REVIEW 211: SHIP OF THESEUS

Release date:	July 19, 2013
Director:	Anand Gandhi
Cast: Language:	Aida El-Kashef, Neeraj Kabi, Sohum Shah, Faraz Khan, Vinay Shukla, Sameer Khurana, Amba Sanyal, Rupesh Tillu, Mats Qvistrom    English, Hindi

What’s astounding about writer-director Anand Gandhi’s debut feature is how simple and basic it is. Don’t be misled by the title into assuming that this is an esoteric film. It's not. That a story with such profound philosophical underpinnings could lead to a film so simple, so small, so unpretentious, so sweet and yet... so endearing, so entertaining, so humorous and so intriguing would be inconceivable to most. But it is… all this.

At a skeletal level, Ship of Theseus brings together three disparate stories. A celebrated photographer in Mumbai gets a corneal transplant to cure her blindness, and finds herself dissatisfied with her work once her sight returns. Elsewhere, a monk of a not-completely-specified religion is fighting a court case against cruel methods of animal testing in the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries. When he is diagnosed with a fatal illness, he must choose between his principles and the very people he is battling. In another corner of the city, a seemingly self-serving young stockbroker hears of a kidney transplant scandal soon after he himself has received a new kidney. This leads him to take up cudgels on behalf of a poor man whose organ was stolen by racketeers, a fight for which he travels all the way to Sweden.

The story of the lenswoman Aliya (played by the talented Egyptian actress-filmmaker Aida El-Kashef) is perhaps the most literal and direct exploration of the film’s title. The Paradox of The Ship of Theseus refers to questions of identity examined by world philosophers for centuries that can be reduced in barest terms to this: if an object has had every single one of its components replaced, does it remain the same object? The root of the question comes from the ship sailed by the mythical Greek warrior Theseus, preserved by Athenians for centuries by replacing parts that decayed over time. The much-derided 1999 Val Kilmer-Mira Sorvino-starrer At First Sight had visited Aliya’s dilemma, though differently, via the real-life story of a blind man who could not cope with vision once it was restored to him through surgery. That film was panned by critics at the time, but should nonetheless not be discarded since it raises vital issues about perception and seeing. Aliya’s track in Ship of Theseus is much less about practical concerns relating to the restoration of sight though, and far more about how it impacts her instinctive art.

From Aliya to Maitreya the monk (Neeraj Kabi) and the unlikely activist Navin (Sohum Shah), the stories seem to get progressively more satisfying, until you realise that they’re designed to appear that way before they culminate in a completely unexpected and deeply moving climax. The brilliance of the acting and Arushi Nayar’s casting lies in the fact that the leads and the supporting players all come across as people who walked straight out of real life and into this film. Theatre actor Neeraj Kabi’s physical transformation to portray Maitreya’s decline is remarkable as is the conviction with which he plays a monk who is not the distant creature we assume all religious folk would be. Indian films tend to portray priests, nuns and monks as unreal people on pedestals, living away from the laity. While this is no doubt often the case, it is also true that there are Maitreyas aplenty in this world, which is why his conversations with his feisty, cynical and affectionate young lawyer Charvaka (Vinay Shukla) are so endearing. The pick of the principal cast for me though is Sohum Shah – the film’s handsome co-producer – who effortlessly portrays Navin of the gentle façade, camouflaging a man of grit far removed from his grandmother’s perception of him. In fact, it strikes you that we are a nation of truly good-looking people when Ship of Theseus – so many worlds away from the country’s mainstream commercial cinema – casually throws up a Sohum and a Rupesh Tillu (in the small role of Navin’s sweet-faced little friend in Sweden) and a Faraz Khan (who plays Aliya’s very attractive partner Vinay). Now onward to more serious matters…

Ship of Theseus has a quiet feel to it – in part due to its clever placement of music and the use of silences between lively conversations, but largely due to the magnificent starkness of DoP Pankaj Kumar’s work. That the Swedish and Indian countryside would look lovely through a cameraperson’s lens is no surprise. Kumar however makes even grimy, grubby, over-crowded Mumbai a canvas of artistic merit, filled with energy and warmth and, in one particular scene in the narrow bylanes of the city’s poorer quarters, poignance laced with humour.

Anand Gandhi’s screenplay is derived from a story co-written with Khushboo Ranka and Pankaj Kumar. That he is a master with the pen and the directorial baton is evident from his eloquent debut. Ship of Theseus is rich with relationships, not the least of them being the relationship with the self... Aliya alone in a room poring over her photographs once she can “see”… Vinay’s struggle to help her without being patronising… Charvaka and Maitreya cracking PJs with each other… An elderly Swedish gentleman wrestling with his conscience… There is no moralising here, but each of these individuals compels us to talk to ourselves about our notions of life and existence. What specifically are the questions raised by Ship of Theseus, did you ask? Well, that’s the point. It depends on who’s watching. Go find out for yourself.

