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Ship of Theseus

Yoda-esque

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rkt.india Grand Master

rkt.india

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Movie Review: Anand Gandhi’s ‘Ship of Theseus’ is beautiful but flawed

Everyone who has seen Ship of Theseus has loved the film. It’s won awards and praise by critics and filmmakers (even Karan Johar is reportedly a fan). And yet, it seems to be a given that Ship of Theseus will not be a box office success. Kiran Rao, who has “presented” the film, said that she didn’t rope in her husband, actor Aamir Khan, as “presenter” because “it would have been a problem for the film because a lot of people would have come to see the film because of Aamir and not liked the film,” she said in an interview. “It’s not a film that can take a wide audience. Everybody can’t walk in and watch this film because they are not prepared for this kind of cinema, and then they might be disappointed.” Rao makes Ship of Theseus sound more like an examination than a film, but there is an important question nestled in her observation: what are you willing to make allowances for as an audience? Because when it comes to Indian cinema, whether it’s Bollywood or non-mainstream or regional, you have to be ready to suspend something. When you pick a film to watch, you’re actually deciding which of your sensibilities must be squashed for the next few hours. The audience for Ship of Theseus must enter the auditorium with a different set of criteria than what decides if a Bollywood film is a hit or miss. You’re expected to keep in mind that style can trump credibility, that this is director Anand Gandhi’s first film, and the focus is upon the intriguing idea that inspired it rather than the set of events that make up the plot of Ship of Theseus. Inspired by the Theseus paradox, which is helpfully provided at the start of the film, Ship of Theseus tells three stories one after another. The first stars a blind photographer. The hero of the second story is a (presumably Jain) monk. The last story is about a young man whose profession is intimately tied to meeting someone called Yamamoto and watching the movement of stocks on his laptop. The three characters have one trait in common — they’ve all had or need an organ transplant. Aaliya, the photographer, discovers sight when her corneas are replaced. Instead of making her a better photographer, being able to see overwhelms her and she’s unable to focus on a subject. Maitreya, the monk, campaigns fiercely against the pharmaceutical industry’s cruel practices of animal testing and then discovers he needs a liver transplant. Without it, he will die, but the transplant would mean taking medicines made by the companies he’s attacked. Navin, who just can’t get a meeting with Yamagoto, chances upon an organ trafficking racket when he realises he may have been given an illegally-procured kidney. Against the backdrop of a bustling and cacophonous Mumbai — which has rarely looked as beautiful as it does in Ship of Theseus, courtesy Pankaj Kumar’s superb cinematography — these three choose to put their lives on hold and do some soul-searching. In many ways, the frenetic pace of their thoughts and the internal tickings of their bodies are mirrored in the manic physicality of Mumbai. The furious internal battle is sharply portrayed by Egyptian photographer Aida El-Kashef, who is outstanding as Aaliya, and Neeraj Kabi’s Maitreya. Sameer Khurana provides the few moments of humour in Ship of Theseus as Mannu, a tubby, pragmatic and disgruntled sidekick to Navin. Gandhi, who has written and directed Ship of Theseus, is an erudite filmmaker. From philosophy, curious biological phenomena and a debate about whether an ideal can exist independent of its champions, there’s a wealth of thought-provoking little nuggets scattered in the conversations that make up the film. Unfortunately, this erudition is also Ship of Theseus’s downfall. The story is so obsessed with articulating concepts that the dialogue becomes laboured, characterisation suffers and credibility is stretched to breaking point. The characters in Ship of Theseus are vessels for ideas, vessels that perform particular functions. However, aside from Aaliya to some extent (all credit to El-Kashef), they have no personality traits. For instance, how does one describe Maitreya the person? After all, “the monk who was part an animal rights campaign and suffered cirrhosis of the liver” isn’t a personality description. Ship of Theseus begins unravelling with Maitreya’s story and by the time it’s Navin’s turn, the storytelling has completely unspooled. What does Navin do and why is the relationship with his grandmother so haphazardly articulated? Why is his grandmother hospitalised seemingly indefinitely for a broken leg? Why does Navin get so obsessed with one particular case of organ trafficking? Why on earth does the story shift to Stockholm? Is it really that easy to walk into a person’s home and slam accusations upon them with next to nothing by way of evidence? Gandhi offers answers to some of these questions, but none are convincing. However, just as while watching a commercial Bollywood film we’re not supposed to question the realism or melodrama, similarly in films like Ships of Theseus, the audience is expected to discount problems in storytelling and focus their appreciation upon the ideas being articulated by the film. If you can do that, Ship of Theseus will charm you because it is, for all its flaws, an assured debut. Whether you should have to make such concessions is a separate debate. Gandhi ends Ship of Theseus with a little video showing the interiors of a cave. All we see are glittering, crystalline rock and the shadow of a man with the camera to his eye. If you keep in mind that the Theseus paradox was put forward by the Platonist philosopher Plutarch, the first thing that comes to mind is Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. In The Republic, Plato likens most of human society to people imprisoned in a cave and resigned to watch shadows on the rock face, believing the ephemeral to be constant and real. The role of a philosopher is to find his way out of the cave and then try to enlighten the other prisoners. Perhaps tellingly, the man seen in the cave at the end of Ship of Theseus seems transfixed by the wall and his own shadow cast upon it. He doesn’t make his way out.
http://www.firstpost.com/bollywood/movie-review-anand-gandhis-ship-of-theseus-is-beautiful-but-flawed-965913.html?utm_source=top_menu
trundlerNO1 Newbie

trundlerNO1

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Whats the movie about?
SYNOPSIS: Ship of Theseus explores questions of identity, justice, beauty, meaning and death through the stories of an experimental photographer, an ailing monk and a young stockbroker.
trundlerNO1 Newbie

