Anand Gandhi
This is one name which I am not gonna forget anytime soon. I was completely dazzled and Inspired by his work called “Ship of Theseus”.
The film was released during July days of 2013. I was in Hyderabad then and had plans to watch it in theatre. But somehow I missed it. I am glad that I did. Because I did not have the required maturity to understand a film with philosophical and existential layers. You ask me “Now?”. Well I say “Not as bad as I was then”
Ship of Theseus is a gem of film and undoubtedly one of the most finest and remarkable films that have come from India.A film which proves that Indians can make films without compromising artistic liberty and sanity.
In this film, Anand Gandhi tried to interpret “Ship of Theseus paradox” in physical and philosophical form. The Paradox states “whether a ship that had been restored by replacing every single wooden part remained the same ship”.
The films consists of three stories with underlying themes of beauty,identity,righteousness,morality,skepticism,atheism,death,responsibility and justice.That is too much for our little brains right? But there lies the Beauty. Ship of Theseus is no average film,it cannot be passively watched like every other film. It demands our active participation throughout, It tinges our brain every time the protagonists start uttering their dialogues, It demands our attention. It moves us in all levels from cosmic to metaphysical to philosophical.
I dont want to reveal much about of the story line and be a spoilsport. But I want to sum up the story line by paraphrasing the film maker Anand gandhi himself:
“The three short stories evolved to fill in the three corners of the classical Indian trinity of Satyam-Shivam-Sunderam.”
“The pursuit of truth, the pursuit of righteousness and the pursuit of beauty”
Now to make this blog post more worthy I would like to paste some of the conversations that goes in the film.
1.
“If a ship is replaced part by part up to a point where not a single original part remains in it, is it still the same ship?”
2.
Reporter:So you mentioned in you site that you actually took up Photography after you have lost your eye sight to a cornea infection.Why photography?
Aaliya:Well, first to document, archive and remember. Then, to kind of explore,understand and see.
Reporter: So I guess, All art evolves from a need to record the apparent to a need to capture the essence?”
Aaliya:That is very well put.I mean that’s exactly how it’s been for me.When I was first time taking pictures, I was very much amused by the character of the perfumer in Sunskind’s novel. Just the Idea of a man trying to capture every scent, starting from people to surroundings to experiences.You know it’s very much amusing.
3.
Aaliya:Listen, these are the things I depend upon,right? I have to draw opinion and assurance about my own art away from what everyone else says.
Naveen:Yes, but you have continued to produce great work..
Aaliya:Says who?
Naveen:Says everybody.
Aaliya: Who the hell is everybody?Everyone is so fucking stupid.They watch stupid soap operas.They fight over religion and ideas.
4.
Vinay: The male silkworm can smell a single molecule of pheromone. If I had an olfaction as developed, I wouldn’t be able to stand your smell…
Aaliya Kamal: You wouldn’t be able to stand your own smell… with your frequency of showers per month…
Vinay: Even subtle differences… would I have seen the world very differently if I had smaller nostrils? If I was taller or shorter?
Aaliya Kamal: Or would the world have been a different place if Hitler was shorter? Or Gandhi taller?
5.
Charvaka:Which email can attain cyber enlightenment?
Maitreya:Which?
Charvaka:One that has no attachments.
Charvaka:Which email can attain cyber enlightenment?
Maitreya:Which?
Charvaka:One that has no attachments.
Aaliya
1.”Does reality exist when no one is looking?”
2. “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.”
3.”Why is it so amazing to not have any limits or doubts?”
Maitreya
1.”There was an island and you were to be reborn as a tormentor or a slave. The tormentor would make life hell for you, will give infinite pain to you and your kin, just for his pleasure. And he had no remorse over his actions to crush his victim. Add to that there was no karma, no soul, no retribution, no being responsible for your actions. And you had to choose any one of them. Who would you be?”
2.”You see, in his world, it’s not all humanity that’s equal, it’s all existence that’s equal.”
3.”Why do monks beg alms?Because hunger drives the world, and once that’s out of the way, there are more important things we can focus on, and also it makes me more patient and humble.All ethics must be arrived at in isolation of religious beliefs.Rituals are symbolic theater. Once you have accepted the symbol, or the truth behind the symbol, there is no need to stress on it all the time.”
4.”I guess we agree with reason, but now it’s a matter of disposition.”
Charwaka:
1.”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.”
“Its so oppressive, this obsession we have with final answers.We invent God, soul… heaven, afterlife…even life-imitating technology, all sorts of transcendence to cope with the idea of an absolute end. And then, we die for an idea that promises us some sort of immortality.”
“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.”
“U for Unilateralis Cordyceps.The fungus enters an ant’s body through its respiration.It invades its brain and changes how it perceives smell, because ants do everything they do from their smell of pheromones right?So this microscopic little fungus spore then makes the ant climb up the stem of plant and bite hard on a leaf with an abnormal force.The fungus then kills the ant and continues to grow, leaving the ant’s exoskeleton intact.So a small fungus drives an ant around as a vehicle, uses it as food and shelter and then as ultimate monument to itself, and when the fungus is ready to reproduce, its fruiting bodies grow from the ant’s head and rupture, releasing the spores, letting the wind carry them to more unsuspecting food.There, Our entire idea of free will down the bin.One single small fungus does that to an ant.You have trillions of bacteria in your body.How do you know where you end and where your environment begins.?
2.”Monks are supposed to be celibate, then why this much intellectual masturbation in first place?”
“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.”
“U for Unilateralis Cordyceps.The fungus enters an ant’s body through its respiration.It invades its brain and changes how it perceives smell, because ants do everything they do from their smell of pheromones right?So this microscopic little fungus spore then makes the ant climb up the stem of plant and bite hard on a leaf with an abnormal force.The fungus then kills the ant and continues to grow, leaving the ant’s exoskeleton intact.So a small fungus drives an ant around as a vehicle, uses it as food and shelter and then as ultimate monument to itself, and when the fungus is ready to reproduce, its fruiting bodies grow from the ant’s head and rupture, releasing the spores, letting the wind carry them to more unsuspecting food.There, Our entire idea of free will down the bin.One single small fungus does that to an ant.You have trillions of bacteria in your body.How do you know where you end and where your environment begins.?
2.”Monks are supposed to be celibate, then why this much intellectual masturbation in first place?”
Now I would like to wind up this article with an “Ink Talk” by the director Anand Gandhi. A speech that blew away my mind by giving me that “Intellectual Orgasm“. I am sure it will, blow yours too!
Cheers!
Surya Speaks 