A Reminiscent Glance at ‘Ship of Theseus’

Disclaimer: This is an analysis of a four-year-old art film and not the logical paradox. For the analysis of the latter, please take help of the thousand and one web pages dedicated to it. 

Ship of Theseus is a 2013 Indian film that chronicles the separate stories of a blind photographer, a monk with a life threatening ailment and a stockbroker who decides to not just focus on money for once.

To collect all the thoughts that I have regarding this movie is nearly impossible. There were just so many different and overlapping themes in Ship of Theseus that you could actually fill up three different movies with it. But one theme, that is common to all the three stories and which I feel is the major connecting point of the movie, is the concept of change. And that is what fundamentally links the movie to the paradox itself.

Let’s take a look at the paradox:

The paradox deals with change. How changing a significant aspect of the ship affects the other parameters, how it affects its identity. The movie is somewhat similar. Ship of Theseus shows us the three protagonists and how they handle the major changes in their life.

The entire film ensues from the idea that what does someone become when a significant portion of them has been changed and how do they react to something like this. Mind you, it does not provide a solution but is simply a thought experiment that will make you wonder.

The movie has talked about so many topics, that each could be made into a separate movie of its own, but the beauty of it all is that you are never drawn out of its central theme, that of dealing with change. And that is because it intricately related everything to it. Whether it be the cycle of life and death, or fighting for political and social justice, the movie convinces us (and rightly so) to believe that these are all vehicles of change.

Ship of Theseus is not just a movie, it’s the picturization of the paradox itself, a picturization fulfilled through decent acting and good direction. When I finished the movie, I felt that it should have received more than the 8.1 it got on IMDb, but when I saw the awards and accolades it had won, I knew that it had been compensated.

In a world where Bollywood is ruled by masala-flicks, Ship of Theseus is a bold attempt, an attempt that won’t be understood by all, but which would satisfy those who do. An attempt that can probably change the situation of art films in our country.

Ship of Theseus is a fine example of cinema that is art. And it is not just any art, it is one that should be seen again and again.