On World Autism Awareness Day, as one thinks about how the subject of autism has been dealt with in mainstream cinema, especially Bollywood, only a handful of films come to mind. And of those, the most striking one has to be Barfi, helmed by Anurag Basu and starring Priyanka Chopra as the autistic character. While the film contributed to raising awareness, it was also said to have overly relied on melodrama and sentimentalism, which in turn can perpetuate negative stereotypes.
Aside from Barfi, the next most memorable film, especially for millennials, has to be My Name is Khan (2010), led by a lovable and assertive Rizwan Khan, essayed by Shahrukh Khan with a flourish. In the film, the plot vividly explores the themes of identity and social acceptance through a Muslim man's struggles with Asperger's syndrome.
Anil Kapoor's character, Gyanesh, in the 2008 film Yuvraaj, loosely based on the Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman starrer Rain Man, is yet another sincere attempt by Bollywood to bring forth the narrative around autism via the heartening story of a musical genius.
Over the years, Bollywood's portrayal of autism, even in the few films that it has churned out that tackled the theme, has largely been a mixed bag, reflecting both positive and negative attitudes towards individuals with autism.
Take the 1990 film, Anjali, for instance, in which director Mani Ratnam champions the cause of 'acceptance' via a strong narrative and a well-fleshed-out character arc which takes the viewer along the journey of a young girl Anjali, who is institutionalised due to autism. The film highlights the struggles and stigma faced by the lead protagonist and her family as the latter learns to cope with her behaviour which is shown to be "aggressive and fluctuating."
While experts agree that there is no one "formula to treat stories around autism which is inherently a spectrum disorder," they urge that every film accurately represent individuals with autism and promote inclusivity and acceptance by taking a nuanced and informed approach rather than promoting negative stereotypes.
In a paper titled, 'Autism in Indian Cinema: Cultural Representations of Disability,' author Sudha Rai of the University of Rajasthan writes in The Society of Critical Exchange that the understanding of the specific cognitive disorder of autism as a disability "is only in an emergent stage in India, as far as mainstream cinema is concerned." She further says that the representation of autism in cinema is mediated through the agency of Hollywood, as the Indian cultural adaptation and remaking of I am Sam in Main Aisa Hi Hoon manifests.
Speaking about the film Anjali, she further explains, that the film is an " important intervention into disability, a significant attempt to rescue attitudes to disability from being caught in the discourses of ‘madness' and the ‘other', seeking to situate disability within the plane of ‘the unknown."
Neha Dubey, another researcher highlights the aspect of representing disability (including autism) via the portrayal of women in cinema. She says that characters with disability are usually portrayed unrealistically. Such characters are usually shown as extraordinarily beautiful presuming that disability or physical deformity could not hamper her persona in any way in a paper titled, Framing Disability in Contemporary Bollywood Cinema.
Films that help raise awareness about autism in India and spark important conversations about inclusion and acceptance are the need of the hour, say experts.
