Doctors in Bollywood | My Views On Bollywood

By

Sharada Iyer

Many actors and actresses have portrayed the character of a doctor in our films with conviction and flair. This blog-post is an attempt to look at how Bollywood has showcased the medical profession in their films to weave an entertaining and engaging story where the doctor character-male or female, is the main protagonist. The films either center around the doctor’s professional practice or dwell on his/her personal love story against the backdrop of the profession. For this post, 14 films have been chosen and placed under different categories for easy reference.Biopic:

V Shantaram- Dr Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani (1946)

Probably one of the earliest films dealing with a doctor’s life this film was directed by V Shantaram. The film also had him playing the titular role of Dwarkanath Kotnis. It was based on the real-life story of Dr. Kotnis who was born in Solapur, Maharashtra, India, and completed his medical studies in Bombay. In 1938, during the Japanese invasion of China, a Chinese revolutionary leader requested Pandit Nehru for medical assistance for the Chinese soldiers at the warfront. Five doctors from India voluntarily signed up for the mission and offered their services, and Dr Kotnis was one of them.

For five years they served tirelessly in mobile clinics, treating the wounded and operating upon the soldiers and put up with harsh conditions and little rest. While working there, Dr Kotnis fell in love with a Chinese nurse- Qinglan. They got married and the following year were blessed with a son. Unfortunately, when he started planning his return to his motherland India with his family, he became a victim of a series of epileptic seizures and died at the young age of 32 years. To this day the Chinese revere him and there is a statue erected in his honour, outside a university in North China.

For a film shot in 1946, the crux of the story and the scenes with the wounded soldiers are captured well and Shantaram as Dr Kotnis and Jayashree as Qinglan have acted well. This is probably the only biopic made on a doctor in Hindi cinema.

Family Dramas:

Raj Kumar- Dil Apna Aur Preet Parayi (1960)

This film deals with the deep love between a surgeon, Raj Kumar and a nurse, Meena Kumari. Just when things seemed to be going fine, his mother forces him to marry Nadira, the daughter of the man who had helped Raj Kumar’s family during difficult times when his dad had passed away. She threatens to kill herself if he dared to refuse this marriage.

Meena is shocked at the turn of events but her feelings for the doctor are far from dying. Meanwhile Nadira is very unhappy as she is neither able to adjust to his demanding work hours at the hospital nor to his middle-class lifestyle. She also starts suspecting an affair between Raj Kumar and Meena Kumari. A lot of incidents happen which make him hate Nadira more and she gets more jealous of Meena Kumari who in turn is clear that she will never stop loving Raj Kumar. Things reach a point when Nadira is ready to kill Meena Kumari!

The film had excellent songs and is a good one-time watch. Meena Kumari comes up with a superb performance as the woman who refuses to back off and does not hide her feelings for the man she loves. Raj Kumar and Nadira were also fine.

Vyjayantimala- Dr Vidya (1962)

The film exposes the mentality of our society in the fifties and sixties when western culture and education were impacting the youth in the cities and somehow the village-folk remained under the impression that educated girls have no morals and values. In our story Vyjayantimala is a city-bred educated girl and gets married to Manoj Kumar, who is a zamindar in a village but not educated. Sadly, some incidents that happen a few days days before the wedding cause Manoj Kumar to change his perspective on city girls and though he goes ahead with the wedding, he refuses to even look at his bride. He also declares that if she decides to stay in the house, he would walk out.

Vyjayantimala goes back to her parents’ house, pursues her studies further, and becomes a doctor. She hatches a plan to win back Manoj’s love. Along with her cook Sundar and his wife, she goes back to the village where Sundar masquerades as the new village doctor and she as the doctor’s niece. This way when the patients would come, she would treat them through Sundar. She changes her name from Geeta to Vidya and pretends to be an uneducated simple village girl. Manoj Kumar falls for this trick and starts liking Vidya form the time he meets her.

