u/HP_594

So recently my cousin was watching a clip of De Dana Dan (Hindi comedy made by Priyadarshan starring Akshay Kumar & Suniel Shetty) on YouTube, on the TV. I passed by and decided to watch with him.

So for those who don’t know, much of the middle and ending portion of the movie was a scene-by-scene remake of Vettam, also directed by Priyadarshan.

As you all know, there is the rather infamous scene in Vettam, where Bindu Panicker’s character thinks Mamu Koya’s character is “Uncle Tom”, who was actually Nedumudi Venu. And I hope y’all know how that proceeds; Mamu Koya’s character tries to molest Bindu Panicker’s character but she manages to escape.

I’ll be honest, the scene, while it did feel funny when I was a young kid, gave me the icks as an adult.

Now here comes the Hindi version of that scene.

While the original version gave me icks, the Hindi version actually made me mad. Idk what it was, but the Hindi version felt way sleazier than the original.

Is it because of the camera angle or the background or the character’s costume, or is it because of a little “extra” to appease the Hindi audience? I don’t know what it is, but dear God, the scene feels even creepier and sleazier in the Hindi remake than in the original version.

Maybe it’s just a me thing, but I’ve felt that Bollywood comedies are sometimes borderline sleaze, so maybe it’s a Bollywood thing.

What are your opinions?

With the recent news surrounding the “reappearance” of wanted fugitive Sukumara Kurup (as expected, it turned out to be the wrong person), I got reminded of my personal experience when I watched the movie based on the real life case in 2023, after my entrance exams (it was eponymously titled, btw)

So Kurup. Where do I begin?

As a movie, Kurup is an alright flick. I like the way they nailed the time period accurately, the cinematography felt well done (it’s been three years so I don’t remember much), DQ & Indrajith really did their roles well, and all of this was amplified by Sushin Shyam’s amazing performance with the movie’s OST.

However, it is time I address the elephant in the room.

Kurup, despite its creative liberties, is an adaptation of the real life Sukumara Kurup case, an infamous case wherein NRI Malayali Sukumara Kurup kills a passerby by the name of Chacko, so that Kurup, using the dead Chacko, can fake his death and claim a huge sum which he had invested in his life insurance.

However, what was supposed to be just another “accident”, ended up being one of the most significant cases in the history of Kerala, if not that of the country. Clearly it should’ve been closed as a car accident, had it not been for the brilliance of CI Haridas, the investigating officer, who found evidence suggestive of the accident being a well planned murder.

-There were empty cans of kerosene in the crime scene, indicating that the car was burnt purposefully.

-Kurup’s family functioned like normal, but more importantly, his BIL, Bhasipilla, had ate chicken curry when Haridas went to question Kurup’s family, which was odd, as after the death of a member, the family was supposed to be in a fast.

-Bhasipilla’s sleeves have been folded down, something which was odd at the time as men usually folded their sleeves, and upon folding the sleeves up, it was revealed that his arms had been charred, while attempting to burn Kurup’s car.

-Since Kurup was of a higher economic status than Chacko, it would make sense for Kurup to wear expensive clothing. This however, wasn’t the case, as upon inspecting “Kurup’s” body, the police found that his underclothes did not match the type of person he was, which implied that someone else had been killed.

And we all know what happened. Despite Haridas and the Kerala Police’s best efforts, Kurup effortlessly managed to abscond them and has been never caught to this day.

Now my first question is to Srinath Rajendran.

What made you choose to make a movie on a topic as sensitive as the Kurup case? You do realize that the kith and kin of both parties, Kurup & Chacko, were still alive, and especially Chacko’s family were not going to take it all too well, didn’t you?

I would’ve chalked your choice of topic as personal preference, but why did you have to exert creative liberties to the movie?

No matter how much you change names or introduce characters not present at the time of the case IRL, people know that the movie is based on this case.

The whole state knows who was the bad guy. And yet, you chose to make creative liberties. You chose to show Kurup as a stylized criminal, who has been defrauding his employers ever since his time at the Army, and to top it all off, you have one of the most ridiculous climaxes ever seen in a crime thriller movie.

How could you sleep at night, knowing that you’ve undermined the pain and suffering Chacko’s family went through? How could you undermine the efforts of the state Police?

