Do you think sometimes seeing a novel from the perspective of a ‘White Man’s Novel’ or an ‘African Novel’ can be misleading? Achebe famously called Joseph Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness a racist novel.
in Goa since the last election. All that has an impact on me and how I think about the subject I choose to work with,” he says.
The story of Garbage, produced by Shaailesh R Singh and Hansal Mehta of Karma Entertainment and Media LLP, and co-produced by Q, revolves around the lives of Phaniswar (Tanmay Dhanania), Nanaam (Satarupa Das) and Rami (Trimala Adhikari).
Phanishwar lives with Nanaam, whom he keeps in chains. Rami, a medical student and victim of revenge porn, has sought refuge and escape in Goa, when she stumbles into the strange but placid lives of Phanishwar and Nanaam.
In its weird twists and turns, Q says, the In my latest book, Globalectics: Theory and Politics of Knowing, I have argued for a globalectic reading of literature. Sometimes, silences in the work of art can speak volumes. I have recently published an article in the New York Times on Conrad. While accepting Achebe’s critique, I said how the text also portrays colonial capitalism as robbery and mass murder, and
‘Q’ WAS THE ONLY INDIAN DIRECTOR WITH A FILM AT THE BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL 2018
story also represents the world’s current tendency to normalise the bizarre.
“I feel that we are in the age of the stupid. And things will get more and more chaotic. Basically what we are losing out on is meaning. You don’t know what things mean anymore because meaning is being considered irrelevant as meaning is being changed all the time,” he says.
US President Donald Trump is the biggest example of this, he says — not only in how bizarre those words still sound together, but in the way he occupies the Oval Office and yet feels free to tinker with the meaning of reality all the time.
“Meanings are constantly shifting, changing, depending on the time and space,” Q says. “And people like him are benefiting from it. This kind of mass hoodwinking is considered to be okay right now.”
According to Q, the change is happening in the kind of the lens we used to wear to look at these things. The lens is shifting or just slipping away.
“Earlier there was political correctness, moral correctness, many other factors in each society that helped people to check themselves in or think twice before giving opinions on anything. Now that lens is not there anymore and that also is being heavily aided by the digital age. Suddenly people are accessing and sharing information without context and context has become immaterial. It’s quite unnerving how that is considered to be absolutely okay.”
Being at Berlin, he says, was inspiring. “This is arguably the second biggest film festival in the world, after Cannes. Getting selected for the Panorama section is validation for the film and for me that we are on the right track in terms of world cinema. We are competing with the people who inspire us.”
It was also surreal, he adds, to be screened alongside Human, Space, Time and Human by the South Korean filmmaker Kim Ki-Duk.
“When we started doing Garbage, I was recommending films for everyone to watch. One of the films I was carefully referencing was The Isle by Kim Ki-Duk.”
But there’s still a question about how to access his films if someone wants to watch them. To this he laughingly responds that only in India is he asked this question.
“My film doesn’t get commercial releases like other feature films do. But if you really want to watch it, you will find it like I have, all the films that I want to watch. They are harder to get than an average film and that makes the journey of watching the film more interesting or more engaging.”
He compares this to going to a library and finding a book.
“This is a film with a strong political message. So when I decided to co-produce, I didn’t think about getting it a typical release,” says co-producer Shaailesh R Singh. “The strong metaphor of Garbage is that our minds are also like garbage, in need of cleaning-up. And it makes me really proud that Garbage was the only Indian representation in Berlin. That says we are on the right path.”
I feel that we are in the age of the stupid. Basically what we are losing out on is meaning.
QAUSHIK MUKHERJEE , ‘Q’ , Director