Avant-garde, progressive and engaging are a few words that construct the celluloid hustler the world knows better as ‘Q’. Having raved audiences in New York , Berlin and Utah with his ‘rap musical’ Indie titled as ‘Gandu’ ,‘Q’ strips down cinema, nudity and narratives in this freewheeling ‘Q’ and ‘A’ with Soham Bose.
What do you think about the ‘body as text’?
The body is the medium on which the narrative of life is written.
In your narratives, there is ‘nudity’. Do you view it as an ‘act’ or a ‘fact’?
It is entirely contextual. Rii and I used to tape ourselves and get off on it. Those early tapes were used as found footage in ‘Love in India’. In ‘Gandu’, when Rii became the Pussy, it was a deliberate ‘act’. But sexuality is based on the idea of fantasy. And the closest one can get to the fantastic is through enactment. Nudity is fact. But the use of nudity for provocation is a conscious act.
Can nudity be political in your opinion? Like the nude protests by women against the Army in the North East?
In a space where sexuality is repressed, the use of the body has immediate political connotations. The protests in Manipur show the extent of suppression in our political and legislative system. The subjugation of women in a patriarchal society is bound to have an impact on society.
Do you think, in today’s world, nudity is conflated with sexuality?
I don’t think there can be nudity without sexuality. It has always been so. How we project that sexuality, through liberal gestures, or through moralist overtures, is our decision.
Through the eye of your lens, is the nude religious or secular, with reference to your film ‘Love in India’?
I refuse to look at it that way. Why would I limit an infinite source of energy by defining or labeling it? The nude body is entirely devoid of any specific context. It’s the original form. Everything else, the bend of the individual mind, or the embellishments that we have used to adorn the body, are social injunctions. The nude body is closest to the pure form. The original man or woman. Every human being can, if they wish to, access this original, pure space. And here’s the connection between nudity and sexuality. That very moment of access could be called spiritual.
In the vision of the film-maker, how does the unclothed body figure?
It is a difficult vision to entertain. But it has captivated almost every artist. The advent of porn has shifted the perspectives of the unclothed body severely. In a post modern world, the purity of the naked body is threatened continuously.
But I think the way porn addresses the body, the complete disregard for the aesthetics of ‘high art’, is very powerful. It is raw information, and it affects everyone at an organic level, as opposed to a seminal level. ‘High Art’ is inaccessible for most people, but porn brings it down to the basics, the elementary. I think it’s a process for people to reconnect with their bodies, disengaging a lot of shackles and issues that are entirely sociopolitical in nature, and has nothing to do with the individual’s sexual identity.
The nude body has been commercialized by the media. Has this taken away its power?
While ‘high art’ is elitist in nature, democratic media is responsible for information disbursement on a mass level. We live in a capitalist world, where commercial gain is the only yardstick of advancement. If there’s any power somewhere, it will be exploited for gains. The body is very powerful, so it’s natural that the commercial world will use it. And they have done that, as gracelessly as they only can. But then, the body has been used and abused before. It can take a lot, and survive. I wouldn’t worry about the loss of power.
In a country like India, where do you think the logic behind the stigma against nudity resides, for here many cannot afford proper clothing?
There is no logic for stigma. It is a tool of social control. It will be enforced no matter what the reality is.
If you were asked to say a sentence on nudity what would that be?
Nudity is infinite, and any kind of definition will only subvert it.
As the liberals in India would like to portray ‘nudity’ as natural, why then does it become the U.S.P. of Film trailers?
The fact that nudity is natural is a concept in the liberal mind. It is not a fact in our country. In a repressed space, the need to witness the forbidden is intense. Which is why the film trailers are advertising the ‘two seconds of skin’ they have in the film. I think it’s a very male concept, and a fallout of the patriarchal system. Indian men are still complete hypocrites and refuse to acknowledge the idea of the sexual woman without stigmatizing her. In a fantastic set up of a film, the use of nudity sparks an immediate interest. In my films, there’s always the promise of sex in the trailers. This is not because we will sell the film more but because we don’t even have mainstream distribution. This is a tool. It’s an invitation… to visit the other side. I’d like to be able to use this hypocrisy to my advantage, and penetrate deeper into the social psyche.
Without full frontal nudity, do you think films like Gandu’ and ‘Chhatrak’ would have created the massive controversies they are facing now?
No. They wouldn’t. I don’t know about ‘Chhatrak’. I know for sure that it is a very different film from ‘Gandu’. I know Vimukthi’s style. And I am also sure that none of the films actually benefit from these controversies. Principally because we don’t have mainstream distribution, and a ‘created controversy’ is usually used for productive promotional purpose. Having said that, this is not the first time that ‘art house’ films have popped up in the mainstream due to the use of ‘extreme material’.
Do you see yourself solely as a filmmaker or an educator ofa new cinematic idiom? Is initiating audiences to nudity based narratives difficult?
I am a student of new Indian cinema. I never meant to influence or initiate others. Largely, because I am self taught, I would make films for myself. Not for an audience. I wanted to see if I would be capable of breaking the thick walls of morality in my system and consciousness and make films that go beyond the petty sensibilities of my immediate environment. If I can educate myself somewhat, I will be quite happy.
How are you trying to make sense of the debate of ethics, morality and vulgarity in Indian society? You are trying for an Indian release of your film ‘Gandu’, which would force the film in to censorship, how do you feel about that?
How can it be a democracy if material is censored? This process has to stop very soon. We never thought of ‘Gandu’in the Indian film market context. But now, with the huge popularity of the film, I am being forced to look at options. But I don’t want to go around with the film in a bag and show it to people shadily. There has to be a separate space for evolved material. The debate of ethics and morality will go on, given the disparate population we have, and the lopsided patriarchal mindset. I will keep working on the issues of morality and try to voice my opinion, even if it’s in gutter Language.
