I am as I unabashedly admit, pretty low on the ‘Intelligent’ scale. And when I am warned of an artsy-fartsy experience (even if it is film or theatre) I try to duck out of the event. But when you are invited by two very pretty ladies and promised a ringside view of a friend’s performance, you have very little choice but to go. And go I did to an exclusive Premier of Kiran Rao’s Ship of Theseus, a movie scripted and directed by Anand Gandhi.

I had seen the trailer online, and I had followed with interest the campaign promoting the film with a unique ‘Vote for your City’ Campaign but I just wasn’t prepared for what hit me as I took my first bite of Cinemax Popcorn.

From Frame One it was as if the camera had a mind of its own and was seeing the world in a random sequence of ‘search and find’ glances. The sounds were rapidly zeroed in wave forms that told stories without the aid of the visual. And I realized that I was slowly being blinded. I began to see life as the blind girl saw it…with my fingers, with my ears, with all my unmuted senses.

The eyes they say, speak volumes…but here was a girl who had to stop her eyes from speaking and let her rest do the talking…her arms, her hands, her shrugs, her swiveling head, her hesitant voice…the young lady made acting redundant. She was with her best friends, the camera and the director’s vision…and damned if she was going to let anyone else intrude.

And Faraz…in a role that could have been easily designed to be forgotten, he stepped in…and like a timely bookend, he stopped the narrative from meandering and gave the relationship between man and woman a strange kind of normalcy in a very abnormal state. And it was in his understatement that he proved that he had understood the dynamics of the part he was playing…so he just was…without trying to be. Even the peculiar accent that he has was allowed in, just to make sure that there was no obvious effort to ‘act’.

Now when it came to the part when the girl begins to relive the world with a new pair of eyes, the questions began to form…would she ever be the same again? was she better off not seeing? and so on…and my overspeed warning system kicked in and said…sit back, relax, enjoy…don’t try to analyze..

And I did just that…but found I was walking breathlessly alongside an unlikely friend, a monk who scorned a Ferrari and just skidded through life. But before alternative medicines and quick repartee could take over I got a call.

It was a client and I had to step into my role of Crisis Manager who acts like a Film Maker.

But yes, this is a ship I will have to sail in again. A cruise that I will have to complete…else the story will haunt me. And I so hate ghosts…