Rating (out of five): ****1/2

CBFC Rating (India):	U/A
Running time:	140 minutes

REVIEW 210: THE WOLVERINE (3D)

Release date:	July 26, 2013
Director:	James Mangold
Cast: Language:	Hugh Jackman, Rila Fukushima, Tao Okamoto, Hiroyuki Sanada, Haruhiko Yamanouchi, Will Yun Lee, Brian Tee, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Famke Janssen English & some Japanese with English subtitles

We all have our weaknesses. Mine is that I’d happily pay the price of a movie ticket simply to see Hugh Jackman’s face. When Jackman wanders through most of that movie either shirtless or in just a vest, the price of popcorn, coffee, parking and petrol are also fully claimed. But seriously… It is the X-Men franchise’s good fortune that they picked a star in possession of such intensity, good looks and charisma to play Wolverine, Marvel Comics’ immortal mutant with the metallic claws and incredible strength. Jackman’s take on the comic book superhero has remained consistently convincing through the series’ six films, even on occasions when the films themselves have faltered.

With half its battle already thus won, The Wolverine takes us back in time to Nagasaki during World War II where we discover that Wolverine a.k.a. Logan survived the nuclear bomb and saved the life of a young Japanese soldier called Yashida. Cut to the present day, and Logan is living a life of seclusion in unnamed woods in North America, bearded, unkempt and tormented by the reality of his immortality. As alluring as unending life may seem to many, the truth is that death does not look like such a terrible thing when you know that your loved ones will inevitably pass on some day though you won’t. Logan is visited at this point by a red-haired Japanese girl called Yukio who seems to have her own share of superpowers: she can foresee the future and throw sharp blades around with the same speed at which she tosses her own lithe body about in fights.

Yukio has been sent by an aged and dying Yashida (Haruhiko Yamanouchi) who wants to say goodbye to Logan. When our hero travels halfway across the globe for the farewell though, we discover that the old man – now a millionaire businessman – is actually after Logan’s immortality. From then on, Logan gets unwittingly embroiled in a dark saga of family politics that involves Yashida’s exceedingly young granddaughter Mariko (Tao Okamoto), her troubled father (Hiroyuki Sanada), a corrupt politician (Brian Tee), a nimble ninja (Will Yun Lee) and a sexy mutant called The Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova).

Some of the film’s action sequences are stunning, in particular one extended fight atop a speeding bullet train in which Logan and a gun-toting assassin must indulge in all sorts of gymnastics to avoid being hit by overhead wires and other passing objects. Equally gripping yet in complete contrast is a nearly soundless scene in which Logan is attacked by a posse of archers on a desolate snowy night… the result of commendable teamwork between the film’s stunt director, cinematographer and production designer. Aided by Christopher McQuarrie, Mark Bomback and Scott Frank’s screenplay, director James Mangold keeps the suspense ticking right till the end when we finally discover who was actually out to kill who and why, why some people were protecting others and precisely why Logan was summoned all the way to Japan from his hideaway in the Western world.

Where the film does not score is in its failure to give us a villain to match Logan. Great heroes need great adversaries and in The Wolverine, none of Logan’s opponents is etched out well enough or given enough screen time to seem worthy of our man with the claws. The Viper has potential but her story is half baked. Yashida is barely there. And though the evil Japanese neta does provide us with one comical scene in his red underwear, he too is an under-cooked character. Besides, the effort to steal Logan’s Wolverine powers is too sketchily explained to be convincing. And while Yukio is intriguing, she is sadly under-used. 

The Wolverine’s other flaw is an error of both writing and casting. Logan is almost paternal towards Mariko throughout the film, so when he suddenly and inexplicably gets romantic with her, it sort of feels like a Salman Khan-Sneha Ullal moment. Model-turned-actress Tao Okamoto does not have the screen presence to match Hugh Jackman’s. She is just too glaringly young for him anyway. And their absolute lack of sexual chemistry is underlined by the brief appearances of Logan’s one true love Jean Grey (Famke Janssen, hot as always) in his dreams.  

The good news is that Okamoto’s more impactful compatriot and fellow model-turned-actress Rila Fukushima seems set to re-appear in next year’s X Men: Days of Future Past, a teaser to which is provided at a point in this film when you are absolutely not expecting it. The Wolverine is not wholesome in the way James Mangold’s 2005 Golden Globe winner Walk The Line was. This film sorely needed more heft, but with all its limitations it’s still an enjoyable ride.

Rating (out of five): **3/4

Footnote: Don’t leave your seats when the credits start rolling.

