A Case-Based Analytical Study of the Portrayal of Cancer in Indian Hindi Cinema
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Mukt Shabd Journal ISSN NO : 2347-3150 A Case-Based Analytical Study of the Portrayal of Cancer in Indian Hindi Cinema Neelu Sharma Research Scholar Department of Mass Communication & Journalism, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University,Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India Prof Govind Ji Pandey Department of Mass Communication & Journalism, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University,Lucknow, Uttarpradesh, India ABSTRACT “Cinema is the most beautiful fraud in the world.” -Jean-Luc Godard Technology has helped Bollywood to upgrade its capability of global release and tap the international market at the same or even less effort than it used to take to capture the domestic audience. The same Bollywood, however, seems to have not upgraded its content to match the pace of its market penetration. In the stories of Bollywood films, medical miseries are portrayed with the astonishingly low level of scientific temperament. While this narrative wins the audience’s sentiment, it also impacts the public outlook towards the disease. Cancer is one of the most common diseases portrayed in the Bollywood content. Science has progressed several folds and transformed its understanding about cancer, type of cancers, cures, prevention, lifestyle adoption and more. Millions of medical cases and evidence have established and shattered the myths mounted around this deadly disease. Bollywood content, however, has been immune to this adoption of knowledge and its portrayal in its content. This paper examines the cinemas in which cancer has shown to establish the essential bent of emotion in the storytelling. These cinemas scrutinized in this study are sourced from the feature film content in production from the last four decades. This study establishes the gap between the scientific discourse about the cancer disease and its portrayal in Indian Hindi Cinema. It also measures the public perception about the disease and towards the cinema. Keywords: Indian Hindi Cinema, Cancer, Storytelling, public perception, public consciousness 1. INTRODUCTION [1]Over the years Hindi Cinema referred to as Bollywood has emerged as a key source of entertainment with its sheer size and reach. With changing times, even Bollywood took to telling stories around raising awareness about a disease or a social issue. We live in a world where technology is fast aiding medical facilities, giving a much-needed boost to one’s treatment. This as a consequence helps in minimizing the scope for error. In the 21st century when the scope for good treatment has seen a turn for the better, depiction of Cancer in films continues to remain burdened with inconsistencies. A fundamental disconnection between how Cancer is portrayed on-screen, and the actualities of the disease continue to plague the Hindi film circuit. The genesis of Bollywood depicting Cancer patients started early in 1963 with Dil ek mandir (Heart is a temple). A high- grossing, poignant, romantic movie its central character was diagnosed with lung Cancer [2]. The character's revival after a surgery brought Hindi cinema audiences face to face with Cancer via popular media. This kick started a trend, which left its imprint throughout the 1970s where Cancer stories and Bollywood became inextricable entities. This period saw seven different films depicting Cancer. All seven received overwhelming Volume IX, Issue VIII, AUGUST/2020 Page No : 1509 Mukt Shabd Journal ISSN NO : 2347-3150 sympathy and acclaim through dramatic emotions and arousal of grief [2]. All of these movies, with subtle differences in the storyline, ended on a tragic note. Generally, characters with Cancer were at their peak of youth, faced life bravely, concealed illness from family members, and preferred to have a blissful death by opting out of treatment. The undertone of inevitable mortality, despair of family members and physicians, availability of treatment, and the futility of contemporary medicine were palpable for the audience. Such pessimism became more pronounced in the 1980s; scenes featuring the breaking of the bad news in an intensely dramatic manner and the catastrophic shock experienced by the character on first hearing the diagnosis became a growing stereotype [2]. Take for instance a scene - A doctor comes out of the Operation Theatre (a red bulb switches off), takes off his glasses and morosely pronounces, "Inhe dawaon ki nahi, duaon ki zaroorat hai." This is the scene, which came to typify a Cancer survivor’s journey over the past few decades in Indian films. [3] For a bystander, it becomes difficult to understand a certain trend in Cancer treatment, as a patient with Cancer was cured in the 1960s and yet died in the 2000s. In a few films, the type of malignancy is obscure, and the simple utterance of the word Cancer is powerful enough to convey the message of imminent peril [4]. Unduly prolonged fever, frailty, emesis of blood, and excruciating pain are the most common depictions of the