Full transcript
0:04[music]
0:09[music]
0:18>> Hello everyone. I welcome you to the
0:19course introduction to medical
0:21humanities. This is lecture 28 of week
0:24six.
0:26In fact, in the entire unit, in the last
0:29two lectures we identified the trope of
0:31madness within the context of Indian
0:34narratives. And in this particular
0:36lecture, we are going to take up mental
0:38health crisis in contemporary Hindi
0:41films. Now, if you look at the title, I
0:44talk about staging. Now, the choice of
0:47the word staging is very deliberate
0:50because it is something in which the
0:53meaning of the mental health is
0:56constructed, performed,
0:59and sort of distributed for the mass
1:02audience to consume. Hence, I choose the
1:04word staging in the title.
1:07Quickly, I'll go ahead with the lecture
1:09overview. We talk about selected text
1:12for analysis and use the
1:15Hindi cinema
1:18corpus as cultural text. I talk a little
1:22bit about expanded stigma framework. If
1:25you remember, I had already spoken about
1:28it in terms of inter, intra, and
1:30structural stigma associated with mental
1:33illness, but here I kind of expand a
1:35little. There are three films that we
1:37take into consideration. We begin with
1:40Tamasha, go ahead with Dear Zindagi, and
1:43finally talk about Chhichhore, and deal
1:46with the different kind of mental health
1:47crisis that has been reflected in these
1:51films. Now, the
1:53first film that we have chosen is
1:56Tamasha.
1:58Tamasha is uh directed by Imtiaz Ali and
2:01the film came out in 2015 with major
2:04themes such as identity crisis, creative
2:07repression. This film is about an
2:10individual struggle to follow what he
2:14wants to do in a
2:16extremely
2:18neoliberal kind of a performance-driven
2:21culture.
2:23If you take up the second film that I am
2:25taking for analysis, it's Dear Zindagi,
2:282016. Uh the film is by uh Gauri Shinde.
2:32It primarily, I think it's a very
2:35breakthrough film because it broke the
2:38stigma associated with middle-class
2:42people
2:43going for therapy. So, a visit to a
2:46psychiatrist, which was considered to be
2:48a taboo subject, I think that has been
2:50addressed very well in this particular
2:52film. It then talks about stigma
2:54destigmatization. Finally, we take up
2:57film Chhichhore and it is directed by
2:59Nitesh Tiwari and talks about how the
3:03structured kind of
3:05academic stress leads to suicidal
3:07ideation within young people and that is
3:10primarily what
3:12uh these three films are about. But the
3:14central question across all films remain
3:17this.
3:18How do these films cinematically
3:21construct,
3:23depict, and intervene in the discourse
3:26of mental health in contemporary India?
3:29So, primarily, all these films are about
3:32one or the other kind of mental health
3:34issue. Uh we take up distress as a
3:37component and
3:39see that these films through that lens.
3:42Hindi films reflects what has been taken
3:45for granted in a society and they both
3:48mirror
3:50and shape social attitudes. Now, Sara
3:53Ahmed has extensive work on Hindi cinema
3:55and she makes this a point after
4:00analyzing a lot of films and she says
4:03that
4:04sometimes there are nuances that we have
4:07not identified in our day-to-day life,
4:09in our lived experience, but they
4:11matter, they change, they have the
4:13potential for change, they are
4:15identified as social gap, and there is
4:19where a film, which supposedly a
4:22creative imagination,
4:24brings life to that particular issue,
4:26and there she says it's important that
4:29films do play a very vital role in not
4:33only reflecting what is there in
4:34society, but also having the potential
4:37for change. Another research by Abhijit
4:41Pathak and Ramkrishna Biswal talk about
4:43film constructing belief system via
4:46production, representation, and
4:49reception. So, not only production and
4:52how it is represented, but also as to
4:55how people have gone on to see that
4:58film. What is the mass reception of the
5:00film
5:01also identifies that film is a major
5:04cultural construct. Abhijit Pathak and
5:06Ramkrishna Biswal also identify that
5:09Hindi films historically used mental
5:12health for dramatized contrast. So,
5:16what does this mean that in contrast to
5:19the main figure of the film, they use
5:23mental health issues for portraying
5:25patients as childish or
5:27life-threatening. So, they
5:30do showcase this kind of contrasting
5:35reflection of people with mental health
5:37issues, but Ahmed thinks that, no matter
5:41what criticism you do of Hindi cinema,
5:45it indeed has been a witness to paradigm
5:48shift. It has not only created a a
5:51a kind of a paradigm shift, but also has
5:54been instrumental in bringing now the
5:58quotient of infotainment where there is
6:00entertainment plus information fused in,
6:04which means that a content which can be
6:07entertainment, but also information both
6:11at the same time and that is what she's
6:13visualizing. That is what she infers out
6:16of Hindi cinema today.
