Video summary
The video features a reaction and discussion of the Telugu film *Rao Bahadur*, which two hosts describe as an absolute masterpiece comparable to Hollywood's best picture contenders. They praise every aspect of the production, from the cinematography by Kartik Parmar to the direction and editing by Venkatesh Maha, who also handled the score himself—a trait they admire in directors like Taika Waititi or Yorgos Lanthimos. The hosts highlight how the film seamlessly blends serious themes with quirky humor, particularly through its musical numbers that shift instantly from ridiculousness to profound seriousness within a single edit. They note that while Telugu cinema is often celebrated for high-octane mass entertainment, this movie stands out as an artistic achievement that rivals top-tier international films in terms of concept and execution.
At the heart of their appreciation lies the film's subversive message regarding caste discrimination and skin color prejudice, which they feel is brilliantly deconstructed through a generational story about false ancestry claims. The hosts explain how the narrative reveals that many cherished family legacies are built on lies, thereby exposing the foundation upon which social hierarchies rest as inherently flawed. This thematic depth is delivered with such creativity and wit that it elevates the movie beyond typical regional cinema expectations. They also commend the supporting cast for delivering phenomenal performances alongside believable aging effects and stunning visual storytelling, noting that even minor details like lighting and production design contribute to a cohesive cinematic experience worthy of global recognition.
Despite their overwhelming praise, one host offers a small critique suggesting the film could have been slightly tighter by trimming about fifteen minutes without losing its impact, though they acknowledge this is merely a nitpick in an otherwise flawless work. They express regret that such high-quality non-dramatic films often struggle to gain Academy attention due to bias toward traditionally "profoundly dramatic" stories, arguing that *Rao Bahadur*'s important social message deserves equal consideration for submissions representing India internationally. The conversation also touches on the growing trend of Telugu filmmakers exploring artistic genres while maintaining their strength in mass entertainment, signaling a promising evolution for the industry as more diverse and nuanced titles emerge to challenge global perceptions.
Overall, the hosts conclude that *Rao Bahadur* is not only one of the best Indian films of the year but also a standout piece among Telugu cinema's recent output, placing it alongside other masterpieces like RRR in terms of quality and cultural significance. They encourage viewers who may be unfamiliar with this genre or region to explore these hidden gems that offer both entertainment and thought-provoking commentary on societal issues. With excitement for future projects from director Venkatesh Maha and anticipation for continued recognition of Telugu cinema's artistic contributions, the reaction ends on a high note celebrating innovation, authenticity, and the power of storytelling that transcends borders.
Read the full video transcript
[music]
>> Hey Greg, it's our 3D watching of
>> Raptor.
>> We're also on YouTube. If you tell me to
go over to you guys, go over there and
do exactly what I told you guys to do on
this other
>> I love you movie.
>> Yeah, we have a Patreon or two
memberships up in the description below.
Go bring them up, go check that out. Now
in this part we're talking about the
movie, are you okay? Okay, okay, okay.
Let's finish this movie, huh?
>> Let's finish it.
>> Yeah.
>> [music]
[music]
>> I like that camera work.
>> [music]
>> Never loved him.
That's great.
Wow.
>> [gasps]
>> Anything that helps you sleep at night?
There's the tree.
The one he turns into.
>> Yeah, the big colorful tree.
>> Mhm.
>> Huh?
>> That was a demon.
>> But according to the complaint I
received
>> Well, no.
>> Why do you want to go so bad?
>> What is this?
>> I don't know.
>> She does it all the time.
He's up.
>> [laughter]
[singing]
>> That poor father
>> I'll be back with you in a minute.
>> Samples
>> Case complicated outcome.
>> What do you want to do?
>> [laughter]
>> Sorry, I'M A VEGETARIAN.
>> [laughter]
[music]
>> IT'S LIKE A MINIATURE.
HE DOES LIE ALL THE TIME.
What's the saying like disbelief?
>> a demon.
>> Doubt is a demon. Doubt is a demon.
>> Two weeks.
>> Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
>> Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
>> Yeah.
>> Lal Babu
>> It is going to psychological disorders
challenge to go to Canada collection.
>> 5 days and they
It's weird.
>> [laughter]
>> I'm okay.
Mobile 4G watching that.
>> I check into my coordinator is that
>> Mambo latest
>> I don't want to do what you got.
>> Money
>> Jio to send connect to automatic receipt
>> [laughter]
>> That's
>> Google
tell about a button for what to do.
>> You ticket to run marathon
>> My name is David Bowie to me.
