this goofier side of him. Like that snake dance. It's so good. It's so good. And even him as Vicky was hilarious. I loved his accent as Vicky. The way he changed his whole characterization was great. He spoke like dude bro English. Exactly. But while speaking Hindi. And then meanwhile his other character doesn't speak any English. Great performance on his part. Love Abhishek. Would love to watch more with him in it. And I'm sure we will. Absolutely. Let's go through the rest of our cast. We've got Shahrukh Khan as Charlie. We've got Deepika Padukone as Mohini. Loved her. Always and everything. Mohini Rani as Tammy. Just precious. Sonu Sudh as Jag. And then Vivaan Shah as Rohan. What a cutie. So cute. I love him even more. Yeah, and we've never seen him in anything else. No. We should try to find him. Yes, I'm fully on board with that. Yes. And then also want to call out our two, I guess, well, I was going to say our two cameos, but Jackie Shroff's not a cameo. He's like the villain. But I also think it's funny because the day that we're recording this, not the day that this episode is coming out, but Jasleen Royal, who did Hyrie, she just released a new music video starring Jackie Shroff. Really? Yeah. Good for him. It's really sweet. It's like you see Jasleen Royal and she falls in love as a young woman and then they get separated and then they come together as an older couple and Jackie Shroff is the older love interest. Oh, that's cute. I also get Tiger because you know what father and son duo look literally exactly the same? It's Tiger and Jackie Shroff. It's the Shroff boys, yeah. Yes, they do look identical. No, it was the guy who is in Railway Men. I don't remember what his name is, but he's super cute. Okay. Super cute younger guy. They did a cameo. They called it something funny in the credits. Emotional appearance by our Papa. By Papa Bear Anupam Kher. I did refer to his character as Papa for my half of the plot recap. Great. I only reference him once in my half, but I shall call him Papa then. Of course, the movie was directed by the fabulously talented Sarah Khan and was also written by Sarah Khan. Great. Because this is our New Year episode, we are switching it up where we're both doing the plot recap. We're not doing any sort of learning time. What do you call that? Research? Shall we dive into Act 1? Let's start, yeah. Excellent. We open this film with the spectacular final performances of an international dance competition in Dubai. We see a huge crowd cheering as the North Korean team is wrapping up their routine. Then the emcees come out and they announce that the next team is a team who nobody saw coming, but they won everyone's heart. It's Team India! The crowd goes wild, but backstage, Team India is nowhere to be found. They've been kidnapped. Maybe. They've been abducted. Who knows? That's the sequel. Happy New Year, too. It's still a happy year. Happy New New Year. As we cut back to the crowd, they're waving Indian flags, they're holding up signs for Team India, and a voiceover says there are only two kinds of people in this world, winners and losers. This is where I forgot to mention before we started the recap that we had an idea that we're going to develop a drinking game. Oh yes! Oh god, I forgot about that! We're going to talk about what a possible Happy New Year drinking game might look like, and then we plan to watch the movie again, future New Years as well, and we may try to play it. Same vibe. This is my first drink moment, is every time Charlie references the number two, or two of something, or the second thing, because that's just his whole thing, always about the two. That's true. And he says that six losers came to this competition without knowing what a fickle fate would have in store for them. And then we cut to some mud wrestling. Super casual. And we see an absolutely ripped Shahrukh Khan getting tossed about by a much larger man. I was trying to count his abs. Oh my god. There aren't enough numbers. Ten or twelve. For reals, zero percent body fat on this man. I mean, that's not true, because he'd be dead. Bare minimum body fat. You can see literally every single muscle in his torso. He's unbelievably lean, unbelievably cut. His body looks unreal. Yeah. It's astounding. It really, truly is. Just astonishing. So this is Charlie. This is our hero. And he rises to rejoin this fight. And as he does, his rippling musculature gets hosed down by whoever's on the sidelines. Buckets of water. Splashed all over him. So funny. So excellent. What a way. Especially knowing that Farah Khan loves Shahrukh to be muscular like this. It's kind of an inside joke between the two of them. And so I just love that she's like, okay, so we're going to get you real muddy. And then we're going to get you real wet. And she's like, and we're going to just watch it happen. Like multiple angles. But so we learn from some more plot stuff and voiceovers that Charlie is kind of down on his luck guy. And he's actually planning to throw this fight so he can make a little money off of it. But when his opponent calls him the son of a thief, he just cannot stop himself from absolutely tearing this guy apart. Not literally. You imagine. What a nightmare. And as he stalks out of the mud wrestling arena with a black hood thrown over his head and his torso just bare underneath his jacket, he tells us in a voiceover that it has become impossible to earn an honest buck in this city. But so then we cut to Charlie just relaxing at home with the creepy blonde streak in his hair. Yeah. I don't like it. Not a fan. It's horrible. I question that choice always. It's horrible. But at home, Charlie is he just happens to catch a news report that is a press conference with a man named Charon Grover. And Grover's safe manufacturing company Shalimar is protecting a rare exhibition of diamonds that are worth 50 million smackeroonies. And these diamonds are going to be spending one night in Dubai, and that same night, the hotel that they're staying at, the Atlantis Hotel, is hosting an international dance competition. And so we learn all of this, and then the camera pans over, and we see that Charlie has in his apartment a stringboard, TM, covered in news clippings about a man named Menohar Sharma, who is Charlie's papa. We can kind of glean from these newspaper clippings that papa was sentenced to prison for attempting to break into a safe that was owned by this man, Charon Grover. So, Charlie forms a plan for a heist. We're going to steal some diamonds, and he goes off to assemble his team. And his first recruit is a man named Jag, who is also adorable. K-He is, and he grows on me every time I watch this movie, too. Also, it does feel important to mention that I can't speak for the original Italian Job, because I have never seen it, but the Italian Job with Mark Wahlberg, this definitely was heavily influenced by that film, with the introduction, which I just appreciate. I'm like, I love Italian Job. I love this nod to it. That is a great