NL Hafta

This episode of The Awful and Awesome brings you an action-packed week with our hosts—Abhinandan Sekhri and Rajyasree Sen—both of whom discuss everything from a political documentary to a very strange award category. The duo begins by talking about the "Bad Sex award" which is awarded by Literary Review to "an author who has produced an outstandingly bad sexual description in an otherwise good novel". Rajyasree says Japanese author Haruki Murakami also made it to this year’s list, while Abhinandan adds that an Indian author called Anirudh Behl was also part of the same list in 2003. Moving on, they talk about something that’s even more ridiculous in a pop-culture context: the trailer of Rohit Shetty's Simmba, which is a sequel to the Ajay Devgan-starrer Singham. Rajyasree says the trailer does not have a cliffhanger and instead gives away the entire plot. "We should warn you, if any of you go watch the film, then you should be ashamed of yourself,” adds Abhinandan. The hosts then talk about a short film starring Naseeruddin Shah called Rogan Josh, which also features Avantika Akerkar and Shishir Sharma. The duo discusses how this film—which commemorates the anniversary of the terror attacks in Mumbai—is conceptually strong. Both of them agree that the problem of the film is a universal problem in Hindi films, i.e. they over-explain. The discussion then moves towards a political documentary, Fahrenheit 11/9, directed by Michael Moore. Rajyasree says though the film is primarily about American president Donald Trump, it's also about the Flint water crisis, Michael Moore’s connection to Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner, the Parkland school shooting, Obama, Hillary Clinton and more. This overload of information is what is the problem with the film, according to her. “The film, which is about everything, becomes a film about nothing,” she points out. The anchors conclude by talking about Priyanka Chopra’s wedding. Rajyasree says it's ironic that "three truckloads of firecrackers" had been burst at her wedding, even though Chopra endorses an ad that is about asthma. Talking further on Indian weddings, Abhinandan says, “Indian weddings have become an excuse for people who could never make it to showbiz. Aaj mauka mila hai, captive audience mili hai, aaj main nach kar dikhaunga, chahe nachna aata ho ya na aata ho.” Tune in to find out more!