>> Michael Jordan mother love
>> I think I need
>> Because Michael and me company name is
about it.
>> What?
>> Call button on me that I don't want to
go on the day.
Just a little guy.
Just a little guy
police get some money.
>> The probability of paternity
in the DNA report of Mr. Michael Sahayam
is 0%.
The body Mr.
Bhuvanam Ramappa Rao Bahadur is
99.9%
>> Who is my papa Raju on a Monday?
>> [music]
[music]
[singing]
>> She had said she was in love with
someone else.
>> Yeah, what did you do?
Wow.
This is incredible.
You're going to have me dead.
>> [music]
>> Woo! It's been a while since I've done
this, and I'm happy I get to do it
today. Telugu cinema? That sucker's
platinum with a blue diamond. Wait, you
don't have your last platinum.
[cheering]
Uh yeah, Telugu. Telugu Sangeetham.
>> [laughter]
>> That was just
nothing but
exemplary comments to talk about this
film.
>> Yeah, that was brilliant.
The what the how they made the build the
the the
the artistry in this movie, the uh the
concept of this movie, the every
everything about this movie is
absolutely brilliant.
Absolutely brilliant. I can't decide cuz
they're so different which one's the
best of the year, but the
Telugu's made the two best Indian movies
of the year so far.
>> Without question.
>> Um and it's obviously it probably
depends on your mood because obviously
one's a a more um I mean this is kind of
a a fun watch too obviously, but the
other one's like a I mean almost a
musical fun watch, right?
It's like but it's still equally just as
brilliant just in a different way. This
one is If this was a Hollywood movie,
it'd be nominated for best picture.
>> Yeah.
>> This would've been nominated for best
picture easily. It's like a between
Yorgos and um
>> Anderson
>> Anderson and um maybe even a little bit
of um
um
what's his face? Uh New Zealand um
What We Do in the Shadows.
>> Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
>> Um Why am I forgetting his name?
>> Me, too. Taika.
>> Yeah, and a little bit of Taika in
there. Um all mixed in.
Uh Telugu just
I know we haven't been singing your
praises as much lately just cuz we
haven't had new stuff to to watch and
we've seen some smaller cinema from
Telugu that has impressed us, but
predominantly for the past few years at
minimum, it's been you know, Salaars and
which are great in their own right, but
that's been the predominance of Telugu
cinema that's been coming out.
This is like what we've been seeing from
Malayalam cinema in terms of the high
concept highbrow
um
artistry, this An Sangeetham, the the
originality, back-to-back,
just sixes out of the park. Uh this
movie was brilliant.
>> My favorite thing about the film, and
there's a lot to to love about it.
I love the subversiveness of the really
powerful message
that is epitomized best in that
ancestral musical number, the ancestry
number.
But the payoff at the end linked to that
is
all of this
generation after generation about skin
color,
cast, discrimination.
When the reality is if you check the
family tree and you check the roots, you
would be shocked to discover
there's no bloodline over there.
There there was a peasant in there that
they lied about that is in the bloodline
and everybody thinks it's a royal
bloodline and they're proud of this
so-called thing that they've got and
it's all built on lies. Uh and and
therefore the whole underpinning of
everything that you believe is so
valuable in cast discrimination and skin
color discrimination is not only
inherently bad in and of itself, but
it's all predicated upon this lie you've
believed about ancestry. It's brilliant.
>> Yeah, absolutely.
>> Just brilliant.
>> And they
directed by
>> Yeah.
>> Who's he?
>> Written and directed by Venkatesh Maha,
who I guess just goes by Maha. Uh
Just brilliant brilliant.
>> Uh the
>> And he did the editing. I was going to
just say how great the editing was.
>> an editor first cuz that's one of the
things that did stick out to me in this
movie.
>> I was going to talk about that.
>> Was the editing of it. I love, and I've
said it before, I love when people in
films use editing cuts um shots uh
to incorporate humor and um
kind of interest. So like if it's a not
the most interesting scene to
frame it in such a way that like it's
interesting because of the way it's
framed.
>> And paced.
>> Yeah.
Um so, brilliant editing by him, but
also the uh cinematographer
>> Camera work.
>> Kartik Parmar. And I don't know
production design by
>> Rohan Singh.
>> Uh
and composer
>> Smaran.
>> Every single
element of this could win a dummy.
>> And the it's going to have it's going to
have so many dummy nominations. The
acting Everybody was He was phenomenal.
>> By uh our lead here. Um
>> Satyadev Kancharana.
