I went to watch this film alone in a multiplex in Vasant Kunj. The film has had a very limited release and it is difficult to find a show which suits your time and location. Some of my film club members told me that this was a film for which I will have to make an effort and take out time. I also read the review written by director Dibakar Bannerjee in which he has written : “I will see Ship of Theseus many times in my life. To most, I would advise to watch at least twice. Once, to enjoy it. Then once more to cherish it.”
After hearing such good things from a critically acclaimed director and my learned film club friends, there was no way I was going to let go of the film without it passing through my eyes and senses.
The first part of the film is about ‘Aliya’ , a photographer who has no vision. Photography has had me hooked since I started to learn the nuances a year or so back so I got very interested in this story. For this vision less photographer, photography is a way of finding her vision through the lens of the camera which she operates through senses other than vision. I marvel at the way she goes about her work.It is really interesting to see how she composes the pictures and later gets the feedback from her hubby about the picture in detail. One thing is very clear, she does not like pictures in color.
It’s not that lack of vision has no psychological effects on her. When asked whether lack of eyesight leaves her with limits and doubts, her reply is a very unconvincing ‘No.” When the response to this is “Amazing,” she retorts ‘Why is it so amazing to not have any limits or doubts?
Being so used to working on instincts and with her senses, her restored vision leaves her dissatisfied with her work behind the camera. When she packs the camera away and admires the beautiful landscape of the hills with her own eyes – does she realize that she does not need the medium of photography to be her sight anymore? While we dwell into this, the 2nd part of the film starts.
By the way I am told that entire film has been shot using Canon EOS 1D Mark IV which actually is not even a video camera but a full frame 35mm digital camera with HD video ! So when you watch the film you will realize there are a lot of long takes throughout the film. You can actually visualize just one or two people shooting the entire film without all those fancy cameras, cranes and paraphernalia’s.
The entire movie has lovely dialogues. For the first part I really liked: A frog once asked a centipede how is it able to walk on a hundred feet, so gracefully synchronized while the frog finds it difficult to manage even two. The centipede took a moment to analyze its own walk and was baffled. So as it tried to walk further its feet got entangled and it tripped.
The above stated dialogue fitted into the film beautifully and captured the dilemma of Aliya.
The second story is about the monk ‘Maitreya’ who makes it a purpose of his life to give the laboratory animals a better life till they are alive. If it was up to him he would have liked this activity of using animals for research totally banned. For this he runs to the court to take on the pharma bigwigs. Convinced that all research into medicines leads to torture and killing of animals, he refuses any treatment which involves medicines. He refuses to accept treatment even when his survival depends on it. In this story it is the banter between him and young ‘Charvaka’ (who is not a monk or anything but a law intern) that keeps your full attention . Charvaka has an important role as he challenges Maitreya’s beliefs at each stage. Some examples of ‘Charvaka’s’ wise words :
Being so used to working on instincts and with her senses, her restored vision leaves her dissatisfied with her work behind the camera. When she packs the camera away and admires the beautiful landscape of the hills with her own eyes – does she realize that she does not need the medium of photography to be her sight anymore? While we dwell into this, the 2nd part of the film starts.
By the way I am told that entire film has been shot using Canon EOS 1D Mark IV which actually is not even a video camera but a full frame 35mm digital camera with HD video ! So when you watch the film you will realize there are a lot of long takes throughout the film. You can actually visualize just one or two people shooting the entire film without all those fancy cameras, cranes and paraphernalia’s.
The entire movie has lovely dialogues. For the first part I really liked: A frog once asked a centipede how is it able to walk on a hundred feet, so gracefully synchronized while the frog finds it difficult to manage even two. The centipede took a moment to analyze its own walk and was baffled. So as it tried to walk further its feet got entangled and it tripped.
The above stated dialogue fitted into the film beautifully and captured the dilemma of Aliya.
The second story is about the monk ‘Maitreya’ who makes it a purpose of his life to give the laboratory animals a better life till they are alive. If it was up to him he would have liked this activity of using animals for research totally banned. For this he runs to the court to take on the pharma bigwigs. Convinced that all research into medicines leads to torture and killing of animals, he refuses any treatment which involves medicines. He refuses to accept treatment even when his survival depends on it. In this story it is the banter between him and young ‘Charvaka’ (who is not a monk or anything but a law intern) that keeps your full attention . Charvaka has an important role as he challenges Maitreya’s beliefs at each stage. Some examples of ‘Charvaka’s’ wise words :
· It gives me some kicks though, to know that, a part of me was a part of an animal once, a flame, a star. A part will become mineral, flow in a plant, sprout in a fruit, get pecked by a bird. Every atom of my body will be recycled by the universe. You think you are a person but you are a colony. A microcosm which has ten times more bacteria in its body...than it has human cells.
· I got you a gift. Alphabets. It's amazing how we imagine that just these few alphabets will someday arrange themselves in a way that everything will suddenly make perfect sense. A permutation of known words suddenly bringing forward a previously unknown meaning. It's so oppressive, this obsession with final answers
- Monks are supposed to be celibate, then why this much intellectual masturbation in first place?
I really enjoyed the third part about this simplistic Rajasthani stock broker who has had a successful kidney transplant. When he finds out that someone’s kidney had been stolen just before his transplant, he doubts his own NGO at first and once convinced that he was not the recipient, he traces the donee to Sweden to get the poor labourer his kidney back. This was a very unlikely scenario of a self centred stock broker doing this social service. It went against his known character. This dialogue to his Naani (whom he abhors for being busy in social work when his mother needed her the most) was particularly funny:
· Toh aapne kaunse jhande gaad diye! Kaunsi duniya badal daali? Desh aazadi ke liye lad raha tha toh aap maa ko padosiyon ke yahan chhod kar chali jaati thi gaaon gaaon logon ko batane ke liye - condom pehno condom pehno! Hogayi kranti? Hogayi samaj seva? aap ke kaam se kuch bhi farak padha hota toh yeh sawa sau karod kahan se aa jate!
There is more to the film than brilliant cinematography, dialogues, background music , performances and direction. The film flows smoothly taking you along with it. You can identify with characters and situations ; you can identify with chaotic roads and tight slums; you can identify with chaos at the courts and hospitals; and you can identify with the crimes in the names of research and organ transplants.
The film may be in 3 parts but it has an additional 4th part which just lasts for a few minutes. This part leaves the maximum impact on the audience when they leave the cinema hall. Whether this impact will convert into any good by these people (including me) to the society, only time will tell.
Anand Gandhi has made a film that we all should watch. We should celebrate the arrival of a brilliant director. We should watch the movie silently without any distractions. Please don’t use facebook , sms, twitter or email on your mobile while watching this film. It needs your full attention.
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