movie. It's so good. Also, his name is Charlie. Yeah. But, so, Jag is, and he's from the Spomb squad, but now he works in special effects in the film industry, and he is also deaf in one ear. And this is my second drinking game rule. Drink every time Jag doesn't understand what someone is saying, because of being deaf in one ear. And that's going to get you drunk by intermission. And so, when we first meet Jag, he's very shirtless, well, he actually is wearing a shirt, but it's open. More rippling abs. And he's getting chewed out by the director for this film, because he's missing his cues, because again, deaf in one ear. And then the director makes the mistake of insulting Jag's mom, which Jag is very protective of his mom. And so he goes on a just total rampage. And as he is storming off set, he turns and he sees Charlie just casually leaning on his SUV. And so Charlie and Jag, they get together, they debrief, and Charlie says he doesn't want them to kill Grover, but he wants to destroy him. He explains that there is another person, there's a third person who is going to want to be a part of this revenge plan against Grover. And that person is Tammy. I love Tammy. Sweet, sweet Tammy. Who we meet as he is jogging in a brightly coloured ensemble down the street with a bunch of adoring women watching him. He's apparently a bit of a ladies' man. And Tammy is their safe cracker. And the other important thing to know about him is that just for the first couple of scenes, he has a satchel that he just keeps a bunch of stuff in. I compared it to in Deathly Hallows, Hermione's bottomless purse. It's like that. Minus the magic, but yeah, the magic. But also kind of magic. Yeah. Magical realism. So Tammy, Jag, and Charlie all sit down at a cafe, and at first, Tammy is opposed to joining in on the heist. Ultimately though, Charlie wins Tammy over by saying that they're doing it for Papa. And he was Tammy's best friend, so Tammy's in. But they also need a hacker. So Charlie announces that they're going to be recruiting Jag's nephew, Rohan. So we meet Rohan at a club, and he is adorable. And for some reason, girls just aren't into him. They don't know what they're missing. Literally, that makes zero sense to me, but it's fine. He's so cute. There's just too many sleazy DJs around. I didn't write this in my notes, I promise, but that would be a great band name. Sleazy DJs? Sleazy DJs, yeah. I agree, yeah. When I was in high school, I had a friend who was in a band called Death to DJs. That almost seems like a threat if you're a band, though. Name Death to DJs. That's a little threatening. Anyway, he decides he's going to hack into the DJ equipment at this club, and starts playing in the middle of the cool DJ song, starts playing a slow, old Hindi song, and the mood drops immediately. But he, as a result of this, gets thrown out of the club by some big, scary bouncers. Actually, not big and scary. They're also very adorable. And all have really cute nicknames. They do have cute nicknames, yeah. This is where Jag and Charlie and Tammy find Rohan, and for reasons that aren't entirely clear to me, Charlie riles up Jag to get him to beat up all these bouncers. I don't know why they didn't just leave with Rohan, but whatever. But he riles up Jag by insulting his mom and exploiting his deafness for not being able to hear what the bouncers are actually saying to him. So Jag single-handedly beats up all these bouncers in an incredibly silly fight. Comedy gold. Literally steam blows out of his ears. Or the one ear. I love that. You were the one who pointed that out to me one of the times we watched it. I was like, oh my gosh, that's so funny. It is funny. And then, yeah, he blows his shirt off, but then the sleeves remain. And there's the bouncer Peter. He's the main bouncer, and I think he's like, your sleeves! And then he takes the sleeves off. It's so stupid, but I love it. It's very stupid, but very fun. Another part of this whole fight sequence is that Peter keeps...Tammy keeps sitting down to eat snacks in his purse, including a whole cake that he just pulls out casually. And poor Peter, the bouncer, keeps getting thrown at him and accidentally beating all this stuff with Tammy. It's rough. Well, and also the thing about Tammy that I love is that he himself doesn't even seem to know what's in his magical sack. He's like, let me just reach in and pull something out, and he's like, ah, pineapple cake! Ooh, a milkshake! He's great. I love Boba Derradi. He's so great. So once the fight wraps up, Charlie reveals that they need one more man for this plan to work, because the doors that lead into the safe room are guarded by a bunch of beefy dudes, and the only person who's going to be able to walk by the beefy dudes and then use a fingerprint to get in is Charon Grover's son, Vicky Grover. And so Charlie reveals that he has discovered Vicky Grover's lookalike. And so they go to introduce us to the last of our male teammates, and this is Nandu. I love his character introduction right up until the point where he throws up on everybody. Yeah, I don't like throw up in movies. Yeah, in real life it's something you sometimes have to deal with. It happens, but yeah, in movies it's like, I don't need to see that. It's not cool. But I agree, his intro is great. It is really funny. We see him doing the human pyramid, climbs the pyramid, breaks the clay pot, and then throws up on everybody. Yeah, because his whole thing is he may or may not throw up at any given time. What a fun trait. Who wouldn't want to be friends with that guy? And he also is an alcoholic? He is an alcoholic, yes. And so I didn't know if maybe that has something to do with the vomiting, or are these two separate things? I don't know. They might be related, it's not clear. But so we cut to all the boys at a bar discussing Nandu's involvement in the heist, and Nandu, who, like you said, is an alcoholic, is just drunkenly slumped over a table. The rest of the boys are concerned that he doesn't have any stakes in this plan the way the others do, so they're like, what is he actually going to bring to this situation? But then Nandu wakes up and he gives an impassioned speech about how he wants to help his sickly mother, and so the boys are like, okay, he clearly does have stakes in this. We've got all of our male team members at this point, and they move into an old house and they start rehearsing for their heist. And I really like the way they do this. We get this overlay of Grover showing off Shalimar's security in real life to the people with the diamonds and the Atlantis Hotel people, and as he's walking through the real thing, showing it to them, we're also getting intercut Charlie showing their kind of makeshift version that they're using to practice on. And so everyone has their part in this heist. We've got Nandu, who is going to pretend to be Vicky Grover and walk by all the guards. He's going to get into the safe room. Rohan, the hacker, is going to disable the laser field. Tammy is the