Dhanush Shines In 'Atrangi Re' But Film's Way Of Romanticising A Mental Disorder Is Problematic

(Trigger warning: The article is about mental health issues that could trigger some readers.)?

Cast: Sara Ali Khan, Dhanush, Akshay Kumar?

Director: Aanand L. Rai?

Music by: A. R. Rahman?

Written by: Himanshu Sharma

What happens when a man falls in love with a woman who has schizophrenia? Aanand L Rai's Atrangi Re stands true to its name- it's different. If we delve deeper to know how the movie is, the weighing scale, unfortunately, falls towards the problematic side.?

Sara Ali Khan, Akshay Kumar, and Dhanush deals with the delicate topic of mental illness and trauma.?

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Rinku (Sara Ali Khan) has symptoms of schizophrenia, and even though Vishu (Dhanush) and his friend are medical students, not even once they seek proper medical help; instead, a comic atmosphere is set in the scenes where they try to give her medicines claiming it's for a virus from China, named 'David.'?

Calling Rinku’s psychosis “paagalpan” or “madness,” Atrangi re repeatedly belittles Rinku as an object of mockery.?

As far as performances are concerned, Sara's outing as Rinku is a giant leap from her weak performance in Imtiaz Ali's Love Aaj Kal 2.?

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Dhanush and Akshay Kumar do justice to both their parts, but Himanshu and Rai's attempt at making a 'different' love story ends up faltering in many ways.?

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Well, this was just the beginning of a series of issues with Aanand L Rai's movie.?

The movie is criticized for ostensibly trivializing mental health disorders and romanticizing mental abuse and domestic violence.

Here's a closer look at everything problematic with 'Atrangi Re':

1. Belittling mental health disorders and shaming people who display symptoms.?

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Rinku’s hallucinations and how people react to them prove that Aanand L Rai's movie makes a minimal and dishonest attempt to destigmatize her mental disorder.Another problem in the film is how Ashish Verma’s character — Dr. Madhusudan, a psychiatrist — belittles Ritu.?Even though he's a doctor, he uses phrases like she should be “kept in a museum” and makes comments like she shouldn't be roaming freely. He tries to talk his way out to convince Vishu that she's a problematic person to fall in love with.

2.?The movie glorifies the concept of toxic-love

From the very beginning, the movie sets up a theme that hints toxic notion of love and makes Runku's childhood trauma look aspiring and romantic.?In one of the scenes from the film, Rinku, who is herself a victim of domestic abuse, explains what true love means to her. She says real love can't be labeled true until and unless "Jab take chappal na pade, Ek do katal na ho Mohalle mein.."?

When Vishu explains how he met his fiancé in college, Rinku rejects his idea and says she doesn’t consider it “love.”?

3. The movie offers a problematic take on self-harm and domestic violence

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Since the beginning of the movie, you develop empathy and sympathy for Rinku and her messed-up childhood and life, but there is little that she is seen doing to protect herself. Instead, she resorts to self-harm and claims her love is true because she repeatedly accepts her own family's terrible behavior and violence.?

Fans are in awe of Dhanush's performance. Demanding better roles for him in Bollywood, fans wrote:

However, even fans have been able to identify how problematic the treatment of mental health disorders is.

Watch the movie here.

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