Review: Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

“This is for the 36 million people who have lost the battle to AIDS and to those of you out there who have ever felt injustice because of who you are or who you love, tonight I stand here in front of the world with you and for you,” this is what Jared Leto said in his acceptance speech for the academy award he won for the best supporting actor. It really moved me. I had not watched the film yet. But I felt this must be an amazing movie. I bought the DVD as soon as it came out. And I have to say, it IS an amazing movie. It doesn’t only keeps the mind of audiences engaged, it also gives us a lot to think about. Through its characters, and the best lead performances of the past year, the movie makes us feel for all the people that the characters represent. Set in the early 90’s, the movie is based on the real-life character Ron Woodroof, who tried to help the people who were ignored by the society at that time, people having AIDS. There was only one approved drug, AZT
(Zidovudine), at that time which helped AIDS patients. But Ron Woodroof went too far to help his people. And he helped his people till the date he died.

Dallas Buyers Club deals with the sensitive subjects of AIDS, Homosexuality and sex-change. It is, according to me, the best movie made on these subjects till now in the history of cinema. Ron Woodroof, played by Matthew McConaughey, is an electrician and rodeo cowboy. He does it with some prostitute, without any protection. The result is AIDS. He passes out in his home and taken to the hospital where he finds out he has AIDS. He is diagnosed and is asked to take AZT as it is the only drug approved in US for AIDS. He starts taking AZT but still his health is deteriorating. Ron goes to Mexico for more AZT, but the doctor there suggest him ddC and peptide T. After three months of use of ddC and peptide T, Ron finds his health much better. Ron gives it to other patients with the help of Rayon, who helps him bring customers. Rayon, played by Jared Leto, is also HIV-positive whom Ron met at the hospital. Rayon helps Ron selling ddC and peptide T to other patients. But the drugs are not
approved by the US govt. So they have to face direct objections. There is Dr. Eve Saks, played by Jennifer Garner, who is trying to help Ron right from the starting but with the approved drug. She can’t help him with the unapproved ones. Will Ron get away with the government? Will he be able to save the lives of patients suffering from AIDS?

The character of Ron Woodroof is a real-life person with the same name. He was diagnosed with AIDS and did everything he could to help all the people suffering from the same disease. Though he is shown as a rough cowboy who f*cks prostitutes and is very rough person in his manners. But there is this honesty in his character, this passion for his community which makes him a special person and a loving one too. Rayon is a fictional character. But she is a very important part of the story. Rayon is not only a AIDS patient, she is also a trans woman which provides the character more hatred from the society. Check out the scene between Rayon and her father, that shows the real hatred people have for these people. The scene was so emotional, I cried and I don’t cry very easily. Together, Ron and Rayon team up for their community and fight with the law. Garner’s character is that of a caring doctor who wants her patients cured very soon. But at the same time, she doesn’t let Ron use
a faster way. She knows that it can be harmful for him to use those unapproved drugs. But she can’t do anything about it.

The performances, OMG. You could not ask for better actors. Matthew McConaughey lost around 50 pounds for the role. And he looks very different here. I couldn’t recognise him at first when I watched the trailer. He is a treat to watch. His role was very intense, gritty and a real-life character but he nails it. He delivers the best performance of the year. Rayon’s character was even more challenging to portray than Ron Woodroof. Perhaps, the most challenging role of the year. But Jared Leto plays Rayon with so much ease. We don’t see any extra efforts put in his role. But that is a sign of a great actor. Apart from that, Leto lost 30 pounds for his role. And it was his first movie in last 6 years. McConaughey and Leto both won Academy Award and many more awards for their roles. And they were well deserved. Well done Matthew and Jared. Jennifer Garner and others impress too.

