Gandu

There are a couple of things that make this movie a stand out... Sweat is left on faces, camera movements aren't passive-aggressive, characters are genuine, kung-fu isn't perfection, arguments and story are real, and everyone cares about their future...

The sex/masturbation scenes are absolute genius. Makes basically any other movie look shy and pretentious - even genuine softcore porn. There is no ultra zoomed-in body scanning or hiding, just everything shot as it would be seen by the people there. Zero regard for the viewers pretentions.

Half-way between a nature documentary and a story of someone's life... but also could be better in some ways.

I could never imagine for the life of me how a pornographic movie like this could ever be made and shown in India and above all conservative Bengal. I mean the Mamata Banerjee and her cronies will of course blame it on the previous government but why did they not ban it when they came to power. The story is OK but the language and sexual depiction is least to say deplorable.

This movie is obviously meant for the pseudo intellects and those in the lower stratus of society who have a life similar to Gandu portrays in the film. There is no message or a moral where in the end one should either say no to drugs or denounce it completely. What it does do on the contrary is to glorify it.

By all this Im not saying that the story line was bad or the characters didn't do their part well. They did. The music was great and Im impressed with the band that played the songs but the lyrics are worse than you hear on underground tapes made by Snoop Doggy Dog and other like him. The sound was bad and the background noise makes you think that its a home movie shot on a 8 MM camera of the old era.

Someone commented about the the flat that Gandu and his mother lived in grand but was sparsely furnished. This was because the flat was provided by Gandu's mother's lover.

In conclusion I would like to ask that though I have left Bengal 15 years ago has the mind of the people changed so much that you now show porn movies in cinema halls? This is probably the boldest Indian movie I have seen in my 66 years.

The director, actors and crew all think their making a life changing masterpiece. Far from it, just something that has been done over and over again by others, but they did it better.

Yea yea, purposeless life, meaningless existence, emptiness engulfing him. Life for this guy - Gandu sucks real bad. But the movie does not need to suffer from emptiness also. period.

The movie has a weird sorta nihilism all the way. A movie like Salo by Pasolini with probably the same intentions as Q's Gandu turned out so much better than this.

Sex used to add shock value, weird characters, Irritating lyrics, dirty bleak world of Gandu, close and jerky camera shots, no story, whore mommy with no explanation of her intentions, weird Bruce lee sorta friend/ rickshaw puller- makes for a good headache in the end.

I am not quite aware whether the director was inspired by Andy Warhol's "Chelsea Girls" or not but the film certainly highlights that exact frame mannerism of presenting the story for cinematic viewing like the one presented by Warhol in "Chelsea Girls".

The film consists of some erotic scenes which are explicit in nature but most certainly not pornographic in any way whatsoever.

The script was innovative for Indian audience though I am pretty sure that majority viewers have not got the basic notion of the script. The cinematography was brilliant must congratulate Kaushik aka Q for that. Lyrics were certainly explosive in nature but truth cannot be denied from it.

Acting is good especially by Anubrata(Gandu) and Joyraj(Rickshaw), Rii is hot but she did not got enough leverage to showcase her acting abilities. Komolika(Mother) was good in her role and Shilajit(Das babu)....well he was just the jolly good fellow.

I have only one complain that the sound was not recorded properly and at times background score became too noisy to hear the dialouges with proper effect.

Must say a good step forward for Indian cinema and kudos to Overdose Joint for thinking out of the box.