Wake up call from ′Stars on the Ground′

Abstract

Byline: T. Sathyanarayana Rao, V.S.T. Krishna It might not be over stating, to say that movies have made inroads within the minds of the public since their inception. The Indian subcontinent too, is in line with this global scenario. Perhaps it will be a hard task to find a matching medium on par with movies in terms of the magnitude of the impact on the public psyche. Movies have immense potential in depicting the intricacies of human life. Further, movies go a long way in touching human lives in great detail. Unlike any of the other medium which humans have invented so far, movies are influencing persons hailing from all cross sections in our society, irrespective of their age, sex, education, occupation, intellectual levels and socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. These comments are of more relevance while one ponders over a recent Indian movie, Taare Zameen Par (Stars on the Ground), with a subtitle Every child is special as a timely reminder of an oft forgotten truth. The impact of the medium was borne out once again to us. A 19 years moderately retarded young boy reported with a series of complaints as stated by the relatives: that he would get up in the middle of the night and wander at large, to return in the morning hours and sleep in the daytime. During his roaming in the night hours it was reported that he gate- crashed into neighboring households and stole the dresses of women. Further, he behaved excitedly while interacting with women and tried to pull their hair and tug at their sarees and he would burst into laughter at his own acts. It was also reported that he refused to eat food, becoming aggressive and shouting at family members and was resorting to disrobing himself on the roads, often dancing nude. Unable to bear his wild acts and huge neighbourhood pressure, his family members had admitted him to a government psychiatric facility and he was kept on anti-psychotics and ECTs. The outcome was very poor. Following this, he was admitted into a rehabilitation facility. After repeated home visits by a psychiatric social worker, this young boy was encouraged to participate in a supportive social group interaction. In this social group in spite of his compromised communication skills, this boy opened up to express his experiences and feelings with considerable clarity. He revealed that he had been trying to imitate the heroes of films! Further, he stated that he felt dejected and appalled at being beaten up whereas film heroes are envied and applauded for the same kind of deeds on celluloid. Following this revelation the treatment process and the approach to this patient was drastically changed and the boy started showing good progress. A key aspect of this case study to be noticed seriously is the stupendous power of films and their ability to affect the thought process, as well as the emotional and behavior repertoire of different sections of our society. The recent gun-shootings in the school corridors in are also to be reviewed from the dimension of the role of media, especially the films and their impact on school children. On the other side of the coin there are several movies which can be cited which have demonstrated positive effects on the psyche too. There is little doubt that Mr. Shahrukh Khan could ignite team spirit and drive to fight out odds, through his Chak de India performance. The passionate patriotism was in line with Aamir Khan's classic film Lagaan. Even Swadesh could move many well qualified technocrats across the globe to feel for India. By the clarion call given by the role of space scientist, played by Mr. Shahrukh Khan sensitized viewers very earnestly to feel for one's own motherland, not to forget the smell of the soil where one is born and brought up, to respect our roots and to bond with the people of the land A keen psychiatrist, or for that matter any other concerned mental health professional can not remain aloof from the fact that movies are doing a plausible job in grasping the challenges to mental health issues and sometimes offering creative remedies. …