safe cracker, so he's going to break us into the safe. And then Jag is going to get them out. Charlie and Tammy, they need their way to get into the safe room, and so the way that they will access it is through a conveniently placed air duct, which every heist has got to have one. Every architect when they're designing a building is like, and just in case there needs to be a heist, here's a really sturdy air duct. You know, it's kind of like the Death Star. It's like, we've got to build in a weakness. We need the enemies to be able to exploit this. So the air duct is going to get Tammy and Charlie into the safe room, but they need to access the opening of the air duct, and the only way that they can do that is by getting into the room 9C, which is a green room, and the night that they're doing the heist is going to be used for an event. And we already know what event, but most of the boys don't, and Charlie is like, it's the WDC. It's just the WDC. The guys get really frustrated with him, and they're like, just tell us, what is WDC? And he then confesses that it's the World Dance Championship. And the boys are not excited about the prospect of having to enter a dance competition, but Charlie explains that they don't have to actually dance, because the competition is vote-based, and so Rohan is just going to get them hundreds of thousands of votes, so they'll get through to the finals, and that's all they need to do. And Nandu is the first one to come on board with this, and this is the first moment we get his snake dance. Which, did it feel to you a little bit improv-y? Like, maybe, yeah. It kind of felt like in that moment, that Abhishek was just being a goofball, and then Shahrookh was like, okay, yeah, I can do that. It struck me as so pure. It did feel very pure, it was lovely. Oh, and that's another thing for a drinking game, drink every time Nandu does the snake dance. So yeah, the rest of the gang agrees, and then we get this very silly montage of several dance teachers trying to teach these boys how to dance. Including the dance that Hrithik does in Aksha. Yeah, yeah. Man is like you, man is like you. By the way, I also would argue that Hrithik's performance of that dance is superior to this person's. Oh, far superior, yeah, because no one can be boneless and fluid the way that Hrithik can. All the boys tie themselves into knots trying to duplicate that move, which is very funny. Again, not to poke holes in the plot here, but they did say they didn't need to learn how to dance, but here they are trying to learn how to dance. Who even knows? But they then find out, you know, none of these teachers work out for them, and they then find out that they are actually going to have to audition in front of some actual human judges before they can move on to the semifinals, which is the part that's vote-based. So they do actually now learn that they need to learn how to dance. Good thing they started. If we had had that discovery happen before the montage, I didn't write the movie. So at this point, Nandu asks for the backstory, asks for everybody's motivations, and so Charlie explains that his grandpa actually designed the Shalimar safe, the very safe that they're trying to break into, but then Grover framed him for stealing a consignment of diamonds on New Year's Eve. This is now my fourth drinking thing. Drink every time someone mentions New Year's Eve. Happy New Year, any of that. So now he's in jail. Papa's in jail for this crime that he didn't commit, and Grover is living large, and so that's why everyone wants this revenge. And so now Nandu is even more invested than he was before, and he says that he knows the perfect dance teacher for them. Yeah, he does. And then we cut to a crowd of men, all chanting Mohini! Mohini! Mohini! And we have finally arrived at our first real dance number, Lovely. And I don't know if I can call this my favorite dance number from the movie, but we absolutely 100% will be adding it to our playlist. It's a good one. It's so good. I haven't watched it for a while, and I was just blown away. It's not just let's zoom in on Shah Rukh's abs, it's also let's zoom in on Deepika's abs. Deepika's beautiful body. Yeah, that's like the part of it that we see, it's like she arises from the stage mid-riff first. And then, yeah, she just dances, and I love all the hair flipping in this number. She has like four or five costume changes over the course of the number. People are just throwing their money at her. She deserves it. She does deserve it. It's all excellent. But my favorite part is that over the course of the number, we're getting these kind of silly, awkward interactions with Charlie, because Charlie and Naz, you are in the crowd, and Charlie just kind of keeps accidentally bumping into her while she's dancing, and just sort of like, but also she's pretty, I don't know what to do. And that's that dance number. I love it. I've got no notes. So after the number finishes, we see Nandu trying to convince Mohini to teach them to dance. They knew each other as kids, they're both, but he is being, he keeps kind of being disrespectful of her and her job, and Mohini, she's all about respect. That's her big thing. And she's like, nope, not going to do it. But then, Charlie comes in, and he starts speaking to her in English. And what we learn is that Mohini is a total sucker for hearing people speak English to her. She just absolutely loves it. Even though she does not know how to speak English. Which is just such a thing, like hearing people speak a language that I don't speak, which is most of them. I love that. Yeah, me too. I'll just listen to you say words. I don't know what you're saying. I don't care what you're saying, I'll just listen to you say things. Even if you're saying mean things about me, I'll just enjoy the sounds that you're making. But, so yeah, she falls for him, and she's in. She wants to hang out with Charlie more. But the next day, she arrives at the warehouse, and she overhears Charlie giving a speech to the boys, that's basically like, alright, I know this woman doesn't seem like she deserves our respect because she dances in a club for money, but let's just deign to be nice to her, okay guys? This is another drink moment. Drink every time Charlie talks about Mohini behind her back. I feel like, yeah, you should continue. It's almost like Waterfall, like you should be drinking the whole time as she's overhearing it. Yeah, that's good. I like that. Charlie's not that likable of a character. He's really not. Like, in who he is, I understand his quest for revenge and stuff, but like, I don't care what revenge quest you're on, you should still respect women as human beings. Like, come on. I couldn't agree more. And so, Mohini, he turns around, he sees her, and Mohini starts crying. She looks beautiful. She runs out of the warehouse. And so Charlie goes after her, and he apologizes to her in English. You know, he does actually, like, make her feel needed and wanted and special in this