the jeff & ishan show – Jefe's House

The Jeff & Ishan Show #14 – Toaster

Tune in for a big time! Our review of Toaster, a 2026 Hindi-language black comedy starring Rajkummar Rao, Sanya Malhotra and Archana Puran Singh, written by Parveez Shaikh, Akshat Ghildial and Anagh Mukherjee, and directed by Vivek Daschaudary, streaming now on Netflix. Rated MA-14. Our original theme music by Ano Malee.

“It is about this very frugal man wo buys a toaster for a wedding gift and then the wedding gets canceled. He will do everything to try and get that toaster back, but of course it’s lost and he goes on a pretty big adventure…The humor is indeed black. This is a black comedy and it delivers the goods on that. The humor is almost Seinfeldian at times. It’s like Seinfeld meets Murder on the Orient Express.

The Jeff & Ishan Show #13 – Raazi

Just dropped! Our review of Raazi, a 2018 (2026 Netflix) Hindi-language period spy thriller starring Alia Bhatt, Rajit Kapoor and Vicky Kaushal, written by Bhavani Iyer & Meghna Gulzar, and directed by Meghna Gulzar, based on the novel Calling Sehmat by Harinder Sikka, streaming now on Netflix. Rated MA-14. Our original theme music by Ano Malee.

“It’s a TV-14 rated drama set during the leadup to the India-Pakistan War of 1971, also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence. Most Americans don’t have a clue about this, or that Bangladesh used to be part of Pakistan, even though it’s about 1400 miles away on the other side of India, except for maybe The Concert for Bangladesh organized
by Ravi Shankar and George Harrison, held at Madison Square Garden in 1971 . . . I wasn’t really sold. It felt a little over-the-top, not quite realistic. It just it didn’t really speak to me that much. I couldn’t really get it.

Jatra Shots – Godspeed, Rahul

Ishan and I were saddened to hear of Bengali film star Rahul Banerjee’s tragic passing while shooting his TV series this week. I had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with him when I lived in Kolkata in 2018. Durga Puja was in full swing, and I was researching contemporary jatra as part of my Fulbright work. The producers of the Subhalakshmi Opera jatra company, with whom I spent some time, were gracious enough to allow me to sit in on some early rehearsals for their new show, with the cast still in their street clothes. They explained to me that Rahul was a Bengali film star who would be headlining the production.

Here are some photos and video that I shot on the rehearsal stage at the Netaji Subhash Institute. Rahul, his costar Emili Chowdhury, and the rest of the cast and onstage musicians were kind in letting me creep around them onstage and click a few shots as they rehearsed. They were all terrific, and Rahul could sing! I never intended the photos or video for public consumption, they were just for my own reference, but I feel compelled to share them.

We’re big Byomkesh Bakshi fans (the original stories and the films/TV series), so when Byomkesh Gotro premiered in October, 2018, I was one of the first in line. In addition to my seeing Rahul on the big screen for the first time, the film marked my first time seeing a movie in an Indian (Kolkata) movie theater.

The Jeff & Ishan Show #12 – 120 Bahadur

Fresh out of the oven, our review of 120 Bahadur, a 2025 Hindi-language wartime biopic starring Farhan Akhtar, Sparsh Walia and Raashii Khanna, written by Sumeet Arora and Rajiv J. Menon, and directed by Razneesh “Rhazy” Ghai, streaming now on Amazon Prime Video. Rated PG-13. Our original theme music by Ano Malee.

“It’s about the Battle of Rezang La which took place on a mountain pass in the Himalayas in the early 1960s when the Chinese army betrayed India. It follows the story of 120 brave soldiers who sacrificed their lives to keep thousands of Chinese soldiers out of their country. . . Most Americans don’t have a clue about this. You might think of it as having a similar place in U.S. popular memory to the Battle of the Alamo.”

The Jeff & Ishan Show #11 – Single Salma

We ring in 2026 with Single Salma, a 2025 Hindi-language romantic-comedy starring Huma Qureshi, Shreyas Talpade and Sunny Singh, directed by Nachiket Samant, written by Mudassar Aziz, Amina Khan and Ravi Kumar, streaming now on Netflix. Rated PG. Our original theme music by Ano Malee.

“It started strong as a rom-com. I was fully on board with Salma and loving the movie for the first hour. Then it went off the rails…It was very fast-paced, very energetic. It was almost too happy and too much like, you know, sunshine.”