The Cure is a documentary on an extremely important and provocative subject. It looks at mental illness
and social taboo through the content of faith and religion. The film bases itself in a predominantly rural
context where people with mental illness are presumed as possessed by a demon, as a casualty of black
magic or as an outcome of their past bad karma. The film explores the concepts of the rational and the
irrational through a number of perspectives.
A chartered accountant, who is also an astrologer, explains the various facets of astrology as a way to study mental illness. We see the head of the temple, with several degrees including a B.Tech and a PhD, consider mental illness a spiritual matter. We see heads of Suicide Prevention NGOs speaking of ostracisation in schizophrenic patients. All these conversations highlight interesting perspectives, but, it becomes difficult to follow the thread of conversations. The documentary collates conversations, one after the other, perhaps in a bid to assert its objectivity, but in the absence of questions or an authorial thread, it becomes hard to distinguish the trivial from the sincere.
Read LessA chartered accountant, who is also an astrologer, explains the various facets of astrology as a way to study mental illness. We see the head of the temple, with several degrees including a B.Tech and a PhD, consider mental illness a spiritual matter. We see heads of Suicide Prevention NGOs speaking of ostracisation in schizophrenic patients. All these conversations highlight interesting perspectives, but, it becomes difficult to follow the thread of conversations. The documentary collates conversations, one after the other, perhaps in a bid to assert its objectivity, but in the absence of questions or an authorial thread, it becomes hard to distinguish the trivial from the sincere.