moment. And so she agrees, and they have a very cute little moment where they kind of laugh and smile at each other. As we launch into another excellent song, Manavalagi. I think this is my favorite song. I love this song. It's a good one. It's so good. It's just so sweet, like, the fantasy of it. And I feel like we can all relate to, like, you know, Mohini's fantasizing about interacting with her crush, but then it's not actually happening, but like, ooh, maybe it's going to happen. Oh, no, no, no, it's not going to happen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm too scared. And the flames. I love that. That's such a sweet, funny touch. I love that. Everything catches on fire when the two of them are around each other. Are, like, getting close. And I love that the boys throughout, like, they kind of they notice it, like it's happening in reality and then they're, like, prepared for it by the end with fire extinguishers. Yeah, so good. Yeah, it's great. Oh, and my favorite moment is when they all do the Shah Rukh arms. And then he struggles with it until she, like, steps up to help him. Love it so much. As the dance number is wrapping up, we see Mohini making some capes for Team Diamonds. But so now it's time for them to go through the first wave of auditions, the ones that are in front of actual judges. And we learn that the judges are only picking five teams from the dozens that have come to audition. And these judges, we get a cameo here from Anurag Kashyap, who is a producer, filmmaker, writer, director in Bollywood. He didn't have anything to do with this movie. Yeah. And the judge is Vishal Dadladi, who is 50% of Vishal Shekar. Yes! Yeah! Who did the music for this movie. That's fun. That is fun. But so, Team Diamonds, they go in, they give their performance. We don't see it. And the judges are disgusted. They're actually, like, insulted by what they've seen. This is horrible. But Charlie has got some, you know, he's got some blackmail up his sleeve. He pulls out a computer. He has a video of the two judges having an affair. And so he's like, you know, if you don't put us through to the next round, we're going to put this video out for the world to see. And so they come cheering out of the room. And to everyone's shock and awe, Team India is through to the semifinals. Team Diamonds. Team Diamonds, yes. Thank you. They're not Team India yet. No. So, they've made it to the semifinals. And backstage, Mohini gives a rousing speech to the boys, but they are not interested. They're not invested in this at all. She, yeah, she's in it purely for the respect and recognition of her dancing, and literally no one else on her team is. But their neon outfits too are something. I love the neon outfits. Yeah, so this is, this number is Chamia style. It's fun too. Yeah, this is a good bop. It's funny because going back and re-watching the video for it, the crowd is cheering and they're into it. And then they're like, Yeah, but then when the number ends, they decide they're also insulted and disgusted. So they boo. Even the film crew takes off their shoes and shuts them. Yeah, I do love the commitment where it's like, I would rather go barefoot in order to throw my shoe at you than not tell you clearly how poorly this was. But so now it's time for the votes, and so everyone whips out their Nokia phones and Rohan gets to hack in. And so seconds before the voting closes, they manage to pull ahead of who is actually the front-running team, which is just a team of adorable 12-year-old girls wearing rainbow tutus. And Team Diamonds does pull ahead. They beat out the children, and the children cry. I mean, those poor kids. They were just victims of a diamond heist. It's happened to the best of us. Team Diamonds is thrilled, and we get another voice over from Charlie telling us that life gives losers a second chance to redeem themselves. But this is just half the battle, and the story is only halfway through. Over to you, Katie! For Act 2! So, Act 2. We're in Dubai. And all of the dance teams are arriving, including last year's champions, which they call Team Korea, but they specifically mean Team North Korea. We should specify that from here on out, because South Korea is a very different country than North Korea. But it's just kind of a few things about this movie, specifically towards Korean, Chinese people, that it's just a little... Southeast Asia more broadly, just a lot of culturally questionable... a lot of racially judgmental things. Yeah, not great things. So, we do see that. That is not a reason that we like this movie. No. It is, in fact, a reason to critique this film. Team North Korea does look super awesome. They're all wearing black leather jackets with spikes on them. And they have one ten-year-old boy. Which is a fun addition. He's their flyer. Yes. They are welcomed with open arms, because they were last year's champions. And then, compare that to Team India's arrival, where they just get trash thrown at them. But they check into their hotel, and then the whole team is invited to the big WDC opening party. So, Charlie decides that for this party, Nandu cannot come, because they can't risk him revealing his face. But he also decides that Mohini can't come, because he is worried about how she'll dress. And once again, he says these horrible things, and she overhears it, and it's just like, stop. Why are you such a jerk? Like, really? And you're like, you're into this woman. Right. It's uncalled for. Stop negging her. Right. And Charlie doesn't say anything to fix this, but Jagg does go to talk to Mohini. And it is like the sweetest conversation. Where, yeah, he's like, Charlie's deaf in both ears when it comes to love. But he does really like you. And she shares, again, her desires to just be respected. I like this pairing. I do, too. And I know that not every man and every woman who support each other need to be a romantic couple, but I would watch these two make out. Oh, for sure. You guys could just kiss. Yeah, who even needs Charlie? Jagg's way more supportive, and I would not have guessed that. Jagg is lovely. But then we are at the big party, where most of Team India is at a revolving table that is moving way too fast. So fast. It's a good thing Nandu's not there so he doesn't throw up all over everything. If you were actually trying to eat or drink at that table, you'd be ill. But Nandu does show up in disguise. And everyone's like, oh my god, why are you here? They're trying to shove him away. But at that moment, everyone is distracted because a beautiful goddess appears at the top of the stairs. And it's Mohini, who is in this beautiful blue ensemble. So stunning. She's gorgeous. And she goes over to the team, but Vicky Grover also notices her, because of course he does. And he comes over to invite her for a drink, and then there's this whole little mix-up where she thinks it's Nandu, and she's like, well, look at you! And she's like, jackass Nandu! Which I never realized before that it's an actual word. I