Asshole

Gandu

India

2010

85 Min

Color, Black and White

2.35:1

Bengali

Currently 3.1/5 Stars.
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SCR Qaushiq Mukherjee, Surojit Sen

CAST Anubrata Basu, Joyraj Bhattacharjee, Rituparna Sen, Shilajit Majumder

ED Manas Mittal, Qaushiq Mukherjee, Surojit Sen

MUSIC Five Little Indians

Berlinale (Panorama), Transilvania, Helsinki (Genre Glitter), London (World Cinema), Athens (International Competition), Oldenburg, Chicago (World Cinema), Stockholm (Asian Images), Ghent (World Cinema), !F Istanbul (!f Inspired)

Hardcore and at times sexually explicit, Asshole has more in common with contemporary Indian art and rap culture than the cinematic traditions of the country. In this rollercoaster ride where few social taboos are left unbroken, we meet 20-year-old Gandu (slang for asshole), who lives with his single mum in a dingy Kolkata flat. She has turned to sex work to make ends meet and has a regular client whose discarded trousers Gandu regularly steals money from. Gandu’s frustrated life revolves around an internet café where he surfs videogames and porn. Returning home one day, he crashes into a young rickshaw driver who is heavily into Bruce Lee. Gandu confides in Rickshaw about his fantasy of becoming a rap star, Rickshaw in return introduces him to hard drugs, and together they run away, sliding into a dark fantasy world where angry rap lyrics melt into visitations by the goddess Kali and an alien sex-kitten. Gandu gets his big onstage break, but is this also a fantasy? Born to be a cult film, Asshole has a charged score, allegedly inspired by UK band Asian Dub Foundation. –BFI

Qaushiq Mukherjee

Qaushiq Mukherjee (popularly known as Q) is an Indian film director known for his cult film Gandu. Mukherjee grew up in Kolkata and did his schooling from South Point High School. He is the founder and CEO of film production company, Overdose Joint. —Wikipedia

Doc Block

30Nov12

If anything it is the gutter trash of a junkie moviemaker handed a camera.

Mehdi Jahan likes this

dopeonthetable

4May13

I agree. India needs more Satyajit Ray types who can easily cater to the western intelligentsia.
Falderal

7Jun13

If you've ever spent time around junkies, you'll soon find out they have a more well-rounded and objective understanding of their and your shortcomings than you ever will.

Chen Hongmou

15Oct12

I watched this at the Berlin Film Festival, it felt like extremely teenage film-making, an extended music video. I suppose compared to the more classical modes of Bengali art filmmaking this is seen as 'radical' but it really felt shallow and trying too hard to be controversial 'cult' film. You can't intend to be 'cult', that has to happen naturally. I look forward to seeing more new work for calcutta though..

Charbak and saptarshi like this