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E04: Badmaash Company Screenwriting Breakdown · Breakdown Besties | Bollywood Screenwriting Podcast

• Breakdown Besties Podcast: Hi Akshay. Hi Ananya. And hi everyone and welcome to another episode of the Breakdown Besties podcast where we break down scripts and films just like you would in film school giving ourselves and you the education we didn't quite receive. Together we have about 14 years of experience writing for Netflix Prime Video Disney Plus which shows like Inside Air, Jhanna and I Do, Mismatch, Wedding.com, Ishq in the Air, Under Our Belt. Today we will be breaking down another script from, was it 2010? I want to say. Yeah. think it was slightly earlier, slightly earlier. Earlier? Okay. I was wrong. Actually, I'll tell you why this happened, why I was wrong. Because as you know, I don't pay for a streaming subscription platform. Like I channel my movie watching experiences. So I, there's a platform that I used to do that. And I, it said Badmash Company, even though, okay, so that's the movie we're doing guys, Badmash Company. We'll come back to that. But it said Badmash Company there. And even the little synopsis, it said like four hunky dory, like college kids, you know, blah, blah, blah. So I start playing it and there's like this full like heist sequence type thing going on. I'm like, yeah, like this is Badmash Company, know, they have this going on, you know, and then this person pulls off a disguise and it's Vivek Oberoi and I'm like, is he in this film? I'm like, maybe he had like some cameo. This is also like this conning type of film only. Maybe they started with this heist to like set the tone and stuff. and then like I paused it after about 20 minutes I'm like it's a different film no it's I think it was Dhoom 2 or something like not someone has commented there in the synopsis that this a bad company and I'm like right right I think that's Dawn 2 or something Dawn something yeah yeah there was a full diamond heist thing this that and I made notes also I'm like on writing a heist scene this is what you used to establish so yeah Today we will be looking at the scene film breakdown of Padmaash Company 2010 written and directed by Parmeet Sethi. Akshay had a very interesting fact about like three seconds ago when I asked him is Parmeet Sethi a man or a woman? And Akshay said, it's Archana Puran Singh's husband. I mean, I can understand your confusion, because it's like Parmeet is a Punjabi name and most of the time there's a confusion, no? Manmeet, Jasmeet, Parveet, what's this thing? And Akshaya and Ananya get cancelled after four episodes. Okay, so Badmash Company. A little bit on the film, it is a bunch of four kids who decide that they are going to live the rich life and make money and scan the system. Very simple premise. I don't think there's much more to it. Yeah, correct. Yeah. ⁓ That is it. Yeah, they want to make money and they realized the quickest way to do that is to scam the system. So going back to the log line, what is the log line? It is the one sentence that guides your entire film. It contains all the main elements, which are the foundational blocks of your film on which they're built. And whenever you're lost, can't see the forest for the trees. Trees for the forest, I never know which one this is. You go back to the logline and it will help you essentially get a bird's eye view of what your film is about and help you guide every scene. Why does a logline do this so effectively? It's because it contains your four main elements which make up your film and then go on to make up every character, every scene, every piece of dialogue if it's well thought out and well written. So what are those four elements of a logline? The four elements are the main character's flaw, It is the goal they're setting out to achieve. It is the conflict that they will face as they try to achieve this goal. And it's what's at stake. What do they set to like lose if they do not achieve this goal? Right. So with that said, I have a log line written out for Padmaj company, and I am going to tell that out to you and Akshay. You can audit it. You can tell me what doesn't work, what works. Okay. Go for it. So what I've got written down is when a group of fresh-faced teenagers, not teenagers, why would teenagers, when a group of fresh-faced college graduates want to make a quick buck and live the rich life, they must learn how to effectively work the system incognito, lest they lose everything including each other. That's really nice. Like that last thing which you did was I think very nicely done. Because you don't think the film would go there, but it does. And I think it only does because it's part of the logline that you very cleverly put in. Now that you're saying this, I also feel like something's missing. When a group of, I've written fresh faced, not teenagers, college graduates. But what's important is for including each other at the end to land that they will lose each other. We have to set up the fact that they're very tight, right? In the log line. So I think, yeah. When four best friends of something of that sort. Yeah, when four fresh faced best friends. Yeah. Yeah, naive best friends. So, yeah. So breaking it down into the four elements that we have here. I think the flaw is that they're fresh faced. They don't have any experience. They're naive. They what they're doing. They kind of... believe that they can get out into the world and do whatever they want to do. They want to make a quick buck and live the rich life. That is their goal. Then the conflict is ⁓ they must effectively learn to work the system. They are fresh faced, but they need to learn to the system so that all exactly like provides conflict because most people have experience of working within the system before they work without or against it. And what's at stake is that they will lose everything including each other. So should they not do this effectively? Those are the four elements of the log line that I have over here. But