mean, jackass is an actual word, but that it's a word in Hindi that she's saying? Well, because then they did change it in the subtitles. They changed it to, like, jackass. Yeah! I had never noticed that before. I was like, oh! Okay, so she's not just calling him a jackass. But it is funny. They have to do some quick saving to be like, oh yeah, that's how we greet people at school. So she goes off with Vicky, and then Tammy is telling Charlie that, like, we're here, but we really need to keep a low profile because we can't have Grover putting together who you are. And then at that moment, someone points out Team India to Grover, and he looks over and just, like, snubs them. Yeah! Like, gross! My own country? Ugh! Yeah, and to be fair, this team is bad. Yeah, India's not super proud of this team. No, India's like, what happened? Kind of ashamed, yeah. We wanted these sweet 12-year-old girls. Beautiful little children. But so anyway, Charlie then goes up and purposely introduces himself. And he does this whole bit where it's like, you should be proud of your country, like, you shouldn't snub your own countrymen. And Grover's a jerk. And he goes on and on about how India sent a bunch of losers. And Charlie cryptically tells him that his grief over them being at WDC will be nothing compared to the grief he'll have once they're gone. It's always these moments, too, when I'm like, I know that the hero feels the need to get in just a little jab, but he's gotta remember that once the diamonds are stolen. Oh, right, that guy from Team India. He did say this weird cryptic thing, and at the time I was like, that doesn't make sense. After he says this message, we get India wallet. It's my fave. It's my fave, too. It's so good. It's really good. I wrote that it makes me proud of India in a way that I have never been proud of America. Yeah. It's so, so excellent. He snaps his fingers and the lights change. Everything about it is amazing. It's just joyous. And I love the facial expressions that Charlie is making. They're so good. When he goes in front of Grover and he's just kind of like winking at him and smiles at him and strides away. Yeah, it's great. And then Mohini dances at Team North Korea, which is also great. A little bit of a dance-off there. Yeah. She's like, this is our moment. Get out of here. Yeah. And she's just strutting. And it's like, yeah, I'll do whatever that woman says. Yeah. There's also a bunch of white ladies just clapping in the background. I can do that. All of the dancing that those white ladies do, we could easily do. We could be any of those white ladies. And then Vicky and Nandu start doing the snake move together, which is just great. But unfortunately, this dance party ends with Nandu throwing up on Vicky. Yeah, that's unfortunate. And then we get a delightfully ridiculous scene where everyone is in the elevator, riding up to their rooms. And no one is speaking, but everyone is having a very loud conversation and a thought. Very heated thought conversation. Yeah. And there's multiple things going on where Jag and Tammy are complaining about Nandu, and Mohini is trying to come on to Charlie, and Charlie's overhearing it, and Rohan's like, oh, what's happening here? It's all absurd, and I love it. Yep. It's very funny. The next day, they all meet up to go over the plan, minus Mohini, of course. She's not involved. But they decide that Rohan will hack the system so that their team room is the one with the entrance to the air duct. Then they'll go on stage and perform, and then Charlie and Tammy will go down the duct into the vault, while Rohan calls Vicky and gets him to a specific elevator where Jag and Nandu will be waiting. They will knock Vicky out, and then Nandu will pretend to be Vicky. They'll get his thumbprint. Nandu will get into the vault, then open the air duct door so that Charlie and Tammy can get in, and as we mentioned before, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Super simple plan. Yes. Were you going to mention that this whole conversation happens in front of a bunch of dolphins? I wasn't, but there are a bunch of dolphins just doing tricks in the background. Why not? And then Tammy's just holding one of the dolphins at one point. Great. Oh, Atlantis. And then they're like, okay, and then once Jag gets Charlie and Tammy out of the safe, Team India will be eliminated because boo-hoo, they're bad at dancing. And then they'll be escorted to the airport and they will fly home with the diamonds in a cup as if they're ice. And I was like, in what world would that work? What? Everyone knows you can't bring liquids through security. Nothing new. And Charlie's like the mastermind. What? And he's just like, sure, it's fine. I'm sure that they'll let me do it this one time with this weirdly radioactive blue drink. I feel like another good drinking thing is drink every time the color blue is prominently featured because we get a lot of that in Indio Wale and the drink is blue and the diamonds are blue. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good, yeah. Add it to the list. Are you writing this down? I'll go back and listen. That's a good point. We are recording it. I forgot about that. It's kind of the whole reason we're doing this. But then it's dance practice time. And they're all, for some reason, they're not in a ballroom inside or a gym or anything. They are just up on the roof where the helipad is. Yeah. Why? I don't know. And Team India sees Team North Korea practicing, including their move where they make a big human pyramid and then literally the captain just flings like the ten-year-old boy It's super possible. flipping through the air to land on top of the pyramid. It's absurd. It seems so, so dangerous. Literally to do it on the top of this building. Let me just throw this child. Maybe we should just mark that for this rehearsal. And then the little boy falls and he lands on the mat. There was a safety mat, as there should be. He's literally like 20 feet up. Your flyer hits the floor. 