The movie is directed by Jean-Marc Valee and he did a good job. The screenplay is written by Melisa Wallack and Craig Borton and I have to say, they did a splendid work. The screenplay is also one of the strengths of the film. The background music is good. The songs that play in the movie are good. DBC also won an oscar for the make-up and hairstyling. It was well deserved. Giving the characters correct looks was equally important. Apart from the critical acclaim, the movie was also a box-office success made on a shoestring budget of $5 million and earning over $50 million across the world.

Dallas Buyers Club is undoubtedly one of the best films of 2013. The life of the great Ron Woodroof is shown in the best possible way. The lead actors take the movie to another level. It is definitely a must watch film. Hats off to Ron Woodroof for what he did.

Review: The Lunchbox (2013)

Can you fall in love with someone you’ve never met? Has it ever happened to you that just the feeling of someone around you has brought smile on your face? Have you cared about someone even if you don’t know them? It all seems imaginary that doesn’t exist in the world we live. But acclaimed director Ritesh Batra of the short film “Café Regular Cairo” , in his debut feature, brings you a film which proves otherwise. The Lunchbox is an epistolary romance between two people. So prepare for a lovely film which impressed the audience worldwide and became one of the best films of 2013.

The Lunchbox was first to be made a documentary. But during the research for the documentary, director Ritesh Batra came across an amazing story. The Lunchbox is inspired from that story. It first screened at Cannes Film Festival in May 2013, as a part of International Critics Week. It eventually received critical acclaim and won a Grand Rail d’Or at the cannes film festival. And it was sold to Sony Classics in the middle of the screening. It’s been on a festival run since then. It has been screened at London Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Sydney Film Festival, New York Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival and many more; and has won many awards. The leading performances got critical acclaim as well. It got released in India on September 20, 2013 and has had a release almost every week in some part of the world since then. It got released in UK on April 11, 2014 and in US on February 28, 2014.

The film starts with the Dabbawalas (the lunchbox distributors) of Mumbai, showing the strong network they use to distribute the lunchboxes without any mistake. After that we come across our main female character Ila, played by Nimrat Kaur. Ila is a simple Indian housewife seeking her husband’s attention. She is trying really hard to spice up her tasteless married life. She prepares delicious food for her husband daily. There is a dialogue in the film, “the way to the heart goes through the stomach”. After her husband leaves for work and her daughter for school, she is left alone with her aunt ,Mrs. Deshpande, an old woman who lives in the apartment above her. Mrs. Deshpande lives with her husband, who has been in coma for last 15 years. She is never seen in the film, just her voice is heard time-to-time. Ila and her aunt have some really fun chat every time they talk. Her aunt is always giving Ila some tips. But coming back to our story, one day the lunchbox, prepared by Ila for her husband, is wrongly delivered to Saajan Fernandez, played by Irrfan Khan. Saajan is a widower at the verge of retirement, who wants to be left alone. Saajan is a simple man, untouched by the modern technology. He is very rude person and his rudeness can be seen in the scene where he forbids children to play in the street. He receives Ila’s lunchbox and is really surprised that the office canteen can make this quality food! But he eats the lunchbox to leave not a thing in it. The empty lunchbox is returned to Ila by a dabbawala. When she sees that the lunchbox has came empty, she tells her aunt about it and hopes that her husband would say something to her tonight. But when Rajiv returns from office, she finds that the lunchbox didn’t reach him (he ate Saajan’s lunchbox). The next day she sends the lunchbox with a note in it, thanking for the sweet thoughts the empty lunchbox filled her mind with. But Saajan only replies, “the food was very salty today” and nothing else. When Ila tells her aunt about it, she gets angry and asks Ila to put in high amount of chilli in the food tomorrow. Ila does so. And there on the exchange of notes start between Saajan and Ila. Further in the film, they start sharing their lives through the notes and it increases their trust for each other. They develop feelings between them. And thus develops the romance between them. The notes in the film carry the most beautiful moments of the film. The backstories of the characters are discussed in the notes and they are very emotional and touching. For me, the notes work as the narrator of the story, as they tell us many incidents from Ila and Saajan’s life which wouldn’t have been told otherwise.