6:20Identifying
6:22four historical faces of how mental
6:24health has been represented, Mansour
6:27Malik, Imran
6:29Trimzi, and Gerald Galusi talk about
6:33four phases.
6:35Now, if you look at these four phases,
6:38there are four periods on your screen.
6:41You will find there is a period from
6:431913 to 1947,
6:46which is the pre-partition era. And in
6:49this era, you will find portrayal of
6:52mental illness is sympathetic
6:55and usually there is some kind of fate
6:59or social cause that is the reason of
7:03that particular mental health. Two films
7:06I quote here, Alam Ara
7:08and Devdas. Not the Devdas that you have
7:11seen with Shah Rukh Khan, but it's the
7:13older Devdas we are talking about. Now,
7:16in 1948 to 1964, extremely important
7:20period, uh just around after
7:22independence, you will find that they
7:24are calling it romanticism or the golden
7:27age of Hindi cinema. And in this,
7:32because of the kind of past we were
7:34dealing with, the films also came up
7:37with very positivist attitude and that
7:40is reflected also in the space of how
7:44mental health is reflected. So, the
7:48patients are treatable, that they are
7:50optimistic, they are you know, usually
7:53paternalistic psychiatry, which means
7:54mostly with men. So, two films here I
7:57have quoted. The I mean, this can be
8:00very useful for people who want to
8:01expand their research into mental health
8:04domain
8:05and want to see how that has been
8:07reflected in Hindi cinema. Maybe this is
8:10a
8:11good tabular chart that you can follow.
8:14So, there is Baiju Bawra in 1952 and
8:16there is Funtoosh in 1956.
8:19I am not going deliberately into great
8:22detail of this films because I already
8:24have selected
8:26three films for analysis
8:28for a class like this. So, but you can
8:30definitely expand it at any point of
8:32time you feel like. The 1965 to 1996, a
8:36large period again,
8:38lot of political instability. India's
8:40history, if you look at, you will find
8:42one particular period that definitely is
8:45important is the emergency. But
8:47otherwise also, it's a phase of
8:49political instability and you find the
8:53representation of mental health,
8:55dangerous, deviant, psychopathic
8:58stereotypes.
9:00The films Deewar, Tezaab and Khalnayak.
9:03If you happen to see any of these films,
9:06you will find these kind of traces. Now,
9:08post-1997,
9:11you know that the '90s era in India is
9:15the era of economic liberalization. It
9:18changed the way how society was working
9:22in India. So,
9:23you find that there is a economic
9:25stabilization and therefore
9:28the films turn sympathetic, nuanced,
9:32infotainment emerges. What does this
9:34mean? That there is a certain kind of
9:37sympathy attached to the patients or
9:41attached to people
9:43who are represented on screen with
9:45mental health issues. Additionally, they
9:48just do not make it a black and white
9:51character. It's very gray.
9:54It's very nuanced. It's very complex.
9:56It's very layered. So, any of these kind
9:58of adjectives you can use because they
10:02do not make any cut-to-cut kind of a
10:05character reflection in films. And
10:08finally, you find the
10:10component of infotainment what Sara
10:12Ahmed talks about. And you see that the
10:16entertainment quotient is not
10:18compromised, but you also find the
10:21information. And together, if you see,
10:23it has the potential for change. Good
10:26example can be Taare Zameen Par,
10:29which we have already analyzed in great
10:31detail while we were discussing
10:34childhood disability and dignity. So,
10:36please go back to that lecture and
10:38relate the whole mental health aspect
10:41here. And another film is My Name Is
10:43Khan, which came out in 2010. Now, the
10:48infotainment shift after 2010
10:52is very deliberate because now
10:57the
10:58global exposure. So, you have to
11:01understand that this is also the time
11:03when the entire digital penetration is
11:07happening in India. And therefore, the
11:10world is opening up. So, for any kind of
11:14very myopic understanding of an issue
11:17will not cater to what it is intended
11:20to. And therefore,
11:22even Hindi cinema is taking up issues
11:25that are globally relevant with
11:28a perspective which is not very
11:32myopic in in in terms of how
11:36you can see. So, infotainment becomes
11:38a buzzword in Hindi cinema and that is
11:41what we see in
11:43these Hindi films as well.
