A Mother in India

Caricaturing people with Schizophrenia in a Bollywood film, ‘Krazzy-4’- for mega bucks?

Two days ago, a young man who has been struggling with Schizophrenia for several years rang me up. He works in Bangalore. His father had switched jobs from Delhi to Bangalore to keep the family together and be a source of support for his son. The young man said that he had to ring me up because he felt so outraged after seeing the promos of a Hindi film titled – ‘Krazzy-4'. The film was yet to be released and the promotional material on television and the film’s official web site on internet were caricaturing people with schizophrenia, he said.
I checked out the website. The link is given below -

http://krazzy4film.com/

'Krazzy-4' is produced by a Bollywood Czar. One of the 'Krazzy-4' characters is titled ‘Schizophrenic' Gangadhar. Apparently ‘Schizophrenic' Gangadhar has wonderful hallucinations with Gandhi, Nehru and all the icons of Indian History. I wonder if Gangadhar had been suffering from Cancer would the makers of the film have the gall to brand him as ‘Cancerous Gangadhar’ and the movie titled ‘Malignant 4’? I can understand the outrage the young man felt. The suffering and trauma of people experiencing schizophrenia has been trivialised in the promos. Besides referring the word ‘Krazzy’ to someone suffering from schizophrenia is so condescending and horribly stigmatizing. What was the need to caricature people with serious mental illnesses in such a way? As it is people living with serious mental illnesses and their families face so much of discrimination and marginalization due to the prevailing ignorance and stigma that surrounds mental illness in India. So many families have had to move out from their homes because people living in the same locality have ridiculed and jeered when their family member was in psychosis.

Access to mental health facilities is limited. So psychosis, life-threatening self-neglect, violence and attempts at suicide have to be managed in millions of homes in India. Sometimes one has to lock up the loved one, sometimes tie them up, sometimes run after them, sometimes a family member has to desperately pray and keep awake 24/7 till the soul-breaking psychosis is brought down with an increase in the medications and quietening the home to an unearthly stillness. That is if one is informed and has access to a psychiatrist. Also go about the daily chores calmly. These are the exhausting experiences which is a norm in the lives of those with a loved one with schizophrenia in India. Managing a family member with schizophrenia in India is self-taught because there are no public health campaigns for severe Mental Illness in India as they have for Cancer, HIV/AIDS and other disabilities.

The Government of India has a Central Board of Films Certification (CBFC), an independent body which certifies films after censoring material which is not ‘suitable for viewing’. According to one secretary at the CBFC, 'Krazzy-4' has already been certified 'suitable'. She found the movie so ‘funny’. It showed that ‘these’ people were just like ‘us’. In fact they were better than us When the National Flag fell down one of 'these' people dusted it and put it straight... etc.

I wonder if CBFC passed the film because the film showed ‘Schizophrenic' Gangadhar having 'nation- loving ’ hallucinations – those of Gandhi, Nehru and other icons of Indian History and hence deemed it ‘suitable’ for public viewing. If 'Schizophrenic' Gangadhar was shown having the whole gamut of stomach-churning , frightening visual, auditory, sensory, tactile and olfactory hallucinations which people with schizophrenia struggle with I wonder what the CBFC would have done. What an trivializing portrait of a cruel and devastating illness like Schizophrenia, soft, made-to-order 'national' hallucinations of Gandhi, Nehru …out of a catalogoue, that an audience will watch , laugh with a sense of relief and go home feeling good. After watching this movie I wonder if they would perceive their loved ones not being able to bathe, eat, sleep, study, emote or work but talking to themselves as a normal phenomena. After all they would be talking to the great leaders of India.

'Krazzy-4' would only add to the bubbling cauldron of confusion, ignorance, myths, blind beliefs and superstitions about mental illness that exist in India. The burgeoning population, the economic boom, the widening gap between the classes, having the largest number of poor in the world, climatic changes, failure of crops, the migration from the villages to the cities, the breakdown of families, large numbers living in the slums of the cities with little access to the basic amenities and education, growing unemployment in the youth …. are ideal breeding grounds in India for serious mental illnesses to precipitate.

The CBFC and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India have been given protest letters which state that –
1. Artistic License does not give the producers of the film unrestricted freedom to lampoon patients suffering from severe Mental Illnesses like Schizophrenia, which is as serious as Cancer as WHO as conclusively stated; especially when there are no public health programmes about mental illness in India.
2.Branding patients with severe Mental Illnesses as ‘Krazzy’ stigmatizes and violates the inherent dignity of 65 million Indians living with these illnesses as purported to be portrayed in 'Krazzy 4' Hence the film should be reviewed suitably and the title ‘Krazzy’ be changed before the release'.

I do not know how many people would be reading this blog entry but if they are and their lives have been touched with severe mental illness, please help people with mental illness and their families to live with dignity in India.
Please mail and fax your objections marked in bold letters to

Chairperson of CBFC :
cbfc.hq@vsnl.net
cbfc@tn.nic.in
rocbfcmum@rediffmail.com

Also please fax your objections in bold letters to the
Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Government of India.
Fax number: 01123383513 (please prefix 91 as the country code for India if you are from another country)

The film is to be released on April 11.

Thank you for your comments.
Dear yaya,
Thank you for sharing your words of wisdom. You had written that 'Living in the moment and just experiencing the small beauties in life is what is helping me to survive.' So true. For that is the only way to live this life. My prayers are with you and your family.

Posted by survivor at April 4, 2008 02:16 AM