August 28th 2024.
Are you a fan of movies on Netflix? If so, you're probably aware of the wide range of genres they offer, from comedy to drama to thought-provoking films. And now, they've added a particularly controversial title to their library.
Earlier this year, Netflix made headlines by releasing a 2010 Indian film called Gandu in the UK. This film, directed by Qaushiq Mukherjee, was initially blocked from being released in its home country due to its extreme and explicit nature.
Gandu is an erotic black-and-white abstract film that follows a frustrated teenage rapper who embarks on a drug-fueled rampage with a rickshaw puller after stealing from his mother's lover. Among many eyebrow-raising sequences of sex, the most shocking was a scene that the filmmaker claimed featured two of his actors engaging in real-life, unsimulated sex for the camera.
Unsurprisingly, this caused a huge amount of controversy, with some audience members even walking out during its initial release. The film's title, which translates to "a*****e" in English, adds to its provocative nature.
Aside from the numerous graphic sex scenes between Gandu's mother and her lover Dasbabu, the most shocking moment of the film features lead actor Anubrata Basu. In a sex scene with co-star Rii Sen, Basu is shown with a fully erect penis, with the director claiming that the duo had real-life sex.
At a Q&A at the 2011 Slamdance Festival, the director, also known as Q, revealed that the actors were "good friends" who had real sex for the scene, inspired by their favorite extreme films such as The Idiots. The climactic extended sex scene also features Sen playing the role of a kitten, lapping at a bowl of milk.
But Gandu is not just known for its explicit sexual content. It also features explicit language, with words such as "c***," "f**k," and "p***y" being used throughout the film. Due to its controversial content and taboo subject matter in India, the film didn't receive its first screening in the country until almost two years after its initial release, at the Osian Film Festival in July 2012. It was then unofficially released online in 2017.
Despite the backlash, Gandu received positive reviews from some critics. Variety described it as a "high-energy example of a rarefied genre" and a "happily transgressive rhyme-fueled romp." It also has a 68% fresh score on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, with one viewer stating, "Imaginative, entertaining, shocking – probably not coming to a screen near you sadly." Another viewer called it "more a revolution than a film."
On the other hand, some viewers criticized Gandu for being nothing more than porn, with one disgruntled viewer giving it a 1/10 rating on IMDb. In the UK, the film is rated as 18, joining other controversial titles such as Lars Von Trier's Antichrist and Nymphomaniac, which also feature real sex scenes.
If you're curious to see what all the buzz is about, Gandu is available to stream on Netflix now. This article was previously published on July 4, 2024. If you have a celebrity story, video, or pictures, you can share them with the entertainment team at The Agency by emailing us, calling 020 3615 2145, or visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. And if you're a fan of controversial films, check out "Messed up" Netflix film based on a Stephen King novel that made fans faint, or 20 films that made people vomit, pass out, and worse at the cinema. And according to some, this may be Liam Neeson's best film since Taken.
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