>> Uh have we seen him before?
>> Everybody was great.
I also the age makeup, aging everybody
out was believable. There was no flaws
and a lot of times in Indian cinema,
aging people out, you just kind of
accept it because it doesn't look very
good.
>> Mhm.
>> They this looked great. The visual
effects were great.
The quirkiness of it. And then like a
lot of films that are going really
great, you get to the last act and
you're like
okay, this is the hard part.
>> Mhm.
>> How you going to wrap this up? This is
the hard part. Is it going to go from a
gold to a silver? Is it just going to
stay gold? Is it going to be platinum?
They just killed it.
>> Yeah. If I if I could have one gripe and
I don't really, it'd be that you could
cut a little bit out of this movie to
make it a slight snappier, but that is
if I'm I'm just trying to find something
at that at at that point of just cuz
obviously it's 2:45, I think it's about
in 2:45. You can make it 2:30, I feel
like and and still have the same impact,
but once again, that is a nitpick that
I'm just trying to find something that I
would nitpick cuz there's nothing else.
>> It's head and shoulders.
>> Yeah.
>> Uh this and and Sandeep Tomar head and
shoulders the best things we've seen out
of India this year.
>> Yeah, and up there with the some of the
best things I've seen in Hollywood.
>> Absolutely.
>> Like this is Hollywood level on every
aspect
>> Every aspect of it.
>> Literally, there's not an aspect Like I
said, if this was a Hollywood movie, it
would be nominated for best picture.
>> And what's a shame
>> be, and that's a shame because this Both
Singu Itam and this have a negative
going against them when it comes to
Academy recognition, and that is sadly,
I understand why they do it, and I know
you do, too.
Sadly, the Academy's going to look at
the the the films that are profoundly
dramatic, right?
>> Yeah.
>> And they're going to select ones that
are profoundly dramatic.
This has as much of a
message that is important as any
profoundly dramatic film, but because it
isn't that, it could sadly be
ignored. It is absolutely worthy of
being a submission.
>> foreign film?
>> Yeah, it is absolutely worthy of being a
submission to represent India this year.
>> Yeah, it's
>> But it won't be.
>> Yeah, yeah, who knows, you know, with
the new rules and stuff, but
um it's just
I love the lighting in this movie.
>> Everything. Production design,
>> This I don't know if it was a practical
set of the spinning, but it was
beautiful in the way it was shot. Um our
lead's performance was brilliant. All
the supporting actors were brilliant. Um
I love the songs, I how quirky this
entire movie was with also being serious
the entire time.
>> Right.
>> Um the most silly parts were probably
the songs.
>> Yeah.
>> And even then they
they made it it's like you know, this is
silly, but it's serious.
>> It was almost Nelson-y in the fact that
they went from just pure ridiculousness
to just downright serious.
>> Yeah.
>> Within a matter of just an edit.
>> Yeah.
>> Like he's dead,
or he's in that meditative state, right?
He's going to be out, and it's kind of
serious, then they zoom in on his eyes,
and he's dancing in his eyes. He'll be
doing weeks.
>> It's come on.
>> So funny.
>> I love it like
Is he You You let us know if he's a if
he's an editor, first. Wouldn't shock
me. Typically, when you see a director
editing, it's because they came from
that background and they don't trust
anybody else.
>> Yeah.
>> Just like Vishal, he's like, "Nobody's
ever going to score a movie of mine."
>> Yeah.
>> The I make a movie so I [snorts] can
score the movie.
>> way.
>> Yeah. So, like, typically, when you
start out in a certain profession and
then you come up
>> Well, you know, cuz directors oversee
the editing anyway, and they they they
just tell the editor what they want
because they don't have the editing
skills.
>> Yeah.
>> But if you've got the skills, why would
you hand it over? Cuz
>> Editing. We talk about this all the
time.
>> Editing makes
>> It's your movie.
>> Editing It's a director's medium.
>> Yeah, sure it is. Especially on the day.
But the end result, everybody's
dependent upon
editing.
>> Yeah.
>> Everybody.
>> Yeah.
>> Actors who get Oscars, you can thank the
editor for what they did cuz they could
have ruined your performance.
>> You can make the same movie a horror and
the same movie a rom-com.
>> Score and editing.
>> Yeah. Score and editing.
>> But performances, sometimes Sometimes
the most memorable thing you have is
just the look that somebody gives
>> Mhm.