There is another story going in Saajan’s office. The one between Saajan and Shaikh. Shaikh, played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui, is an enthusiastic newcomer who is to replace Saajan after he retires. Saajan is to train him in the office work. To us, Shaikh appears to be a charming, humorous and a lovable character. But Shaikh is trying to impress Saajan, so in the starting, he roams a lot around him. So at the same time, to Saajan, he is an irritable person, due to his over enthusiastic nature and Saajan’s to-be-left-alone nature. After they’ve had some rough scenes together, they start to develop a father-son relation between them. And then he starts to see Shaikh as we saw him in the beginning of the movie. Shaikh also has an interesting backstory. Shaikh turns out to be an important factor in overcoming the rude nature of Saajan. They have some fantastic scenes together.

 

Nimrat Kaur lived in the house, where her part is shot, for about a week before the filming began. Just to get into the feel of the character of an Indian housewife and to know the kitchen a bit. She is superb in the film. She plays the part so convincingly, you can’t imagine anyone else in Ila’s character. She looks very beautiful too. The director said that he auditioned more than a hundred girls for Ila’s part, and then he saw Nimrat at a play and selected her instead. And Ritesh, we are not disappointed! It is her debut release. Before this film, she played a small part in another acclaimed film, “Peddlers”, which has not been released yet. Irrfan Khan plays Saajan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui plays Shaikh. And here we are talking about two of the best actors from India. You all know Irrfan from “Slumdog Millionaire (2008)”, “The Namesake (2006)” and “Life of Pi (2012)”. He is brilliant as Saajan here. He gets so deep into the character that we forget that we are watching Irrfan Khan. Same goes for Nawaz. Most of his scenes are with Irrfan. It is really hard to believe that he is the same person who was the ruthless Faizal Khan in “Gangs of Wasseypur (2012)”, the arrogant IB Officer in “Kahaani (2012)”, the C-grade filmmaker in “Miss Lovely (2012)” and the limp servant Tehmur in “Talaash (2012)”. His comic timing is perfect and brings some real moments of laughter on the screen. The scenes between him and Irrfan are a splendid watch. You want to watch them again and again. Well, I would say that the performances take the film to another level. Nakul Vaid as Ila’s husband, Bharti Achrekar as Mrs. Deshpande, Lillete Dubey as Ila’s mother have relatively small appearances but all the actors play their parts satisfactorily. The Dabbawalas ,whom Ritesh worked with, have special appearances. They deserve a mention.

Director Ritesh Batra directs the film with a firm hand. It doesn’t look like his debut film. Also he wrote the screenplay of the movie, for which he deserves a bow. The screenplay is the main strength of the film. A little drop in the screenplay would have made it a really boring and meaningless film. But you could not expect better dialogues, better conversations and better characters for the kind of story. Especially the notes. The notes in the movie, as I have said earlier, play an important part for the development of the characters and the story. Some incidents described in the notes touch your heart. The character of Mrs. Deshpande is quite a brilliant stroke by the director-writer Ritesh Batra. There are no songs in the movie except for one track from the film “Saajan (1991)”. The background music is given by Max Richter. Well, it could have been better. It was soothing but was very much repeated throughout the film.

In fact, lunchbox delivery system in Mumbai is so strong that a research was conducted by some Harvard students to know about the network. They concluded that the probability of misplacing a lunchbox is one in a million. This movie is about that missing lunchbox. The Lunchbox showcases the loneliness of people in urban cities, the busy life in those cities. It is an old-fashioned bittersweet romance between two people who have never met each other. It is very different from other romantic movies in case of content and the characters. This one is a definite watch. Irrfan and Nawaz together. You don’t know what you are missing! Of all the romantic movies I have watched, this one is best in terms of the performances. The dabbawalas deserve a special mention. All the dabbawalas shown in the film are the same with whom Ritesh worked for the documentary. There is much much more to the film than I’ve described here. It is a must watch film!!!!