let me ask you this, the fact that they lose each other, that's never something set up in the movie, you know, has it? No, I completely agree with you, especially because when you look at any film, there's always a force, right? Driving a character to do something. Yeah. And if they don't do it, it's very obvious what they're going to lose. And that set up in Act 1 itself, before you cross the threshold, you're like, it almost motivates them, right? That if you don't do this, you're going to lose this. The stakes motivate you. But over here, there are no stakes set up. They're doing this because they don't have to and the stakes are essentially that what they gain they will eventually lose but they haven't gained that yet also so yeah absolutely you're right the stakes are not baked into the ⁓ baked into the premise of the film yeah what forces them to be out of the systems like you know ⁓ yeah i would really like to have seen that he ⁓ why does that character make that choice for him You know? Yeah. I mean, we can come to that in the hero's journey. It is there, but it is very forced in because we never go into that later. ⁓ Should we go into the hero's journey? Yeah, let's do that. Okay. So the ordinary world. So I think the ordinary world goes on for quite a long time. I'm going to skip over the opening image of setting up that we'll talk about in terms of scenes and world. But the ordinary world is when they graduate from college, they go on a small scam, not scam, but like a customs avoidance trip, you know, one of those trips. yeah, the ordinary world goes on for a while where we set up that their couriers for this custom sort of jugard, Anushka and Shahid's character comes together, come together. We know that they want to make money and get rich. And we know that Shahid Kapoor has a beef with his dad. His dad has always been in service, he's been an employee. But Shahid doesn't want to live that same day on repeat. He doesn't want to essentially live through Groundhog Day. So he wants to do something different. So that is the ordinary world. Yeah. And I would say the call to action, which they brought in here like you would in any other film where you want to show that the characters are good people. because they can't just be scammed is when Shahid's dad has that heart attack that is the call to action. Once his dad has the heart attack and he hears of the shoe thing that is when he realizes that there is more money to be made. So the call to action is his dad getting the heart attack and him going to Achi Bhai and Achi Bhai giving them the idea I was just giving them the same statement that shoes at 100 % value have like two pair of shoes has 100 % value, but a single shoe has 0 % value. And that's when the wheels in his head start turning. And that's also when you meet the mentors. So the call to action and meeting the mentor is tied in together. While we've seen Archie by before in the ordinary world, he doesn't come in as the capacity of a mentor. But once he gives the idea here, he does come in as the mentor. So yeah. That is what I have in terms of ordinary world, call to action, meeting the mentor and the refusal of the call. So in terms of refusal of the call, don't think Shahid's character Karan ever refuses the call. It is Anushka's character who he pitches the idea to and she's just like, screw you, we're not doing this. But then she goes into her modeling meeting and she gets propositioned and she's like, okay, no, we have to do this. And she comes back. and says, okay, this is it. So that is essentially the first act where they switched around meeting the mentor, moved it up a little bit. But Shahid also in this film, and I know you'll have a comment here, takes on the role kind of of the mentor. Because we've spoken about this in previous episodes where it's always the woman who ends up being the mentor, the woman who has to change the man. But in this film, Anushka Sharma is not playing that role of the mentor. yeah in considering even though they followed a lot of tropes of the characters of that time of the you know female characters of that time but ⁓ she's not coming in to save the day it is Shahid's character who is still playing the role of the hero and the mentor. That is true ⁓ and I actually also thought Jazz Mamu in America was also some sort the mentor because he comes at this time he's the one who gives them the first paycheck to like buy the ⁓ shoes and all. So I actually equated the mentor figure to this and not either Shahid or Anushka's character. Right. I definitely see Jazz Mamu as an ally. That's for sure. A mentor is someone who I think gives you more advice who has been on the path that you want to go on and guides you through it. So he's not he doesn't provide just physical resources which is essentially what Jazz Mamu does right throughout the course of the film. I thought he also because like you know he saves him out of the jail, he gives them the job later on. him a job for sure yeah. Yeah so and maybe in the hero zone he just fed at the right time so I just like equated that. He's like a wise elder sort of character, but I would disagree when it comes to mentor, because the role of the mentor in a structural point of view, I'm not talking about a character trope point of view, that is different. From a structural point of view, a mentor is someone who gives you the push. Like I have been on this journey, you can go on it too. And in that sense over here, it is Archie Bhai's character. Interesting, interesting. Okay. And then we have entering the first act, crossing the threshold, which according to me is the first sequence of going to Thailand, coming, getting the shoes, sending half the shoes to Madras, half the shoes to Calcutta. And then they go to the separate warehouses of the port trust. They check the mile. They pretend that they're distraught and cut up about it being only the left shoe and the right shoe. Then they go to the auction, they get both of them back and they sell it to Archie Bhai who