We live in times of chaos: Abhiroop Basu on what sparked his shot 'Gudgudi'
Contrary to the lightness the title may evoke, Basu's latest work is a hard-hitting take on the 2002 Gujarat riots
by Suhani Singh · India TodayAbhiroop Basu has made a habit of wowing with his shorts. The dialogue-less Meal, featuring Adil Hussain, travelled to 60 film festivals the world over while Laali, with Pankaj Tripathi, also enjoyed a festival run and accolades.
Basu’s latest, Gudgudi, had its world premiere recently at the Odense International Film Festival. Contrary to the lightness the title may evoke, he has crafted a hard-hitting viewing, one which traps the audience in the heat of a tumultuous night where horrors unfold at a rapid pace. The short features Rajshri Deshpande, best known for her powerful work in the Netflix series Trial By Fire.
A graduate of the Prague Film School, the Kolkata-based writer and director is an admirer of European cinema for its “realism” and occasionally “the sheer audacity” of the makers. “One of the things I picked up from my Prague experience was... Nothing is bigger than the film. No director, no actor or superstar,” he says. Excerpts from a conversation with INDIA TODAY:
Q. Gudgudi feels very prescient given what’s happened in Kolkata recently. Tell us about how the story came to you?
A. It was a culmination of things. We are living in times of chaos for a while now, be it Bangladesh or what’s been happening in Gaza or in Kolkata. I wanted to say something about it. Sometime in 2022, I came across an article about the Gujarat riots of 2002, which spoke about 150-200 Hindu women who were sexually assaulted and killed. It shook me as I was completely unaware of it. It totally went against the popular narrative. It was a moment of reckoning and I arrived at the thought that women don’t even have any religion; they are just [seen as] flesh. It gave me the lens through which I wanted to address the chaos in and around me and revisit the riots with something new to say.
[With regards to the events in Kolkata,] as a Bengali and someone who has lived in Calcutta for the past 30 years, we have hit rock bottom. What happened and the way it was dealt with by the people in power, I think we’ve failed miserably as a society. But like Leonard Cohen says, there’s a crack in everything, and that’s how the light gets in.
I believe what Kolkata has witnessed in the past month is the only ray of hope. People in power need to respect the power of the people on the streets. My mother called me, when all of Calcutta was out on the streets for the ‘Reclaim the Night’ protests, and she said, “I would have gone, if you were here.” I came to know she did go all by herself, like many mothers. For me, this is hope and this is all the light we need in times like these.
Q. Gudgudi is a reminder of a horrific event from the not-so-distant past. What made you set it in that period?
A. It was more of a knee-jerk reaction. As filmmakers, we are time chroniclers or record-keepers in some way. As we see our history being changed and fabricated with each passing day, I feared a day would arrive when the 2002 riots would be wiped off from the history books. So I wanted Gudgudi to act as a reminder for future generations—that this happened in our beloved country where a man killed another man in the name of religion.
Q. It’s hard-hitting and also very visceral.
A. I just tried to be as real as I could. While watching the film, I wanted you to completely forget whether you are in Bombay, Calcutta, New York or Copenhagen. The idea was to transport you in the middle of the riots, keep you there for 25 minutes, and then yank you out of it.
Q. Have you been able to find an audience for it in India? Or has it been a challenge to get screenings?
A. I’m trying to show it at the Kolkata International Film Festival this year. I would like to find more festivals in India or spaces where I could screen the film and have a conversation. No, we haven’t faced any problems as yet. I think the focus of Gudgudi is something beyond the Hindu-Muslim narrative. There is no greater tragedy than a man killing another man.
Q. You’ll be taking the leap to features next.
A. I am currently in the development stage of two feature films. One of them will go on floors next year, hopefully. We are trying to lock the main actor. We have also been developing a web series for the past two years. It’s based on an incredible true story.