Mumbai: Gandu, the third full length feature film of director Quashik Mukherjee (he prefers the moniker Q ) has been made to question, protest, provoke, shock, shock and then shock some more (you can watch the trailer on the internet).
It has expletive language, extremely graphic (hitherto unexplored in Indian celluloid) representation of sex, angsty Bengali rap and is shot in aestheticized black and white. No wonder that it doesn’t stand a chance with the Indian Censor Board and Q has till now been content with screening it in the international independent cinema circuit (it won laurels at Slamdance and Seattle ). But with urban India’s near-universal access to internet and its claim of becoming more receptive to newer, bolder genres of cinema it was only a matter of time before there was a domestic demand for Gandu.
So Q in association with Enlighten Film Society had slated July 30th as the day of the Asian premiere in Mumbai. Since it doesn’t have a Censor certificate the screening was planned at a 75 seater preview theatre in a Andheri multiplex.
But on the morning of the screening cops went to the theatre authorities expressing their fears of violent retaliation surrounding the movie and also their inability to offer security. The screening was cancelled and the much peeved Q and his music partner Neel (their band is called Gandu Circus) decided to perform at the suitably-cool and indie Mumbai Times Café to give audience a taste of the film’s music and head-bang their frustration at the “system’s" high-handedness.
In the interaction which followed Q explained that he is on a mission to make more such, let’s call it avant garde films, not by way of confrontation but to ensure Indian cine-goers get an exposure to " content (preface that with a f) and not shit (preface that too please)".
The next city on his itinerary is Ahmedabad (that did raise a few eyebrows) and he hopes that at some point in the not-so-distant future he is able to reach his film to the curious, experimental audience outside of private terrace and living room screenings.
This is not the first time that a movie has run into troubled waters with the Censor Board but to object to a non-commercial screening reeks of Machiavellism. Maybe social media can fuel a debate and eventually lead to authorities taking a more reasonable view. As Q rightly remarked, it’s not always content but the context to the content that matters. Let the people watch it- to accept or to decry is their choice.
I am now even more keen than before to watch it. But my only misgiving is that often in such outré movies the style gains dominance over the story. Hope for Gandu, coolth is not at the cost of content.
PS- Q’s next is co-produced by Anurag Kashyap. May the association mark a return of Mr Kashyap’s to his earlier, grittier art and also enable a relatively smoother journey of the film to the theatres.
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