retails it and knows that he's going to monopolize the markets in India. This is your crossing the threshold, right? So basically the first con of sorts. Yeah, the first successful con. The first successful con would you call as the crossing of the threshold. Crossing the threshold, yeah. Yeah. Same. That's what exactly I have that, yeah. Then test allies and enemies. Okay, so over here I see test allies and enemies as them getting like the office, them celebrating getting the office, getting caught by the port trust agent who recognizes them in their disguise. That is a small enemy but they managed to win him over by giving him a cut. Yeah, I thought that was like getting an ally like you know. Yeah, very common trope in like, ⁓ when you're setting up the challenges of a business world, like it's always that I don't think that has changed across the years where, ⁓ I will give you money. Okay. Now I am your friend. Now what they do is they'll make him a double agent that, ⁓ actually I was never on your side. And they'll become, they'll become the trickster trope, but, ⁓ yeah. And I believe even, the duty dropping the liberalization bit from 120 % to 20 % is still part of the test allies and enemies. Oh, I actually thought that was a approach to the enemos cave yeah i thought that so that's when they decide like it gives them the push that they might have to like now go to the us and do something else you know i did think about that i i had written it down as you know approach to the enemos cave but then i really thought about the world of this film i'm going to digress here a little bit talk about the world it is set in 1990s India just literally after liberalization over here and back then the sentiment was that to make it you have to go abroad like India is opening up yes it's great but it was the time of the great American dream still so for them to live out the rich life the next organic step is moving to America once liberalization has been put into know, because their whole thing is built on ⁓ duty arbitrage, right? Scamming, all of that. And once duties are not in place, they need to go somewhere where they can do this. So where do they go? They go to the land of dreams. And that is the approach to the innermost cave is scamming the US, you know, like doing this to like white people. And what I see as the all deal is when even that doesn't work. And they have to then pivot it like when they start getting caught there once they go to America they become successful But then jazz mamu calls them and says that look I have people a buyer saying that you know you scammed him You only deliver right gloves and child gets defensive and he says that why did he pay me? You know if he if I only gave him right handed gloves and they switch from shoes to gloves and But then they realized that okay We are getting really successful, but now we have a problem. This is when they actually have a problem and they haven't changed the scan. And that's when they pivot to the bank and that is the ordeal. Yeah. So this is a sequence of events that I have based on the world. Cause I went about it like a lot. You'll see this like cancel, cancel this cancel that because I was like, what is this according to this? So I had to come and like rewrite the whole thing to figure out what is the approach to the. innermost cave and the approach to the innermost cave is getting the price that they want which I believe is earning in dollars when they get that one million dollar check yeah yeah that is the approach to the innermost cave and the ordeal is when they are getting caught for that and the reward is when they overcome that ordeal by going into the bank ⁓ you know scamming the banks by getting a loan and reselling the house yeah reselling the house and the money they make off that is the reward. That's very interesting. Even I've written the housing scam as the reward. Yeah. So yeah, the points, I just want to mark out the points in the hero's journey essentially. Yeah. So the approach to the Unimours cave is when they are carrying out the gloves and the ordeal is when they're on the brink of being caught for the gloves scam. and they have to pivot and they go into the bank scam and the reward is carrying out the bank scam successfully. These are the three means. And then the road back. The road back is when they're going back with the rewards. So the housing scam is successful, the bank scam is successful, but they still face challenges because their transformation is not complete. And I think this is a very long sequence in the film where they have transformation. This is a very small moment. The road back. They've got... climax. Before the actual climax sequence sets in, it's actually just one scene. In most films, this is a one scene thing. One scene, yeah. But here it's several scenes where... Chang's character beats up his girlfriend and throws her out, his drinking gets out of control. Never established that in his character. I don't think he was like a beat her up guy, but yeah. Then you have Anushka and Shahid fighting about the green card, which we'll come back to because that's a very good bit of the world building they've done. Even if slightly left field and not set up before. Then they have the fight between Vir Das's character. What's up Vir Das? Can we take a moment? Yeah. I was so surprised and I loved it. I loved seeing him in the film. And it's like, was 16 years ago. I mean now he's like performing at Carnegie Hall and all. Back then he was Chandu in Badmash Company. Like that is hope for all of us. Yeah, that's what like remember this happened with when we watched Munna Bhai also. and we saw Nawaz's character in that one small scene and we see him now nominated for an international Emmy and it's the same with Vir Das, he got nominated for an international Emmy it just feels amazing and 16 years is such a long time Vir Das looks like a baby in the film yeah he does he does and when I look back on his time a little bit like He did these, do these small, small, small