Ship of Theseus(2013)

Cast: Aaliya kamal, Neeraj kabi, Shohum Shah

Plot and Storyline:

Ship of Theseus is based on Theseus paradox- “On a Voyage Theseus’s ship gets damaged and part by part all the parts of the ships are replaced in the sea. After it is done will the ship remain the same?”. The film follows the life of the there different persons – An experimental  photographer, An ailing monk and A Stock broker whose identities changes in the course of the film.

The first character of the film is Aaliya Kamal( played by Aida El-Kashef),a blind photographer who loses her eyesight due to a cornea infection and she is in the process of getting a replacement. She becomes a photographer after he loses her sight and uses only her hearing skills to take photographs, She becomes quite famous  with the local press when asked why photography she explains  a line from Patrick Suskind’s novel “ to Capture every essence of life , that is the purpose of art”. She also explains that she can’t wait to start her life as a photographer after getting the eye replacement. After her surgery, she feels quite difficult to adjust; she gets frustrated all the time trying to adjust to her new identity.

The Second part of the film s of Maiterya (played by Neeraj kabi)-  A Jain Monk who lives life in seclusion along with his fellow members, a very rare group of people in the city of Mumbai. He wakes up daily and goes to the court on foot to fight for a case against animal cruelty. Maiterya is examined with Liver sclerosis for which he needs immediate transplant; He starts to starve to death as it the customary practice in their life when a monk is faced with an incurable ailment.

The third and final story of the film is of a stock broker Navin (played by Shohum Shah) who has a recent Kidney transplant.  He  sees a man whose kidney gets stolen in the same hospital where he does a transplant. He is afraid that he was the one who has stolen his kidney and tries to offer him money, He refuses and walks away.  Navin finds that his kidney was given to man in Stockholm , He travels to Stockholm and succeeds to get money and a transplant for his friend in India. But when he calls home he finds that the man is only interested in money and not a righteous solution for him.

Verdict:

The film ends with all three of them watching a screening of a cave explorer in a museum. The question is, Are they the same persons now?

All the three characters in the film undergo an change in the film, the struggle they undergo to adjust to that change is beautifully captured in the film, the cinematography is like anything I have ever seen in any regional film, it suits the style of the film, very contemporary.  Superb acting by the Monk – Neeraj Kabi  actually lost 16 kgs to suit the starvation period.  The film was produced by Kiran Rao and directed by Debutante Anand Gandhi. After 3 years of filming, it was screened in Torontto film festival, It was considered as “the hidden gem of the year” and one of the critics praised this as “fearlessly contemporary”.This is film is quite difficult to understand, i could get a part of what the director what the director was trying to tell after watching it a few times and reading about it. Kudos to the producer for undertaking such a experimental subject and I feel that it was one of the best film ever to come out in the last decade that was this offbeat and honest.