In a scene in the film, a character says, ”there is no place for talent in India.” Perhaps they were referring to Bollywood. But we take a bow to the talent of Ritesh Batra and all others who made this amazing film possible. And one more thing you have to know before watching this film. Don’t watch this film on empty stomach. Some people might say that it has the similar concept of Her (2013) which is not fair as Her began its development in 2011 and Ritesh Batra was working on the script back in 2007. It is the first film from India after Monsoon Wedding (2001), which gained so much critical acclaim and the love of audiences across the world. This movie was not sent to the Oscars by the Indian Selection Committee. It had very good chances of making it to top five. It created a lot of controversy in India. But this is not the first time. They had sent really waste movies to the Oscars in the past, ignoring the films which should’ve been sent. And this time, as many times, our representer The Good Road was eliminated in initial stages. But this time, they made a serious mistake. It was an opportunity lost.

Review: Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

When have you last seen a comedy film that was so powerful in terms of content, performances, and comedy that it went on winning two Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor along with a nomination of Best Supporting Actress? Well, for me, it is a film once made in a decade. Little Miss Sunshine is a road movie and most of the movie happens on the way to California for a beauty pageant called Little Miss Sunshine. The movie screened at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival and got a worldwide release on August 18, 2006. Made on a shoestring budget of $8M, the movie made more than $100M worldwide. Apart from its commercial success, the movie got critical acclaim as well and went on winning many awards.

You get a glimpse of every important character in the film in first two-minutes. An 8-year-old girl, wearing thick eye-glasses, is standing in front of a TV where she is watching the impressions of a girl who has just become Miss Universe and the little girl is trying to make the same impressions. A middle-aged man is teaching a bunch of students his nine-step refuse-to-lose program and is telling them how they will become winners if they adopt this program. A 15-year-old slim guy is shown doing some exercise and noting down the numbers on daily basis. An old man is sneaking into a bathroom and is taking drugs. A lady is driving a car to a hospital where someone she knows is admitted and she is telling her husband that the person has nowhere else to go. At last we see that lady getting to the hospital and meeting her brother who has attempted suicide and takes him home. Well, how are they related? They’re family.

Olive is the 8-year-old girl and her father, Richard, is trying to sell his program to someone named Stan Grossman. Olive’s brother, Dwayne, has taken some sort of vow that says he won’t speak until he gets into a flying school. And Dwayne hates everyone from his family. Her uncle Frank is brought home to live with them for a few days, of which her father is not happy much. Anyways, Frank is told to share Dwayne’s room as he is not allowed a single moment alone. There is a message on the telephone which says that Olive is selected to participate in Little Miss Sunshine as the regional winner has opted out. She is all happy and shouting and is all confident of winning due to her talent, dancing. She has been working on dancing for a long time and guess who her dancing-coach is, her grandpa. But the problem is that the competition is in California and they don’t have enough money to go there by air or by train. And there is this thing with Richard where he is always talking about his nine-steps, lecturing everyone he gets his hands on. He asks Olive if she is confident of winning as there is no point in going if you don’t think you’re going to win. Olive says she is confident. And thus they decide to go to California in a hired van.

Oh, did I tell you about their family relationships? As you know, Frank attempted suicide and that makes him a loser forever, according to Richard’s program. So he is taking on Frank every now and then. Also, Richard is making no money, and therefore there are fights between Richard and his wife every now and then. Dwayne hates his family but Richard is proud of him as he has a goal and he is trying to achieve that which takes him to the fourth step in Richard’s program. Anyways, they start their day-long journey. You would’ve guessed that by now, their journey is not at all pleasant. Some very dreadful things happen on the way but does that stop them? Is Richard is able to sell his program? Does Frank get out of his fears? Does the family break? And the last but not the least, does Olive win? These are some of the questions that have answers further in the movie. And believe me, you will be more than satisfied.

