Laal Singh Chadda

Well it seems that John Oliver's comment is correct, that Warner Bros Discovery is "burning down my network for the insurance money" given all the content they are axing or deleting from HBOMax. Meanwhile they're offering discounts on the streaming service for 1 year, as if anybody has any trust that they won't delete more swaths of content. What a disaster the merger and new CEO are.

Meanwhile I did see Laal Singh Chadda, and somebody helpfully updated the wiki to explain the Indian history references. It was a very interesting movie, keeping the spirit of the original Forrest Gump but shuffling some characters and details around. Remember how Lt. Dan thought he was destined to die in war, like all his ancestors before him? Those flashbacks about all his ancestors dying in war are instead used as flashbacks to show Laal's namesake ancestors who died in war. The Bubba Gump Shrimp Corp instead becomes Rupa Corporation, a parody of the real Rupa Company who sells undergarments and more.

It's named after Laal's longtime love Rupa. Her history isn't quite as dark as Jenny's. There's no implied sexual abuse, but her father does beat and kill her mother, so that she has to stay with her grandma, who coincidentally works for Laal's family. Their childhood friendship is sweet, and Rupa also does a magic trick, pretending to pluck an airplane out of the sky, then showing Laal a toy plane that she already had in her pocket. In later years, when Rupa is in an abusive relationship and suicidal, just the image of a plane flying by is enough to remind her of Laal, and to get her to come down. It's very touching. Also surprising was that Laal's mother cuts off his long hair during a time of anti-Sikh riots, but she never asks him to grow it out again during peaceful times. He only grows it out during his years of running, and then decides to wear a turban once he realizes his resemblance to his military ancestors.

With the Mohammed Baaji character (apparently a Pakistani enemy during the Kargil war), Laal accidentally saves his life, and he becomes bitter and resentful because he can't go home. Eventually he learns to heal, thanks Laal for saving him, and decides to open a school to stop children from being indoctrinated with hate, the way he was. The movie argues against religious extremism and violence. India unfortunately has had lots of religious strife in its history, mixed with its caste system and the problems from the British Raj. I like the movie overall and might try another Indian movie in the future. I heard that they would re-release the popular RRR movie soon, so I'll have to look for it.