BOLLYWOOD CINEMA AND MENTAL ILLNESS: AN APPROACH TO BALANCE ENTERTAINMENT AND EXACTNESS

Abstract

Cinema is a reflection of society. Viewers watch and learn so many things and make assumptions with the help of cinema. In this research, the researcher has done conceptual content analyses of three Bollywood films Taare Zameen Par, My Name is Khan and Barfi. All these films portray mental illness and fall under the same genre. The focus of the study is to find out the similarities between the portrayal of the symptoms of mental illness in Bollywood films and the diagnostic criteria of ‘Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder- 5th edition’, often known as DSM-5. The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is used to know the diagnostic criteria for different mental disorders. The researcher has analysed the themes, behaviour of the family and society and diagnosis and treatment of the person with mental illness in the selected films.