Little Miss Sunshine is rich in terms of characters and extraordinary performances. Starting with Olive Hoover, she is an 8-year-old who is full of dreams, who is obedient, who unlike all other characters in the film loves everyone in her family and Abigail Breslin gets into Olive’s skin without any extra efforts. She was nominated for an Oscar for her sweet performance.

Sheryl Hoover, Olive’s mother, is a caring housewife. She is a divorcee and Richard is her second husband but she loves his children with all her heart. The only problem she has is her husband. She has grown sick of him talking about his nine-step program. And she hates it when her husband talks about his program with others. Also, she is tired of her husband’s unemployment and wants the program sold as quickly as possible and get rid of both the problems at same time. We need an intelligent actor to play the part and Toni Collette does it with excellence beyond praise.

Steve Carell was not famous at the time of his selection for the role of Frank, Sheryl’s brother. But when the movie released in 2006, he was a household name and every person in America knew him, thanks to The Office, which started in 2005 and had become a big hit in just one year. He was the most famous actor in the whole cast and that helped the finances of the film very much. Steve plays a character who was a brilliant man and was respected by his colleagues until one day he tried killing himself. Why? Not because he was in love with this guy from his workplace who in turn was in love with another guy. Nor because he was fired from his job. It was because a magazine awarded a medal to the guy who loved the guy whom Frank loved. But, he failed at suicide as well. Frank is a charming, fun-loving and sensible man but he’s got this one problem of being a homosexual and because of that he is a “loser” in Richard’s eyes but he doesn’t give a damn about what he thinks. Steve is definitely one of the best comic actors ever. And here also, he proves himself.

Paul Dano plays Dwayne, Olive’s elder brother. Dwayne is a guy who is limited to himself. He doesn’t care what others are doing and what they think of him. He is really passionate about what he wants to be. He has taken a vow of silence till he becomes a pilot. He hates his family most of all. His father is all praises about that and sees him as the only person in his family who is not a “loser”. But Dwayne doesn’t give a shit. He is sick of his father. He is sick of his family indeed. Check out the scene when his parents are fighting in the room next to his and he is listening to them and smiling. That really tells us what kind of a person Dwayne is. Playing a silent guy is not an easy task. You have to address the audience through your eyes and your expressions. Paul Dano is perfectly able to do this. He never dissatisfies you. I’ve watched him inThere Will Be Blood too. There, he was with one of the best actors, Daniel-Day Lewis. It is said that he had just four days of preparation for his character in There Will Be Blood but watching him in the film was a pleasure. Paul is definitely a talent to look out for.

Alan Arkin plays Olive’s grandpa. He is a person who does as he likes and says as he likes, no matter who he is talking to and what they think. His scenes are the funniest. That scene when he is giving some advice to Dwayne about f**king other women is very funny. Apart from his funny side, he is also a caring person. He supports his family in tough times. Alan Arkin won an Oscar for his portrayal. And that was well deserved.

The most complex character in the film is Richard. He is very irritating person. He hates losers and wants everyone to be a winner. Though, he is a loser himself. But he doesn’t miss a single opportunity where he can talk about his program and lecture about losers and winners. The only good thing you see about him is that he always boosts his family a lot and that helps them a lot in critical places. Greg Kinnear plays Richard brilliantly and flawlessly. For me, the best performance of the film and I was amazed when I saw that he didn’t even get a nomination for his role. The film mainly revolves around these characters and all other actors have very less screen-time. But they provide good support and don’t let the film dip. Also, if you have watched Breaking Bad, Walter White and Hank show up in one scene each in the film. Again, this is the only comedy film I have seen where there are so many wonderful performances.