Chacko’s son may have given his blessing for the movie, but that doesn’t mean doing shit like this.

And to DQ, you’re an accomplished actor, but more importantly, a human being. I expected you to show a bit more empathy towards Chacko’s family.

Your acting was great, no doubt. However, in a country where actors are respected more than the average Joe, you chose to portray a ruthless criminal who hasn’t been caught by police to this day, and it seems your fans didn’t care, because just last week I saw a “mass” edit of Kurup on Insta and I felt appalled just because our society has become so desensitized that elevating the mass moments of a criminal is considered “cool”.

Rant over.

TLDR (had to use AI for this)

Kurup is a well-made film with strong performances, great period detail, cinematography, and Sushin Shyam's OST. My issue isn't the filmmaking—it's the ethics.

The real Sukumara Kurup case was the brutal murder of Chacko, whose body was used to fake Kurup's death for insurance money. It became a landmark case because CI Haridas uncovered evidence proving it was murder, yet Kurup escaped and remains uncaptured.

By taking creative liberties and stylizing Kurup into a charismatic “mass” antihero, the film risks glorifying a real fugitive while undermining the suffering of Chacko's family and the efforts of the Kerala Police. Even if the names were changed and Chacko's son consented, I think some stories deserve greater restraint than entertainment.

Who do you think was worse; Aadhi in Premalu or Alex in BKU?

Both these characters are essentially the roadblock to the romance between the main characters in the respective movies.

I’d say Alex was actually worse than Aadhi because of how realistic the portrayal was. Genuinely every scene where he appeared gave me “chori” vibes from him.

Not to mention like the average ammavan, he was obsessed with finding out Justin & Ashley’s relationship, to the point he had the audacity to invade Justin’s private space and find out the proof he needed, that being the MVD challan sent to Justin.

Not only that, it felt like he was more interested in taking each and every step in Ashley’s life more than her own parents, in typical ammavan fashion.

I kinda wish Justin actually gave Alex a beating, but in the end, Justin got the last laugh, since everything Alex did turned out to be futile, as Ashley reunited with him.

Aadhi OTOH felt like a comical representation of the “nice guy” trope, although he did try to harm Sachin since his ego was brushed following Sachin & Amal’s mockery and Reenu’s rejection in front of everyone.

But he wasn’t as realistic or as dangerous as Alex was.

Also man, props to Vinay Forrt for doing such an irritating character. It was too good, I genuinely wanted to beat him up for being a scumbag.

So my friend’s elder sister got married recently to her longtime boyfriend and what surprised me was not the fact that she was a Christian and he was a Hindu, but the fact that both sides were actually willing to unite them.

In their defense, both of them are doctors doing their PG, come from rich families, and also their relationship was quite known for long, but even then, neither side brought up religion as a reason to refuse the union.

However back in the old days, marrying someone outside of the caste, let alone community, was considered taboo and death was sometimes the final solution.

Now in my case, I’m a male Hindu and while my parents are pretty open-minded, they did mention they’d prefer if I “marry someone belonging to our community”. The same applies to my younger sister too.

However, I’m strongly willing to fight for the person I love and I wouldn’t mind cutting all contact with my family for the person I love, if my parents don’t accept them.

What do you think?

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GTA San Andreas is no doubt a great game, but the fact that Sweet got the last laugh irked me.

Sweet was a good gang leader, but dear God is he a terrible elder brother. When Carl comes back from the funeral, instead of mending their relationship, Sweet proceeds to rant at Carl for “abandoning the hood”.

Now this is where I have to mention how bad Sweet’s obsession to the hood is. What he exhibits isn’t something unrealistic, since especially in rural areas in many places, people refuse to leave their native place as they’re of the belief that their cycle of life is only within that small hamlet.

However, Sweet’s obsession with the hood has destroyed his relationship with Carl.

CJ always loved and respected Sweet, but Sweet only respected CJ after he started doing something for the hood. When Sweet was in prison, at risk of being jumped, CJ did a lot of crazy shit for Mike Toreno just to get him released.

It was not just that; CJ made new relationships, took down the Loco Syndicate (something which Sweet couldn’t accomplish) and realized that there is more to life than the hood.

