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Here is a look at Bollywood's various portrayals of disability

Over the years Bollywood has tackled disability issues more to generate sympathy and smiles, rather than weave dignity into the characters portrayed. Sometimes actors have been asked to make such pronounced gestures that they look just outstanding! Black is an example where Sanjay Leela Bhansali brought dignity to the disabled and subtly talked about their physical needs but at the same time made them look larger than life, always high on emotions. Films like Pyare Mohan and Tom Dick and Harry create puerile comedy out of disability. Here a blind man takes photographs! Similarly, stammering has always been ridiculed in Indian cinema, except for an exception like Kaante, where Mahesh Manjrekar plays an evil character. Recently Karan Johar went by a stereotype that the disabled are at war with the world when he showed Shah Rukh as an accident survivor in Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna.

It has been almost a rule in mainstream Hindi cinema that a blind female character has to face molestation. And female characters can't have any physical deformity for then they wouldn't look appealing. Nache Mayuri reduced Sudha Chandran to a one-film wonder, for no producer wants a heroine with an artificial leg. It doesn't matter how talented she is.

However, there have been instances where such films have managed to strike a chord with the cinemagoers. Satyen Bose's Dosti, back in the 1960s, was a film that without harping on the sympathy quotient managed to do well at the box office.

Years later, Sai Paranjpe's Sparsh managed to do the same. Naseeruddin Shah's subtle portrayal of the blind man brought across the inner and outer battles that a disabled person has to fight. In between came Gulzar's Koshish where Sanjeev Kumar and Jaya Bhaduri effortlessly made us laugh and cry. No Rainman but in recent times, Rakesh Roshan has been able to weave in an autistic character in Koi Mil Gaya with success. Similarly Nagesh Kukunoor's Iqbal doesn't focus on the disability of the protagonist. It is just incidental to the character. But for every Iqbal there is one Main Aisa Hi Hoon.

ANUJ KUMAR

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