Ship of Theseus (film)
Ship of Theseus is a 2012 Indian drama film written and directed by Anand Gandhi, and produced by actor Sohum Shah. The film explores "questions of identity, justice, beauty, meaning and death through the stories of an experimental photographer, an ailing monk and an enterprising stockbroker", played by Aida El-Kashef, Neeraj Kabi and Sohum Shah. After three years in development, the film premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival, where it received critical acclaim and was touted as "the hidden gem of the year". It has received positive reviews from both Indian and international press and has been hailed as "the most significant film to come out of India in a very long time". Film critic Derek Malcolm has called it a "life-changing film" and Variety commended its "unexpected grandeur". The title of the film alludes to Theseus' paradox, most notably recorded in "Life of Theseus", wherein the Greek historian and philosopher Plutarch inquires whether a ship that has been restored by replacing all its parts remains the same ship. The film was released in India on 19 July 2013. It won the award for the Best Feature Film of the year at the 61st National Film Awards. Plot
Aliya Kamal (Aida El-Kashef) is a visually impaired and celebrated Egyptian photographer in the process of undergoing a cornea transplant that will restore her vision. Though the surgery is a success and Aliya's vision is restored, she has trouble adjusting to her new found sense of sight and is dissatisfied with her resulting photography. Maitreya (Neeraj Kabi), an erudite Jain monk, is part of a petition to ban animal testing in India. When he is diagnosed with liver cirrhosis, his reluctance towards animal-tested medication is questioned and he must now depend on the people he's been fighting against – a path he refuses to take. A young Indian stockbroker, Navin (Sohum Shah), has just received a new kidney. He soon learns of a case of organ theft involving an impoverished bricklayer, Shankar. He initially fears that his new kidney was the one stolen from Shankar. When he learns that the recipient of the kidney lives in Sweden, he decides to go there to help Shankar get his kidney back – but is Shankar perhaps better helped by a large financial settlement instead of having two kidneys again? Ship of Theseus ends with the Platonic Allegory of the cave. The philosopher Plato argues that human beings are imprisoned in the cave of their own existence, falsely believing the temporary as having permanence. The job of a philosopher, he argues, is to help people find a way out of the cave. In the last scene of the film, we see the shadow of the man in the walls of the cave he is exploring. Those who received his organs (including Aliya, Maitreya and Navin) watch this short clip. The man who we see only as the shadow in this clip did not make it out of the allegorical prison-cave described by Plato. 