I watched another movie I need to yap about
Sep 27, 2026
I watched yet another movie from the past and I have many things to say. My partner told me to stop yapping at night about this movie because I couldn't stop talking about it so I will make it everybody else's problem.
SPOILER WARNING before you read.
I watched Gaalipata as a kid and it was one of the biggest movies to come out. It was enjoyed, replayed and "Yavag nodadru bachalmane iddang irutte" is a meme that is still quoted describing Bangalore weather.
We decided to rewatch it on an evening we felt like trashing on a film and trash. we. did.
The film's premise is three childhood friends visit one of the friends' lush house that his grandpa called Mugilupete (translates to town of clouds, which the movie encapsulates ; its raining the whole time and especially when somebody needs to say/do something important). Yograj Bhatt is mountain girlie that loves to romanticise the tragedy of turbulent rivers that kill people.
Regardless of the constant depression brought on by Anant Nag being paralysed knee down and Kitty's 8 yo relationship breakup - it is desperately kept alive and energetic by Ganesh and his absurd responses to everything people ask him, it had me wondering why people asked him anything at all because it seems like he has no idea why people ask him anything.
As an autistic kid who hated bright and loud places, YRB movies made me feel relieved and - the lush green hills that always rain made me feel an underlying calm, overlaying melancholia that I 100% inherited from watching too many of his movies.
The only places there are dialogue exchanges in this movie are people taking other people random places or stopping somebody's work midway to yap away their sorrows with no context, the women especially almost have nothing to say. You cannot tell me 4 women - one having lost a husband the day they got married, another living at home growing her own medicinal plants, the youngest having quit her studies to take care of her dad and a mom in severe pain due to her husband losing mobility have nothing to say? They're mostly vessels to hold mens' trauma i.e, mostly Anant Nag's paralysis, Ganesh's god knows what trauma - oh ya I remember now, his dad had enough of him & sent him to Ooty boarding school. Saying all this to a woman who is grieving her only love is diabolical AND HE DOES THIS WHEN SHE'S TRYING TO TEACH CLASSES TO KIDS THAT HAVE NO WAY ELSE TO ACCESS EDUCATION. Their classrooms don't even have walls!
I solemnly believe YRB movies are many ideas bundled into one, if he had workshopped any one of these, they'd be excellent movies themselves. But this was peak TV serial days and he wanted 6232735 plot lines to hold the attention before we as an audience realised none of them have an essence. I really liked "hunting man realises hunting is bad because there is god in everything" plot line the most. But using it as a way to justify giving away his daughters like he owed these young, irresponsible men something was disgusting. Him going hunting even when his wife cried, begged and threatened to not do this further perpetuates how the women in this movie are all vessels of men's emotions and bad actions. What boils my blood even more is realising all the women in this movie exist to serve him - Pavani quitting her studies to take care of him, the second girl pursuing ayurveda to see if that would help her dad's paralysis (its not explicitly said and I'm making some assumptions) and obviously his wife crying as much as she did in the movie. And having those 3 guys be the way they are, constantly prompting him to hunt. And at the end them getting all the credit for him was unparalysed like his wife and three daughters haven't been taking care of him everyday. Like whatever.
I hated it when they kept implying that diganth was a girl and not a man . Constantly his manhood being questioned and radha being "the man" in the relationship because she was angry and assertive. There is a point where diganth gets really angry at him for constantly calling him a woman for his lack of assertiveness and being pushed around by others. And he claps back at him - THAT ladies and gentlemen is a great example of gender dysphoria. When you're referred to a gender that you're not, you feel helpless and angry. Even though, he's a cis man, constantly being called a gender he is not for shits and giggles. And people say trans people are crazy (shrug)
There was almost no chemistry among any of the couples but the one that was abhorrently in my face was Pavani & Kitty's. Rajesh and Bhavana had a whopping 16 year age difference between them and you can see it and according to the movie she was either 17 or 18 and he was at least 23-24. Both age differences are concerning and you can also see Kitty mentioning this earlier saying "she's a kid" and having it be dismissed by ganesh saying "there's no such thing as younger or older girls, whatever age they are, if they smile at you, you have no other choice but to fall for them" BATSHIT CRAZY. Not only are we dismissing her emotional maturity being a mismatch but also implying that all girls or women are up for grabs for the person that ceases the opportunity. Diganth's storyline almost felt like it happened because Ganesh pushed him to? There's just not enough shown to know how he even developed his feelings, which is crazy to say because the movie is 2 HOURS LONG.
Justice for Soumya : There was nothing in this movie that indicated that she was into him, she visited her dead husband's grave every moment she got or she was teaching. Her laughing at ganesh's stupid, immature jokes mean nothing and I hate that he tried to manipulate her by bringing his parents and forcing her via the in-laws to accept Ganesh's feelings. It was genuinely disgusting. The ironclad willpower you needed at the time to say no to this was crazy. I hated how much he bothered her over and over again, derailing her routines. He didn't even know anything about her, not her feelings of grief, nor her past life before they got married. This was all a ploy to make her look like a sati savitri that only works, thinks of her dead husband and lives with her IN LAWS???! even though her husband is dead. JUSTICE FOR SOUMYA, she truly deserved to go to Switzerland and live her best life. It came outta nowhere that she liked him at the end, being shown that when emotions high from her NEARLY DYING was also batshit crazy. Please free this woman from this immature man.
Few more statements I'm too tired to write about - why was ganesh watching soumya unconsensually so many times, send help. These movies are entirely run by the songs you can't convince me otherwise. The songs are so so nice. We don't give enough credit to music running these movies to blockbusters. Why are all the "Darker" skinned people in YRB movies literally enslaved, mute and being constantly hit by the main characters or used as emotional punching bags. Free the slaves, please.
Other directional ideas for this movie :-
P.S. : How many days were they even there for and how do all these guys have so much time to take off spontaneously?!