movies. Like he was there in, ⁓ what is that? DK Bose movie. Yeah. Yeah. Imran Khan movie. Delhi belly. Delhi belly. Yes. And I remember he had a very small scene in Namaste London also. He's one of Katrina Kaif's suitors when ⁓ she goes to meet. I thought that was very funny. Very funny, this last scene. Yeah. Yeah. pretty cool with all these ads. Nice. Yeah. So that is the road back where everything frees and he literally goes back. He goes back home to India. So great visual representation of the road back. Yeah. And when he comes back, we have the resurrection. I just want to take a pause. It doesn't feel organic, no? No. The road back just happened just by the way like there was no purpose for him to go to India like he surely wanted to see his family But it was just like he saw them got very emotional and just came back. Yeah Yeah, there was no interaction with anybody and sure that moment happened with his dad He saw the speech and all but even the phone call with his mother like it was so I thought it was quite random yeah there's no relationship between them really established other than in like ⁓ the initial parts of the film and it doesn't continue as a thread through the film so it doesn't land when they pull it back it's quite forced in there yeah and and more than that even when you know he breaks down on the call it's not because he's breaking down because he's hearing her voice after a long time no it's it's because his group has left him yeah What I was missing, one more scene was that of him feeling alone and helpless and clueless. Yeah, to motivate calling his mom. Yeah, motivate calling his mom. That didn't happen. That didn't happen. And ⁓ that I missed that, you know, a little bit. Definitely. Yeah, yeah. It's not perfect, but it's... I don't blame people for not making perfect. We know what was in there. And while I'm speaking also... it almost makes me question that was it needed or like it was needed for me yeah like how much do you want to add one plus one plus one plus one you know exactly exactly call you to make as a filmmaker how much do you explain and over explain for sure for sure and maybe we'll edit may cut care you know like it might have been there in the script they might have even shot it but they're like we don't need it because maybe Especially in our Indian culture where we never grow up and grow out of our parents, calling your mom does end up being that reaction, right? Like when you fall down also right now and you hurt yourself, the first thing that comes out of your mouth is like mama, like you know? So I feel like that is just a representation of that feeling where it's like, maa ko hi phone karega as much as you might not have a relationship. You know that they're always going to be there. So I think they're playing on the cultural sentiment of mother and family here. So they didn't feel the need to over explain that. Yeah. ⁓ And I also think, okay, let's go on to the next plot, the point of the hero's journey and say my point. Okay. Okay. So the next point is the resurrection when he ends up going to jail, he serves out his time. He it's his ⁓ what's what do you call it? What's the other word for resurrection? The dark night of the soul. So it's where he comes out of jail, he starts working for Jazz Mamu, he does a normal job, you see him living the low life again, he's riding a bicycle, he's eating shawarma on the streets, on the steps of the same building where he once went in to do big deals. He's alone and he's working hard and he's making an honest living. And that is his resurrection, right? I also think the beat after that when like... they do wrong by his mama and now he decides that ⁓ I'm gonna take matters in my own hand the old ways. Yeah. That's the culmination of the entire resurrection sequence. Resurrection for sure. Yeah. Yeah. And Anushka comes back. That's the end of it. Like Anushka comes back into his life. Man. Yeah. Yeah, that's different cultural commentary on oh you're my baby daddy so now we have to get back together. And the way she says, I know you're fine, I know you're this and that but like they met by accident. It's not like no no I think Jazz Mamu set that up. Oh, that was my lead on the situation. That makes sense. But I'm like, why wouldn't you just come to his office? why orchestrate this whole thing? Like, it just feels so... She wanted some drama in her life. She's becoming a mom. There's nothing going on. She's like, how can I do this creatively? She was thinking like a screenwriter. But it's so... She's being a single mom. Like, that's enough drama from society. But she's in New York. She doesn't have any friends, clearly. So... Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. That's the thing about these. I was reading on Instagram that how many, so many movies have come, decades and decades of movies have come where the female lead slash the love interest has no support system whatsoever. No friends, no siblings, no families. And it holds true for so many movies. So many movies. Even until today, I was watching the materialists and I'm like, why don't you have friends to go to someone's house? Why are you going to your ex's house? This is so problematic. It's a big problem. it's only like, and they're all, the comments were like, you know, the first thing I did when I came to Bombay was made friends and those friends became my family. And I'm like, yeah, that's exactly how it should be. But then we never see the woman's. universe. Yeah. And that's what ended up becoming problematic for so many of those films because then what ended up happening was that women made the guy the universe. Yeah. So that there was always that power dynamic shift a little bit. ⁓ Yeah. In those films. short, for short. Yeah. But coming back to the structure of this. Yeah. It shows very interestingly to do that. He has that call with the mom. he has the moment with the dad when he sees the speech and then he gets caught. Yeah, yeah, he's almost arced but there are consequences for his actions. Yes. He's