Into the heart of darkness

Saibal Chatterjee

Titled Garbage and produced jointly by the director’s Oddjoint Films and Shaailesh R. Singh and Hansal Mehta’s Karma Entertainment, Q’s new work is a searing socio-political drama about a Goa cabbie and social media troll, an enslaved woman and a victim of revenge-porn. Ahead of the world premiere of Garbage on February 21, Q discusses his brand of filmmaking in the context of today’s polarised political climate. Excerpts from an interview:

Garbage seems to be your most overtly political film. What do you expect it to achieve in terms of impact?

I have always persevered to be political, though I agree that in Garbage, it is a lot more obvious. But expectations and impact are not necessarily why I make films. It is far more of a reactive process for me. In this case, the current political scenario is demanding a reaction out of me. For the first time in years, Indians are waking up to the fact that there exists a political reality. We were living in this state of ennui where people did not take clear positions. However, in the context of the constant chaos we’re living in these days, the need to take sides is becoming increasingly important. There’s an imminent threat of this fragile social fabric imploding and affecting everyone. Garbage is my way of trying to understand the tension.

Are the characters in Garbage drawn from real life, a reflection of people you’ve encountered personally?

Garbage is a macro look at what is happening around us — the characters, therefore, are quite reflective. Each of them came to me slowly but, surely, over time. I have lived with the idea of Phanishwar, the protagonist, for a while now. Naman and Rami came after. About a year back, I lost a few close people in quick succession. Much of their lives, and the bearings of their deaths, have informed Garbage. The actors have then contributed tremendously, creating the eventual identities that are Phanishwar, Nanam and Rami. Tanmay (Dhanania), Satarupa (Das) and Trimala (Adhikari) have brought their own complexities into their characters. Each of the characters is a part of our social reality, not that I know any of them personally.

Where would you place Garbage in the context of contemporary Indian cinema, in general, and your oeuvre, in particular?

Garbage is obviously not a traditional narrative. The genre does not feature heavily in our contemporary cinema because given their nature, these films cannot be distributed in countries like ours with archaic systems. The closest reference point for me in subcontinent cinema would be Asoka Handagama’s A Letter of Fire or Flying with One Wing.

Even in the context of my body of work, there has been quite a shift. This is the first time that I’m trying a straightforward narrative without splicing time. That is a big step for me since I have, in the past, knowingly steered clear of this kind of storytelling pattern. This is also the first time the filmmaker in me was not having fun. In my films, on my sets, the angst usually surrounds the protagonist, while the filmmaker is joyous. With Garbage, the dark delirium was all pervasive.

Why Goa and not, say, Mumbai? Does the film tell us anything about the place that we don’t know?

I shifted to Goa about three-and-a-half years ago. Since I spend most of my time here, I am starting to explore and understand the space through my work. Add to that the general sparsity of population in Goa. It is difficult to find this kind of barrenness in Indian cities. That emptiness reflects in the film, adding the much-needed character. Having said that, Goa is also definitively different in Garbage. We were extra careful to make sure that nothing looked beautiful, given this was the story of the grotesque! It’s India, today, really it could have been set in any other city as much in Goa.

Would you like to throw some light on the film’s cast?

I practically did not throw any ‘light’ on the cast. It is quite a dark film. The cast was actually quite a surprise for me. We managed to get amazing actors, or non-actors, who all contributed heavily to form the world of Garbage. Apart from the main characters, there were incredible cameos by Satchit as the Baba, Gitanjali as Simone, Nikhil Chopra (an unbelievable performance artist) as Kisan Dulhari.

How important is it for filmmakers to engage 

politically through their work?

In India, I have mostly seen reticence about political ideologies, about identities. In volatile environments like ours, it is imperative that every individual becomes conscious and articulate, not just the artists. Because while cinema is a medium of escapism, nowhere is it stronger than in a country like ours where it is used simply as a tool to manipulate emotions. The fact that apart from documentary filmmakers, the traditional film industry does not want to take a stance in the aggressively polarised political climate is something that has never failed to surprise me…. The industry, perhaps, has economics to think about, which now practically guides all decision-making in these situations. That, however, I’ve never been able to buy. The need for political understanding and expression has never been more acute.