11:46Now,
11:47before we proceed further, I think it's
11:49important that we expand our stigma
11:52framework. And if you remember, I had
11:55already spoken about it earlier in terms
11:58of interpersonal, intrapersonal, and
12:00structural stigma. Here we move a little
12:04further and take up the framework of
12:07National Alliance on Mental Health. And
12:10what do they say? They build on five
12:13types of stigma.
12:16So, while the broader categories that we
12:18had dealt with, they are also here, but
12:21there is a little expansion here and
12:23there. So, first is the public stigma.
12:26Now, what does public stigma include? It
12:28includes stereotypes, prejudice, and
12:31discrimination endorsed by the general
12:34public. So, what is the people's opinion
12:37is something that is taken into
12:38consideration here. The second is that
12:41of self-stigma. So, when these public
12:44stigma works and work
12:47in in such a way where they induce
12:50factors that internalize, that make the
12:53person internalize that stigma, and
12:55hence in self-stigma, you find
12:58internalized acceptance of stereotypes,
13:01the individuals applies the stigma to
13:03themselves.
13:05So,
13:07what was at one point of time public has
13:09become now private.
13:12This is third kind of stigma. It's
13:14called courtesy stigma. Now, this is
13:17what? This is stigma by association.
13:20Family members of the mentally ill are
13:23also stigmatized. So, like I told you in
13:26the earlier lecture at some point of
13:28time while I was talking about
13:29caregiving, that usually with patients
13:32like this or even in other spaces of
13:36care, it's the care network that gets
13:39established. So, in case of mental
13:42health
13:43issues, what happens is that the family
13:45also bears the burden of that stigma,
13:48and that is why it's called courtesy
13:50stigma, which means that there was
13:51nothing they did as such or nothing that
13:54has happened to them, but still they are
13:56the burden because they come from that
13:59network.
14:00Structural stigma I have already
14:02discussed. It talks about
14:05discrimination embedded in policies,
14:08laws, and institutions such as the caste
14:10system, educational ranking system,
14:12institutions, legal systems, police,
14:15hospital, so many you can go ahead. The
14:19fifth an important type of stigma is
14:22health practitioner stigma. Now, in this
14:26prejudice exercised consciously or
14:29unconsciously by those in caring or
14:31medical professions.
14:33I'll take you back for a moment to a
14:36short story that I took up in the last
14:38class perhaps,
14:40uh which is the treatment of Bibi
14:41Halder. So, if you remember, even there
14:45the treatment of
14:47Bibi Halder prescribed by the doctors is
14:49that relations will calm her down,
14:51marriage will calm her down. So, you
14:53know, there is also a stigma associated
14:56with their mindset and also to the
15:00patients they are kind of catering to.
15:02So, all these stigmas are frameworks you
15:06can utilize for the purpose of your
15:09research in case you are interested to
15:11expand this further or you can otherwise
15:15also read about it. Now, quick
15:18statistics that I want to talk about
15:20here. Sarah Ahmed's, 83% of those with
15:24mental health problems in India lack
15:26access to adequate treatment. This is a
15:30survey by National Mental Health
15:332016. This was done and they say that
15:36most of the people do not have adequate
15:39treatment. So, that is why
15:41consciousness or awareness regarding
15:43that becomes crucial markers of how
15:46these problems will be addressed. Why
15:48this film's uh why this matters for film
15:51analysis? Because in Tamasha, you will
15:54find self-stigma and social conformity
15:57pressure, which is in a neoliberal
15:59society. He has to be productive and
16:01that is why he's going against his
16:03passion and doing what he has to do
16:06rather than what he wants to do. Uh in
16:08Dear Zindagi, you will find public
16:10stigma and self-stigma. And Chhichhore,
16:13you will find uh structural stigma
16:15primarily. I will come to it a little
16:17later. Let's go ahead. Tamasha is a film
16:20that came out in 2015
16:23directed by Imtiaz Ali.
16:26Many of you must have seen this film.
16:28So, the story goes like this that uh
16:31there is a central character called Ved
16:34and he's
16:35very spontaneous kind of a storyteller.
16:37He wants probably to make a career in
16:41field of creativity.
16:43But,
16:44he's a corporate employee and that is
16:46what he does for a living.
16:48In one episode, he goes to Corsica
16:52where he meets Tara and during that
16:56small break that he took, he discovers a
16:59very new side of him.
17:02And this is the space where all his
17:05emotionally repressed
17:07desire comes up and he feels
17:10disconnected from the corporate employee
17:13that he is.