well done. Yeah, that was an interesting choice and like I think maybe the right choice in this situation. It is absolutely the right choice because that's when you feel for the character. If you had got him caught when he was an asshole, I would not have any emotions for him. I'd be like, yeah, he got what he deserved. Like continue, you know, but if you want the audience, yeah, would feel like he asked because of the jail time. Yeah. jail is good. Everybody gets caught. ⁓ God, the penal system is rehabilitative in nature. God, yeah. I'm sorry. So yeah, but yeah, that and structurally also, I mean, if you want to be on the side of the character, you have to create that shift, emotional shift, so the audience. Yeah. And yeah, the final return of the elixir is... them making Bleeding Madras successful and very long return with the Alexa scene usually is just I won the trophy. Oh yeah, this is a 20 minute sequence where they're showing that he knows how to make money honestly too. Then he has his father's love back. has, um, the kid and they had listed on the stock exchange. They're all apparently equal shareholders or whatever. So there is a little bit of insider trading going on. It's all sorts of different scams. Yeah, I'm just like, you might be selling this well, but like, I wonder, I was like, let me ask Akshay, I haven't worked as a CA in a very long time, but this is insider trading saying buy out all the shares and then. This is insider trading. When you said it was the right way of doing business, I'm like, I don't think so. No, no, no, no, no. This is still another of his like clever scams. Clever scams, yeah. Like using the loophole to his benefit. They didn't think that through. Maybe the writers, sorry, Parmeet, they didn't realize the implications of insider trading, material non-public information. is my CACFA coming out. This is big problem. But by that point, you're just on the character's side and you know they're going to succeed. And also like, this is the thing about these kind of films that even if there is a logical loophole, you sort of give into it. You you don't fuss about it too much. No, no. All these heist movies, there is a little bit of suspension of your disbelief from the get-go. Like, know, you know that this is created. Exactly, exactly. And now that you've said that, I'll go into my next point, I guess, which is of suspension of disbelief. It's a very small one, not of the insider trading bit, but of the disguises bit. Yeah. Yeah. They're all putting on disguises when they're doing these different trips to Bangkok and all of that. And I'm like, the big logical loophole is that y'all are going on international trips, passport to same here. You're going on the same passport, right? So obviously big suspension of disbelief there. But it works because of two reasons. A, it's the tone of the film. The tone of the film is young, it's playful. So they have to have them doing almost a childlike thing. And B, the second thing is, like you said, it is the trope of the film. This is heist film light, right? It's not heist film, but it's heist film light. So you expect disguises. You expect something of that genre. You suspend your disbelief a little bit because going, you know, as an audience somewhere subliminally internally, even if you don't know it, like as a screenwriter, wouldn't say this is a trope, you know, this is part for the course. This will happen. Also what they've done in doing this is that they did not draw too much attention to it, but they've made them have had consequences where they've got by the Port Trust authorities guide. So they know that this is not exactly working. Like there is something off and they've had consequences for it. So they've said that, yes, you have suspending your disbelief, but we know that this is a little not perfect for what we're doing. We know that there are flaws in this. So let's point out the flaws. Let's have them caught for it. Yeah. So that is why it works. It's the thing which I think a lot of writers now do that before the audience can call it. You only just call it out exactly. And that's a screenwriting technique. Right? The technique is that You can do something imperfect, but you have to call yourself out on it. And instead of believing that your audience is stupid enough to go along with something like that, you assume your audience is smart and you let the plot carry on the basis of that. But then you call it out. Yeah, correct. So suspension of disbelief technique. Yeah. Even, you know, when we were writing Iskandiyer, the whole airport chase sequence, And now in today, a rom-com and airport chase sequence such a cliché. It's the most cliché thing done. But for some reason we were insistent on having it because it still gives a grand high. We did that thing of calling the character out. Are you doing the chase to the airport thing? Instead, you're stating the obvious a little bit so that you can't fool the audience completely. Exactly. Okay, so yeah, this is the hero's journey, a screenwriting technique on suspension of disbelief. And now, do you want to go into character? Yeah, let's do the character. So in terms of technique, when it comes to character, I have two techniques which I noticed, which I want to point out. Okay. The first is Shahid's character in the opening itself. where they establish it. went over this technique in I think Koi Mil Gaya but because I found it here techniques are I want to point out techniques because even if it's repetitive it shows that it works. And Shahid's character when they're all in the cab in the very opening of the film and Chang and ⁓ Vidasa's character at the back and Shahid's characters in the front and Chang and Vidasa arguing about their grades and stuff like that and then they say like hey Shahid what about you? And they're like, the top career. And what it does is it sets up the character from the other characters perspective. So if other people are calling him smart, the characters assume to be smart. So this is again, other