Ek Picture Aadmi ko Insaan banaa detaa hai!

THE SHIP OF THESEUS!

This Gandhi’s ‘experiments with the truth’ affected me deeply. That’s rare! There are some films I can talk of in terms of ‘wonderful cinematography’, ‘outstanding transformation’, ‘a tad long’, ‘could do with at least 25 minutes less’ etc. A case in point is ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’, which I thoroughly enjoyed. (It obliterated the disaster that ‘Delhi 6’ was, in which the fantastic score by A R Rahman was criminally wasted!). So Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra really made a good film about an Indian legend. The value of the film increases for me because our sporting legends are constantly being seen these days as being easily corrupted by money. Not all sporting legends would gladly give up the rights of a film based on their lives for Re.1/=. But then that’s Milkha Singh (and half the battle’s won by the film maker given the legend he has decided to base his film on….add to that he has Farhan, Pavan, Divya, Binod Pradhan, Shankar Ehsaan and Loy and the rest of his very talented crew and he has a winner). But this piece is not about ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’.

This is about my response to Anand Gandhi’s ‘Ship of Theseus’. So much has been said about its virtues by people who are infinitely more talented, erudite thinkers and film makers the world over that it would be crazy of me to talk of the film’s merits in cinematic terms. The merits are abundant. But what I love about the film is the fact that it has a discourse. In our media very little is offered by way of a peaceful discourse between human beings. I stress peaceful because

1) There’s a paucity of respect for opposing viewpoints…period!

2) The causality of one’s actions is always glossed over by blame game.

3) Everyone talks and no one listens, therefore ANY discourse or ANY solution to even the smallest problem can never be arrived at.

The film starts with Aida who listens to everything around her very carefully. She is a photographer who is visually challenged, but she is not visionless just because she can’t see! You might not see as much once you get your sight back because then you lose control of the other senses that are helping you to compensate for the one you didn’t have. There’s also the relationship with the one with sight, Aida’s boyfriend. He is happy to relinquish control over her art allowing her to make the decisions because he also wants to compensate for her lack of independence. If she were sighted, would her boyfriend have been more honest and forceful about his impressions of her photographs? What stunning photos they are!

I can’t get her assured face, with those opaque eyes, and her eager ears, out of my mind. I can’t get the way she listens out of my mind. A whole new Mumbai opened up to me by the way she listened.

Maitreya and Charvaka form the next story. It is a haunting one. There is such depth in simplicity and starkness. It churns something deep down in your gut. The witty exchanges between the young Charvaka and the middle aged Maitreya make for some of the best exchanges I’ve heard in a long while and their wit is a great foil for the complicated thoughts and beliefs they are discussing. This is also the story that I personally related to the most because as a true believer of the Gandhian principles of non-violence, I keep asking myself hypothetical questions that severely test my moral fibre. When I see the buzzing fly and imagine what it could do to Maitreya’s bed sores I want to swat it that minute, non-violence be damned! If I react to fiction in this manner, am I truly non-violent in reality? Can we be faithful to our values and principles even under extreme circumstances? Does being rigidly non-violent end up being more violent in a way we hadn’t thought of? Does being rigidly independent end up making it more difficult for your significant others, making them suffer at times? Can extreme virtue be cruel? Is Maitreya’s decision of accepting a donated liver, a cop out or a higher understanding of truth?

A sea of lush green grass dancing at the whim of the wind separates Maitreya from Navin.

Navin is a person anybody could relate to. We’ve seen so many like him. He can’t separate himself from his stocks and shares. His world view changes when his activist Ajji makes him question his singular view of life. She is disappointed in his selfish living and feels one should go beyond oneself. Navin, like the aam aadmi wonders what the use of that is. But it sets him questioning himself. That is the first step to change. And Navin has a new mission. Navin discovers a sense of giving back to society. The compassion already exists in him (amply shown by the gentle, selfless way he gives his Ajji the bedpan) He also comes in touch with the harsh reality that sometimes your battle for a higher truth might not be looked upon in the same way by the person you are trying to help. At the end, this is all there is. I feel much better about 45% of my income being taxed now, though they don’t translate into any returns in terms of infrastructure. That’s all there is!

Sensing to Thinking to Feeling….the discourse is done through the body….a body common to all! Aida gets eyes, Maitreya gets a liver and Navin a kidney….all from the same body of that one brain dead man. Was he more helpful in his death than he was in his lifetime?

At the end, the sum of the parts of that one man, watch, as a shadow of the man who helped them live, goes deep inside a cave. Almost like a soul on the quest to eternal salvation, the shadow comes across beautiful sparkling stones in the cave and with the help of a lamp goes deeper and deeper.

Will he find a light inside the cave?

Will there be complete darkness, or riches, or happiness?

Will there be a new civilisation, the kind we can never imagine?

Will there be an end or will there be a beginning?

Thank you Anand Gandhi for this Ship of Theseus! Whether the planks are old or new, whether it is then the same ship or a different one, I loved travelling in it with a bunch of intelligent, witty, talented, compassionate, gentle, and above all, very humane beings. What more do I want from life?