50 push-ups for everyone. That's not cool. But he falls and then the team leader of North Korea gets mad and goes to hit the child, but Charlie grabs his hand and stops him. Kind of a jerk. Don't abuse children. Or anyone. Don't abuse people. Don't abuse people. Pretty straightforward message. And then Charlie and this guy get into a really big, intense fight. Did want to note that Kung Fu is a Chinese term. These people are Korean. We'll leave it at that. It's a really good fight. Why'd you have to make it racist? Why couldn't they have been Team China? We're just assuming that everyone in China can do Kung Fu, which is problematic. It's not good. This is a whole other level. Racist things aside, it would just make a lot more sense because I think every country knows that China is so good at the Olympics. It's kind of like, ugh, China. And they would actually be competing. Yes. They haven't been shunned by the rest of the world. Who knows? Maybe it's because China and India have some stuff. Maybe that was the choice and then they were like, is this going to be too political? Let's not. So they changed it to North Korea at the last minute, but then didn't change any of the jokes. Which also, again, should not have been there in the first place. It's just problems on problems on problems here. But also, the team leader of Team North Korea, super cute. Super cute, yes. At the end when he was smiling and dancing, I was like, yep. I see you. Anyway, they're fighting and Grover appears in the midst of this and tells his people, he's watching this happen and he's like, make sure India competes against North Korea in the semi-final. And everyone's like, but India's the worst team and North Korea's the best team. And he's like, yeah. That's kind of the point. And then the North Korean team leader kicks Charlie over the safety railing on the roof of this building. He bounces off into whatever the netting... There's just like a fence there. Yeah, it's weird. I don't know. And then this guy kicks him again and Charlie goes flying off the side of this building. He's trying to kill him. That's attempted murder. You know you're on the edge of a building. And Charlie grabs the railing at the edge and defies gravity and physics to swing back through the air and take out the North Korean captain. Then it's the night of the semi-finals. And India does their dance-off with North Korea and India's kind of doing a thriller robot. Everyone's messing up and then everyone else is just trying to cover the fact that they're messing up. Yeah, it's horrible. I do really like though when they do the moonwalk gag where Jag is pulling the floor from underneath them and they're just moving their arms and legs. But not skilled dancing. It's funny but it's not... And once again, the little boy on the North Korean team slips and falls because clearly this is not a good move. You should not be tossing him through the air like this. Take it out. And he's falling to his death because there is no safety mat and in addition, there are now these big spiky ball decorations. Who thought that was a good idea? This child's about to be impaled on international television. It's not funny. It'd be such a nightmare. Whose plan was that? Even if you're not tossing 10-year-old children through the air to go on top of a human you should not have big pointy decorations. Are you kidding? But it's okay because Charlie stops his dance to run and save the boy. So they did that. Crisis averted. The child is alive and not impaled. Not murdered. After the dance, Mokimi wants them all to sit together but the guys are like, oh god, we gotta go do our heist. So no, we can't do that. And the only excuse Charlie can come up with is that he needs the green room because he's meeting this pretty hotel employee there. I don't know, I feel like you could have come up with something better. Mokimi was like, I thought we were kind of flirting and having a thing going despite the fact that you've been horrible to me several times but I guess I'll go be heartbroken alone now. And the guys don't have time to worry about her heart because it's heist time. So everyone gets in position and as Tammy and Charlie are climbing into the air duct, Rohan calls Vicky and gets him to the elevator he needs to be in by saying I'm sorry, this is my favorite line in the movie, it's so funny. Beautiful girl, very pregnant, hurry! And Vicky's just like, what? I guess she's supposed to be giving birth? Yeah! Beautiful girl, very pregnant! It's just something, it was like he was going one way and then she's like, I don't know if a beautiful girl's going to be enough to get Vicky there. I'm like, what if she's pregnant? Oh, it's just so funny. It's so funny, I even knew it was coming and I was like crying. Yes! It works, though. He's just so confused, he's like, well I guess I have to go see what's happening. Oh my god, so Vicky gets on the elevator with Jag and Nandu standing in the back in burqas ready to attack him, but before they can stab him with this syringe Vicky starts talking on the phone and they overhear him say that the diamonds have not arrived yet. They were supposed to be here, but they're not here yet and instead they're coming on New Year's Eve which is also the night of the WDC finals. Oh no! Everyone on Team India is very upset about this change because it means that they can't steal the diamonds anymore, obviously, because they're going to get sent home tonight. In the midst of them being sad, they are called to the stage to hear the results of the semifinals and sure enough, India does not make it. But then the judges make a special announcement and they say that because Team India risked their own performance to save that little boy, which, mind you, they were not going to win. They were not going to make it through. They didn't risk anything. What are you saying? That's such a good point! But the judges say they should be rewarded and compete in the finals as well. I really like that the judges were like, for the first time ever, and I was like, I should hope that this is the first time a child almost died on your stage. Someone almost died in the middle of a performance and another act saved them. Happens every year. So yeah, they get to be in the finals too. Literally overnight, the world goes from hating Team India to loving them. And so we get a montage of them having all these good times, including them going to a club where Vicky Grover is there and he once again tries to put the moves on Mohini, but then he moves on when Charlie comes over and just gives him a look. And I was like, yeah. It was kind of like watching Animal Planet. Like, this is my mate. You're like watching the alpha male. It's like, you don't need to be the tallest man in the room. You've got that energy. Yeah, no, yeah. When you've got those eyebrows, you're out of control. And then Charlie and Mohini dance together. Very romantic. And that night, it's the night before the heist, and all of the guys tell Charlie that they think they should include Mohini in their plans. Charlie's like, I don't want to, but as he's going on and on about their plan and why they shouldn't include her, once again she overhears everything. Charlie does tell Mohini the whole story because he doesn't really have an option. She's heard enough. And in telling her the story, he also reveals that Papa is actually not currently in prison. He is dead. And it turns out that after Grover bought off the lawyers and made sure that he was in prison with no chance of ever getting out, Papa died by suicide. Which is just so sad. Poor Papa. And Charlie says that the only fitting punishment is for Grover to be put in the Dubai jail. And then they all hug it out. Yeah. The next day, New Year's Eve, they confirm that the diamonds have indeed arrived. So, okay. Great. There's now something to steal. But they don't have the room they need. Because Rohan had assumed they would just have the same room, which would make a lot of sense. But for some