people like them that. Yeah. And what I also liked about what I like about other people liking them as a trait, while it is then not show what it does is it saves you a whole scene of having to show the characters smart. because you have other characters buy in you avoid the whole scene and the audience kind of believes them. Right. So I think this is a very economic tool and technique. And this works like this works and how I'll you the best example of that which was in Fleabag this happened where ⁓ so she is now starting to hang out with the priest this is in season two. And Andrew Scott At that time, we knew him as Moriarty from Sherlock. Yeah. We have a different image of him. But the thing is that now we have to start seeing him as this hot priest. So when he's walking, she makes it go like, his arms. Yeah. You know? Yeah. And ⁓ his neck. like that immediately, like you like what you said, the character likes him. So we as an audience now, we start feeling that shift. And I quite like the technique. Yeah, I think it just taps into psychology, right? That we're such like sheep. Yeah. Assuming being like we have no original thoughts. That's why we're so easily manipulated. That if someone's like, ⁓ yeah, this is great. Unless you have like a strong experience that contradicts the same. Like, you know, you're like, yeah, sure. This is great. What evidence do I have to the contrary? I believe you. It's so, it's so, ⁓ this is popular, ⁓ yeah this is popular. is great, love it. yeah, that is one technique. And another technique I liked was, ⁓ this comes very fleetingly, but it's about establishing a solid relationship between people that have the dates back like years. How do you do that quickly? And you do that by establishing familiarity between the characters. So they do this well in the scene where Shahid wants to take Anushka out and he goes to Vyudha's character for the car. And he asks for the car and Vidas lies and says it's not working and Shahid immediately calls him out and he's like I know you stutter when you lie so like quit doing this and he's like I'll pay you back and I'll give you like a tank full like your tank full with gas and he's like I know you you don't have like two pennies to rub together. So it shows that they have a friendship that dates back because they have all this to build all this experience to build on. So I think that's a great technique to show ⁓ relationship which has been running a long time is to show their familiarity with each other, show that they know each other so well that only two people who go back so long could know each other. ⁓ That's very interesting. I almost forgot about that moment because it seemed little insignificant but now that you mention it, it's obviously so important because that becomes the falling out as well. It comes back later. Yeah, that's interesting. One more thing about Shahid's character which I thought was interesting that they did was that the first time he's going through the port authority, no this actually happened when he first met Anushka's character he does the cross thing, you know and then when he's going through the airport metal detector, just does that and they bring it in the very end when they see you're pregnant. I don't think they could have done it a little more. For sure, yeah, because it was a character trait, so we should have seen him do it. But now that we've gone there, let's get into that a little bit. It shows that he's a nervous kid, right? But through the arc, he stops doing it because he stops being nervous. He literally says, I am God, right? So God doesn't need to cross his fingers. So I think it was quite intentional that he stops doing it. They haven't focused it. focused on it, what they should have done is ideally, for example, had two bank scenes in one bank scene, he's waiting to get the loan, maybe at the start of the film where he does this. And then you have the later bank scene where they're scamming them and his fingers are completely uncrossed or he's tapping on, know, maybe like being very confident. So that would have really been a good visual moment of his arc because back when he's with Anushka, confidence has gone again. He's back to being a bit of a nervous kid. So that's why this comes back. But that I do think. What you're saying, if you know at the time of the first scam, if they would have shown that, it would have like been nicer. And at the bank scene, they could have just focused on his hands a little bit, like very steady on the very steady on the exactly. Yeah, like not hidden under the table just there. Yeah. Like that would have been a stronger motive throughout the film. Yeah, definitely a good symbol. So yeah, for sure. But the attempt was made. it was there. I think maybe this was not the... They just didn't have the time to get the shot of his end. You know, it was forgotten. Like the pick up was not taken. You never know. Yeah. So yeah, that's what I have about character. Do you have anything more? But the interesting... One more thing about the interesting thing about characters was the first time we see the four of them together is in the aeroplane. And we immediately see, understand the three of their characters, all the boys. It's like, you know, we see the boys, like Chang's character is excited about the free alcohol in the flight. Virdas' character, do that scuttling from left to right so that he can sit next to Anushka Sharma's character. Yeah. And Shahid Kapoor's character almost seems unfazed by anything, all these petty wants of life. But again, my grouse is with Anushka's character. What? Like, it's just they want to force her to be quirky, so she's doing that. I know. There's no payoff of it later. She's... payoff ever. It's not like they've mentioned she has trouble sleeping in the hotel room. Like, nowhere. Like, No. She just goes and sleeps on the airplane floor because she's... different and I'll just say guys please don't do this like don't force a quirk like if there's not going to be a payoff of it don't