And yet when Sweet gets released, the first thing he wants to do is check on “the hood”, and when CJ says that the hood isn’t worth going back to, Sweet had the fucking audacity to compare CJ with Big Smoke, a selfish opportunistic backstabbing clown.

What really irked me was that in End Of The Line, CJ APOLOGIZES to Sweet for not being there to look after the hood.

Like bro, you clearly proved the hood wasn’t worth, then why you apologizing to Sweet?

Honestly, I just wished Sweet died in prison.

I’m a big automotive enthusiast and when I saw CoS for the first time, the Ford Anglia caught my interest. It was also the first time I’ve ever heard about the car and Ford UK as a whole.

I thought the screenwriters chose the Anglia, but when I read the book, I realized the car used was the Anglia itself.

Now I know this is a weird question, and I might get smacked for this, but is there any lore as to why JKR chose the Ford Anglia?

The UK has had other famous cars during the Anglia’s time period, such as the iconic Morris Mini and the Morris Minor, and even Ford’s own Cortina.

And yes, the Anglia makes sense considering the Weasleys’ financial condition, but I wonder is there any other lore behind that specific car?

One interesting fact I found about Kurt Hansen is how he can be killed by three different characters in the game.

If V sides with Songbird, Alex kills Hansen.

If V sides with Reed, he has to kill Hansen

If V sides with Reed and doesn’t deliver the final blow on Hansen, Mr. Hands kills Hansen while he’s in the hospital.

I don’t think any other character has a probability like this.

Whenever I played Cyberpunk 2077, I never really gave much thought to Johnny’s memories and believed they were his.

That is, until I watched Sam Bram’s videos and he constantly mentions that Johnny’s memories weren’t his and that while he was a part of the team that bombed Arasaka, it was someone else who did what Johnny claims he did.

And since it didn’t make sense to me, I was hoping the veterans here may help me understand.

Non-Telugu guy here.

I watched Dacoit after being awed by the trailer, and honestly it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

Most of the reviews, I felt, were pretty harsh, but otherwise I really enjoyed the film.

Adivi Sesh & Anurag Kashyap were really good performance wise. Mrunal Thakur was okayish. However, the waste of talents like Prakash Raj, Sunil & Atul Kulkarni was something which I didn’t like.

Then there is the whole “caste discrimination” and “rape” tropes which felt stale at this point due to their overuse.

The action sequences did look amateurish, but I liked them. Songs wise also, Rubaroo was a damn good song.

I know the film isn’t “absolute cinema”, but I don’t think it was that bad as I thought it would be.

So I have a Samsung Tab S9 FE (Exynos 1380, 6 GB RAM, 128 GB storage) and I wanted to play old Android games, notably the Gangstar games pre-Gangstar Vegas.

I tried a virtual machine app which allowed me to run Gangstar Miami but the sound was bugged, and it only worked once or twice.

Any other methods or apps that y’all can suggest?

My first exposure with Harry Potter was through the movies, when my dad bought a CD of PoA.

Since all of us loved the movie, we also watched the first two ones as well. However, we didn’t go beyond PoA because my parents didn’t like the tone the later movies took.

My sister became a Potterhead following the movies and was the first to read all 7 books. I still remember her staying late up to finish reading.

I was never a Potterhead myself until I started to read the books just for fun and I got engrossed. I eventually read all the books except for the first one.

Then years passed, and I wasn’t that school kid anymore. I was in college and well, piled up with a lot.

Suddenly I felt like reading a book or a series, and then I decided to read Harry Potter, only this time, all seven of them.

I managed to find a copy of the complete collection online and finished reading it in a week. And honestly, as I finished DH and turned my phone off, I felt a certain warmth and a rather strange feeling of loss.

Perhaps I was too engrossed in the world that leaving it so soon was a bit sad.

But yeah, it just felt so good. And honestly, having read the books, I don’t think I can look at the movies the same way.

They tried, but there was so much, SO MUCH they missed that I can’t fathom how could they fumble so much.

Then ofc there is the new HBO series coming, but I don’t have high hopes until it officially releases. Maybe once the reviews start coming in, I might give it a try.