Towards the climax, there is a bullock cart race in which he gets injured and in the absence of any doctor, she is forced to reveal her identity and has a tough time convincing the villagers that she is the only one with the necessary qualifications to operate on Manoj Kumar. The operation is successful, people thank her but when Manoj comes to know that Vidya had been tricking her, he gets very upset. However, everything is sorted after a lot of senseless melodrama. Manoj Kumar and Vyjayantimala were fine in their roles. Helen also had a major role.

Rajendra Kumar – Dil Ek Mandir (1963)

Directed by C V Sridhar, in this film, Rajendra Kumar plays a cancer specialist and the very first scene shows Raj Kumar walking into the doctor’s room with his wife Meena Kumari and an expression of shock and surprise passes over both Rajendra Kumar and Meena Kumari’ faces. Raj Kumar is suffering from cancer and after examining his reports he is advised to get himself admitted for surgery.

As the narrative unfolds, we understand that Rajendra Kumar and Meena Kumari had been lovers once upon a time but by a quirk of fate, by the time he returns from abroad after getting his degree, Meena Kumari gets married to Raj Kumar. Now that things having changed between them, she requests Rajendra Kumar to forget about their past and put all his focus only on saving her husband. The entire movie is shot indoors within the hospital with various dramatic scenes and confrontation scenes and even some edgy moments when the two of them try to keep Raj Kumar from finding out about their past so as not to give him any tension before the surgery.

It is a film with a tragic ending. Excellent performances from the three protagonists makes this film a must watch and all credit to the director and writer for the engaging screenplay which ensures there is not one dull moment. Songs are superb and add to the film’s appeal.

Jeetendra- Parivar (1967)

This is a rare film of the sixties as it dealt with the importance and dire need of family planning in our country and how both men and women should understand the grave implications of not adhering to the principles of the methods involved. The message of adoption as an option is also dealt with.

The plot is a family drama where Jeetendra ‘s father Om Prakash remarries after his first wife passes away and now is now dad to about 6-7 children. The family is finding it difficult to make ends meet and the stepmother who is against Jeetendra from the beginning manages to throw him out of the house.

He sets up his clinic nearby and tries to educate the people and is met with opposition in the beginning. He marries Nanda who also helps him in this crusade and when they lose their own daughter after two sons, they decide to adopt instead of putting pressure on Nanda. Jeetendra’s friend Rajendranath has five daughters and still yearns for a son. His wife takes the help of Nanda to teach him a lesson about family planning albeit with a comic touch.

Acting by everyone is fine and this was the first film of child actor Mehmood Junior who plays the childhood part of Rajendranath and appears for just 10 seconds.

Rajendra Kumar and Sanjeev Kumar- Saathi (1968)

Once again directed by C V Sridhar, in this film also Rajendra Kumar is a surgeon and involved in research on finding a cure for cancer while his friend played by Sanjeev Kumar is an eye surgeon. While Sanjeev’s sister Simi Garewal dreams of marrying Rajendra Kumar, the latter ends up falling in love with Vyjayantimala who is a nurse in his hospital. Soon Sanjeev leaves for London for further specialization and Rajendra Kumar and Vyjayantimala get married and even set up their research facility at home so that she can also assist and they can be together all the time.

Tragedy strikes when Vyjayantimala is diagnosed with congenital heart ailment and to be by her side the whole time, Rajendra Kumar now neglects his duties as a doctor at the hospital. She runs away from home in that serious condition so that he can carry on his research without any hindrance from her and boards a train. The train meets with an accident and she is thought to be dead. Heartbroken Rajendra Kumar loses interest in everything and at this vulnerable stage, Simi’s mother forces him to marry Simi and they start a loveless life together.

One day during a tussle between the two, contents from the research desk explode and Rajendra Kumar becomes blind. Vyjayantimala meanwhile had not only survived the accident but had managed to get treated in Switzerland and recovers completely! On her return to India, when she sees that her husband has remarried and is now blind, she changes her name and offers her services as a nurse to be by his side. Sanjeev Kumar on his return to India, manages to perform a successful surgery whereby Rajendra Kumar gets his sight back. After much melodrama, Rajendra Kumar and Vyjayantimala are united and Simi becomes a volunteer for Red Cross and leaves home.