do it like yeah and I just feel like it's a disservice to the female character like they didn't do that ⁓ adjacent scene with any of the male characters like all of the other characters like opening shots were in line with who they were you know yeah this just seemed very extraneous very yeah it almost felt like it belonged in a sitcom like 30 rock yeah yeah because they have all these like parsecule moments which come and go and fleetingly but yeah this is your introduction to her like yeah exactly something very relevant to her needs to come in yeah sure But that being said, would like to segue into something relevant about her, which they have used. And that is the check of gun trope where, you set up a gun and you have to use the gun later. Right. And here it is. Bulbul's scissor. I think it's a very sweetly done move where she's putting a scissor through security and they're like, bro, you can't take the scissor with you. And they're like, okay, fine. Whatever. But then later when she gets propositioned at the modeling agency, she pulls out the scissor. You don't see her stab the guy, but you kind of know what's happened. So I that was a nice setup and payoff, good check-offs, gun moves. Yeah. And I think they've done this in a few moments. They've set up the 25 year honoring of Shahid's dad award. And then they've used it later. They've set up the, only use coffee. I only let my boyfriend or my husband pay for coffee. And then she brings that back. So this check off gun moment scene symbols are quite well used across the film. I agree. Like a lot of the scenes do have set up and payoff. nice to have. Okay. So the world, like I mentioned before, I think it's really interesting that they chose to set this in 1994. The film opens in 1994. And since we're on the opening, let's talk about the opening of the film. It is a voiceover sequence. And if you've worked with anyone in any capacity when it comes to screenwriting, know that voiceovers are like a big no-no, right? I know you all do that in Mismatched all the time, where each character gets their voiceover in the episode. ⁓ because voiceovers are telling, not showing, it is considered in general lazy, right? Like the same way flashbacks are considered lazy, like we have to do a film where they use a lot of flashbacks so we can talk about flashbacks. But yeah, this voiceovers have to serve a specific purpose Yeah, and I think in the opening image what they've done well is Instead of just telling you that okay, this is the Bombay of 1994 we have you know x y and z traits what they've done is Elicited the emotion of nostalgia through the technique of contrast So I'll bring out a few lines of dialogue that they say. Here FM means Finance Minister, not Radio. Where kids used with Xbox. Where only two channels were So what they've done is they have shown you the present. For example, Xbox and Marbles. Like Xbox shows you where we are right now in 2010. Vis-a-vis the Marbles. And everyone watching the film has a memory because this is still 14 years into the past, right? So you're like, ⁓ this is nostalgia. This is my time. They have not told you what's happening. They have created a feeling of emotion. So this is when you can use a voiceover successfully because the voiceover can't just give you facts. A voice has to have an opinion. It has to give you something. If it's telling you something, that something has to be something that you can't say on the screen. Yeah. Yeah. That is when you can use a successful voiceover, right? Correct. I do think like a show like I've only seen first season of You. They used to have the like because he's such a predator kind of a guy and ⁓ so they did that voiceover bit very cleverly where you can't voice out each of his like thought processes. can't even see them. Yeah, you can't even see them. So that does a good job. And so this film like you like you said it creates like an Sort of the world is built now, you know? understand what I'm Yeah. Another thing about the world I want to bring up, which I hinted at earlier, was the green card conflict. While it came out of nowhere, the fact that Shahid got married to get a green card so that he could continue his business operations in America was a conflict very derived from the world. I thought and also very relevant to the time because they moved to America. It was too easy that they moved and I get it that these are controls weren't as hard as they are right now in Mr. Orange Face time. But it made sense and I thought that and they used that well to do the relationship between Anushka and Shahid to have the break between them. What they hadn't done is even hinted at it earlier or seeded it in. Which is why it came really left field out of the blue. It was quite jarring and choppy, but the conflict was very true to the world and the time. So, I agree. And now my biggest thing is the theme. One second. One more thing. I want to talk a little bit about the world in a very non-story way. Yeah. In the sense that this is that mid-2000s like Yashraj movie right? Yeah. And like I think I told in Band Baja Bharat also there was this they have the classic walk. Yeah. Of like when your characters have really like done something and achieved something, we know these people are together they walk towards the screen. Yeah. Yeah. We saw that happen in Band Baja Bharat with Anushka Sharma only. Yeah. When they form Shadi Mubarak. ⁓ we see it in this film and the four you know come together for the first time and at the end at the resurrection sequence you see that walk happening we'll see this in Bunty or Bubbly also we'll see in Chak De India also all of it will come and I think it's it's their own way of curating the world as a producer voice of sorts yeah which I think is interesting like you know a lot of like film production companies are starting to realize this pattern and I think that's interesting. That's fun yeah it's the voice of the production company that's very cool the creative voice. and it's their own world like you know this