Gandu

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.

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 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.

Q wanted to be noticed with his first independent venture and this film accomplishes it, especially the nothing-but-shock-value sex.

Q has an uncanny ear for local dialogue and some of the exchanges are wry, ironic and sometimes hilarious. He's sketch of the flirty cybercafe Bengali girl is possibly one of the truest sketches I have seen. Also the street talk of lowlifes is bang on.

But then - what? Where does this all lead to? Gandu builds up great expectations, then does not deliver. I felt as frustrated as the main character - empty and wasted.

As is typical of many those who are attracted to film via the superficials - pithy dialogue or "the look" or sensationalism, that only works on the underlying framework of a solidly good story. You cannot erect a memorable film without a solid foundation of plot, character arc or a satisfying ending.

I feel sad that this potentially great talent will only swim on the surface and end up being forgotten unless he goes deeper to see what makes good stories work.

Bengali cinema desperately needs a new voice, a new testament and my fear is that unless Q respects STORY and CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, it will be all downhill for him from here.

Why is that the ancient spiritual Indian culture only produces talent incapable of true introspection? Who destroyed our image of ourselves? Why must everything we do be a copy of a copy of a copy?