#16 An "Atrangi" and problematic representation of Mental Health
How movies largely shape the public's view of Psychology
Good morning! ✨
I hope the first week of the new year was fruitful!🌻
Since we talked about contributing to a better version of ourselves this year, (click the button below to check out the previous newsletter),
I’ve started a new reading habit! I aim at reading at least 20-30 minutes every day, be it a book, some articles, or a research paper.
My resolution, actually, is to maintain a good balance between my academic life, social life, and hobbies. That means, I’m planning on studying right, but also allowing myself to watch movies and series (without accidentally bingeing on them).
One of the movies I watched this past week was “Atrangi Re”. A super big-budget movie with Akshay Kumar, Dhanush, and Sara Ali Khan. It’s funny, emotional, and colorful. You'll find yourself laughing one minute and then getting emotional the other. The movie, like all entertainment movies, is grand and dramatic. ALSO, packed with inaccurate information on Mental Health.
I should tell you, I cannot refrain from giving you spoilers. After watching it, I feel the pressing need to talk about the more problematic beliefs that the movie holds. I will stick to the problems surrounding mental health since that is what I can confidently talk about.
Mental health is already a very less represented concept in Bollywood. With the effort to spread awareness about it, there also comes the responsibility to be factually correct. Movies like Taare Zameen Par, Guzaarish, Ghajani, and even Dear Zindagi, although made partly for entertainment, were mostly able to represent mental health responsibly.
Which is why, once I was done watching Atrangi Re, I realised I had some pretty extreme views on it. So, I did what every psychology student might do- I googled for reviews on the movie. I was extremely surprised to find absolutely no psychological takes on the first page of results. Everybody seemed to be concerned with the age gap of the characters and the absurdity of the movie or simply praising the acting skills, soundtrack, and sets.
So I googled more, tried looking for youtube reviews, and found that more shock was awaiting me. This time, the focus was mental health, yes, but it wasn’t a review. I found complaints, aggressive arguments, and shaming. But not an explanation as to why some things were wrong and why we should care about them.
That’s why, I want to try and put some things forward from my perspective, my personal opinions. Before that, even though I have mentioned this caution right from the beginning, in my bio, I want to say that I am not a professional. I am a student of psychology, currently studying MSc in Clinical Psychology, and everything I provide you with is always thoroughly researched. This piece, however, is going to be mixed with my personal opinion.
Now, with that out of the way, Let’s get into it.
To set the premise, the movie revolves around Rinku and Vishu (who is almost a doctor), their love story, Vishu’s friend Madhu who is apparently a psychiatrist, and Sajjad, who is Rinku’s lover, who’s also a magician. It is revealed soon that Rinku is actually hallucinating Sajjad, her lover, who does not really exist.
I have 5 things to point out.
One-
Once it is revealed that Sajjad is actually Rinku’s imagination, nowhere in the movie have they mentioned the name of the psychological issue that Rinku seems to be suffering through.
Although it looks like it’s not a big deal, it only contributes to mystifying mental disorders.
What was happening to her? Why? Does this disorder have a name? Can it be cured? We’ll get to that.
Two-
“I’m a psychiatrist. I know women”, is one of the things Vishu’s psychiatrist friend Madhu keeps repeating. And then proceeds to make the wrong choices about everything psychiatry and women-related.
His character gives the audience inaccurate information on disorders, symptoms, and what they look like in real life. He also gives some pretty bad advice about women which ultimately leads to Vishu’s wedding being called off. 30-45 minutes into the movie, the reliability of Madhu’s skills do not look that good.
Three-
Vishu and Madhu try to cure Rinku by themselves. They don’t consider, even once, taking Rinku to a psychologist for therapy or to a practicing psychiatrist. Their methods are borderline scary, and of course, dramatic, because a film needs to be entertaining more than factually correct. (Please note the sarcasm, thank you)
“No one understands mental disorders anyway” is another example of a harmful dialogue that Madhu delivers to convince Vishu to not tell Rinku that Sajjad is not real because “she’ll slit her wrists”.