Many things are not logical in the film but the dramatic story ensured good viewership and the film was a hit with very good performances from the entire cast.

Shatrughan Sinha and Sharmila Tagore -Aa Gale Lag Ja (1973)

This is basically a love story between Shashi Kapoor and Sharmila Tagore with good songs. When they meet, she is a medical student and he is a ski instructor. Her father Om Prakash does not approve of their relationship and manages to create a misunderstanding between them. He then whisks her away to get her engaged to a budding doctor Shatrughan Sinha. After the engagement the latter leaves for America for further studies for seven years.

Meanwhile Sharmila comes to know that she is pregnant with Shashi Kapoor’s child. Om Prakash suggests they go away to a quiet nursing home run by his friend for the delivery. When the child is born, he lies to her that it had been stillborn. Ironically, Shashi Kapoor has also come to the same nursing home to treat his mother. When he comes to know that Sharmila has given birth to his son, he begs Om Prakash to let him bring up his son and not to give him up for adoption.

Seven years later, we are shown that his son, Master Tito, is afflicted with a problem because of which he is on crutches. Destiny plays strange games and Shashi Kapoor gets invited to the party to welcome Shatrughan Sinha on his return to India. Sharmila Tagore is Shatrughan’s fiancé and both she and Shashi are shocked to see each other. Shatrughan examines Tito and as luck would have it, had specialized in this kind of problem and is confident that with his treatment and surgery Tito would be able to walk and run as well.

After much melodrama, everything falls into place and Shashi, Sharmila and Tito are united. Sharmila Tagore is shown as a doctor only in two scenes and somehow it made no impact. While Shatrughan is just there so that the child gets treated in the end. Decidedly a film with questionable logic and sense!!!

Emotionally Charged Films:

Sharmila Tagore and Ashok Kumar -Safar (1970)

The film narrates the journey of Sharmila Tagore from her days as a medical student to the time she reaches the position of a senior surgeon. During this time, she loved and lost two men and endured much emotional pain and suffering. But her mentor and senior Ashok Kumar’s advice to her is that as a doctor she should now find peace of mind by doing her best to cure her patients and making them happy.

As a medical student she develops feelings for her classmate Rajesh Khanna but as he is diagnosed of blood cancer, he does not want her to marry him. Meanwhile to fund for her own education, she works as a tutor to a young boy who happens to be businessman Feroz Khan’s younger brother. Feroz Khan falls in love with her and proposes marriage and Rajesh Khanna also urges Sharmila to marry him and find happiness.

Against her wishes, she agrees and gets married but their married life is devoid of happiness. After marriage also she continues to spend time with Rajesh Khanna and this makes Feroz Khan suspicious of their relationship. Things take a turn for the worse. Rajesh Khanna succumbs to cancer and Feroz Khan takes his own life. This way both men die leaving her alone in her journey of life.

The film gives a glimpse into the personal life of doctors as to how sometimes they could be dealing with their own personal trauma but put that aside when they come to cure a patient. Sharmila Tagore is superb. Rajesh Khanna, Feroz Khan and Ashok Kumar are also brilliant. Songs are outstanding.

Amitabh Bachchan- Anand (1971)

Though the film primarily belonged to Rajesh Khanna who plays a cancer patient, Amitabh’s character of Dr Bhaskar Bannerjee aka ‘Babumoshai’ also left an indelible mark in the minds of the viewers in this film. As the doctor who gets emotionally attached to his patient Rajesh Khanna, he brilliantly portrays the helplessness of doctors to cure such illnesses especially when the patients are in their last stages facing impending death.

The contrast in their personalities makes an interesting watch. Amitabh is introverted, morose and dejected that there is no cure for his cancer while Rajesh Khanna is ebullient and full of life and energy even though he knows he has only six months to live.

