Chennai: Munnabhai did get delusions but he isn’t nutty, psychiatrists of a research institute on schizophrenia have diagnosed.
Lage Raho Munnabhai, this year’s super-hit film starring Sanjay Dutt as goon Munnabhai who takes up Gandhian ideals, was screened at the International Film Festival on Mental Health in Chennai. Psychiatrists of the Schizophrenia Research Foundation, which organised the festival, gave excellent reviews for the film and praised it for portraying mental health sensitively.
In the movie, Munnabhai is able to see and communicate with Mahatma Gandhi. Psychiatrists loved the film because of the way it shows Munnabhai’s hallucinations. "The striking feature of the movie is that it depicts psychiatric symptoms in a very positive manner," says Dr R Mangala, consultant psychiatrist at the foundation.
"Hallucination cannot be termed formally as mental illness. However, it is a mental state caused due to sleeplessness, heightened experience or extreme tension," says Dr Dinesh Bhugra, Dean, Royal College of Psychiatry, London.
Munnabhai, too, is stressed and doesn’t sleep for days so that he can read up on the Mahatma. That’s the reason for his “delusionary state”, Bhugra says.
According to him, hallucination is a common mental problem and more than half in a sample population of 100 are sure to have undergone such spells at some point of time.
"A typical example of hallucination is when people are in love. They always imagine the voice of the person they are in love with," says Dr R Thara, director of the foundation.
“The movie deals with the issue of mental health very sensitively, which is evident from the scene where a psychiatrist scientifically explains plausible reasons for Munnabhai’s hallucination, says Mangala.
Munnabhai MBBS, a prequel of the movie, was a hit too and appreciated for its light-hearted portrayal of a medical college.
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