Thursday, January 26, 2017

Lessons from Bollywood movie Kaabil

Yesterday, I watched Kaabil, a movie starring Hrithik Roshan and Yami Gautam, which centred around the story of a blind couple whose married life is shattered by two hooligans who have political and police backing owing to one of them being a corporator's brother. This ends up in Hrithik Roshan taking revenge, and finally (as in any Bollywood movie), committing the perfect crime and remaining free. Following thoughts came in:

  1. Quit when you are ahead/Dont gloat: Hrithik discovered the suicide note of his wife due to a chance remark from the corporator. If that guy had not mentioned it in his sarcastic effort to rub salt in his wounds, the plot would have been quite different
  2. Public places hardly 'accessible'  Crowded malls are a difficult place for the blind, and this was evident from the way Hrithik struggled to find Yami when they got separated in the crowd.
  3. One can profit WITHOUT giving back to the cause: The producers could have given a symbolic profit share to the NAB(National Association for the Blind) to promote welfare of visually impaired people, but they did not. So this is one lost cause unlike say Paa, Anand etc which threw light on otherwise neglected segments
  4. The motivation to succeed: The title name comes from the fact that Hrithik wishes to become 'capable' enough to fulfill the dreams of his beloved. Often, PWD(People with Disabilities) have more motivation than their non challenged peers, simply because they need to try harder. 
  5. Importance of a support system: The couple is able to lead a normal life due to their close friends and neighbours. Each of us has the responsibility to help PWDs 
Watching the movie needs one to suspend some belief in mobiles phones(who uses PCOs these days), DNA testing etc, but it is a feel good. With 2.2% of Indians disabled, with just 40% of them in the workforce, and 54% overall literacy rate, PWDs lag the general population on several indicators. If such movies increase empathy for PWDs and narrows this gap, it is goo.  Data is sourced from below link

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