Tasher Desh.

       "Why do you want to fly away, when it's far more sensible to live in a cage?"

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Today I went to this pretty cool event : http://www.indiearth.com/xChange2013/ConferenceProgram.aspx

Found it through Twitter, just when I was despairing that nothing ever happens in this city. Went for it with some friends. Wanted to check out some bands, but the music events were way too late (around midnight) for us to go to.

So anyway, we ended up going for the film program. When I looked up the schedule, I was excited to see Tasher Desh by Q on the list. Why?

Q, is one of the coolest modern Indian directors. He's done some of the most revolutionary (in both senses of the word) Indian films I've ever seen, including Gandu (not seen this fully) and Love in India. I'm also eagerly awaiting his new documentary, Sari.
He has many other talents as well, like being the frontman of a band, Gandu Circus.

Going by all that, I had high expectations for Tasher Desh. I read reviews, which were very glowing. Knowing Q's work, I wasn't surprised. Then, I saw the trailer.

Just wow. Blew me away. I knew then I HAD to see it. So I did.

The screening room was perfect. Quiet, with great speakers, and soundproofed totally.

The movie starts :

It's basically an adaptation of a Tagore play of the same name, set in a strange, trippy world that's like a medieval Indian society, but with a strong European feel, and stuck in ruined castles, and with barely any people. Not for long though : The movie shifts to somewhere else, and the craziness ensues. The card people from the trailer make an appearance, and the rest of the movie is pretty much set there.

Now, I'm not gonna talk much about the story, which is a good thing because it was pretty much abstract and had no concreteness. Pretty open ended. Also because it's better seen than spoken about, because it'd make a different impression on everyone.

However, the movie made me think a lot, in simultaneously different paths. It was one of the most unique Indian movies I've seen till date. Some of the things that really stood out to me :

• The editing. It was just world class stuff, could compete with editing from American or world movies, that's how good it was. It had a really nice sense to it. It'd be abrupt, subtle, jarring, glitchy, smooth - whatever the situation required. There was a glitchy introduction scene when the 'actual' movie, ie, the play's content begins, that was just amazing. It was a scene that starts, and then gets stuck, and starts glitching in this sorta pixelating way, and then continues!
• The language : Well, I don't speak Bengali. However even then I'd be able to tell when English words get mixed up with a language as is in the case with colloquial Hindi and Tamil (Tamil has more so than Hindi, ironically!). The language in the movie IIRC used the original Bengali text of the okay - Tagore's own lines. That means very minimal English influence in word choice, almost 0. (Minimal Perso Arabic words also, AFAIK). I could pick out a lot of literary type words (tatsama ones), which gave it a grand feel akin to using lofty, older English for a movie. That gave it a really striking elegance to my ears. (Any Bengalis can tell me if I'm close to the mark and how it sounded to them.) 
• Spontaneity : One of the things that defines modern Indian society to me, especially in contrast with the West, is the inertia of the society. We struggle to let go of things, and our worse cultural aspects tend to stick around for generations. However, I feel in modern days things are speeding up thanks to the much faster pace of growth, plus globalization and the internet. Plus, younger people, including me, are more used to either living in a comparatively faster bubble of society, or identify with one. So there's a culture clash there. The movie was kinda a metaphor for that to me, but not in an in your face way : Rather builds up the frustration and then lets it go, with the results being ambiguous. Thinking back, when Tagore wrote the play, something similar was going on in Bengali society, with the changes and formation of a national identity.
• Sexuality : In this movie, as the lead actress Rii Sen said at the venue (Yes, she was there! To promote the film and to talk a little about it.), the expression of the female sexuality was much more subtle and aesthetic as opposed to in your face and crude. Another thing was, the women were shown as being in control of it and acting on it, in spite of opposition from the higher ups and peers. Again, in contrast with society, and also in very stark contrast with most Indian movies, where this sorta stuff is not portrayed very well generally.
• Counterculture feel : This movie had a strong counterculture feel to it, with its theme of rebellion, its psychedelic, dark sounding music, and general abstractness and its very nature of being different and eclectic in concept and execution. From the editing to the idea to the music to the costumes.
• Aesthetics : As you can see from the trailer, the movie had a strong commitment to a certain aesthetic sense : The eccentric costumes of the card people, the old, trashy costumes of the prince and his retinue, the run down castles and their furniture, the make up, and the general visual feel it had.
• Camera work : The camera work in this, according to the guy who did the editing (also at the venue),  was done by both Q, and another camera man. One shot was still, and the other one was running around. Both were used in the film to great effect. You've suddenly got steady shots, and suddenly haphazard ones.
• Music : The soundtrack to this movie had very varied styles, jazzy tunes, folksy tunes, and electronic sounding ones, not to mention the mix within the songs themselves. Add a nice sound production and great lyrics to this mix, and you've got some really cool music. Add that to the visuals the music was portrayed over and you've got a great movie soundtrack. The music visuals were closer to musicals than their Western counterparts, seeing as it's a movie based on a play, but thankfully a far cry away from the senseless excesses of Bollywood song and dance routines. This, to me, is a perfect balance that they struck, that really needs to be seen more in Indian cinema. 
• Relevance : Now, a lot of 'intellectuals' in India have some very theoretical points that are either arrived at through mental masturbation, envisioning an ideal society, denial, or projection of ideas onto others. In my opinion, this movie was smart and did not preach or claim to have any answers, yet still stuck to its sincerity and made several points and spoke on certain levels. Rather than 'THIS IS IT', it was more like 'So, have you considered...'.  
• Open ended-ness : This was nice because even though the movie was very different from usual, and had a lot going on, it was very abstract and could be interpreted in any way. This was confirmed to be Q's intent at the venue, by the guy who did the editing. The whole movie was what you make of it, rather than pushing an agenda or (a) message(s).

To finish off, here's brilliant review mirroring my own thoughts (though in much more detail).