onset of Cancer. Surgery or bone marrow transplantation is shown to be the only resorts available, with a conspicuous absence of psychosocial care and non-existent palliative care. Moreover, there are several instances of absurd scenes that show, for example, a brain tumor being cured after a violent trauma; a father chasing a criminal who is a potential bone marrow donor for his child; etc. Such scenes are difficult to believe and display a not so sophisticated attitude towards the disease. Displaying abysmal helplessness to provide any solutions characteristically undermines the physicians’ role. Quite often, the disease itself seems to be the principal architect of the story line, and the end of life is to complement the story line rather than a logical end to a malignant pathology. Overwhelming grief, invariable non- disclosure of the disease or diagnosis, disproportionate mortality, and appalling scenes of death and fear- mongering imagery loom as hallmarks even in modern-day Bollywood. [5] By definition, development is a process where someone or something grows or changes leading to advancement [6]. Of the multiple indicators that come to define development, one is health – considered central to human happiness and well-being. It also makes an important contribution to economic progress as healthy populations live longer, live a productive life and save more. 2. A COUNTER REVIEW Cinema is not an educational institute, the basic business of the cinema is entertainment and not education. The ultimate objective of cinema production is profit for the stakeholders not embossing morality of the society [7]. Any product may or may not have additional deliveries of moralities but yes the same is highly expected from the cinema. It is also imperative that cinema production involves huge capital. Production of one feature film engages multiple institutional financiers, investment is subject to the reputation of the film production unit. The reputation in this industry is the hard earned currency which is even harder to maintain. The maintenance of this reputation is the collective outcome of the star-cast, storytelling, related technological effects that earn a set of loyal audiences. Production houses are known for their set of audience loyalty. Dharma Production, Bala Ji Film Production, Yash Raj Films, Rohit Shetty Production, Amir Khan Production etc are the names of Indian Hindi Cinema earning their audience capital based upon specific genre of films produced under their banners [8]. These films cater to a very specific need of entertainment. As per the expectation of their audiences, the pattern of using certain story-connects like disease, accidents or hospitals remain non-experimenting. The producers of Indian cinema are more focused on making a movie which makes huge box office collections. Therefore they are keen on making movies which are less complex and rather than are more entertaining to the Volume IX, Issue VIII, AUGUST/2020 Page No : 1510 Mukt Shabd Journal ISSN NO : 2347-3150 audience. That is not focused on showing the reality or practicality of life. Instead of making such movies which deal with life or struggles of a common person they make movies on what people are more interested in watching. It is good for making huge profits but the sad reality of life is left unsung.[9] Also, Indian movie makers mostly show happy endings in their movies rather than showing the harsh realities. Since many people have a tendency of avoiding such movies which showcases sad endings and thus the movie does not perform well in theaters. So to avoid this, producers make only those movies which are liked by the audience and thus conclude movies most of the time on positive note. In some cases where the producers tried to experiment something new in the film, then their thinking is not appreciated, neither by the audience nor by other industry members. Therefore they are only restricted to make movies in limited scope which are rewarded by the audience. [10] 3. OBSERVATION & DISCUSSION As medical lexicons change and treatment patterns see a change, progressive medical research has improved prognosis and outcomes in oncology practice [11]. The film industry is apparently oblivious to this progress, and has been unable to transition along with these advances. Some might argue that films being inherently entertainment are rightly more attentive to dramatic impact than factual accuracy. However, it is ultimately the audience’s responsibility to interpret the nuanced perplexity between drama and reality. At the same time, films are not merely the channels of ideologies; they often convey contrasting or confusing ideas. Nevertheless, gloomy on-screen portrayals of Cancer can potentially mislead people regarding their expected outcomes [12]. Given that at large, both the rural and urban strata enjoy films as an entertainment medium, attention to detail vis – a – vis a disease becomes critical. Especially when we consider people with insufficient health literacy. A diagnosis shown on screen often leads to destructive views regarding the curative potential of modern treatment [13].