Ship of Theseus set to sail in Toronto

Anand Gandhi's career has traversed diverse creative terrains over the past decade and a bit: television soaps, alternative theatre and experimental short films. Now he is all set to sail on a ship in search of new horizons.

The award-winning Mumbai-based playwright, who wrote his first piece for the theatre while still in his teens, has now hit the high seas of world cinema with his maiden feature-length film, Ship of Theseus.

The film, as its logline says, "Explores questions of identity, justice, beauty, meaning and death through the stories of an experimental photographer, an ailing monk and a young stockbroker".

Clearly, Ship of Theseus is a far cry from the soaps that Gandhi wrote in his 20s for Ekta Kapoor, notably Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Kahani Ghar Ghar Kii. "Back then, soaps were not that big. So there were only a handful of writers. I stepped in because I wanted explore mainstream television storytelling," he says.

Gandhi, who has two critically short films, Right Here Right Now (2003) and Continuum (2006), both rooted in philosophical enquiry, has broken free from tried-and-tested narrative methods for his debut feature film.

Ship of Theseus, jointly produced by Amsterdam-based Fortissimo Films and Jaipure's Recyclewala Films, will be the opening film of the City to City section of the 11-day 37th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), which kicks off on September 6.

The section, now in its fourth year after showcasing films located in Buenos Aires, Tel Aviv and Istanbul, is devoted to the works of independent Mumbai directors this year. It has a total of ten titles, including five that will have their world premieres.

Gandhi asserts that Ship of Theseus belongs to a space that lies well outside the parameters of the so-called independent Mumbai cinema. He asserts: "My film is completely independent of the pressures of mainstream storytelling."

He also points out that while Ship of Theseus is set in Mumbai, it isn't strictly a film about the city. "It is a global film. It could have been set anywhere because its theme is universal," says Gandhi.

He argues: "Films about crime and gangsters set in the underworld aren't necessarily indie nor very new. Ram Gopal Varma did it many years ago."

His film, Gandhi says, has a distinct construct and feels that set it apart from Mumbai's contemporary independent cinema. "The three stories in Ship of Theseus have a philosophical connection," the writer-director says. "The focus is on the ethical dilemmas of characters engaged in psychological journeys."

An experimental photographer celebrated for her unique intuition, an erudite monk caught between his ideology and imminent death and a young stockbroker unconcerned with philosophical issues until a discovery forces him to question his values are the three figures around which Ship of Theseus revolves.