17:15When Tara enters his
17:18demanding the real Ved, a psychological
17:21crisis unfolds. So, if you look at these
17:24three scenes, I will analyze them as
17:26well. What is the mental health
17:28dimension? The mental health dimension
17:30is that there is identity disassociation
17:33and psychological fragmentation. What do
17:36you mean by identity disassociation?
17:39Which means that you are doing something
17:41you don't identify with. In this case,
17:45Ved is a corporate employee. He doesn't
17:47identify himself with the job. So, that
17:50is
17:52problematic. Why? Because it is not a
17:55matter of one or two days. For a
17:57constant time when this desire
18:01to be not
18:03to be uh
18:04So, for a long time when you keep
18:07projecting yourself into something else,
18:10there is a psychological toll that takes
18:12place. And that is where the
18:15fragmentation happens and that is what
18:17dimension that is reflected in this
18:19film.
18:20Then, we also find that his real self,
18:25Ved's real self, is not reflected. He is
18:28controlling that as part of the whole uh
18:33masculinity creation where he he is not
18:36ready to be
18:38what
18:39the society does not expect him to be.
18:43So, he just goes on doing his job.
18:47The film does not show any uh clinical
18:50diagnosis, but dramatizes the psychic
18:53cost of this inauthenticity.
18:56So, if you are not true to yourself, you
18:59cannot fake for very long. We'll take
19:01all these three scenes one by one. Uh
19:04they were there in the last slide also,
19:06but I'll take the first scene. This is a
19:09mirror scene. If you can see, Ved is
19:12rehearsing his corporate persona in
19:15front of a mirror.
19:16What is the cinematic reading? The
19:18cinematic reading can be attributed to
19:21Lacan's mirror stage, an identity
19:24constituted through external reflection,
19:28not internal truth.
19:31The mirror actually shows him who he is
19:34supposed to be, not who is. So, he's
19:37also lying to his reflection.
19:39And for that, we employ Lacan's mirror
19:43stage theory and
19:46analyze this particular scene. The other
19:49scene is the one which is which happens
19:52in
19:53Corsica with Tara. And if you see this
19:57particular
19:58scene, this image, you find that Ved
20:01performs elaborate fictional identities
20:04for Tara, who tries on different
20:07characters. So, if you see that
20:08particular film, you'll find that they
20:10are
20:12posing with each other with different
20:14names. They are creating different kind
20:16of stories. And in fact, there are they
20:18are playing a fun game in which
20:20everything they say, it has to be a lie.
20:23So, it's it's very creative a space they
20:26are exploring. Now, in this
20:30scene that you see on your screen, it
20:32represents withdrawal from the symbolic
20:35order into an imaginary register. And
20:39therefore, the space of holiday which
20:43they are in creates a
20:45space of heterotopia which
20:48Foucault talks about as outside the
20:51normal social rules, but
20:53where authentic selfhood can be
20:56explored. That's why this scene is very
20:59iconic and many times when you Google
21:02the film Tamasha, you will find this
21:03particular scene. The third is the key
21:07scene, I think,
21:09out of all the three scenes,
21:12the most reflective of all,
21:14the public breakdown. So, in this scene,
21:19Ved just loses his control at the
21:22workplace and screams and weeps and is
21:25unable to maintain his performance.
21:28The psychoanalytic reading you can do of
21:30this particular scene where
21:33if you repress a desire for a very long
21:36time, the authentic self cannot take it
21:39for a very long time. So, there is a
21:42theorist Srujana and Sudha Sahi. They
21:45say the public breakdown and subsequent
21:48return to theatrical storytelling
21:50symbolize sublimation. So, all these
21:53three scenes, if you analyze one by one,
21:56you find that the idea of mental health
22:00issue has been taken up in the film
22:03Tamasha in a very complex way.
22:06The second film that we are discussing
22:08here is Dear Zindagi. Zindagi is life
22:11and it came out in 2016. The film is
22:14directed by Gauri Shinde and it has Alia
22:17Bhatt and Shah Rukh Khan. And the film
22:20is about a young cinematographer from
22:23Mumbai. She is Kaira here.
22:26And she struggles with different kind of
22:30things like insomnia, breaking of the
22:33relationships, and professional
22:35insecurity. But
22:38the film, the way it proceeds, you find
22:42that
22:43behind
22:45these unstable relationships or
22:48insomnia or whatever insecurity she's
22:51facing, there is an unresolved childhood
22:55trauma,
22:56parental emotional absence, and the
22:59issue of abandonment. So, when she was
23:02young, her parents would leave her to
23:04her grandparents' house, and she felt
23:07that this was a kind of abandonment that
23:10was happening. They She also feels that
23:13they were emotionally absent for her
23:15when she needed. So, that created a kind
23:18of a long-term trauma in her mind.
