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Bollywood's cancer: disconnect between reel and real oncology

2015; Elsevier BV; Volume: 16; Issue: 8 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s1470-2045(15)00153-9

1474-5488

Sanghamitra Pati,

South Asian Cinema and Culture

Indian Hindi cinema, also known as Bollywood, has emerged as the archetype of entertainment across the country with its sheer size and reach. Medical themes, particularly cancer, remain an attraction for the Bollywood community to texture film narratives. However, there is a fundamental disconnect between how cancer is portrayed on-screen, and the actualities of the disease. The tradition began in 1963 with Dil ek mandir (Heart is a temple), a high-grossing, poignant, romantic movie wherein the central character, who has been diagnosed with lung cancer, revives after an arduous surgery, thus introducing cancer to the Hindi silver screen audience for the first time. This sparked greater interest in cinematic depictions of cancer, and the 1970s were the most prolific decade for oncology to feature in Bollywood films, with seven films depicting cancer made. All seven received overwhelming popular sympathy and acclaim through their dramatic emotions and arousal of grief. Furthermore, childhood cancer was first shown in 1973, starting another audience-appealing theme for the film industry. 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. However, one movie, Dard ka rishta (Relationship of pain; 1981), deviated from the stereotype and still remains the closest depiction of real oncology. The story, which follows a child with leukaemia who is cured after a successful bone marrow transplantation in a US hospital, was intentionally made to stimulate optimism about leukaemia's curative possibility. Sadly, the positive spirit was not sustained, and the next movie on childhood cancer in 1987 again ended negatively. The bleak script that depicts cancer being synonymous with mortality permeated through the 1990s and 2000s via melodramas cushioned on unfulfilled romance and emotional bereavement.