is this is you know how our characters behave. Huh like they used to they used to say like this is not how our film would produce a movie you know like yeah it's a stamp which I think is it's I think it's going out a little bit which is good for the films because it allows the producers to take different kinds of risks. this was that time when Yashoda was quite at its peak. were only like the mid 2005 to mid 2010s. They were doing a good job of producing these really fun young films. Yeah, Nice. Okay, from that high note, I will go into my theme. And I think theme and world are very interlinked in this film, because, well, I'm analyzing it from someone sitting in 2025, not 26. And obviously, we're living in absolute madness, Kalyog, like the world is burning around us. We're watching God knows what being streamed live on our Instagram feeds and sitting and feeling helpless and powerless. But even 2010, 2010 was after the 2008 financial crash. So we had seen a certain amount of systems being disrupted and all of that. We had lost faith in banks, in ⁓ our systems that rule us. the fact and the theme of this film is that you have to be able to become rich. on the basis of honesty and hard work. And I think that is why they had to maybe set this film in the late 1990s because that team right now doesn't hold relevance. Even in 2010, maybe it didn't hold relevance. Like if I think back to like the stress on my dad's face during 2008, like because of the cascading consequences of everything happening in the States, it was this like hard work. I will say right now, having worked so hard in the film industry, that hard work doesn't get you anywhere, right? So the fact that they wanted to send this message for whatever reason, that hard work and honesty and integrity will give you the results you want, you have to set it in this world post liberalization, where like, there is hope, the country is opening up, the economy is opening up, or we'll go to America, which is still the land of dreams, there is hope, we can make money there. That is why they chose this time period. It wouldn't have landed in setting it in 2010. You needed to have naive hope which they gave us through the characters and also the world in which the characters lived. That's a very interesting perspective Ananya because I never thought like clocked by the setup in 94 like that. I just thought it's easier to pull off a heist 94. Maybe that was it, maybe that was the thinking. I don't know, I thought too much into it. was no phone, biometric for passport. So stuff like that, I thought like every time when I'm writing something, like, why does a phone exist right now? Like, know, like, yeah, the whole you lose action, right? Action, you lose drama, you lose build up, you lose all of that. You lose the urgency of the fact that ⁓ if have to, if my character has to go meet his friend or like his girlfriend, you have to do hard work, but a video call is available now. Available, exactly. Yeah. So yeah, was a lot of plot points irrelevant. Yeah. Not seen in central. Yeah. But completely unrelated to everything we're saying. Yeah. Well, yeah, but no, you're absolutely right. Maybe they didn't set it up in the 1990s. you're right because it's... the opening sequence of the film, did think it through. They did think it through. Like we can't take that away from Penmeet. He's our friend. He will be maybe after we've said mostly nice things only about the movie. But because it's your initial three minute sequence, and it's like written well, like the dialogue. nicely thought out dialogues. So yeah, that makes it interesting. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I thought the theme would only land in this day and age. If you told me that work hard and be ethical, you would get slapped like that's not happening. But I think they needed the sentiment and the booster of that time to kind of make this film land. Yeah. And it's again a sentiment of the youth, right? Like what these sort of films you were talking to like being the rebel being the one's book speaking talking cancer system and really fine like defying the society in terms of who should be rich and who should get to be rich. Yeah. Like how can one decide for us? And I love that that part of great but the fact that they're brought down to their knees which is where the theme of the film lies is that I'm just like no no no no no it's by scamming the system that they should be fine. That's how everyone makes money these days. Yeah. So that's I think it started off on the right note but thematically what the film has to say sitting in 2025 I don't agree with it. Yeah I get that but I get what they're also doing is that they would need to bring that societal consciousness a little bit like you know they say the good over evil morality yeah yeah stuff like that like they have to address it otherwise they do But what I think needs to be done is that you need to show evil systems falling, not people who are trying to make a quick buck. You need to show Jeff Bezos like coming being brought down to his knees, not these little guys who are sitting in the middle and scamming people. It's always the small guy who gets caught, but the actual person controlling the puppet strings never gets caught. So we are telling common people that you be good. But the systems who are controlling you will be really bad. that's OK. There are no consequences for them. But there are consequences for you simply because you were born at the level at which you were born. Yeah. This is all getting cut out because this is not part of the podcast. It's that, no? Like the big fish never get caught. Caught, exactly. Yeah. that was our breakdown of the techniques, the tropes. tricks of writing a film like Badmash Company, of writing Badmash Company. You guys know the drill. Like, comment, subscribe. Let us know what you want us to do next. If you're watching, if it's only mom watching, hi mom. yeah, that is it. And we will see you on another episode of Breakdown Besties. See ya. Bye.