23:21And to address this, she begins a
23:23therapy with Dr. Jehangir, which is
23:25played by Shah Rukh Khan, who uses
23:28everyday metaphors and non-directive
23:30method. So, I'll come to that in the
23:32next slide. So, he's not judgmental. If
23:35you watch the film, that is one thing
23:38you will
23:39infer In fact, in very few scenes that
23:42you see that he's very non-judgmental.
23:44And
23:46the entire film is about charting the
23:49therapeutic journey towards
23:51self-awareness, confrontation of
23:53childhood wounds, and resilience. And
23:56the way mental health is depicted, she's
23:59having depression, insomnia, trust
24:01issues, fear of abandonment, and anxious
24:04attachment style. So, uh
24:07what you see in this film, you will find
24:10that it's a clinical diagnosis also that
24:13is happening. Just like in Tamasha, we
24:14do not have any clinical diagnosis
24:16happening. Here, you also have that.
24:21So, what makes it very distinctive?
24:24The first film to talk about in a very
24:28accurate way the relationship between
24:30the client and a therapist.
24:33There are some films that have come
24:35after that where there is a therapist,
24:39the equation that they share is shown,
24:43the conversation they have is shown, the
24:46nuanced conversation rather is uh
24:50portrayed. But, this was the first film,
24:53in fact, to my literature survey that
24:56showcased it with empathy.
24:59Now, the therapist is shown as a
25:01facilitator using non-directive
25:04person-centered methods, not
25:07somebody who's an expert. So, if you
25:10look at the dialogues
25:12that are written,
25:14it's very clear that he's not acting as
25:16if he's an expert.
25:18It's like it's a natural thing. It
25:20happens to people. That kind of an
25:22attitude is there. So, you are
25:24different, but this doesn't mean that
25:27you are
25:29something like that. So, he Shinde also
25:32directly
25:34confronts the stigma of therapy
25:37associated with Indian middle class
25:40specially. So,
25:41she goes to therapist. She talks about
25:44appointment. She says, I have a
25:46date with the therapist. So,
25:49it is definitely a very
25:51iconoclastic shift.
25:54Quick survey, 91% of Ritika Puniya and
25:59Amit Sangwan's responded had watched
26:02both the films. So, Tamasha and Dear
26:06Zindagi. So, I picked up paper which
26:08talked about both these films and this
26:11is the research they did. So, they took
26:13a survey and both these films were
26:15watched by 91% of people and 84%
26:20reported greater comfort discussing
26:23mental health and seeking help after
26:25viewing. So, how cinema also plays a
26:30role in navigating in those taboo spaces
26:34which were otherwise associated with the
26:38colors of stigma. So, this is a very
26:40good example and I thought and that's
26:42why I thought it was a good idea to
26:43bring it to the class because
26:46otherwise
26:48this is a taboo subject usually not
26:50touched. So, uh this research I found
26:52very significant and I thought it was
26:54good idea to blend it with uh Dear
26:56Zindagi because Dear Zindagi is the
26:58first film that takes up this kind of an
27:01issue according to my literature review.
27:03Quickly, we will uh look at this chart
27:06uh in Dear Zindagi where there is
27:07stigma, self, and therapeutic gaze. So,
27:10if we talk about self-stigma in Dear
27:13Zindagi, what do you see? There is a
27:15particular scene which is
27:18about Kaira's famous outburst to her
27:20family, calls herself crazy, and an act
27:25of self-stigmatization driven by public
27:28stigma. So, she's shouting and she's
27:30saying, "I'm crazy." And And if you just
27:33Google on YouTube, you might as well
27:34find this scene.
27:36She simultaneously knows therapy is
27:39legitimate and internalizes the social
27:43shame around it. So, knowing that uh
27:46this is something that is probably
27:48associated with a lot of stigma, she
27:50still goes ahead and internalizes that
27:51I'm not well, perhaps.
27:54Sara Ahmed talks about it and says,
27:56"Kaira depicts aspects of self-stigma
27:59here by becoming aware of public stigma
28:03and internalizes them by applying them
28:05to the self." So,
28:07if you remember when I was talking about
28:09five types of stigma, the second one
28:12is the self-stigma. So, the first comes
28:15the public stigma. So, when public
28:17starts believing, you also start
28:19believing. It's something like that.
