Post World AIDS Day, we bring you 5 Bollywood movies on the topic

 

India as a country has always been a bit too hush-hush on sex for its own good. As a result, several young adults find themselves in unfavorable circumstances. One of these circumstances could be the contracting of HIV, leading to AIDS.

Once someone has contracted AIDS, Indian society usually shuns them largely due to the taboo of sex associated with the disease as well as the fear of contracting HIV from an AIDS patient. Lack of awareness on the disease is the main reason people contract HIV and also tend to avoid patients of HIV.

The medium of cinema is one of the most effective ways to reach out to the large Indian population. Post World AIDS Day, we list 5 Bollywood films that have dealt with this sensitive subject.

 

Nidaan (2000)

Directed by Mahesh Manjrekar, Nidaan, a title which means ‘diagnosis’ follows the story of a 12 standard girl who contracts AIDS due to an appendicitis surgery.

Aniruddha Nadkarni (Shivaji Satam) and Suhasini Nadkarni (Reema Lagoo) are the proud parents of Soumya (Nisha Bains). Life for Soumya is as normal as it could be for her in her teens, with overprotective parents who love her dearly and frown upon her boyfriend Ninad (Sunil Barve).

One day, she is diagnosed with AIDS, and this changes everything for the ambitious young girl, whose death is imminent. The movie sends a strong message through the strength and determination shown by the family against the disease. It also shows the discrimination faced by victims of AIDS and urges society to treat them more sympathetically.

 

Phir Milenge (2004)

Directed by South Indian actress Revathi and inspired by the Hollywood movie Philadelphia, the movie follows Tamanna Sahni (Shilpa Shetty), who is a hardworking employee in an advertising firm. She leaves for a college reunion, bumping into her old flame, Rohit Manchanda (Salman Khan). This lead to a casual sexual encounter. When she tries to donate blood to her sister who had met with an accident, she learns she has contracted the deadly virus.

This spreads to her office and she gets fired from her job. Angered by all of this, she gets a lawyer played by Abhishek Bachchan to fight her case.

 

My Brother… Nikhil (2005)

A directorial debut by Onir, the film deals with a professional swimmer who is abandoned by his coach, family and hospitals after they learn of his HIV positive status.

The story is told to the viewer through the points of view of Nikhil’s (Sanjay Surie) father (Victor Banerjee), mother (Lilette Dubey), friend (Purab Kohli), girlfriend (Dipannita Sharma), lawyer (Shweta Kawaatra) and sister (Juhi Chawla). the film is set in Goa and spans the time from 1987 to 1994, when the awareness about the disease was low.

 

68 Pages (2007)

Directed by Sridhar Rangayan, 68 Pages showed hope among people living with HIV through 5 HIV positive Mumbaikers. The movie was adopted as an awareness medium by the National AIDS Control Organization and also won the WorldFest Houston International Film Festival award.

 

Short films by Aids Jaago film project

Has 3 Hindi films made and cast by famous Bollywood celebrities. Funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, they show how Indians, married and unmarried, poor and rich, gay or straight–all are at risk of this deadly disease.

Farhan Akhtar’s short film Positive is about a young boy and his parents and how they cope with AIDS, leading to an estranged father-son coming close in unusual circumstances. It starred Boman Irani, Shabana Azmi and Arjun Mathur in lead roles.

Migration, a film penned by Zoya Akhtar and Vishal Bhardwaj, was directed by Mira Nair. It has a cast of Irrfan Khan, Sameera Reddy, Shiny Ahuja and Raima Sen in a film that shows a daily laborer and his trials when it comes to infidelity with his wife. The film shows the disparity between urban and rural India, showing AIDS as the great leveler.

In Blood Brothers, ddirector of film Haider, Vishal Bhardwajj follows a man played by Siddhartha who is diagnosed with AIDS. Pankaj Kapoorr, who plays his doctorr, watches as he lets his life fall apart.

 

We urge you to increase your knowledge on AIDS so we may combat it as a society. After all, it is not sex per se that leads to AIDS, but negligence, ignorance and recklessness that does.