In this week’s podcast, Glenn and Daniel check out a documentary from the upcoming 2017 Tasveer South Asian Film Festival, followed by an untold historical tale of royal friendship (43:18).

May contain NSFW language.

Blood Leaves Its Trail will be playing at the 2017 Tasveer South Asian Film Festival on Monday, Oct. 9th at UW Bothell. Tickets are available here.

FilmWonk rating (Blood Leaves Its Trail): 6 out of 10
FilmWonk rating (Victoria & Abdul): 7/10 (Glenn), 8/10 (Daniel)

Show notes:

• [00:29] Review: Blood Leaves Its Trail
• [15:21] Review: Victoria & Abdul
• Music for this episode is the tracks, “Munshi Mania” and “Victoria & Abdul” from the original score to Victoria & Abdul, by Thomas Newman.
• We did review The King’s Speech on the podcast, all the way back in Episode 8, in 2011 – but Daniel actually was around for that one. The lone episode without a Daniel is Episode 10, wherein Glenn and guest Nick reviewed Thor. Different sorts of thrones and powers in that film.
• The story of how journalist and author Shrabani Basu uncovered the story of the Munshi is a pretty fascinating one – check it out at The Telegraph here.
• Daniel notes correctly that the “royal assent” is still the [largely ceremonial] last step of a bill before it becomes law, after it passes both houses of Parliament. Assent has not been withheld since 1707 by Queen Anne, which means that in the entirety of Queen Victoria’s reign, she did not veto a single bill.
• CORRECTION: The Suez Canal opened in 1869, so it actually was operational by the time of this film’s events, and made for a shorter journey between India and England that did not require a trip around the Cape of Good Hope.

Listen above, or download: Victoria & Abdul, Blood Leaves Its Trail (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play on a non-flash browser)