To debunk this, I would like to mention that not all who struggle with mental health disorders are suicidal. Breaking a delusion as strong as Rinku’s (which, I want to emphasize once again, should only be done with the help of an actual psychologist and psychiatrist) will give her a very hard time, yes, but declaring that Rinku will react a certain way and to not seek external, professional help, seems to cross a line, even if it was for plot convenience.
And so, they begin slipping her “pills” to help her condition because according to Madhu only medication could help them now. Vishu agrees, simply because he wants to get the girl. The movie does not specify if Madhu is a licensed Psychiatrist, or on the way to becoming one.
They also don’t mention the name of her medication or what exactly it is, instead, they wrongly portray that as soon as Rinku downs one pill, something happens to her imaginary lover Sajjad, like sneezing repeatedly, falling from a tree, or getting sick.
Medication, which is prescribed by a psychiatrist only after a thorough examination of the client through psychological therapy, does not work within seconds. It is a process of months where the psychologist, psychiatrist, and the client, all work together.
Four-
There is a scene in the movie where Vishu and Madhu allow Rinku and her magician boyfriend to put on a magic show. They fill the theatre with patients with "OCD, Alzheimer’s, bipolar, schizophrenia". Madhu tries to profoundly explain to Vishu that “Whether or not anyone else can, these people can see Sajjad.”
Wrong. There are some disorders that make you lose touch with reality. Those may be disorders like Schizophrenia, which are characterized by delusions, hallucinations, loss of orientation of time and space, changes in mood, and a whole plethora of symptoms. Schizophrenia is a condition that cannot be cured entirely but can definitely be managed with the help of therapy and medication.
Then, there are disorders that don’t necessarily make you lose touch with reality unless they are extremely severe. Those are disorders like OCD and Bipolar. The terms seem to be only thrown around for the sake of it which makes it even easier for the general public to follow this trend.
Nevertheless, two people, even with the same disorder, will not hallucinate the exact same thing. A theatre full of patients with different disorders will not see Rinku’s personal hallucination, which is Sajjad.
Five-
Rinku, all on her own within 2 hours, realizes that Sajjad is a hallucination, a cause of her traumatic past, and comes to terms with reality by facing it.
Now, I know that this was done simply so that the movie could get its stereotypical happy ending, but portraying events in such a way might lead to misconceptions like “She just needed to try hard enough” or “See, it’s not that hard to just face and accept the truth”, which might, very easily, be generalized to anyone struggling with mental health disorders.
Our mind, just like our body, is evolutionarily developed to try to survive. Your immune system will fight threatening viruses and your mind will fight threatening memories, make up different versions of the truth or construct a whole other reality, all in an attempt to keep you safe. Finding the way back to reality is absolutely not an easy feat to achieve.
The single most important message of this newsletter is that even with casting and budget as big as this film, the responsibility to be medically and psychiatrically correct was not taken. I understand the entertainment point of view of the movie, but this is 2022. If a sensitive and important theme is going to be picked on, it is only fair, to the community concerned, as well as the audience, that factually correct information is provided.
Apart from always doing your research, I want to urge all of you to be mindful of what you consume. A well-known cast, movie, or even a trend does not imply that it is reliable.
You can go ahead and tell me your views on this movie, and other movies that seem to portray mental health issues, responsibly and otherwise.
P.S. feel free to suggest each other some good psychological movies! ✨
First of all thanks for writing your thoughts on the movie.
Secondly, I would strongly urge you to write your views and concerns to the key personnel’s related to the movie such as director, producers, and key actors and post this on public platforms such as FB, YouTube, etc. as this has to be routed through social channels and to mass audience.
And high time for you to have your own blog and your own website.
Great job! Keep it up!!!
On other side. People in general and more so in india are super ignorant and skeptical (including myself from time to time) about the field of psychology and psychiatry. So building the awareness is the first step.
How else’s could you build such needed awareness beyond this blog???
Great post again! Thank you for bringing important things like these to notice. We definitely need more people like you. It's strange how even in such a huge budget industry they lack the responsibility to be careful of the misinformation they're spreading. Most of our population that watch the movie get influenced by these things subconsciously amidst all other entertaining drama. We cant expect the population to be super aware of these things but a movie maker has to be careful.