INTERPRETER OF MALADIES: Films like (from top left) Taare Zameen Par, U Me Aur Hum, My Name Is Khan and Paa are part of a new Bollywood trend

A decade ago, people at Dumri village in Bihar shunned teenager Ekramul Khan because of his receding hair and wrinkled skin. They believed that he and his siblings, Ali Hussein and Rubina Khatoon, who looked much older than their age, were cursed. Tired of being taunted and ostracised, his parents Razia and Bismil Khan even planned a family suicide.

Things changed when they met Shekhar Chattopadhyay who ran the S.B. Devi Charitable Home, a Calcutta-based non-governmental organisation (NGO). He told the clueless parents that the children were suffering from progeria, a genetic disorder in which the child ages at an unbelievably fast rate.

Life seems to have turned a full circle as relatives and neighbours now frequent the Khan’s Dumri home just to catch a glimpse of Ekramul, 23, the only progeric person to have survived this long. What wrought this magic change? A Hindi movie starring Amitabh Bachchan; Ekramul has inspired the character played by Big B in Paa, released on Friday.

“A friend told me about a family in Calcutta that had children who looked much older than they should. That made me think of doing a film in which the roles of the junior and senior Bachchan would be reversed. I did some research, and soon, I had the script for Paa ready,” says R. Balakrishnan, aka Balki, director of Paa. “The film is not about progeria, but a father-son relationship with this genetic disorder as the backdrop,” he clarifies.

An Ekramul inspiring a Paa is not new. Bollywood has always had a fascination with rare diseases — right from the lymphosarcoma or cancer of the intestine in Anand in the 1970s and schizophrenia in the more recent 15 Park Avenue and Krazzy 4 to dyslexia in Taare Zameen Par (TZP) — you name it and there will probably be a Bollywood flick on it.

In a television interview last week, Amitabh Bachchan said that Bollywood’s focus on diseases was not new — Devdas featured tuberculosis. He suggested that it would be inappropropriate to portray TB now, because a cure exists, and that Bollywood had moved on to other diseases.

Why do filmmakers build a story around an affliction — is it to raise awareness or give their actors scope to turn in a superb performance?

In reel life

Paa Progeria: An extremely rare, severe, genetic condition where symptoms resembling aspects of ageing are manifested at an early age. Those born with progeria typically live for about 13 years My Name is Khan Asperger’s syndrome: Those who suffer from this autism spectrum disorder cannot read the nonverbal physical signals people give out and have no empathy, which leads to difficulties in social interaction Guzaarish Paraplagia: Paralysis of the lower part of the body, usually caused by an injury to the spine or by a congenital condition Taare Zameen Par Dyslexia: A learning disorder which leads to sufferers having difficulty in learning to read and spell despite having average or above average intelligence U Me Aur Hum Alzheimer’s: Its most common symptom is memory loss but other symptoms include confusion, irritability and aggression, mood swings and language breakdown. It usually occurs in those above 65 but can, in rare cases, occur in young people too 15 Park Avenue Schizophrenia: A mental disorder characterised by abnormalities in the perception or expression of reality

Filmmaker and actress Aparna Sen is clear that she made 15 Park Avenue, where daughter Konkona Sen Sharma played a schizophrenic, not to raise awareness but because she wanted to tell a story. “People on the fringe are also a part of society and we should feature such characters in our films. I have seen someone with schizophrenia from close quarters and she inspired me.”

The urge to do something different and have an edge in an industry that releases 156-odd films a year, is leading filmmakers and actors to opt for films that give them the scope to play an unusual role — a character not seen before in Bollywood. So if Bachchan senior is playing a progeric in Paa, Shah Rukh Khan is playing a character with Asperger’s syndrome — a condition where a person can’t interact socially — in Karan Johar’s My Name is Khan and Hrithik Roshan a paraplegic in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Guzaarish.

Aamir Khan too had played a character who develops anterograde amnesia, or the inability to create memories after a brain injury, in Ghajini. And it was he who produced and directed TZP, which beautifully showcased dyslexia, a lesser-known learning disability. Incidentally, both Ghajini and TZP were major hits with Ghajini earning more than Rs 200 crore at the worldwide box office.

“Bollywood has always made such films,” says social scientist Shiv Vishwanathan. “But in earlier films such as U Me Aur Hum, diseases like Alzheimer’s were addressed only indirectly. In the new wave of movies, to a certain extent the sick person becomes an equivalent of the extraterrestrial in science fiction, that is, the affected person plays the equivalent of the distorted other.” He also emphasises that the dearth of issues or plots that allow actors to experiment is the reason they are taking up such roles. “At the moment there is no social issue on which sensible films can be made. Terrorism has been done to death, so characters affected with such disorders add a unique selling point to even a conventional plot and, if done well, the movie does wonders for both the actor and the filmmaker,” says Vishwanathan.

That may not be the only reason filmmakers make such movies. Says Amol Gupte, writer and creative director of TZP, “The basic idea of making a movie on dyslexia was to ask people to not look at it as a disability but to judge a child with whatever ability he had. I conceptualised the film to bring about social change and I can see that happening. TZP has actually sensitised people about dyslexia. Making such films is definitely challenging. But one can’t deny that a well-made film on such issues helps in sensitising the masses.”

No one agrees more with Gupte than Anjuli Bawa, chairperson of Action Dyslexia Delhi — Beyond Education, a Delhi-based NGO working with dyslexic children. “Many a time, we have seen teachers refusing to believe that a disability like dyslexia exists. But after TZP, the awareness level has increased. We have had so many people coming to us seeking help after watching the film.” Bawa herself was unaware of dyslexia till a specialist told her that her son had it. The memory of the battles she fought with schools to help her son get a degree made her set up the NGO years later.

Chattopadhyay hopes that Paa does for progeria what TZP did for dyslexia. “I hope the hype about the genetic disorder remains even after the film has done business. Above all, I hope Paa will manage to do away with the social stigma associated with the disorder. In most cases, common people fail to understand the rapid ageing, so I am hopeful that the film will at least raise awareness and make progerics socially acceptable.” However, he is a bit apprehensive about how a progeric would be portrayed in the film. “Such people have very brittle bones and so, despite their longing to dance and play, they cannot always do so as it might lead to fractures.”

The debate about whether such films have a social message or just make it easier to get the emotional audience into halls will continue. But just as little Eshaan Avasthi from TZP made his way into the hearts of people across the country, Auro from Paa may dispel many fears regarding progeria and increase awareness of the disease. After all, nothing inspires the Indian masses as much as Bollywood does.