'Q' (2014) Movie Review

Above: Q Poster IMDB credit

Q Movie Review (2014)

Brash and unforgiving 'Q' blasts your senses like a hammer, yet the air in the film is light. A ravished slum in India is home to a particularly seedy family, with the mother, actress Heeba Shah, in crises, with a small boy and a baby, when a new girl is introduced to her house she is tasked with taking care of her, until such time that she is taken or used.

I do not want to spoil this Netflix film, (India) it is called, yet, 'Q' is so horrible, yet enlightening at the same time, as it leaves more questions than it answers. What is the motivation, is it strictly money? Why even bother to dress up, and play the charade if the outcome is the same?

The boy is told not to friend the girl, and eventually they are left alone and do interact. The acting between the young leads is superb, natural, not like acting, more like a spy camera in the room. This is an Indian film and there is no dancing, no spectacle, just raw emotion, and a seething sadness permeating throughout, mixed in with occasional joy, such as the boy's birthday. Because of this, the audience is forced to listen intently to the dialogue, and even in silence facial expressions and body language speak volumes.

The further the movie progresses, one minute you want to just cry with Heeba Shah and her softness and caring for her own children, then the cold anger, and black heart rears it's ugly head in the later third. Is she a monster, or a victim of her own poverty. 'Q' asks the questions and leaves the viewers to decide. Kudos to Netflix for picking up this important film, and exposing a topic rarely talked about, in this manner.

Creator Sanjeev Gupta really made me think, get angry and want to do something, that said, what can we do, except talk about it, money motivates, and desperate people, at times will want to do anything for it.

I spoke at length with Casting Director and star Ashwin Shukla and he says that the shooting time was about one and a half months, and five different babies were used during production. He cast the two kids and at the time they were around 8 to 9 yrs old. I have never seen kids act like this before, again not coached but just being themselves, not like they were acting, just being.

The movie is really incredible, and rates an 8.5 out of 10, difficult subject matter, yet important for the world to see what horrors some children have to endure.

Subscribe to Netflix today @ www.netflix.com or if you are a subscriber, watch the film, and form your own opinions. https://www.netflix.com/title/80161850