4.5/5
Stars
A gifted female photographer, a devout monk
and a money-minded stock broker, acquire a new lease of life owing to organ
transplants. The film, directed by debutante Anand Gandhi, has been screened at
the Toronto International Film Festival 2012. It was also screened at the 14th
Mumbai Film Festival under the 'International Competition' section. Shivom Oza
reviews this film.
The film is a must-watch, not just for its
'intellectual' content or its technical finesse, but the relevance of its
subject too. It raises quite a few questions on topics as diverse as –
Religion, Culture, Morality, Righteousness, Social activism, the works.
Director Anand Gandhi has accumulated great performances, breathtaking visuals,
splendid dialogues, 'real' locations and more importantly, a fantastic subject,
in one film. And this is no mean feat.
The film is divided into three stories. The
first one is about a gifted photographer, Aliya (Aida El Kashef). She captures
terrific visuals with her camera and can work wonders with her snaps during the
editing. Rarely is she ever dissatisfied with what she's clicked. Aliya's
considered an extremely special talent, not only because she is a great
visualizer. Her gift lies in the fact that despite being blind, she is able to
eke out a good picture purely on her sense of hearing and touch. Although
blindness isn't a major handicap for her as far as photography goes, she gets a
cornea transplant done anyway. Having gotten her vision back, it could be
assumed that she gets even better at photography than before. However, she
doesn't.
The second story is about a devout Hindu
monk, Maitreya (Neeraj Kabi). He is known for championing the cause of animal
rights and has been fighting a case against scientific laboratories for
conducting product tests on their animals. Although he is in agreement with the
fact that animals have to be butchered in order to conduct these tests/
manufacture a product, he is against their ill-treatment prior to their
slaughter.
He shares his ideas about life, religion,
existence and karma with a young law intern Charvaka (Vinay Shukla). Their
conversations completely light up the proceedings and provide the much needed
comic relief. At the same time, the ideas that they discuss are extremely
thought-provoking and do get the viewer to introspect. Maitreya's problems
begin when he is diagnosed with last stage liver cirrhosis. His condition
requires him to take large doses of medicines every day. The dichotomy is that
these medicines are manufactured by the same pharmaceutical companies that he's
been fighting the animal rights case against.
According to the monk, all
existence should be considered equal and not just humanity. Does he go back on
his ideologies and get the treatment done or should he practice what he
preaches?
The third story is about Navin (Sohum Shah),
a young stock broker who has just gotten a kidney transplant done. Having been
fixated to the idea of making big money, he never pays any heed to his 'social
activist' grandmother's advice that he should go out, experience the real world
and fight for something right. Navin comes from a different school of thought.
His opinion is that going from village-to-village, distributing condoms amongst
the natives is not really going to help. He means that an individual should put
his/her own needs before anything else. Add a little bit of compassion, if you
please, but largely it's about his/her self-interests. His dichotomy begins
when he learns about a poor labourer Shankar whose kidney had been stolen in
lieu of an appendicitis operation. Starting to get doubts about whether
Shankar's kidney was transplanted to his body, Navin takes it upon himself to
get to the bottom of the truth. His idea about life undergoes a change as well.
All the three stories put forth important
ideas. The first one conveys that your disability could actually become your
greatest weapon. The second one conveys that one could compromise on their
'ideals' to save their own lives. The third one portrays the psyche of an
individual who knows that he's been a part of something wrong and that the
wrongdoing has worked to his benefit.
At no point does the film, albeit full of
interesting and thought-provoking ideas, get slow or in filmy jargon
'meditative'. The dialogues of the film really stand out, especially in the
second and the third story. Gandhi has perfectly imbibed 'Mumbai' lingo into
the dialogues and at the same time, given them a universal appeal. A lot of
scenes, for instance, the conversations between Maitreya and Charvaka, the
banter between Navin and his driver Mannu (played by Sameer Khurana), Navin's
heated debate with his grandmother, among others, will evoke a lot of guffaws.
And it should be noted that these scenes are not funny because they are filled
with humour. It's because they talk about something that's real and relevant in
today's society. It's the contradictions and the sarcasm that you will find
funny.
The story, in itself, is a work of genius.
Debutante Anand Gandhi has had the courage to come up with these issues, which
are not much-talked-about, and has tackled them with élan. Another interesting
aspect about the film is that it does not put forth rights and wrongs. You will
find grey areas in every story and there is no 'convenient' closure provided.
There are times when you feel that the
second story does slow down a bit. Despite having such well-written scenes, too
much attention is paid to the visuals. You can't help but feel that the monk's
story does overstay its welcome. This was the one and only flaw that you could
possibly find in this masterpiece.
The finale of the film escalates it to a
completely different level. It is a moment when all the pieces are put together
and you start making sense of the rather philosophical quote that they use at
the beginning of the film, "If the parts of a ship are replaced, bit-by-bit,
is it still the same ship?"
The principal cast has delivered wonderful
performances. It is difficult to imagine anyone else playing the three leads
apart from Aida, Neeraj and Sohum.
The visuals have been superbly captured by
Pankaj Kumar. The editor-quartet Adesh Prasad, Sanyukta Kaza, Satchit Puranik
and Reka Lemhenyi have worked wonders with the film. Anand Gandhi has given
India its 'international film' of the year.
This film could redefine 'independent
cinema' in India. It is not a deep film. You do not need to be an 'art-film'
admirer to like Ship Of Theseus. If you do not agree with the ideologies
conveyed through the film, you could take back the breath-taking visuals and
the sparkling dialogue. There's something in it for everyone. A must, must
watch!
Shivom
Oza
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