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Shahrukh Khan as Jehangir Khan opens the dialogue by asking whether people who are mentally ill are crazy. From this point on you are led on a journey where you will be introspecting a lot and realising certain unpleasant truths about your attitude to those with mental problems. This movie is definitely a step in the right direction as it gently prompts you to re-examine those biases and prejudices which are the result of years of conditioning. Whether you regard those seeking therapy as weak and unable to cope with life or think that they are trying to escape or label them as problem children or perceive them as rebels or abnormal, you are sub consciously becoming part of the society that makes it untenable for people to accept themselves as they are.
As Kiara (Alia Bhatt) says in the movie: When you have problems dealing with certain situations in your life you go to a DD or Dimag ka doctor. Her housekeeper has the best response: Wow are there really such doctors? Then shouldn t we all go to such a person?
Whether we need to go to a psychologist or need therapy is a secondary issue. The main thing is what do we do when we recognise that there is a problem and seek counsel? Why do we feel the need to hide it? Why are we ashamed to tell anyone about it? Haven t we all heard of that one family where a mental patient was locked up in a room by the parents throughout their life? In India, there is so much stigma associated with mental illnesses that parents, relatives and friends try to hide their problems. Taare Zameen Par tried to highlight this by putting dyslexia on the radar and tried to make it more socially acceptable to admit your child is different or may have trouble learning. Read more about 10 things depression makes you experience that no one talks about
Dear Zindagi does it differently but without labelling the mental illness to help us realise that our outlook or approach to mental illness as a whole needs to change. It puts the message across very gently that we need to acknowledge that the brain is a part of the body and just as we are not ashamed to say we have lung cancer or kidney disease, we should be able to admit openly that we have mental condition.
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