Ship of Theseus

Three short stories interlinked. This has been done before multiple times in multiple ways and in multiple angles. But has it been done better? That is the question that this movie poses. It’s for you to answer; it’s tough you know to answer nowadays because quantum physics, science, and spirituality leave you with more and more questions without right answers. Maybe, variable answers.

Anand Gandhi, I assume, is a voracious reader and the film just goes on to showcase the books he has read, philosophies he has read, spiritual talks/discourses he has heard, and discussions he may have had with people. I am sure that he and I have read the same books, listened to the same discourses, and had same discussions though with different people. Because the movie’s method of tying up the three short stories and the content of the shorts are pretty similar to a feature film’s screenplay that I had conceptualized about six months ago: The Carpet. Ship of Theseus asks the very same questions that The Carpet would have asked and maybe, even answered. Maybe!

The movie, though brilliant in all respects, stops just short of being an experience for me. It remains a movie though it aimed for more. And yes, I did hold out my hand more than once; I could not relate with any of the three leads. They were characters living on this very earth but they were not convincing enough. They did not feel real.

They espoused a very non-native language (English) and had some gems of wisdom too but the conversations felt staged. But then, it could just be me and my realism.

Ship of Theseus stays a very honest film till the very end; it has genuinely good cinematography, screenplay, and well-etched characters.

One of the best shots of the film for me is where the camera lens cover falls into the rapid river below and the photographer has no choice but to capture a scene internally. Revealing without showing… at its best.

The basis of the title is provided right at the beginning of the film. I loved that.

“Where do I end and the other begin?” Is it like that? I mean, is the question valid? Ramana has asked and answered this umpteen times. Thanks, Anand Gandhi for framing the question in the form of a film.

I will await your next. And, thanks to Kiran Rao for bringing this gem out.

The 4As

Ahmedabad, a city that is just 400-odd kms from Mumbai. A city where you are welcomed by a hill made of landfill with scores of scavengers doing circumambulations over it. That scene, as I knocked on the city walls, kind of reminded me of Arunachala!

And I am in Ahmedabad only after 33 years of wandering and travelling. Finally when I made it to Ahmedabad after a grueling 31-hour bus journey from Bangalore, it really was worth it. 

Aghavizhi’s screening happened on Friday at the Alliance Francaise. We received good response and there was an engaging Q&A session after the film; here is what few members of the audience had to say:

Devam Shah, artist and student: “This was a unque film; I have never watched anything like this before in a short film! The film is written and conceived well. Really well.” 

Martin Phillipe, Director and French Language Teacher at Alliance Francaise: “It is a disturbing film; I need to watch it a second time.”

    

Maïté Courgeon, Senior French Language Teacher at Alliance Francaise: “I loved the film! Even, I feel that I should watch it again to interpret it better.”

On Saturday night, I was one among the many enthralled listeners to be privileged to listen to Tom Alter, one of our most respected actors. This man is a film institution by himself! He is an actor who is a big supporter of Indie and short films. And in supporting short films, he supports Shamiana in a big way. For more than an hour, Tom Alter enthralled all and sundry assembled for Shamiana’s screening of four shorts at Darpana Academy:

• The Echo

• The Tigers Are All Dead. Aren’t They?

• The Colors of Pride

• Bye Bye Bunny

Tom Alter had acted in the short titled The Colors of Pride. He talked at length about the film, film-making, passions, a major shortcoming of Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, and also demystified alcoholism, drugs, and six pack abs! He shared anecdotes about Sunil Dutt, Vyjayantimala, Amrapali, Dilip Kumar, Satyajit Ray, Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Gandhi (the movie), Raj Kapoor et al. 

The one that gave me goose bumps was his take on Sunil Dutt’s march from Mumbai to Amritsar Golden Temple along with Priya Dutt during the Punjab riot days. 

The way he talked about how egos help you make films and how egos help you work together was enlightening.   

