Netflix has added one of its most controversial films yet, giving viewers access to a 2010 Indian movie so explicit that it was initially blocked from release in its home country.
Gandu, an erotic black-and-white abstract film directed by Qaushiq Mukherjee, is now available to stream in the UK.
The title, which translates to “a*****e” in English, follows a frustrated teenage rapper who steals from his mother’s lover before “embarking on a drug-fuelled rampage with a rickshaw puller," per Metro.
The film features multiple graphic sex scenes, including scenes between Gandu’s mother, (played by Kamalika Banerjee), and her lover Dasbabu (Silajit Majumder), which the main character (Anubrata Basu) often witnesses.
However, the most talked-about moment in Gandu is a climactic scene in which lead actor Basu is shown with a fully erect p***s during a sex scene with co-star Rii Sen, with the filmmaker claiming the actors had real, unsimulated sex for the camera.
At a Q&A session during the 2011 Slamdance Festival, Mukherjee, who is also known as Q, said the actors were “good friends” who had real sex and “really went at it, in the spirit of their favourite extreme films, such as The Idiots,” according to a review from Hammer to Nail.
The extended scene also shows Sen role-playing as a kitten, lapping at a bowl of milk. In addition to this, the film includes explicit language, using words like “c***,” “f***,” and “p****,” adding to the controversies that surrounded it upon release.
Gandu’s taboo nature in India meant it did not receive its first screening in the country until nearly two years later at the Osian Film Festival in July 2012. It was reportedly unofficially released online in 2017.
Despite walkouts and backlash during its initial screenings, the movie received positive reviews from some critics. Variety described it as a “high-energy example of a rarefied genre” and a “happily transgressive rhyme-fuelled romp.”
The film currently holds a 68% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, with one viewer writing, “Imaginative, entertaining, shocking – probably not coming to a screen near you sadly,” while another review called it “more a revolution than a film".
Some viewers on IMDb praised Gandu as “an ode to Andy Warhol,” noting, “The film consists of some erotic scenes which are explicit in nature but most certainly not pornographic in any way whatsoever.”
However, not everyone was impressed, with one reviewer slamming: "Sex is super-imposed every time you start snoozing off on the non-sex scenes...porn! Nothing more, might be less!” in a 1/10 rating.
For those seeking something provocative and divisive, Gandu is now available to stream on Netflix.