Gandu (2010)

Perfect cast and a good story

Captivating movie !

Best movie of this year hands down!

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

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.

'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.

I would like to start with what 'beerhug' said in his review " I am pretty sure that majority viewers have not got the basic notion of the script."I don't know how many of you have seen Andy Warhol's "Chelsea Girls", this movie kind of looks like it. The framing mechanisms used closed captions, tiled view points.The entire movie is shot in B/W, B/W by default adds more drama to a scene (imagine an HDR shot in color and the same in B/W, the later will stand out better). Added to this, the usage of closeup frames (where the environment is missing just the actors present) makes it even more dramatic. B/W has been used by many directors in the past to indicate mundane/monotonous existence. Eg. Schindler's list is shot in B/W except the few scenes in color, it might indicate the grimness of the movie in contract to the bright colorful positive future (shot in color). In contrast, Hey Ram by Kamal Hasan, is shot entirely in color (as the movie is in flash back), but the present (old man in the ambulance) is in B/W showing that the old man in his grim present lives through the colorful memories of this past.In Gandu, the life of a loser, the only highlight is the scene with the Angel (Rii) his first sexual encounter and something which makes his mundane life colorful, hence the scene in color.Gandu is a rapper, he writes Rap lyrics, hence the use of Rap all over the movie. The movie is through his eyes.In the movie, his real name is never told, he is always 'Gandu', so Gandu is not an adjective here, but also a proper noun.Strange is the character of the Richshaw puller. He is Gandu's hero and friend. He is a Bruce Lee fan and practices Kung Fu, Why do I say hero? The scene where Gandu is slapped by Rickshaw, is followed by a scene where Gandu fantasizes of them having sex, a homo sexual dream, which depicts the Alpha male qualities Gandu sees in Rickshaw!I found the web surfer girl character a bit far fetched, Kolkata girls probably don't sit in an open internet café flaunting their sexuality...The abusive language totally matches the theme of the movie, I know Bengali, and I have heard local low life's speak, yes that is what they use, if we can promote Dev-D, and The Girl in yellow Boots, and god knows what other movies, then why hit on Gandu?Coming to On screen ejaculation, well that scene is very cleverly shot, I am sure it is morphed. But that is mot the point here, the point is, that scene fits completely in the mood of the movie. All in all it ain't porn, it is independent cinema. Yes it is not for everyone, so if you can't take it, please leave it, but lets not call it names.Q makes a cameo appearance in the movie just like many big directors do. That is when he kind of merges reality with fantasy Some tech errors I observed: ------------------------------The first sexual scene, where he steals money, it clearly shows that the woman is lying aside the man, from the angle/position of the legs but they are supposed to be doing 'it'. Also the woman's leg movements don't match the man's 'pushing' at all...director should have been more observant.The house is almost empty, so they are poor people, but the steel fitting in the bathroom and kitchen look posh, they don't gel in. Poor people don't live in such apartments. I think they shot some scenes in a diff house altogether, if one observes the light switches in the house are old cheap type, doesn't match with the kitchen and the modern kitchen getup.The subtitles something don't match the actual dialogs, sometimes it is good, as literal translation don't work all the time, but it is sometimes over done, i am sure a better translation could be possible retaining the meaning of the original bong low life abusive.I don't like the dialog delivery of the main character Gandu, it is not clear, and tail drops a lot, might be cheap recording instruments too, or a bad preview copy, but i think his speech is a bit too slurry (ppl say the over all sound recording of this movie is below expectations)The video scenes (games/porn) have the electrical interference patterns we used to see in scenes from 1970 movies, I would have expected his mother o be naked in the sex scenes, the bra always messes up the power of the scene, makes it unrealistic. perhaps with his budget he couldn't get an actress to show her breastsThe scene where Gandu is caught stealing, it clearly shows they(mother and Das) are doing 'it' with the 'bra on', the next scene the mother comes to slap him 'IN THE NUDE', a full back view of her behind is shown, but no bra, lack of continuity, no one pauses during sex, gets up from bed takes their bra 'off' and goes to slap their son :)

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.