Filmmaker Q aka Qaushiq Mukherjee grew up surrounded by Bollywood, as did everyone else his age. And when his father exposed him to the world of Federico Fellini and Michelangelo Antonioni, his perspective changed. Music was always important to him and he pursued the growing independent Bengali music scene. It was when he watched films like Run Lola Run, Idiots, Dancer in the Dark, Julien Donkey Boy, Time Code, Ichi the Killer, that he realised he was cut out to make films.
“I woke up to the possibility of fusing my musical interest and energies to make cinema. When the world was undergoing a digital change, technology played a huge part for an untrained filmmaker like me. What I really liked about this form was its ability to go beyond the narrative principles laid down by classicists, and its innovations. But this was just the spark. It took me three more years of trials and tests to enable me to develop a form that suited my context.”
Although the much talked about film Gandu paved his path to popularity, his first film Tepantorer Maathe remains unfinished. It was a Dogme 95-inspired video film about a junkie claiming to be a prince and embarking on a tripped out adventure to find his identity.
Gandu happened suddenly about two years before he actually made the film, informs Q. “It was just an idea, about a lost boy and a rickshawalla. Then came the songs — reflecting the angst of being a Bengali, choosing to walk the other path, being an Indian, being confused. When I met Five Little Indians, who scored the tracks, it was magical. We found the sound in two hours flat. I knew then the time to make the film had arrived.”
Many people have seen Gandu online. Q confesses he never had an audience. The film was an experiment and the overwhelming response it got bolstered his confidence to keep going. But what prompted him to make a provocative film like that?
He replies, “I find the idea of moral suppression humiliating. Most of the things that you see in this film happen next door to you. Why can’t we then talk about it? What is so shameful about sex? We don’t feel the need to curb the bloodshed we see everyday. We normalise it and walk away. This film is about class mindset and the idea of repression.”
Q uses extreme cinema to convey what he perceives is wrong about the world. Extreme cinema has its roots in anarchist tendencies. Q employs shock as a tool to ignite a sensory reaction and says, “It is a postmodern device, and lends itself beautifully to cinema. I am deeply inspired by Japanese extreme art, cinema, manga, porn and writing. What I am interested in is to find a way to limit the role violence plays in the shock factor, and work more with the human body and mind.”
Like other warriors for freedom of expression, Q too finds censorship to be irrelevant and protests that with the Internet doing what it is, there is no more need of protection. “Since cinema is related to commerce in an intrinsic way, whenever there has been some sort of a revolt, it has been struck down brutally. Censorship has largely been a process of finding how to subvert the idea of sex and politics in Indian cinema. For me, Indian popular cinema is a ball of innuendoes and righteousness hurled thick and fast at the audience,” he adds.
Q’s Love in India, a documentary, inspects the role that romance and sexuality play in our lives. It has been to several film festivals and won the National Award last year. Q has also adapted a popular play by Rabindranath Tagore for his film The Land of Cards. “I was always very fond of the play as a kid. I found the same fascination for it as I grew up, and I felt the story had the elasticity to grow with me. The film is in the last stages of post-production. I define it as Tagore on acid. It’s a musical fairy tale with 16 songs and I am ecstatic about what we have been able to do with Rabindra Sangeet,” says Q.
Q is currently busy with his next documentary Sari, which talks about the story of the oldest garment in the world.