P.S.: The city is a great place for foodies: I munched on Jassuben’s Pizzas, sandwiches, Gujarati thalis, and kulfi! Yes, and it rained on Friday evening. It was the rainiest Friday in decades!

A Late Quartet

A Late Quartet is a 2012 American drama film co-written (with Seth Grossman), produced, and directed by Yaron Zilberman. 

The film uses chamber music played by the Brentano String Quartet and especially, Beethoven's Opus 131.

The star cast is to die for: 

• Philip Seymour Hoffman as Robert Gelbart (Second Violinist)

• Christopher Walken as Peter Mitchell (Cellist)

• Catherine Keener as Juliette Gelbart (The Violist)

• Mark Ivanir as Daniel Lerner (First Violinist)

• Imogen Poots as Alexandra Gelbart (daughter of Robert and Juliette)

As the quartet (The Fugue) approaches its 25th anniversary, diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease of its lynchpin member (Peter) unleashes drama in their relationships and lives. He is the wisest of all and the hub around which the quartet was formed and survived.

Long repressed emotions, simmering jealousies, egos, and sacrifices come slowly to the surface. Impartially, we understand that each member feels right from his or her point-of-view. From interview reels of each player, we learn how the quartet was formed, how each member has sacrificed ‘solo’ dreams or other dreams to form and keep the quartet together. 

To add to the team dynamics, Alexandra comes into the picture by falling in love with Daniel. He also falls in love with her; he professes that she is the first woman he loved. In a brilliant but casual scene, Alexandra rightly summarizes the secret of the quartet’s success in one of her conversations with Daniel. 

As the film unfolds, Alexandra matures more and shows her maturity to Daniel in a crucial scene.

This movie is about playing together, learning from that, and about the cause (the music and the quartet) being bigger than each individual member. It’s about beauty, about creation, and about being happy about one’s position in the scheme of things. 

It’s about the bigger picture; really, that scene in which Peter Mitchell tells his music class an anecdote about meeting Pablo Casals says it all.

It’s about having a graceful exit and passing the baton to the next generation. With hope. With passion. It’s about leaving a legacy. 

Bravo. 

Go ahead, close those notes, and play with your heart, with feelings, and with passion. 

Naboer (Next Door)

This is a 2005 Norwegian psychological thriller film written, directed, and produced by Pål Sletaune. In the movie, the protagonist John is apparently drawn into a sexual, violent game by his two beautiful neighbours.

Naboer received an over-18 rating in Norway, which had only happened to four Norwegian movies before.

The movie opens with the main character, John (Kristoffer Joner), being dumped by his girlfriend Ingrid (Bache-Wiig). He then becomes acquainted with his next-door neighbours, the beautiful sisters Anne (Mosli) and Kim (Schacht). We also get introduced to Ake, his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend, who is waiting downstairs while she is collecting her things.

The two sisters appear to know a strange amount of details about him and Ingrid. It soon becomes clear that he is being entrapped in a twisted, psychological, sexual, and violent ‘mind game’.

How this mind game unfolds forms the rest of the movie.

Pål Sletaune deserves a bow; he valiantly goes inside that dream machine: the human mind. Along with him, he makes us too delve or rather peep inside the complex, self-serving, narcissistic, self-deceiving, and dark recesses of the mind.

This is one of those rare movies where a character (one of the two sisters) succeeds in seducing not just John but also most members of the audience (men and women alike), I assume. I was seduced.

This is one of those rare movies where the protagonist and the audience move together at the same pace. We know what he knows, what he remembers, what he sees…

This is one of those rare movies that I want to watch once again…

This is one of those rare movies that would have made even Freud and his patients, a few serial killers, and others proud…

Hell, it would surely make Pedro Almodovar proud.

The movie is a wonderful metaphor. It unfolds perhaps the best metaphor that I have seen in a movie: the two sisters live in a maze of an apartment; full of clutter, clatter, narrow and dark passages, packed boxes, locked doors (which need the right keys to be opened), et al.


Got it?