In the Veil of Movies – Unveiling Medicine
This article was given by me for the GOSUMAG - 13 on request by some student. Hope it gets published.
It was once said by a person
unknown to me that ‘It is not important what lessons a student learns inside a
classroom. Because he/ she is compulsorily made to learn it. It is important
what lessons a student learns outside a classroom because that learning is not
conditioned & is natural’.
It’s difficult for a student or
rather any person in the medical field to learn, retain & practice medicine
purely on the basis of theory. One can’t just read & read & read & become a doctor. Theory has to be combined with practical knowledge so that a
person who is engaged with medicine to become a doctor retains well & practices even better.
There have been many practical
approaches devised either by the University or the Teacher of a particular
subject & also by the Students themselves.
A student who enrols for medicine
undergoes theoretical training & practical observations (practical classes,
wards, OPD etc.) in the various fields of medicine taught over a span of 4½
years. Hence the students learn to correlate theory with practical knowledge.
The last 1 year is meant purely for practical training.
Teachers teach students based on
their knowledge & experience & try to make their lectures interesting
for the students in a style unique to that specific teacher.
Students too have their own
innovative methods to learn a particular subject. Apart from the recommended
training they undergo they device their own unique methods to learn & remember a particular subject. Mnemonics, crosswords, learning by association
etc are some of the methods.
But I have realized that movies
too are a good source of entertaining knowledge that helps students to remember
certain aspects of medicine. My fascination on movies as a miniscule source of
medical knowledge started when I was in 3rd MBBS. A movie called Har
Dil Jo Pyar Karega starring Salman Khan, Rani Mukherji & Preity Zinta
was released. That was somewhere in the year 2000. Rani Mukherji meets with an
accident & is rescued by Salman Khan who admits her in the hospital. Now
that this Rani Mukherji slips into something called COMA VIGIL (look up
to The Free Dictionary by Farlex). From that movie onwards I became attentive
towards those movies or for those scenes which depict certain medial terms or
knowledge.
Just recently I happened to see a
movie released way back in 2004 (late but nevertheless watched it) called Phir
Milenge starring Salman Khan, Abhishek Bachhan (Shilpa’s lawyer) & Shilpa Shetty (working on a big post in the ad world). The movie was directed
by Revati & the focus was on HIV. This entire movie has beautifully
projected how one gets HIV & the stigma attached to it. Shilpa Shetty meets
her past flick – Salman Khan at her college reunion. They again instantly get
along & have intimate moments. Salman Khan says to Shilpa Shetty that in
the past he was in a relationship with a girl who was simultaneously dating
> 5 guys including him. Subsequently Salman Khan & Shilpa Shetty part
ways to get in their respective daily lives. Shilpa Shetty’s sister meets with
an accident & as a part of the rule the hospital asks her to replace B+
blood group as B+ blood group was given to her sister. Shilpa Shetty gives her
own blood & is subsequently informed that she is HIV+. Her life changes. She
is removed from her job & thus starts her struggles to find a lawyer & her struggles to deal with the stigma the disease carries.
Those students who have even a
slightest inclination towards Medical Research should watch a movie
called Ek Doctor Ki Maut starring Pankaj Kapoor, Shabana Azmi, Irfan
Khan. The movie was released in 1990-91 & shows how a insignificant junior
doctor carries out years of painstaking animals experiments & discovers a
vaccine for leprosy. This movie is loosely based on a doctor Dr. Subhash
Mukhopadhyay, an Indian physician who pioneered the IVF treatment around the
same time as another scientist from England
Movies also disseminate loads of
knowledge in the field of Psychiatry. Just recently at ORACON 2012 I
came know that Dr. Mohan Agashe a famous actor is also a psychiatrist
& was in the past the head of Psychiatry department at B. J. Medical
College, Pune. Many movies like 15
Park Avenue
So on & so forth, the list is
never ending. Hundreds of movies made in Bollywood which would give the
audience a whole bank of medical knowledge. And I would probably need a whole
book to pen down my visualized scenes with the medical condition depicted.
So next time when your parents deny coming with you for a
movie & lecture you on the time you are going to waste watching a movie, scold
them for their lack of knowledge & try developing their interest in
learning medicine in a new innovative way.
Written by Dr. Urwashi Parmar
Assistant Professor
Dept. Of Pharmacology & Therapeutics
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