This movie was also praised worldwide for its extraordinary and unique screenplay and the movie went on winning the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. There was this movie named Amelie you might have heard of. It is one of the best French movies ever made. There was this addiction in that film right from the starting that I had never experienced until I watched Little Miss Sunshine. There are movies which get interesting as time progresses and then there are movies which get interesting as the story progresses. But there are very few which grab you mind right from the starting and don’t leave it till the very end. The very best examples are Forrest Gump, Amelie,American Beauty, Her. And in these cases, most of the work is done by the screenplay. Simply speaking, the movie that makes you watch it in one go and that without any disappointment, are written cleverly and very beautifully. Little Miss Sunshine is one such movie. The screenplay of the movie is written by Michael Arndt, who also wrote the screenplay for Brave and Toy Story 3 and he very well deserved his Oscar. The dialogues in the movie are very good and do not possess any kind of randomness and stupidity. They are funny when they are meant to be funny, they are emotional when they are meant to be emotional. In all, Little Miss Sunshine is written very carefully, sensibly and excellently.

The movie is directed by the husband-wife pair Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. They did a good job. There was nothing in the film which you can’t see in your real life. Usually, Road movies are easy to direct unless you’re capturing the sceneries instead of emotions. But it takes much to turn the movie into a very good road movie. The directors don’t make any silly mistakes which you often see in comedy movies. But again, this is not your usual LOL comedy movie. There is much more in the film.

The music is composed by Michael Danna, who composed the music for Life of Pi, Capote and Moneyball. Here also, he does a splendid job. Though, the music of the movie didn’t get so much acclaim but I love it. And part of the starting theme, called “The winner is,” is my ringtone. Overall, the music and background score is soothing and most of you will like it.

To conclude, I would say that Little Miss Sunshine is a must watch movie. Not just because of the laughs and the fantastic performances, but also because of the sweet message it brings to us. I’m not going to reveal that. It will be better if you experience that yourself. Its story in itself is a great read. This movie teaches us important life lessons and at the same time remains absolutely entertaining. The actors take the film to another level, as I’ve said earlier. Watch it now if you haven’t watched it yet.

Life of Pi (2012) : Review

There are a lot of positive and admirable things about Ang Lee’s Life of Pi. Cinematographer captures the most uproarious and glorious shots captured thus far. The 3D effects are some of the best ever seen. For Visual Effects and the direction by Ang Lee, the movie won academy awards. What Lee invents with the ocean and the integration of the tiger and the other animals is spectacular.

The movie starts with a Canadian author in search of a good story. He hears this story of Pi from his “Mamaji”. He goes to meet him to know more about his story. They meet and Pi tells him his life story. The movie goes to Pondicherry, into Pi’s childhood. Pi, Piscine Patel initially, is son of a zoo owner. He has this great interest in animals. Pi is raised Hindu but soon enough in his childhood, he is introduced to Christianity and Islam, and he follows all three religions as he “just wants to love god”.

When Pi turns 16, his father decides to move his family to Canada, he wants to settle their and sell the zoo animals. They take off to Canada on a ship named “Tsimtsum”. But in a chaotic storm, the ship sinks and Pi remains as the only human survivor from the ship. He is left alone on a life-boat with a Hyena, Zebra, Orangutan and a fierce Bengal Tiger, named “Richard Parker”. Soon enough, conditions worsen on the life boat as all the animals except the tiger die. Then starts an unforgettable journey of two souls starving for life but one a fierce animal and a strong being, and other a human and weak. And that journey will surely make you believe in God.

Lee directs the film with a firm hand. He knows what he wants to say and for the most part gets his message across. Unfortunately an unfocused and at times jumbled screenplay by the great David Magee creates an atmosphere that relies more on the visuals than the narrative.

Newcomer Suraj Sharma puts a great effort in the role of “Pi”. Irrfan Khan, who has delivered in great supporting turns like The Namesake (2006), A Mighty Heart (2007) and Slumdog Millionaire, and Tabu, The Namesake (2006) along with Adil Hassan give their best as supporting cast.

