Toxic vs Cocktail 2: Yash, Shahid & the Female Gaze

Watch the full video version exclusively on Patreon: Khandaan on Patreon Asim, Amrita and Sujoy are finally back together for Episode 317, with two very different movies on the agenda: Yash and Geetu Mohandas’ Toxic, and Shahid Kapoor, Kriti Sanon and Rashmika Mandanna in Cocktail 2. Toxic leads us into a surprisingly complicated conversation about masculinity, the female gaze, sex, violence and whether Geetu Mohandas has actually smuggled something interesting into a giant Yash mass movie... or whether Asim and Amrita are giving the film far more credit than Sujoy thinks it deserves. Then there’s Cocktail 2: part relationship drama, part Judaai, part Reddit AITA post. We discuss Shahid Kapoor’s increasingly intense screen persona, Kriti and Rashmika, the original Cocktail, and how Bollywood romance somehow went from grand declarations of love to “tu meri phati hui T-shirt hai.” Plus, Asim recommends Babitha Singh Reporting, Amrita brings us Bethlehem Kudumba Unit, and your listener questions take us into Bollywood’s sequel obsession, David Dhawan’s retirement, Varun Dhawan’s career, whether the Khans will ever play grandfathers, and what happened to the stars who emerged in the 2000s. And we end with a wonderful email from longtime listener Pragati, who has been with Khandaan since the Irrfan and Rishi Kapoor episodes and, most importantly, would like slow motion to finally retire.   00:00 Amrita Is Late & Khandaan Is Getting Older09:20 Toxic Review28:00 Toxic: Masculinity, Women & the Female Gaze38:00 Are We Reading Too Much Into Toxic?46:50 Yash, Kiara Advani & Final Toxic Thoughts53:50 Bethlehem Kudumba Unit56:30 Babitha Singh Reporting1:02:00 Cocktail 2 Review1:07:00 Cocktail 2: AITA Meets Judaai1:11:00 What Happened to Shahid Kapoor?1:17:00 Listener Questions: Bollywood’s Best & Worst Sequels1:22:00 David Dhawan, Varun Dhawan & the Khans as Grandpas1:27:00 What Happened to Bollywood’s 2000s Stars?1:34:00 Email & the Khandaan Community1:39:00 Wrap-Up 🎧 Support Khandaan and get exclusive episodes and bonus content:⁠Khandaan Patreon⁠📺 Watch our video episodes:⁠Khandaan Podcast on YouTube