28:21We also come across childhood trauma and
28:25uh attachment theory in which
28:29uh Kaila Kaira's difficult relationship
28:33with her parents
28:35has led to the mental state that she's
28:38in.
28:39So, you find that
28:42there is
28:44the emotional unavailability of the
28:47parents
28:48or abandonment issues that she faces.
28:51So, her parents used to go for
28:54work or something
28:56when she was young and leave her to her
28:59grandparents' place and she felt that
29:01this was something that they should not
29:04have done. They were not there. So,
29:06Ahmad
29:07film entry list the causes as trust
29:10issues, fear of abandonment, societal
29:13pressures, psychosocial factors, genetic
29:17and biomedical factors. So, she lists
29:19all these factors that as part of that,
29:21but the film implicitly draws on
29:24attachment theory.
29:25Early relational experiences shape adult
29:29capacity for trust and intimacy. And
29:32that is why if you read some of the
29:35research around mental health issues
29:37broadly, it infers that all that we are
29:41right now, like as an adult, how our
29:45personality is, has a lot to do with the
29:48experiences that we have had as a child.
29:52So, our childhood experiences matter.
29:54Though
29:56if I ask you how was your childhood
29:58experience or or even if I try to
30:01reflect, there are barely things we will
30:03remember. But, our subconscious mind
30:07remembers most of the stuff. And that is
30:10why
30:11those experiences turn the kind of trust
30:15issues or the kind of capacity for trust
30:18we will have, the kind of relationships
30:21we will form, how we will be in our
30:23relationships,
30:25the kind of community person we will be,
30:28whether we will be social, not so
30:30social.
30:31All these things have a deep-rooted
30:34source in our childhood.
30:36Now,
30:38earlier I mentioned Dr. Jug's
30:40metaphor. He uses everyday metaphor. So,
30:43he uses the furniture metaphor for
30:45unstable relationships and that I found
30:48really funny. [gasps]
30:49Uh he says that
30:51even for a furniture, if we want to buy,
30:53we try so many things. I quote from the
30:57film, "We go through so many options
31:00when picking out something like a
31:02furniture. So, what is the issue with
31:04going through options when picking out a
31:06life partner?" So, he normalizes that
31:09whole phenomena of her being unstable,
31:15which she has internalized, which Kaira
31:17has internalized in her mind, and
31:19simplifies it with a everyday metaphor.
31:22So, the significance is that it
31:25normalizes
31:27experimentation and challenges cultural
31:30pressure of correct permanent choices,
31:33because we will not know until we make
31:36that choice that what was correct choice
31:38for us. And the final, I think, scene
31:42that we have to discuss here is
31:45the parental confrontation in which she
31:47goes to her parents and she says, and I
31:50quote, "As children, we were never
31:52allowed to openly express anger,
31:54sadness, hate, happiness, and now how
31:58can they expect us to express love?"
32:01Now, many times
32:03within the garb of good behavior,
32:07our real emotions as a child get
32:10suppressed.
32:12But they can also come out like this in
32:14some people. So, that doesn't mean that
32:17they might have mental illness. It's
32:20just a mental health issue and probably,
32:22when we think of emotional suppression
32:25and adults' inability to form healthy
32:27attachments, we can always connect it to
32:29childhood and that is why this film
32:32talks about
32:34Kaira as an adult, but it takes up all
32:37that has happened in the past with her.
32:40Somewhere
32:41putting a rejoinder to our own
32:44understanding of our own life, where we
32:46think of our life not just in terms of
32:50what is happening right then, but also
32:52in terms of how we have experienced life
32:55so far and the possibility of what we
32:58can experience later on.
33:01The third and the final film we are
33:03taking is Chhichhore and uh the film is
33:06by Nitesh Tiwari and uh in when the film
33:09opens, you find that Anirudh's son
33:12Raghav has attempted suicide after
33:14failing in a competitive exam and we
33:17know that competitive exams in India are
33:21uh
33:21very uh competitive
33:24and uh they build a lot of pressure
33:27around that. So, as Raghav lies in the
33:30hospital, Anirudh reunites with college
33:33friends and narrates their shared story
33:35from the 1990s.