The film is an emotional journey as we become part of the lives of the patient as well as the doctor who are both bonded for six months and we are shown the poignant aspects of their lives. The performances, the script, the dialogues, the music, and the brilliant direction make this one of the finest films made in Hindi cinema and can be watched any number of times.

Sunil Dutt and Smita Patil- Dard Ka Rishta (1982)

This film directed by Sunil Dutt was a tribute to the loving memory of his wife Nargis who died of cancer and the profits from the film were donated to provide medical treatment to cancer patients and spastic children. The heartwarming narrative of the film touched a chord in every viewer’s heart and provided valuable insight into the lives of cancer patients and their families as well as the difficulties faced during their treatment. Having personally experienced this pain in his life, Sunil Dutt’s direction and acting were both brilliant.

In the film, Sunil Dutt is a surgeon and his wife Smita Patil is an oncologist working in a reputed hospital in New York. When he gets the position of Head of the Department of Surgery in Tata Memorial Hospital in Bombay, he is excited to leave for India, but she expresses her inability to accompany him as her mission in life is to find a cure for leukemia and she does not want to abandon her research. They get divorced.

He returns to India, gets married to Reena Roy, the daughter of one of his patients but sadly she dies at childbirth. Sunil Dutt brings up his daughter on his own and when the child is about 10 years old, she is diagnosed with blood cancer. When she does not respond to any treatment, doctors chance upon a new cure in a journal where treatment involves a ‘bone-marrow-transplant’ with a donor whose genetic make-up must match with that of the patient’s, and this treatment was available only in a New York hospital.

Sunil Dutt leaves with his daughter and upon reaching the hospital is both surprised and happy that Smita Patil would be handling his daughter’s case. She finds a donor who is her own 14-year-old son. Sunil Dutt finds out the truth that the donor boy is his son but this information had been kept away from him because of the divorce. Being siblings, their genetic make-up had matched. In the end, after facing so many difficulties, they all come together and find happiness.

Both Sunil Dutt and Smita Patil are brilliant in their roles and child actor Khushboo as Sunil Dutt’s daughter was perfect for the role.

Off-beat films:

Shah Rukh Khan- Dear Zindagi (2016)

Apart from curing physical illnesses, we should also be concerned about our mental health and this film effectively conveys the strong message that mental therapy is as important as curing a physical ailment and problems of the mind can only be understood by talking about the issues or problems weighing in one’s mind to a therapist.

Shah Rukh Khan plays the charismatic psychiatrist and Alia Bhatt is his patient and through their various interactive therapy sessions we are shown how bottling up one’s emotions and fears can really affect the mind and hence impact our lives. Alia Bhatt is a young, smart, creative, and extremely talented cinematographer who has dreams of making it big in the professional world. She has a group of close friends with whom she hangs out but soon realizes that she is not happy and her romantic life is a big mess. She has hesitation when it comes to commitment and she also has unresolved issues with her parents.

From a reluctant patient unwilling to share any personal detail, the sessions make her open up and help her confront her issues from the past and try to find a way to resolve them. She starts appreciating life for what it is and he makes her realize that life is not always perfect and that we can find joy in these imperfections as well.

The importance of counselling sessions is projected well and because sometimes all we need is a patient listener who can help us navigate through our emotional mess and stress. Brilliant performances from both Alia and Shah Rukh Khan make this an engaging watch.

Ayushmann Khurrana, Rakul Preet and Shefali Shah- Doctor G (2022)

Ayushmann Khurrana has just given his medical entrance test but instead of getting the subject of his choice -Orthopaedics, he is forced to take up Gynaecology. He joins the course late and being the only male student in the batch makes it worse for him to adjust. He shows neither interest nor inclination to learn about the subject and this annoys the head of the department, Shefali Shah.

