Bollywood embraces disability in quest for realism

Bollywood has traditionally shied away from real-life subjects, preferring flights of fancy on romantic love. But now three major upcoming films are portraying a central character with a disability or illness, marking a shift away from fantasy to treating more contemporary themes.

Amitabh Bachchan, 66, stars alongside his son Abhishek, 33, in ‘Paa’, out later this year. Their real-life relationship is reversed on screen, with Amitabh playing Abhishek’s son. Bachchan senior’s character has the rare genetic condition progeria, which leads to premature ageing and affects about one in six million children worldwide. Shahrukh Khan, known for his romantic hits, plays a man with Asperger’s Syndrome in his latest offering, ‘My Name Is Khan’, which also deals with the treatment of Muslims in the US after the September 11 attacks. Hrithik Roshan, meanwhile, portrays a wheelchair-user in ‘Guzaarish’ alongside Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, which will release next year.

The films follow the recent release of ‘Shadow’, an action thriller starring Nasser Khan, who is blind, and Tamil-language (Tollywood) film ‘Nadodigal’ (Nomads), with actress Abhinaya, who cannot hear or speak. Both films made headlines in India because of the actors’ disabilities, as Nasser Khan plays a character who can see in the movie and Abhinaya lip-synched dialogue that was later dubbed in.

‘My Name Is Khan’ producer-director Karan Johar admitted recently that the film’s subject matter was a departure for Bollywood and had surprised some fans. For Amitabh, ‘Paa’ is not new territory. Last year, he made his first English-language film, ‘The Last Lear’, while in ‘Black’ (2005), he played a teacher with Alzheimer’s Disease who falls in love with a student (Rani Mukherjee) who is deaf, blind and mute. Actor Aamir Khan also made his directorial debut in 2007 with the film ‘Taare Zameen Par’ about a child with dyslexia. The low-budget film was a critical and commercial success. It was also entered for this year’s Oscars and applauded for raising awareness of dyslexia. Link...