World Alzheimer's Day: A Look At How Bollywood Films Depicted The Disease

On November 3, 1906, psychiatrist Alois Alzheimer faced an audience of 88 individuals at the Tübingen meeting of the Southwest German Psychiatrists. Over the last several years, studying a patient at a Frankfurt asylum, Alzheimer had discovered an 바카라�unusual disease of the cerebral cortex바카라�. As he began discussing his findings, the attendees had little patience for what he had to say바카라�his lecture invited no comments or questions바카라�because the next scheduled speaker already had their attention by the mere topic alone: 바카라�compulsive masturbation바카라�. The disease would find its identity four years later, when Alzheimer바카라�s mentor, Emil Kraeplin, mentioned it in the Handbook of Psychiatry. In the subsequent decades, as the disease spread, so did its awareness.

In 1994, Alzheimer바카라�s Disease International, a non-profit federation of Alzheimer and dementia associations, celebrated its tenth anniversary and declared September 21 as World Alzheimer바카라�s Day. Marked by loss of memory, reasoning, and judgment바카라�in essence, a person바카라�s identity바카라�Alzheimer바카라�s disease (or its broader category, dementia) has inspired numerous poignant films across the world. From The Notebook (2004) to Still Alice (2014) to The Father (2020, featuring an incredible performance by Anthony Hopkins, which won him the Academy Award for Best Actor), these films illuminated the physical and psychological devastation of a disease that hollows out a person바카라�s inner core. Over the last two decades, Bollywood, too, has tackled it in the following films:

Black (2005): Directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, this drama is pivoted on the relationship between a teacher, Debraj (Amitabh Bachchan), and a deaf, mute, and blind woman Michelle (Rani Mukerji). She starts to flourish under his tutelage바카라�from learning the fundamentals of the language to attending college바카라�but, over a decade later, their relationship flips, as now Debraj, struggling to speak and suffering from Alzheimer바카라�s, resembles her student at the start of the movie: someone only at the cusp of what this life has to offer. The movie received widespread critical acclaim and box-office success, paving the path for other Bollywood portrayals.

Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Maara (2005): Jahnu Barua바카라�s movie focuses on the travails of a retired Hindi professor, as he hurtles towards a rapid cognitive decline. Helped by a piercing performance by Anupam Kher, the movie is an excellent portrayal of dementia바카라�how it dismantles the spirit and psyche of a person and the rippling effect it produces on his family바카라�which won Kher a Special Jury recognition at the National Film Awards.

U, Me, Aur Hum (2008): The Ajay Devgn directorial, starring him and Kajol, explores the varying shades of Alzheimer바카라�s in the mold of a love story. Bearing some similarities to The Notebook, this romantic drama featured an impressive performance by Kajol who, suffering from Alzheimer바카라�s for over two decades, loves and lives one day at a time.

Mai (2013): At the age of 79, Asha Bhosle made her acting debut, as an Alzheimer바카라�s patient, in this family drama. Director Mahesh Kodiyal uses the disease as a narrative frame to spotlight children abandoning their parents. Even though it was criticised for its clichéd plot바카라�callous children and hapless parents have dominated many Hindi films for long바카라�Bhosle was praised for her layered performance, telling us that the veteran singer, popularly known as the 바카라�Queen of Indipop바카라�, is quite simply the queen of all things.

Goldfish (2023): Centered on a fraught mother-daughter relationship (played by Deepti Naval and Kalki Koechlin), where the latter is suffering from dementia, Pushan Kriplani바카라�s drama unfolds as a complex contemplation on unresolved grief, unspoken grievances, unrealised dreams. Naval is superb in her turn as someone struggling to comprehend the fast-vanishing lines between the past and present, guilt and grief, mother and daughter.