The idea of sharing your innermost feelings and secrets with a complete stranger has a dread and relief to it. The first therapy session you go for is a nerve-racking experience. The audience’s voyeurism might feel dissatisfied at first in being denied the complete story but Saji’s pain and hesitance is the subject of the scenes, not the details. Persons suffering from mental illnesses are often posed with semantical questions, voyeuristic enquiries, and unsolicited advice. Bobby and Baby are instead used as conduits for the information on the family’s past. The result is that the focus is largely on ‘What’ Saji is feeling rather than the ‘Why’. In the scene with the psychologist, it’s important to note that audiences are never shown all the details which Saji is sharing. News18 reports that as per the World Health Organisation, the number of suicides in India could be reduced by at least 1/4th if counselling is given on time. While the study noted that the prevalence of mental disorders amongst those who died of suicide was at 60 percent, the number could be higher in a country where conversations around mental health and disorders are not embraced openly.Īn article in the Indian Journal of Psychiatry estimated the number of psychiatrists in India at around 9,000, stating that India was short of 27,000 doctors to reach the desirable statistic of at least 3 psychiatrists per 100,000 populations. A WHO estimate put suicides in India in 2012 at 258,075, the highest in the world, with the highest rates of suicide among youngsters between 15-29 years of age at 35.5 per 100,000. Screenwriter Syam Pushkaran has revealed that Saji was based on a man with suicidal tendencies he had encountered in his village in his youth.
Kumbalangi nights reviews professional#
“For these individuals, seeking support from a mental health professional is seen to be a sign of weakness.”Īlso Read: Men, Maleness, Masculinity And Family In Kumbalangi Nights The report further states that a belief exists in some people that mental illness can only happen to people who are ‘mentally weak’ and people ‘who have too much money and time’. The Live Love Laugh Foundation survey notes that as per their qualitative analysis, ‘people with mental illness are likely to avoid discussing their mental health concerns openly due to the fear of being labelled or judged’. The few minutes Kumbalangi Nights spends on mental health delivers some of the film’s strongest messages.įirstly, the act of Saji reaching out to a loved one and expressing his wish to see a therapist casually shatters the associated taboo in seeking professional help. A 2011 WHO report mentioned Indians as being among the most depressed in the world, with 9 percent having reported an extended period of depression in their lifetime and nearly 36 percent suffered Major Depressive Episodes. A National Mental Health Survey of 2015-16 found that nearly 15 percent of Indian adults are in need of active interventions for one or more mental health issues. There’s a reason portrayal of mental illness in Indian films is a significant development – 47 percent of those surveyed by The Live Love Laugh Foundation were found to be highly judgemental of people perceived as having a mental illness. Madhu C Narayanan’s Kumbalangi Nights had immensely pleased me until this point with its marriage of a love story, familial drama, and a threatening undercurrent of fragile male ego, but it now seemed to transcend even those descriptions. He confesses that he is losing his mind and needs a doctor. Instead, the elder brother reveals his vulnerability in a desperate plea. The milieu then makes it natural for one to assume that when Saji calls on Franky through the window, a few days after he slapped him, another fight could be on hand. Saji and Bobby are the only full-time residents of the house, always itching for a fight in the living room or the local bar. Bonny has moved out and stayed with his friends from a dance studio. Franky, the youngest of the lot, prefers being away at his boarding school where football offers him an escape and relief. The cause of these outbursts are usually the four brothers who begrudgingly reside in the same house. A comment or a peanut can ignite an argument. Chaos is a common occurrence in Kumbalangi.
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