33:37It's one of the best films I have seen
33:39so far around uh this uh kind of a
33:43structural uh
33:45pressure. Uh in fact, in my classes, I
33:48always recommend students to watch this
33:50film if they haven't. I think it's a
33:52master class in
33:54how you to deal with academic pressure
33:56in a workplace. I mean, especially for
33:58students. Uh also for teachers. I I
34:01don't mind, but uh I I think it's a good
34:03film and all of you must watch it at
34:05some point of time. It's a 1990s
34:07narrative in that film where these
34:10friends have come together and they
34:13describe themselves as losers, but they
34:16win a hostel competition and learn to
34:19redefine success and failure.
34:22Many times associate these
34:26when we uh call out these words,
34:30success, failure, they may mean
34:33different things to different people.
34:35So,
34:37you know, when you
34:38say how successful you want to be, your
34:41idea of success may be different from
34:43somebody who is in a different part of
34:45the country.
34:47So, my idea of success is different.
34:49Similarly, my idea of failure is also
34:51different than yours. And vice versa is
34:54true. So, the whole idea is that loser
34:58is not a permanent category or a
35:01permanent identity of resilience. Not
35:04rank defines the person. So, in this
35:08particular film, you find that the
35:11mental health dimension is taken care of
35:13where academic stress becomes a trigger
35:17for suicidal ideation. So, if you are
35:19not doing academically very well,
35:21probably the trigger is there. And if
35:24you trace how our education system is
35:27also changing, the psychological cost of
35:30performance-based identity and
35:32self-worth defined solely by grades and
35:35ranks. So, in the film, you find this
35:37particular phenomena in which the grades
35:40and rank decide what is the success and
35:43failure parameter for the person. And
35:46therefore, we find that resilience is a
35:49psychosocial protective factor against
35:52mental health crisis.
35:54If you take up any of these India's
35:56competitive exam culture, whether it is
35:58IIT-JEE, NEET, they create intense
36:02adolescent psychological pressure. And
36:05that is what is reflected also in this
36:08film. Hana M. Stalin cited in Puniya and
36:11Sangwan says, "Resilience is a critical
36:14buffer against university stress." So,
36:16you just have to be resilient is what
36:18they say, but that's not all. It's a
36:20structural problem. And that is what
36:22this film highlights.
36:25Let us take the loser stigma and
36:26structural critique. The first is the
36:29category of loser. Now, the label loser
36:33is institutionally produced, not a
36:36natural fact about a person. And that's
36:38why it's not something that you identify
36:41as a permanent identity.
36:44So,
36:45this is one aspect that has been taken
36:48up in terms of social category. The
36:50other thing is the hostel ranking system
36:53in films is a microcosm of India's
36:57broader competitive educational
36:59infrastructure. So, what we see in
37:02society, we also find hostel as a
37:05microcosm of that. Erik Erikson says
37:08industry versus inferiority stage, where
37:11adolescents are repeatedly defined by
37:14failure, a sense of fundamental
37:16inferiority becomes internalized.
37:19So, the the factor that they don't
37:22compete this exam, this leads to certain
37:25kind of inferiority, and that they
37:28internalize.
37:29And for this
37:31category of loser as a social category,
37:34they say that the problem is not with
37:36the person, but the the structural
37:38stigma in education. The whole pattern
37:40of grading and ranking, this is an
37:44issue.
37:45This is Ahmed's analysis also. They try
37:47to connect it, which is the advice, the
37:50active prejudice and discrimination by
37:53policies, laws, and constitutional
37:56practice. And the film is critiquing not
38:01just the individual attitude, but these
38:05kind of systemic pressures as well. The
38:09gender dimension is also there. The
38:11film's cast of losers is almost entirely
38:14male. Academic pressure coded as male
38:17experience. So,
38:19how are the females experiencing that
38:23So,
38:24I think that is somewhere missing and
38:28that's why I thought it's good idea to
38:31put it as
38:33a point. Now, resilience become here a
38:36counter-narrative. So, you be resilient
38:38is what is usually said, but the 1990s
38:41group succeeds not by becoming winners,
38:44but by redefining what winning means.
38:47Just like if you remember, I was talking
38:49about a film Sitare Zameen Par
38:52where
38:53there was this character with
38:55neuro-divergent disorder who had problem
38:58identifying left shoe and right shoe to
39:01be placed in the left and right leg
39:04to which the coach says,
39:06"You start placing the right
39:09shoe in the left, left shoe in the
39:12right, and that will automatically solve
39:14the problem." So, this is exactly like
39:16that where you redefine the meaning of
39:19what winning means to you, and that
39:22this film wonderfully advocates and
39:25looks for intrinsic versus extrinsic
39:28definition of self-worth. So, nobody
39:30else decide what you're worthy of, you
39:33yourself define. And Punia and Sangwan
39:36say the movie sought to deliver a strong
39:39message about shedding the stigma of
39:41being labeled as loser. So, I mean, they
39:44themselves started calling loser and
39:46building on that loser category so much
39:49that probably winning became less
39:52coveted than losing. So, you find this
39:54kind of reflection in Chhichhore.
