Film on Alzheimer’s raises scare
A journal of the Indian Medical Association says the number of patients complaining of memory loss has increased after the release of the movie.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Rameshan Nair was a typical middle-class nuclear-family government officer waiting to retire as a joint secretary until memories betrayed him.
To the dismay of his beautiful wife, loving children and respectful colleagues, he chased those memories - the nickname of his first love, lyrics of his favourite Bharatiyar poem and ultimately, sex.
Almost everyone who watched Mohanlal play Rameshan succumbing to Alzheimer's in the Malayalam movie Thanmatra, left the theatre with a haunting doubt: Can this happen to me?
Now a journal of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) says the number of patients complaining of memory loss has increased after the release of the movie.
The February issue of Nammude Arogyam (Our Health), brought out by the Kerala Chapter of IMA, says the movie has created a misconception among people that Alzheimer's can strike anyone whereas the disorder is normally found among people above 80 years.
"The situation is not alarming. But there has been a slight increase of complaints of memory loss after the movie was released," Dr N Sulphi, who edited the journal, told DNA.
Even as the journal came out on Friday, the movie was celebrating 50 days of its release. Even critics can't help praising Thanmatra, director Blessy's second movie. "It is a beautiful movie. All we wanted to do was to counter a fear psychosis among people who have seen the movie. People come to us with baseless apprehensions about memory loss," Dr Sulphi, an ENT specialist near Thiruvananthapuram, said.
The editorial says general practitioners and neurologists are wasting a lot of time with people who are perfectly all right.
"The movie has evoked our basic fears. We all tend to forget something, but it is not dementia. When I asked the 'patients' about the movie, they refused to admit any influence of it," said Dr Sulphi, who is anchoring a television show on medicine. He has got al least three queries on Alzheimer's during the weekly programme.
Blessy reacts to the charge that he moulded a young protagonist to suit the actor, with a single question. "Don't the doctors know that the first patient diagnosed of this disorder by Dr Alois Alzheimer hundred years ago was just 51?" The director said he had done a lot of research on Alzheimer's and interviewed many patients suffering from the disorder, many of them youngsters.
"I wanted to create awareness about the disease, not a scare. I didn't make a documentary on Alzheimer's. As a filmmaker, I was most sincere while treating the theme, which is turning into a social problem. Serious discussions about the disease and its effects on society should now come up," he said.
Alzheimer's and Related Diseases Society of India (ARDSI) vouches for the authentic treatment by Blessy. "Alzheimer's is not an age-related disorder. Pre-senile cases may be less, but they often land up in mental asylums due to improper diagnosis," said Mathew Kanamala, secretary of ARDSI Kottayam Chapter, which runs memory clinics.
To the dismay of his beautiful wife, loving children and respectful colleagues, he chased those memories - the nickname of his first love, lyrics of his favourite Bharatiyar poem and ultimately, sex.
Almost everyone who watched Mohanlal play Rameshan succumbing to Alzheimer's in the Malayalam movie Thanmatra, left the theatre with a haunting doubt: Can this happen to me?
Now a journal of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) says the number of patients complaining of memory loss has increased after the release of the movie.
The February issue of Nammude Arogyam (Our Health), brought out by the Kerala Chapter of IMA, says the movie has created a misconception among people that Alzheimer's can strike anyone whereas the disorder is normally found among people above 80 years.
"The situation is not alarming. But there has been a slight increase of complaints of memory loss after the movie was released," Dr N Sulphi, who edited the journal, told DNA.
Even as the journal came out on Friday, the movie was celebrating 50 days of its release. Even critics can't help praising Thanmatra, director Blessy's second movie. "It is a beautiful movie. All we wanted to do was to counter a fear psychosis among people who have seen the movie. People come to us with baseless apprehensions about memory loss," Dr Sulphi, an ENT specialist near Thiruvananthapuram, said.
The editorial says general practitioners and neurologists are wasting a lot of time with people who are perfectly all right.
"The movie has evoked our basic fears. We all tend to forget something, but it is not dementia. When I asked the 'patients' about the movie, they refused to admit any influence of it," said Dr Sulphi, who is anchoring a television show on medicine. He has got al least three queries on Alzheimer's during the weekly programme.
Blessy reacts to the charge that he moulded a young protagonist to suit the actor, with a single question. "Don't the doctors know that the first patient diagnosed of this disorder by Dr Alois Alzheimer hundred years ago was just 51?" The director said he had done a lot of research on Alzheimer's and interviewed many patients suffering from the disorder, many of them youngsters.
"I wanted to create awareness about the disease, not a scare. I didn't make a documentary on Alzheimer's. As a filmmaker, I was most sincere while treating the theme, which is turning into a social problem. Serious discussions about the disease and its effects on society should now come up," he said.
Alzheimer's and Related Diseases Society of India (ARDSI) vouches for the authentic treatment by Blessy. "Alzheimer's is not an age-related disorder. Pre-senile cases may be less, but they often land up in mental asylums due to improper diagnosis," said Mathew Kanamala, secretary of ARDSI Kottayam Chapter, which runs memory clinics.