Gandu

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.

'Gandu', Director Q's bold and artistic dive into the world of Surrealism, is quite an interesting experimental film. Q describes his film as a 'rap musical' which, in a way, is an agreeable term to describe it. The background score by the alternative rock band 'Five Little Indians' goes quite well with the tone of the movie.

The movie revolves around a not-so-bright jobless adolescent named Gandu (meaning Moron). He has his simple life with dreams and fantasies, getting by on the money he steals from the guy screwing his mom. He befriends a rickshaw-walla named Ricksha (ironically), and both spend most of their time in a heroin-induced haze, filled with adventures, porn, and sex. Gandu gets music deals, wins lottery ticket, has a grand deflowering by an exotic prostitute, gets invited by a Rap foundation, every single thing just blurring the line between reality and fantasy. But most of the incidents have to do with Gandu re-establishing his masculinity, which he had lost over time due to the ill-treatment by the people around, especially his ever-complaining mother.

The decision to show the film in crisp black-and-white was commendable; it depicts the bleak, monotonous and mundane existence of the central character. Colours are visible only for a single scene where the main protagonist Gandu is having sex for the first time, which perhaps is the highlight of his life. The masturbation scene and the oral sex scene are shot quite artistically, and fit with the tone of the movie; there's nothing pornographic about them. The editing and music add to the beauty of the sex scene.

The acting by Anubrata Basu as Gandu is brilliant; he portrays the varies hues and shades of the character with proper tact. His depression, his pain, his dreams, his hopes... by the end of the movie, a proper sketch of the character is etched in your mind. Joyraj Bhattacharya is good as the rickshaw-walla friend. And Rituparna Sen (Rii) is praiseworthy for her boldness in the sex scene. She plays three different characters in the movie, all quite varied and unrecognizable from each other.

People who are tired of linear and predictable storytelling should surely check this out.

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 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 film took me by total surprise. Never expected something like this from Indian cinema. At least not so soon. Cinema is an art and this is a beauty. I was always a fan of Bengali cinema for it's art and bold approach. It has given us some beautiful cinematic masterpieces. This film adds another diamond to it. Unfortunately our country isn't bold enough. Films like this get banned. Doesn't matters how good it is. They just won't let us watch it in cinema halls. Disappointing, Isn't it? Because, it is amazingly awesome approach. A good compilation of boldness into art. Something shocking for India. It sure leaves an impact on you. Way to go Q.