reason, no, the UK now has that room. Freaking UK always taking what doesn't belong to them. Nice. Burn. Taking the lands from the people. And so, Nandu goes and throws up in it. Can you imagine? They open the door and there's just a strange man vomiting. My second favorite line from this movie is, there's a strange man vomiting in our room. It's just like, yeah, but they're still British. It could be these white people, too. I bet that they're not actually British. They might, yeah, they're probably Australian. But the UK team very happily takes up Team India on the offer to switch rooms. So, that problem is resolved. Mohini then distracts Vicky so that she can get him on the elevator that he needs to be on. And the way she gets him there is by telling him to escort her to her changing room, and she'll change in front of him. Yeah, he's in. But so, he gets on the elevator. Jag and Nandu knock him out. And Nandu becomes Vicky. But he is terrified to do this plan. But they kind of need him. So, he just downs a nip of some sort of alcohol. Because they make a Johnny Lees joke. Yeah, they do. I thought I remembered it in the moment watching the movie, but now I don't remember what the brand is. Johnny Walker? I was wondering if it was Johnny Walker, but I don't know. I think it probably is. We got your friend Johnny. Johnny Lever? Yeah, it was so funny. And I was like, it's weird that Johnny Lever didn't show up, honestly. He could have. He could have. So, he gets that liquid courage and he's on his way to the vault. And he gets him without a problem. But then, he is unable to reach the top screws of the air duct door to let Tammy and Harley out. So, poor Nandu ends up having to strip so that he could stand on his clothes. The fact that he takes off his boxers before he takes off his tank top? That doesn't make any sense. Yeah, I'd rather be naked from the waist down. I'd rather Winnie the Pooh it than do what is actually societally acceptable. Right, yeah. Winnie the Pooh, I thought Donald Duck. But yeah, Winnie the Pooh also is naked from the waist down. A lot of animals are. Most, in fact. But so, Tammy and Harley do get into the vault. Nandu dresses again and then he leaves. And Tammy is able to crack the safe and they get inside, only to find a second safe. This one, glass, and requiring a seven-letter password. And Charlie's like, I didn't expect this! How are we gonna crack it? And Tammy recognizes it as one of Papa's safes, and he's like, okay, whenever we ask your dad about this safe, he would say, only Charlie can open this. A la Speak French and Enter. Ah, yes, yeah. So yeah, duh, the password is Charlie. This took so long. And then Charlie takes so long to type his name, and Tammy's back there like, L. I. E. Do you need me to spell your name for you? Yeah, the whole thing was like, we only have this much time. Everybody's crying. It's so ridiculous. But it's excellent, yeah. So they open it, they get the diamonds, everyone celebrates. But Vicky has woken up, he's not supposed to wake up yet. But he did. So he goes and finds Grover, so now Grover's on the scent. He's like, something's not right. So the team initiates Plan B, which has them meeting up at a boat to escape via international waters. And meanwhile, the safe door shuts with Tammy and Charlie inside, and Tammy's like, oh my god! But Charlie's like, no, no, it's all part of the plan. Because luckily, they've gotten Jag to replace the oxygen in the safe with water. Yes, which doesn't sound like it'd be a good thing. You might worry that they would not have the air to breathe, but that doesn't seem to be a problem. It just fills up with water and it carries them to the tippy top of the safe where Jag has, I guess, taken his shirt off so that it remains dry? And he ties it around his waist for whatever reason, Jag is shirtless. It's a comedy with this movie. It is. But he puts explosive along the top of the vault and blows it up and that creates a vacuum that sucks Tammy and Charlie up and out of the vault and into the sewer that Jag is. Because this vault is like 150 feet underground. So then, they drain all the water out and it dries off really quickly. And then they put a little fake cover on the top, which I don't understand because the top is underwater. But it's fine. Like, that's gonna leak. Whatever. And by the time Grover and Vicky get into the vault, there's nothing to see except that the diamonds are gone. But then, Grover is looking around and he finds a loose screw on the floor near the air duct door. It's like, you had one job, Nandu. Like, come on. This is worth it being drunk for this. It's a disadvantage. And while Grover is kind of loosing around, the heist team meets at the boat as planned, but Mohini is not there. Rohan had filled her in on that plan and she was like, no, we finally are getting the respect and love of the world and I'm gonna represent our country. She's gonna stay and she's gonna dance. She's fabulous. Yeah, and Rohan goes and texts in with the team to be like, this is where she is and I'm gonna stay with her. Because he's a sweet boy. He is a sweet boy. And Tammy wants to stay as well, but then Jag gets into a fist fight with him because it's like, if we stay we'll get caught so we can't do it. Meanwhile, Grover has gone back to the Team India room and found the air duct, but it's bricked up. Which is confusing. And we see a flashback and see that after Charlie and Tammy had climbed in, Rohan had put just this perfectly sized square of brick. A pre-built brick wall. Yeah, I'm like, if they just pushed on that, it would just fall over. But they don't, so they're like, huh, that's so weird, I guess this is just bricked up and they couldn't have gone through. But still, Grover's convinced that Team India is behind the theft and it's time for Team India to go on stage. So Grover's like, Team India's not here, that's a sign that they are guilty. And as we see the rest of the Team India boys, the Team India boys sail away on their boat, Mohini takes the stage. Gorgeous. This beautiful skirt. Two-story skirt. Yes. And then she steps out of it and is just wearing these awesome pants. And she just does this solo contemporary dance. It's great. Her lines and her hands and her moves, everything about her is perfect. And Grover's like, well that's just the girls. Where are the boys? Well, the boys are here! Yay! And the boys emerge. They appear on stage without Charlie. Charlie's not here. But they're all wearing really colorful outfits and they dance and it's so great. It's really good. I always love any musical, any movie that has an ending medley, like final number, it's always my favorite. Always gives me chills. Love it. And the crowd is cheering for India, which is really lovely. And then they start to shout that they want Charlie. And suddenly, a voiceover starts and we see the shadow of a man and that man does the Shahrukh Khan arms. And then the Indian flag appears behind him. I saw this on a t-shirt. Where do I find that? Just