#_uuid:2fe3b1ef-d001-30fc-b202-5b84bbb164c1

[india-today-yahoopartner-blog]

Gandu director Q speaks about insulting Satyajit Ray and explains the word 'f**k'

Q (who insists on not being called by his birth name Qaushiq Mukherjee) - dubbed as 'India's most dangerous filmmaker - by CNN, is known for his politically charged, sexually explicit Bengali-language films like Gandu, Tasher Desh and Ludo. Over the years, Q has developed a cult following in India and among Bengali film connoisseurs of experimental cinema.

However, at the same time, Q is often derided back in his birthplace Kolkata for going against the curve and is slotted by purists as a 'porn filmmaker'. For instance, his film Tasher Desh - a revisionist take on Rabindranath Tagore's play of the same name - was criticised by traditionalists, among Bengali film audiences, for not adhering to tried-and-tested methods of filming a Rabindrik text.

As such, Q recently got into trouble for allegedly insulting iconic filmmaker Satyajit Ray, and consequently, Bengali sentiments in a Facebook post, which the director insists was not meant to disrespect the icon.

It all began when Q shared a blog post critical of Bengalis' blind worshiping of all things Ray. Q shared the blog post with the words "f**k Manik. F**k felu. F**k babu." 'Manik' is the pet name of Satyajit Ray and it is common among Bengalis to refer to the Academy Award-winning director as such.

Speaking on the motive behind his choice of words, Q told IndiaToday.in, "The essential idea behind the exact words I used was that I feel stifled as a Bengali by certain benchmarks which cannot be crossed or icons which cannot be questioned."

On the use of the word f**k in his post, Q said that he has been thinking about this four-letter-word a lot these days "for various reasons."

MOVIE REVIEW: Q's Brahman Naman

ALSO READ: 10 films that define Bengali cinema, according to National Award-winner Srijit Mukherji

ALSO WATCH: Rituparno Ghosh brought national viewership to Bengali films, says Prosenjit Chatterjee

"Like gandu (the name of Q's 2010 Bengali film), f**k is a word that has a negative connotation. But it also very flexible. It can be used as a verb, a noun and an adjective. It is fluid. My use of f**k in my post was not to mean disrespect but it was a way of questioning our choice of words. It is very contextual."

Q's Facebook post resulted in a strong social media backlash on Facebook and Twitter. Several fans and followers of Satyajit Ray criticised Q and accused him of insulting Ray for getting 'publicity'.

"How can my post be a publicity stunt? A publicity stunt is a mainstream narrative where one does something to sell or to promote something else, like using a sex video or something to sell a product. But I have nothing to sell and nothing to gain. I have no film in production."

The attack on Q took on massive proportions when Bengali actor Shaheb Bhattacharjee took to social media (both Facebook and Twitter) to criticise Q and called him a "stupid piece of Crow (sic) shit" and added that Q's "14 generation (sic)" won't be able to get an Oscar like Satyajit Ray.

"fuck Manik" really... ??? U stupid piece of Crow shit This man got the OSCAR for his work. Something ur 14 generation will not get. pic.twitter.com/MLmyqCazkZ

— Shaheb Bhattacherjee (@shaheb17) January 5, 2017

When asked to respond, Q said, "Crow shit is something Nabarun da (late Bengali author Nabarun Bhattacharya, famous for his anti-literary establishment work) would be very much interested in. I am very fond of crow shit and its artistic texture."

Like really? Is this how you refer to the one of the greatest, forget India, the world has ever seen? Speechless. https://t.co/oaCAXVu6Ql

— Srijit Mukherji (@srijitspeaketh) January 6, 2017

Regarding National Award-winning Bengali filmmaker Srijit Mukherji's tweet where he said he was "speechless" seeing Q's Facebook post, Q said, "Speechless does not warrant a comment, so I won't say anything."

About the intolerance showed by social media users on his Facebook post and the traditionalist attitude of the commercial Bengali film industry, Q said, "At any point in Bengali history, there has always been an alternative to the mainstream. Harsh words would be spoken about, say, Tagore during his lifetime. This abrasiveness was necessary to help form a new space. The contemporary custom of being all thik ache, we are good, has led to cannibalistic back-slapping, leaving little room for the alternative."

Speaking of his films which explore the underbelly of contemporary society, in contrast to the content of contemporary mainstream Bengali cinema, Q shared an anecdote where filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak questioned art-house director Mani Kaul's viewing of Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa's films.

"Because Kurosawa showed export-quality Japan. For real Japan, Ghatak asked Kaul to watch (Kenji) Mizoguchi's films," said Q.

"In our myopia, we (Bengali society) are missing on what is happening right now. Being reactionary goes back to unmasking society itself as a villain. For one f**k, I got a million f**k yous," Q added.

Q also said that he is, perhaps, the only 'porn filmmaker' (like his critics call him) who does not make porn films.

Most of Q's films are now available on the digital video-streaming platform Netflix. In fact, his last two films, the English-language sex-comedy Brahman Naman and the horror film Ludo released exclusively on Netflix.

When asked if video-streaming sites like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime are the future for independent filmmaking, Q said, "It's not the future. It's happening right now. We are in the middle of a revolution. Anyone can, of course, not choose to see it."

Regarding the schism between independent cinema, such as his, and traditionalist mainstream cinema, and on a larger scale, old-school thinking, Q said, "For the first time in (pause) twenty years, we are taking sides and being political. It is an interesting time to live in and question."

On asking what question that is, Q answered "Any kind of question which leads to violence and such a question is, I think, a pertinent question to ask."

(The writer tweets as @devarsighosh)

#movies #_lmsid:a0Vd0000002uQfeEAE #_uuid:2fe3b1ef-d001-30fc-b202-5b84bbb164c1 #_revsp:india_today_57