As the planks of Theseus’ ship needed repair, it was replaced part by part, upto a point where not a single part of the original ship remained in it, anymore. Is it then, still the same ship? If all the discarded parts were used to build another ship, which of the two, if either, is the real ship of Theseus?
Here’s a movie that doesn’t waste time getting down to brass tacks. With the above quote, soon as it starts, Ship of Theseus(SOT) unequivocally announces what it sets out to accomplish. Explore a "Worldful of paradoxes". Or is it a "World full of paradoxes?" Or maybe both?
Is deficiency in one faculty of the human body often balanced by an abundance in another? If you were to choose between having eyesight against having an eye(for things), what would you choose?
Would you refuse to partake of something that will save your Life just because it is "ill gotten?"
Remember that cliched dialogue many a Bollywood mother has used to dismiss her errant son - "Mujhe teri kamai se khareedi dawa nahin chahiye. Duur hoja meri nazron se." Many of us are non-vegetarians who "commission" a killing everytime they have their meat. Does it make us accomplices in the "crime"? And if the answer to this is in the affirmative, by extension, doesn’t using’All Out’ to get rid of(and kill) mosquitoes makes us’murderers’?
What if you have to take a large "favor" from someone to save your Life? Can such favors be bought? Should such favors be bought? What if you realize, like it or not, your survival is dependent upon such favors all the time? Is it humanly possible to make do without them?
Oh I almost forgot about the goings-on. Well, the movie is much like an interactive session wherein Man’s equation with his surroundings are explored by way of little’stories’ throwing straight forward questions aimed at demonstrating this equation.* The’instruments’ include a photographer who loses her vision and regains it later, a Monk dying of cirrhosis of the liver and a stockbroker who is perceived as a misfit by his family. All the three stories spinoff *questions that are very relevant and weigh upon all of us in one form or the other. And while there may not be any’Right’ or’Wrong’, there will surely be reason/logic behind the stance the protagonists take.
The film steers clear of straightjacket answers to these questions. This is very well summed up in Maitreya’s attitude when in reply to someone asking "* Kya aatma hai?", he replies "pata nahin." * This from a monk who believes "body is temporary and soul permanent." However, towards the third part, the film starts to slowly but surely get into something of a "conciliatory" mode, subtlety hinting at the necessity of a striking a middle path basis the premise that in a closed system a "take" from one side can be compensated by a "give" on the other. So that when one of the protagonists realizes he’s been party to crime(even if unknowingly) he sets out to put the record straight by fighting for the victim’s rights.
By the time the 3rd part is done, the viewer’s head is reeling with too many questions. But wait, help is on the way. In the short climax that follows, the movie moves from the micro perspectives of the protagonists to a more holistic macro view. This is where their place in the grander scheme of things is brought to the fore. So a’plank’ from one ship can be fit into another making it’survive’. Suchplanks may be fungible in nature as may the entire ship simply because its all a part of a "Bigger Ship."
The actors are all fantastic, the setups/locales very real, the screenplay very intelligent, the cinematography very tastefully done and the overall package very’taut’. But I feel with films such as this, the theme takes precedence over all else. Yes you could say this was all very "arty" but that, I suppose, would be missing the essence. **This movie has various things going for it.
Art is only one of them.*