39:57Quickly, I will take up the types of
39:59mental health crisis in select text.
40:01This is the table you can follow. In uh
40:05the first is crisis type, clinical
40:07label, root cause, dominant stigma,
40:10resolution, therapy predicted. So, in we
40:12find the type of crisis identify I have
40:15discussed it already. I'm just kind of
40:17recapitulating, which will help you how
40:21when you are reading uh
40:23theme-based text, how you can kind of
40:27bifurcate it, make classifications,
40:29identify the theoretical model used, map
40:32it with a timeline, and sometimes map it
40:35with data, and so on and so forth. So,
40:38the crisis type is identity for
40:40fragmentation, but in Dear Zindagi, it
40:42is clinical depression. In Chhichhore,
40:45it is suicidal ideation along with
40:48academic stress. So,
40:50it is academic stress that has induced
40:52the suicidal ideation is what is there
40:55in Chhichhore. The clinical label is
40:58uh usually existential uh and
41:01psychosocial.
41:02Uh
41:03in Dear Zindagi, it is depression
41:06explicitly said,
41:08but in Chhichhore, there is no stress
41:11and consequence shown. Primarily, it
41:13looks like it's academic uh stress due
41:16to which the suicidal ideation happened.
41:20>> [snorts]
41:20>> The root cause in these three films,
41:22Tamasha, it has neoliberal performance.
41:26Ved wants to become creative person, but
41:29he's performing as a corporate employee
41:32due to neoliberal performance culture of
41:35being very productive. So, that is the
41:37root cause. In Dear Zindagi, it is
41:38childhood trauma and the issue of
41:40abandonment. And in Chhichhore, it is
41:42the structure of the academic pressure.
41:45Dominant stigma uh in Tamasha, you have
41:47self and social.
41:49Uh in Dear Zindagi, you have again self
41:51and public. And in Chhichhore, you have
41:53the structural stigma primarily.
41:56Resolution
41:57uh in Tamasha, there is a breakdown, and
41:59he finally decides that he will do
42:01theater, he'll do art. In Dear Zindagi,
42:04there is a
42:05self-acceptance that is happening.
42:07Finally, she accepts
42:09uh she addresses her childhood issues
42:11and accepts who she is. There is a
42:14therapeutic insight therefore the
42:17Another film and but and in Chichore you
42:21find the reframing of the failure and
42:24resilience building. So usually
42:25resilience building is
42:27considered to be combating strategy but
42:30it also talks about
42:32individuals deciding
42:34what success and failure means to them
42:37and also how to operate in that kind of
42:40a academic stress
42:43structure.
42:45Therapy
42:46in Tamasha, no.
42:49Dear Zindagi, yes, central to the
42:50narrative. The film is all about that.
42:53And in Chichore it is there is no
42:56therapy but yes
42:57peer support and family narrative
43:00definitely comes into picture.
43:03In conclusion we can say that all these
43:05three films represent a significant
43:07shift in Hindi films from
43:10sensationalizations
43:12toward empathy, nuance and relative
43:15clinical accuracy. So whether it is
43:18clinical or symptom based either or I
43:23think Hindi films represent them in such
43:27a way where they
43:31locate how to destigmatize the practice
43:34of
43:35mental health therapy.
43:38Each engage different crisis. We have
43:40already marked it through chart.
43:42Together they function as infotainment.
43:45I told you that Sara Ahmed talks about
43:48infotainment as an important method used
43:52in Hindi cinema now where entertainment
43:55and information is clubbed for mass
43:57appeal and that is what they do even
44:00while talking about mental health
44:02literacy. Limitations definitely remain.
44:05There is class bias, representational
44:08gaps,
44:09uh, narrative resolution pressure,
44:11insufficient integration of accessible
44:14resources, but even with these
44:17limitations, we find that all three
44:19films have
44:22quite a few inclusive elements and a
44:25message to convey, uh, in its
44:27representation. And therefore, we can't
44:30say that cinema doesn't have an impact.
44:32In fact, cinema has a measurable impact
44:35on audience attitudes, but the impact
44:38requires critical scrutiny.
44:41Uh, there is where I will end and I will
44:43see you in another class with, uh, a
44:46different subject or dealing with stress
44:48and mental illness. Thank you.