CBFC Rating (India):	U/A
Running time: MPAA Rating (US):	133 minutes (as per pvrcinemas.com) PG-13 (for sequences of intense sci-fi action and violence, some sexuality and language)
Release date in the US:	July 25, 2013

Photograph courtesy: https://www.facebook.com/TheWolverineMovie

REVIEW 209: RAMAIYA VASTAVAIYA

Release date:	July 19, 2013
Director:	Prabhudeva
Cast: Language:	Girish Kumar, Sonu Sood, Shruti Haasan, Satish Shah, Poonam Dhillon, Vinod Khanna, Nassar, Randhir Kapoor, Govind Namdeo   Hindi

At one point in Ramaiya Vastavaiya, a man hiding in a bush gets urinated upon by another guy. This scene comes not long after one character gets hit in the crotch by a hard object and the hero of the film has been urinated upon by a cow when he tries to milk it. Ram (that’s the boy’s name) also steps on dung during the course of the film, falls flat on his face in a dung heap, has his bottom butted by a goat, watches a row of cattle in a shed shit in sync and lifts up the tail of one animal to spray perfume on its anus since he’s sleeping next it.

All this happens while he tries to win a challenge thrown at him by his lady love Sona’s brother. Bhaiyya says that spoilt rich NRI kid’s love for sis is shallow and will not be able to withstand the agricultural experience. Kid says, test me. Bhaiyya says, cultivate the land and if you can produce more grain than I do in one season, you can have my sis. Kid says, deal! Of course Sona doesn’t have a say in all this though she is – for reasons that no running time can possibly explain – actually in love with the charmless guy.  

Ramaiya Vastavaiya is such a dated and formulaic film that it begs the question: why was it made? Answer: it’s been made to launch Girish Kumar Taurani, son of producer Kumar Taurani who owns Tips Industries. I hate to be discouraging when the subject is a young person, but sometimes the kindest thing you can do is to say it straight: Girish is not cut out for this. He can’t act so he over-acts. He can’t convincingly play innocent, cute or boisterous, so his Ram ends up behaving like an irritating buffoon (which might explain why Sona calls him a bandar and a gorilla at their early meetings). Since everyone in Bollywood does it these days, he takes off his shirt at one point. And while I can’t find anything particularly wrong with his dancing, its lack of extraordinariness is highlighted by the sight of Shruti Haasan – graceful and so evidently rooted in classical traditions – moving to the same songs.

Sonu Sood plays the over-protective brother Raghuvir to Shruti’s Sona. All he wants for his sister is a simple husband who will keep her happy in their village, but Sona meets Ram at her best friend’s wedding and falls in love. That’s when the stupid  challenge comes up to occupy the entire second half of the film. Sonu manages to retain his dignity despite the ludicrousness of the goings-on around him, but many members of the supporting cast – especially veteran southern Indian actor Nassar and the usually reliable Hindi character artiste Zakir Hussain – embarrass themselves and us with their hamming. Poonam Dhillon owes it to herself not to accept such bad films, and Prabhudeva must explain why he roped in a fine actor like Vinod Khanna to hang around the leads and do next to nothing. 

Ramaiya Vastavaiya is a remake of the Telugu hit Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana with which Prabhudeva made his directorial debut. The storyline is the same but that film had two genuine actors – Siddharth Narayan and Trisha Krishnan – as the leads. The Hindi version has Girish who doesn’t possess a single acting cell in his being and Shruti who, though miles ahead of him, still has some way to go in that department. To make matters worse, the film is filled with a ton of clichéd characters and trite situations that Bollywood simply refuses to bury… So, for instance, the rich boy’s mother (Poonam Dhillon) is positioned as a bitch who is nasty to her husband (Randhir Kapoor) whereas the said husband is projected as cool because he hits on women quarter his age and encourages his son to be a flirt. At one point when a heartbroken Ram is brooding over his love, Prabhudeva and Jacqueline Fernandez materialise from nowhere to dance vigorously to a song in the fields. Sona’s most prized possession is a clay horse gifted to her by her brother and Ram risks his life to keep it safe. Even Jeene laga hoon in Aatif Aslam’s voice, which sounds lovely as a standalone song, loses half its sheen when you hear it in this silly film.

In the midst of all this nonsense, a pleasantly surprising bit of progressiveness… Despite the way the storyline goes, not a single character brings up that horridly regressive term “ghar jamaai”, and no one sneers at Ram for moving to Sona’s village. But that’s a rare bright spot in this otherwise dreary film. In a moment of blinding candour, at one point a character says to Ram: “Tumhe lagta hai na ki yeh kitne puraane ghise-pitey khayalat hai?” He should have said “ghisa-pita film”! 

What else? Oh ya, there’s a villain, a fight and a mangalsutra in the climax that I won’t tell you about in case you do venture out to watch Ramaiya Vastavaiya. Personally, if I could sue for the over two hours of my life lost to this film, I would.

Rating (out of five): 1/2 (half a star out of five)

CBFC Rating (India):	U/A
Running time:	148 minutes

Photograph courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramaiya_Vastavaiya