Shahrukh's silhouette with his arms and then the Indian flag behind it. I love it. Yeah, it's amazing. And who could this man be? It's Charlie! And they dance to India Wale and it's very majestic and very like, India! But how could you not root for India after that? So the diamond people are convinced that Grover stole their diamonds because they're like, you walked us through and you told us that only you and your son could access the vault and the diamonds are gone. So what's that about? It's you. And so Grover is arrested. And so is Vicky, which actually, I do feel bad about that. This is a pawn in everyone's game. Yeah, he just seems like a simple person. Yeah, he is. I don't think he was evil. No, so that's a bummer. But Team India then wins WDC. The world votes for them. And Charlie encounters Grover as he's being taken away and handcuffed. And Grover's like, who are you? And Charlie says, I'm Papa's son. You know, Papa. You know, Papa. Papa Anupam Kher. And then he slips a razor into like a razor blade into Grover's pocket, which is dark. It's very dark. I don't think we needed that. No. So that happened. And then at the airport as Team India is all excited to like fly home, Charlie's drink gets thrown out at security because of course it did. And then they're on the plane and everyone's just like, oh, bummer. But at least we have this like million dollar check. And Charlie's like, well, we also have this trophy that had like a bunch of fake diamonds that he replaced with the real ones. Yep. And so he's like, so actually we're all good. Yay! But again, what was his actual real plan? Because he was not anticipating them coming home with a trophy. Right. Yeah, so I guess he was just like since we have the trophy, why don't I do the last minute swapperoo? And it was a good thing he did. It's a good thing he did. And then we see everyone having a great time with their money and all their dreams are coming true and like Jag's in charge of the film stuff and Tammy's got all these women who want to marry him and Mohini is opening her dance school. And that's the end. Yay! Happy New Year! Happy New Year! Yeah. It's silly. It's ridiculous. I like watching it once a year though. Yeah, me too. Minus the racism. Minus the racism. Yeah. All of the harmless jokes are very fun. Yes. And I always love that in Farrakhan's movies that she has every single team dance at the end. It's so fun. It's really sweet and I like that in particular in this one I had forgotten until the dancing started that this is the one where we see Farrakhan, who at the time was like a toddler and now he's like a full child. Yeah. But I also just think it's comical how much he looks like his dad. Yeah, it is. It's so unreal. As a two-year-old child. Yeah. Lots of fun. Very entertaining. Very ridiculous. Yeah. Good stuff. So some notes. Some notes. Looking forward to a drinking game. Yeah, absolutely. So we are not doing research this week. Nope. But yeah, so Plugables. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at TwoWhiteGirlsTalkBollywood. Don't hesitate to reach out. We love it. Comment, reach out. Do whatever you want to do. Now we're in our first episode of Season 2. Come and say hi. Yes! I forgot. This is really the first episode of the New Year, which we did talk about, but again, it is mid-December currently. I'm very confused. To get into that headspace, yeah. We have been all over the place. We really have. The last few episodes. Like doing things out of order. It's been crazy. But we're almost through it. And also consider subscribing and following us on whatever podcast platform you listen to us on. That is always awesome. And if you so desire, if you are in the holiday spirit and would like to leave a review, you can do that too. Absolutely. We appreciate it. And we appreciate you. Thank you for listening. We do. We appreciate you in a big way. Thanks for being here with us for another year. And join us also on YouTube and Spotify. That's where we keep our Bollywood Bangers playlists. And you can find those in our episode descriptions as well as in our Instagram posts on Tuesdays. And now. So excited for this announcement. So excited. Our next film coming out the day after Hrithik's birthday is Bang Bang. Bang Bang. Oh my god, I'm so excited. Bang Bang, guys. It is the Hindi adaptation of Night and Day, which was the Hollywood film with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. I saw that in theaters. Bang Bang is so much better. I've never seen it. I have no interest in seeing it. You don't need to. Just watch Bang Bang. I'll pick Bang Bang over that any day. It's so good. I don't like Tom Cruise, but I love Hrithik. So Bang Bang. What do you even say about it? It's Hrithik Rashad. It's Katrina Kaif, whom we love. This was like the OG of Bollywood films for both of us. It was, yeah. This was my first real, this was my first Hindi film. Yeah. Life changing. And I'd argue it's a good one if you're trying to get someone into Hindi films. Absolutely. Because it's a great action movie. It's over the top, but in a way that I think anyone can enjoy. Excellent music. Oh yeah. And yeah, just a pure delight. Oh, and I forgot that it's directed by Siddhartha Nand. Oh my God, it's directed by Siddhartha Nand. No wonder it's so good. Right? Love him. Big Siddhartha Nand fan. Yeah, so IMDb has a pretty brief plot description here. A young bank receptionist. That's important. Bank receptionist. Bank receptionist. But it was the way you said those two words. Gets mixed up with Rajvir Nanda, a man who has a mysterious background. Yeah. Oh, is that it? That's it. I was waiting for you to continue. There's literally like no mention of diamonds. Yeah. Huh. Interesting. Yeah. I love it. Bang Bang is available to watch on Hulu in the U.S. I don't know where it is in other places, but that's how we'll be watching it. You can also buy it off of eBay as I did, but it might be pirated. It might be very pirated, yeah. I can't tell. It's a little bit fuzzy. But the Hulu synopsis is, Rajvir sets out to steal the world's most coveted diamond, the Koh-i-Noor, triggering a series of fights, which I just think of the Toby film. Yeah. Car chases, and a revenge plot. Yeah. No mention of Harleen. No. To be fair, love Katrina Kaif. Harleen is a great comedic presence. She's kind of useless. She's pretty much nothing in terms of a character, but that's okay. They make fun of that. So yeah, it's literally such a delight. If you haven't seen it, you need to. Be prepared to want Pizza Hut and Mountain Dew. Big product placement in this movie. And yeah, then jump out a window multiple times without being able to see where you're going to land. You'll be fine. You'll be fine, yeah. Oh, it's so good. I'm so excited. So watch it, and until next time, remember Bollywood doesn't need us. No. But we need Bollywood. Yeah. This year, and every other year. Yes. Never stops. Never ends. Yeah. Forever. Happy New Year! Happy New Year! Happy New Year! Happy New Year! Happy New Year!