Although, as Dr Lal, herself a mother of an autistic girl, lauded the detail that autistic persons are over-sensitive to mud/dust as depicted in the film, we didn’t know that autism is a neural disorder marked by developmental impairment and has affected over a crore people in India. Perhaps our biggest peeve as lay audience is that after watching a full-length film with a lead character being autistic, we still don’t know about the disability means. While the film per se is undoubtedly a delightful entertainer, what the people above told us about it over coffee later are crucial talking points to be noted for its makers and us, the candyfloss-loving audience. An exponent of the Indian Sign Language (ISL) and lip-reader par excellence Sunil Sahasrabudhe too was our deaf companion, along with Dr Rubina Lal, a lecturer of SNDT University and doctorate in autism. Watching Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra’s delightful tale unfold were Sohail Lakhani, one of the illustrious deaf students of Sanskardham College in Mumbai and his principal Lata Nayak. And to round-up our perspective, we took along to the movie two of our deaf friends and two experts on disability! Last fortnight, we got a breath of fresh air (almost literally, in Darjeeling) with Anurag Basu’s Barfi!, a Chaplin-esque tale (treading the line between homage and plagiarism) of a deaf charmer and his subject of interest, a girl with autism. That said, the number of mainstream film-makers choosing to depict the intriguing romances of persons with disability remains disappointingly low, those who’ve done it in the past decade countable on fingers. Caution: Spoilers Alert!įor a nation besotted with watching love stories of all shapes and budgets on 70mm, its film industry is more than glad to oblige by presenting at least one every week.
Having said that, we do believe that Barfi! is a highly sensitive take on two major disabilities and our aim here is to make people more aware of these while bringing about a deeper perspective from different points of view. We wish to present their eye-opening though subjective views here, and would welcome opinions and comments from our readers. However, it is not very accurate in its portrayal of the disabled, as the advocacy trust Trinayani tells us when they watch the movie with a few disabled friends and experts. It is a refreshing film which draws us into the world of the disabled without carrying the weight of pity. Barfi! is a Bollywood film released recently which explores a complicated relationship between a deaf and mute person, an autistic person and a regular person.
0 kommentar(er)