The film is basically his journey of transformation from someone who dislikes the subject to becoming a mature and understanding doctor who starts respecting the demands of the field and the faith and trust the patients put in their doctors. The film explores the male mindset about women and Shefali Shah advises Ayushmann that to become a good gynaecologist he must let go of the typical ‘male gaze’, and only then would his patients accept him. After he performs his first successful delivery and that too a difficult one, he is not only overjoyed but also touched that the parents name the newborn child after him.

His transformation is not without hiccups. Twice his mistakes land him in trouble and he is pulled up by the medical council and he is almost rusticated. He gets romantic feelings for his senior and later shedding his male ego learns to accept a ‘no’ and promises to be just her friend. The film tries to explore too many things and the effect is diluted and is okay just for a one-time watch. The best performances are from Shefali Shah and Sheeba Chadda who plays Ayushmann’s mother.

Negative side of the profession:

Doctors are also humans and not always do they also adhere to the pious principles the profession calls for. There are instances when the doctor’s inner conscience and duty towards the patient gets replaced by greed and a hunger for power. Here are two films which focus on the negative side of the medical profession.

Amitabh Bachchan and Vinod Mehra- Bemisaal (1982)

Directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, this film had Amitabh Bachchan playing a paediatrician, and Vinod Mehra, a gynaecologist. Amitabh is brought up by Vinod Mehra’s father as his own son. When they grow up, they both fall in love with Raakhee, but Amitabh sacrifices his love stating his inability to marry her because of something in his past which is revealed to us much later in the film. That is when we get a glimpse of his twin brother now confined to a psychiatric hospital (Amitabh in a double role though he gets very little screen time).

Amitabh and Raakhee decide to remain best friends and she marries Vinod Mehra. They open a nursing home together and become partners. But Vinod Mehra becomes a changed man when he comes back after a short stint in America. He starts performing illegal abortions for rich clients without Amitabh’s knowledge and charges hefty fees for the same.

When Aruna Irani who works as a receptionist discovers this, she informs both Amitabh and Raakhee, and one day things take a turn for the worse and one of his patients dies on the operation table. The police take away the body for post-mortem and Vinod Mehra is arrested. Now the narrative takes a weird turn.

Amitabh sends away Aruna Irani and takes all the blame on himself so that Vinod Mehra and Raakhee can have a good life together and he also feels for all the help Vinod’s family had done for him, this is the least he can do clear the emotional debt. His medical license is cancelled and he gets 10 years of imprisonment. Though the script did not make much sense, acting by all the three actors was excellent and songs were also enjoyable.

Kay Kay Menon – Ankur Arora Murder Case (2013)

This film is an emotional story with tense courtroom drama occupying a major part of the narrative.

An eight-year-old boy Ankur consumes 2-3 biscuits an hour before his appendicitis operation. The operation is to be performed by Kay Kay Menon, a reputed surgeon and one of the best in the medical fraternity and a part owner of the nursing home. The nurse on duty reports this immediately to the surgeon who at that time is busy on a call and unfortunately, when he enters the operation theatre, he forgets about this vital piece of information. He fails to perform a small procedure to clear the contents of the child’s stomach before beginning the surgery. This grave negligence on his part makes the child vomit and go into coma after the operation and he eventually dies.

Instead of owning up to his mistake and facing the consequences of his action, the surgeon threatens all the junior doctors and nurses present in the OT with dire consequences of ending their careers if they dare to report the truth to anyone. But a junior resident of the hospital (Arjun Mathur) suspects that some coverup was happening and he confronts his girlfriend (Vishaka Singh) who had been in the OT on that fateful day and comes to know the truth.

Arjun resigns from his job and vows to expose the shocking truth of the incident and to unmask the real face of Kay Kay Menon to the public and most importantly get a closure for the mother (Tisca Chopra) who deserved to know the truth about her child. They file a case against the doctor and the hospital. Paoli Dam is the prosecutor on behalf of the mother.

The narrative is taut and the court scenes are spot on. All the actors are aptly cast and come up with excellent performances. This film is a must watch for the heartwarming story, good direction, and the superb acting by the cast.

[All images are taken from the internet]