Though everything in the movie goes perfect, it has its negative points when it comes to comparing the movie with the book. Those, who have read the book, will find the movie a little incomplete in terms of the story. Other than that, Life of Pi is a splendid watch.

 

3.5/5

Yojimbo (1961, Japan) by Akira Kurosawa : Review

Yojimbo, bodyguard in English, is another beauty from Akira Kurosawa. When I first watched Seven Samurai, I was very much taken aback by Kurosawa’s talent as a filmmaker. From then on, I have always wanted to watch more of his creations.

Yojimbo is a samurai based film. A samurai, Sanjuro, comes to an unpleasant, miserable village. In the movie, as Sanjuro enters the village, a dog is seen carrying a human bone in his mouth. Well, it couldn’t get more miserable. There are many more such pieces of brilliance in the movie. Coming back to the film, there is a war going between two groups of gamblers. Both the groups want him as their bodyguard, being the only samurai in the village. But something very different is going on in his mind. What is it? Well, you’ll have to watch the film. 

Toshiro Mifune, in his thirteenth film with Akira Kurosawa, stars as Sanjuro, the samurai, in the movie. He plays his part with perfection. The anger, the temper, the mind-set, and all other small things are taken care of by the actor. Rest of cast is incredible too. They provide their best. Proper samurai music plays in the background, no complains about that.

The screenplay and the direction by Akira Kurosawa are extraordinary. There are many beautiful scenes in the movie which you’d definitely watch again. There is no doubting Akira Kurosawa’s brilliance.

Yojimbo is a film that relates to you very quickly. The characters shown in the film are normal people you can find around you. With the kind of mentality they carry with them, its a thrill to watch how that results for them in the end. Some action sequences could be better though. Rest, this is an amazing film not to be missed if you like watching world cinema. I’ll not say this is Kurosawa’s best film, but I will definitely say that it is one of his best works.

4/5

Review: Ship Of Theseus (2013, India)

 

“Life is an echo, What you send out comes back, What you sow you reap, What you give you get, What you see in others exists in you. Remember life is an echo, It always gets back to you, So give goodness.” 

There are many more quotes like these in Ship Of Theseus, which I won’t forget. Or maybe I don’t want to forget. Debutant director Anand Gandhi brings you a film that shocks you, moves you emotionally and doubts your very existence. Ship Of Theseus raises questions about life that leave you dumb. Ship Of Theseus rips open your mind and fits in it for ever.

The first story, out of three, is about a young female photographer who had lost her eyesight to a cornea infection. But as soon as she is recovered from the blindness, she is overwhelmed by the multitude of images around her. She finds it hard to choose one from them, as she used to when she was blind and picture that one part with perfection. But she must fight with this multitude of images to improve her skills. Will she be able to do it?

The second story is about a monk who is against modern medicine science techniques as all of them involve animal testing in one way or another. He must have a liver transplant to live more. But he chooses to die rather. As his condition worsens, everybody pressurizes him to have his liver transplanted. Will he give in?

The last story is a satirical comedy on the “transplant” industry in India. A young stockbroker has had a kidney transplant recently. But when he hears that a kidney had been stolen from a poor man in the same hospital a few days ago, he thinks he is wearing that kidney. But after doing some research, he finds out that the kidney is in Sweden and the poor man is given an ample amount in replacement for his kidney. He decides to go to Sweden. And the events after that take very interesting turns. Watch the movie to know them.

Now the part of the movie without which it would not have been the same movie, the Cinematography. The camera work by Pankaj Kumar is extraordinary and flawless. Hats off to him. He’s able to capture every moment of the movie right from the beginning until the very end with perfection.

Anand has chosen his actors very carefully. All of them succeed in delivering more than excellent performances. There are no songs. The background music is pleasant and fits right with the rhythm of the movie.

In the end, I would like to say that Anand Gandhi is a talent to look out for. Watch Ship Of Theseus with your brains and feel the magic. Watch it once. Watch it twice.

5/5