News From the Noquisiyi Mound

My peeps are back in the national news! Ownership of the largest unexcavated mound in the Southeastern US, the Noquisiyi Mound, is going home to the Eastern Band of Cherokee. The culturally significant site in North Carolina is being returned after the local city council voted unanimously to transfer ownership.

Franklin, North Carolina was once part of a Cherokee mother town long before the US existed and remains a site of spiritual importance to the Cherokee people.

Read all about it here and here.

The Jeff & Ishan Show #9 – Ek Chatur Naar

Watch our review of Ek Chatur Naar (One Clever Woman), a 2025 Hindi-language comedy-thriller starring Divya Khosla Kumar and Neil Nitin Mukesh, written by Siddhaarth Goel, Jay Master and Deepak Nirman, directed by Umesh Shukla, streaming now on Netflix.

It’s the kind of movie I love most, a comedy with a social message about oppressed people stickin’ it to the man. It reminded me of some of my favorite films in this tradition, My Man Godfrey from the US, 1936, the 1956 Indian film Jagte Raho starring Raj Kapoor, and the 2019 Hoichoi limited streaming series Astey, Ladies (Salon de Paris) written and directed by Abhijit Chowdhury. That’s one of our favorites as well.

The Jeff & Ishan Show #8 Halloween Edition – Virupaksha

We had a blast making our Halloween edition reviewing Indian horror film Virupaksha (Formless Eyes), a 2023 Telugu-language film starring Sai Dharam Tej, Samyuktha and Harsh Roshan, written by Bandreddi Sukumar and directed by Karthik Dandu, streaming now on Netflix. We hope you have as much fun watching it as we had making it. Hello India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and the USA!

Surya returns to his ancestral village for a brief visit.   Everything’s going great until somehow a curse on the village is activated and people start dying by suicide.  Surya starts investigating because he wants to save the village by solving who placed the curse, why they did it, and what he can do to stop it before it’s too late . . . I love that Surya’s two main allies in fighting evil are a man of medicine and a sadhu, so he’s got science and spirituality on his side. . . Harsh Roshan might be one of my favorite Indian actors.

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The Jeff & Ishan Show #7 – Maareesan

We’re back in action after summer break! Watch our review of Maareesan (which means Imposter Demon, kind of), a 2025 Tamil-language thriller starring Fahadh Faasil and Vadivelu, written by V. Krishna Moorthy and directed by Sudheesh Sankar, streaming now on Netflix.

It’s very unpredictable. One minute you think this is a heartwarming story about Dhaya and this old man with dementia; you think you’re watching Rain Man, then it turns into Zodiac and you’re soon wondering which of these three men is the real villain . . . I thought it was going to be, old guy who changes the heart of a thief. And then suddenly it takes on a darker tone.

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The Jeff & Ishan Show #6 – Bhool Chuk Maaf

Watch our full review of Bhool Chuk Maaf (Forgive My Mistakes), a 2025 Hindi-language supernatural romantic comedy starring Rajkumar Rao and Wamiqa Gabbi, written and directed by Karan Sharma, streaming now on Amazon Prime Video.

Titli’s dad won’t let Ranjan marry her because he doesn’t have a good government job. That’s where it all begins. Ranjan starts trying to find a job and then it starts getting crazy…It’s set in the holy city of Varanasi. There’s a guru on every street corner, and you don’t know which ones are real and which ones are con-men, and neither does Ranjan.