trundlerNO1

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Critical Response Reviews for the film have been largely positive. Few reviewers named “one of the most significant films to have come out of India”. Members of the Critics’ Circle, UK were invited to select and introduce a screening of “the film that changed their life,” to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the organisation. The list of 15 films included The 400 Blows, Annie Hall, Raging Bull, The Battle of Algiers and Hamlet.The president of the British Federation of Film Societies Derek Malcolm chose Ship of Theseus. Screen International commended the film as being, “Cerebral, visually stunning and completely different to anything we’ve seen before from independent Indian cinema… [a film] aiming at art and importance rather than mere profit.” [40] Variety wrote, “Indie Indian cinema has finally come of age on the international fest scene, and no film better demonstrates this than Ship of Theseus.” Canadian film critic, Marc Saint Cyr, after viewing the film at the Rotterdam film festival, in his Senses of Cinema review said, “unquestionably describes [the film] as [a] true revelation”. He also noted the dialogue to be, “consistently gripping, strikingly intelligent, and occasionally laced with surprising humour”. The Globe and Mail called it “an intellectual, contemplative film”, and also pointed out “its occasional tendency to take its abstract ideas on the nature of self-identity and wrap them into neat plot twists can mildly disappoint. A small criticism though.”
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Yoda-esque Newbie

Yoda-esque

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Dibakar Banerjee: Why you should watch Ship of Theseus twice Most new voices in Indian cinema are damned by vacuous praise the moment they dare to do something even superficially different. This makes sure they never do something different again for fear of losing that precious, paternal pat of approval as they enter the pearly gates of the Establishment. A harsher fate awaits those films that are different at the very core. This is the fate of being ignored in deathly silence, hanging for years in pre release limbo, and then sinking to oblivion. Thanks to a tenacious director, an inspired producer and a forward thinking studio, Ship of Theseus will escape both these fates. It cannot be ignored and it cannot be given inane praise and forgotten. To those who want to experience a vision - that elusive thing every film claims to have but few exhibit - SOT will be water after a long walk in the desert. Anand Gandhi's vision made me forget that I was watching a film. Through astounding technique and painstaking detailing, he managed to draw me into his vision of life without me being aware of it. Every frame, every sound, every bit of business or action seemed disarmingly candid and chancy - yet somehow at the end of the film I was aware of the immense crafting and design that had gone into making me believe in this 'life like" experience. Three stories entwined around a central premise, no matter how novel and rewarding as in this case, is not a format one can call new. Yet SOT is fresh and delightfully surprising from start to finish because it doesn't resort to any tricks or showy gimmicks within the format. It just fearlessly takes you deeper and deeper into its stated premise till you do something a film rarely makes you do these days - discover humanity stirring within you. A photographer trying to rediscover her vision, a monk fighting a court case, a stock market speculator trying to do something he has never done before - trying to help - these are people I could know. But do I know them deeply? What is this thing called "knowing?" SOT makes you know them in a devastatingly bare, naked manner. The lawyer you saw in High Court. The girl in harem pants who walked past you in Khar without a glance at you. The man who shoved you at Malad station. The labourer who polished your front door. SOT brings you very close to them, without the slightest bit of self-consciousness or pretentiousness. This, in an English film meant for the urban audience, is in itself astounding. But its in the portrayals and performances of those characters that the final triumph of the film lies. They could have been "cinematic" - displaying a mix of spunk, humour, a bit of love, sex, rousing dialogues, posturing - we all know the staple of "cinema". Yet, Anand takes the hard way and portrays them in subtle, realistic hues as they go through their quest in the most seemingly ordinary way. This could have resulted in documentary. But it does not; because the portrayal of everyday ordinariness is just a technique that Gandhi uses to bring us into close proximity with his characters -so close that we trust them. When has a film last done this to you? And after we trust them, and unknown to us, have started traveling with them in their quest, we are given the surprise, the reward, the satisfied sigh - just the way we want in a film that we have come to trust deeply. There is no cheating. No cop out. No contrived twists. It was just the way it was meant to end. And lo and behold - it's a happy ending!!! I have never seen a film that ends on an upper note feel this natural, disarming and unassuming at its climax while drenching you in deep emotions. The way most of the cast of SOT acts it reinvents the term. The techniques of workshops, rehearsals and improvisations used here will set the rulebook for other directors. Neeraj Kabi , Sohum Shah and a host of other (non)actors discovered here show us the way to dramatic truth with an honesty rarely seen in Indian cinema. The cut from Mumbai to Stockholm in one story will be in the list of all time cinematic classics, yet it is not self conscious. Reams will be written about the cinematography. But I'm sure it was not intended to advertise its presence. Just like the performances and the direction, the images mesmerize you by the fearless pursuit of truth in the frame. They don't give up in their relentlessness, and that's why again reach a zone where you're not seeing the film, you're in it. 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. http://www.mumbaimirror.com/columns/columns/Dibakar-Banerjee-Why-you-should-watch-Ship-of-Theseus-twice/articleshow/21151933.cms

Crookbond Newbie

Crookbond

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Ship of Theseus will be available for free download from January 15

As part of Recyclewala Labs' open source initiative, an HD quality version of Ship Of Theseus film will be available for free download and streaming in India at www.cineoo.com/sot from 15th January. While there will be no charges whatsoever to legally download or see the film, viewers will have an option to make a voluntary contribution of any amount to us at any time, which will also encourage us to make all the content we produce at Recyclewala Labs in future to be open source.
https://www.facebook.com/RecyclewalaLabs/posts/10203109654206777
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