>> on a on a a shot. Like, for example,
it's used all the time. That shot from I
think it's from It's either Casino or
Goodfellas, where De Niro's sitting at
the bar and he's putting out the
cigarette and he's just looking.
That's because of the length of that
frame in between the first cut and the
second cut and the way Scorsese came in
slowly on him at the bar.
>> Yeah.
>> De Niro's doing a great job, but what
made it all the more legendary is that.
Same thing with uh Daniel Day-Lewis in
in in Gangs of New York, when he has the
bunny rabbit moment.
That bunny rabbit moment is because they
chose not to cut it and keep it right
there for the whole take.
>> Yeah.
>> That's a direction and editing thing
that
conveyed the the moment.
>> Yeah, and it was really interesting
right in the beginning when when they
were going through the house and they
were obviously they were setting up for
a future shot as well of like he's done
this a lot.
>> He knows this house.
>> And and the house and
and all that kind of stuff and that
their relationship. And then when she
made them like come in the walls without
walking and they were kind of floating.
It was just great. But, like it was like
pretty chaotic in the editing and then
the next scene
it's they're pretty stationary.
>> Probably for a good 10 minutes scene,
right?
>> And it's it's because he you're seeing
how kind of crazy he is. And so
everything else is kind of static as
opposed to being chaotic and he is the
chaotic thing in the scene.
It's really brilliant
choice by the director.
>> They better stay away from him.
>> Mhm.
>> Literally it's just
>> a great scene. I would love to recreate
that scene. That's a really good one.
>> As I was watching it, I thought that
scene's long enough to do that scene at
work space cuz when we do scenes at work
space, you want them to be minimum 6
minutes. They can be 10 to 12. That's
the wheelhouse for and a lot of TV
especially there's some great scenes but
they only last 2 3 minutes. Yeah. It's
hard to get stuff from film that's that
long and that's a great scene.
>> Yeah, back-to-back thing and this two of
the best Telugu movies of my favorite
for sure. It's hard to say obviously
what your favorite cuz you know, you'd
have to compare stuff like this to RRR
and and other cuz Telugu cinema is
really great at when it's done well, the
big massy
cinema, right? When it's done when it's
done really well.
We have seen many movies that are more
this genre in terms of like more just
about the performances and the
artisticness of it as opposed to the
the massiness of it.
>> Right.
>> But it's
much fewer and far between Telugu
cinema.
>> Right.
>> Maybe that's changing.
>> I don't want them to go away from what
they do really well in the big massy
cinema because I think they do that very
well.
>> And it's very likely
this is just what's been going on and it
hasn't gotten the notoriety or the
publicity or the the popularity and
those who know Telugu are like, guys,
this is what's been going on. We've just
wanted y'all to know it.
>> I mean, I would have said one of the
best of this genre before this was from
the same director. That C dash O
whatever that movie is.
>> That one was a great movie.
>> What's he got coming up next cuz I'm a
fan?
>> Uh me too, man. He is I need to I I'm a
fan.
>> Venkatesh Maha
>> Venkatesh Venkatesh
>> What's next in the wheelhouse for him?
>> Cuz that's brilliant. I hope this did
well. I heard so much about it.
>> Me too.
>> But that doesn't mean it did well. That
just means our audience knows that we
would of course enjoy it.
>> I just I got loads of messages from
stupid babies just and I didn't even
look a lot of them were reels.
>> Yeah.
>> And it I saw the title. So I don't look
at the reels, but
um yeah.
Wait.
Was the director the great grandfather?
Oh,
wow. That was his cameo?
>> Maha
>> He was the great grandfather who led the
musical number out ancestry?
>> Yeah, he was. That's funny. That's
great.
>> [laughter]
>> That's great.
>> That's one of my favorite parts of the
entire movie.
>> It is the that's the heart and soul of
the movie right there is that ancestry
number.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. Cuz when you get a a movie that's
kind of like the favorite, but then you
insert a lot of obviously Yorgos does
that automatically.
>> There's so much humor in a Yorgos film
that's just kind of subtle and
>> Yeah.
>> and that kind of stuff, but
Woo, man.
>> Telugu cinema, boom baby.
>> You are killing it. The year the 2026 is
the year of Telugu cinema right now.
>> Yeah, absolutely.
Um looking forward to more of watching
y'all's films
um and then getting notoriety
cuz we haven't got that as much in the
past. So that's very exciting. Let us
know you thought about the movie. If you
liked it, if you didn't like it, what
your thoughts on it are. If you saw us
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Uh you know about Patreon or channel
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>> I DID NOT GET
>> HEY.