IT IS, ALWAYS, AS GOOD AS IT GETS...

Last night, I watched, along with my family, the critically-acclaimed film – ‘Ship of Theseus’.

We all liked the movie…

Yes, ‘Ship of Theseus’ is not a popular main-stream movie. It makes you think… and, you come out asking many questions… Moved.

Well, I do not intend to review the film, here… I may, simply, fail.

There is one dialogue, in the SOT, which, in deed, has stayed with me. It is, in my view, a beautiful philosophical gem.

The third protagonist in the movie, Naveen, is shown as a practical man - a money-minded, young-stockbroker. He has no patience or time for the ideals of his grandmother. She, constantly, pokes him saying, that, he should think of others… that, his actions should bring good to the society, the needy…  and, that, he should stop being so obsessed with money and himself. He is annoyed about his grandmother’s constant chiding. He argues with her… drawing to her attention the futility of her own ideals. “What have those ideals achieved?” he asks his grandmother, angrily.

Naveen had undergone a recent kidney transplant.  It had given him a new lease of life. One night, he hears some uncontrollable wailing from the hospital’s waiting area. Disturbed by it, he goes to check why the woman was so hysterical. He is shocked to learn about the reason: her husband, a poor man, who lived in one of Mumbai shanties, has been brought to the hospital, and, there, the doctors have told him about his missing kidney. Now, it has been leant, to the horror of the poor-man’s family, that, during an earlier appendix operation, somewhere in another hospital, the doctors had stolen his kidney!

The first thought that comes to Naveen’s mind is whether he himself is the recipient of the poor man’s stolen kidney. He is driven by a killing guilt, now, to find out the truth. If it is this poor man’s kidney, he is, now, willing to return it to him… That is something unbelievable considering the hardcore, practical worldview he had been donning all along. No, it was not the poor man’s kidney that has come into him, he finds out. Still, he wants to bring some solace and justice to the poor man and his family. He hands a big sum of money to the poor-man and promises to find out who were the culprits. He goes, all the way to Stockholm, to meet the well-off recipient and tells him, how, back home, things had worked. That, the Swedish gentleman is now living on a shattered poor-man’s stolen-kidney… and, so, the foreigner has to return it back to the poor man!

It sounds naive; yes, it does.  

Navin is still in Sweden hoping that he can bring back to the poor-man some justice, But, that one phone-call tells us how far Naveen can succeed. The poor-man tells Naveen, that he has been showered with tons of money, back home… and, that’s what he needs – not Naveen’s silly justice. “What is that kidney for when I got so much money?” he cuts the phone.

Naveen comes home, empty-handed. Here, standing next to his grandmother’s hospital bed, he tells her, “I did everything I could do to bring solace and justice to that poor victim… but….”

“That's all you can do, my child,” the old lady consoles her crestfallen grandson, “It is, always, as good as it gets!”

There are plenty of philosophical gems in Anand Gandhi’s ‘Ship of Theseus’. But, this one has stayed in me, specially…

In Life, any dream - any ideal or cause, 

 if our hearts prompt us to pursue, we should… 

Yes, with all our focus and passion… 

But, then… Yes, but then!

It is, always, as far as we can go…

As best as we can attempt…

As good as it gets!

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: Malabika Ganguly

P.S.: BTW, if you don’t get this meaning at all after watching the movie… Just chill. The ‘debate’ – the ‘Ship of Theseus’ - has been there for ages!