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    September 16, 2007

    Comments

    Akshay Shah

    Fabulous review as always! I haven't actually seen this one, though I'm inclined to check it out soon as this is one of the few Pankuj Kapur movies I haven't seen.

    Great choice of films to review Filmigeek, looking forward to your next:-)

    Have posted this on NG too

    A.Shah

    a PPCC representative

    Ooh, while the flick doesn't seem wonderful, the fact that I learned about Jaman from this post does! Excellent blog; I can't believe there's this whole big world of Bollywood review blogs out there that I didn't know about until you and Beth commented on some of my reviews! Thanks!

    carla

    PPCC, I'm glad we discovered you too. Rock on with your fantastic blog.

    Maajhi

    Very evocative lines. You have a great way with words. I actually read through the end of your review of this dumb movie haha.

    "He works into the wee hours - to the chagrin of his long-suffering wife Seema (Shabana Azmi) - in a tiny makeshift lab in his home. Huddled amongst the caged lab animals, dusty reference volumes, and burbling beakers, Roy toils away night after night, his work punctuated by verbal sparring matches with Seema."

    Very well written review as usual.

    carla

    Thanks Maajhi - I remarked to my husband as I wrote this one that I rather prefer reviewing movies I dislike to reviewing movies I like - it's sometimes easier for me to come up with turns of phrase when I'm criticizing something. I wonder what that says about me ...

    Vikrant

    I recently stumbled upon this site. I'm impressed by your amazing film list and reviews. However, I think for EDKM your criticism is slightly misplaced. Allow me to put my point forward. I hope you don't mind.

    "..I don't perceive any great injustice in the response in the medical community's circumspect reaction to Roy's self-published results. This leaves me somewhat at a loss to interpret the message of Ek doctor ki maut. Perhaps the practice of scientific research is different in India from my own experience, so that in the film's context it's clearer just what is being criticized."

    >. No, the practice of scientific research is not different in India.

    IMHO, I think this movie need to be evaluated in the correct context. Tapan Sinha was largely inspired by a rather tragic true event in Indian scientific community. Death of Dr. Subhas Mukhopadhyay. Let me just quote the Wiki for the real event:
    "Both Dr Mukhopadhyay and British scientists Robert G Edwards and Patrick Steptoe - creators of the world's first test-tube baby - started work at the same time. The Indian baby was born on October 3, 1978, just 67 days after Marie Louise Brown was born.
    The ICMR recently acknowledged that Dr Mukhopadhyay was the creator of India's first test-tube baby. But he was prevented from carrying out further work on in vitro fertilisation and transferred away from Kolkata. He was also prevented from going to Tokyo to present a paper. Frustrated and in failing health, Mukhopadhyay killed himself on June 19, 1981."

    EDKM was Tapan Sinha's rant against the system. Granted, the pace of the film was a bit slow but I think I like it all the more for Tapan Sinha's uncompromising and almost honest treatment of the subject. It had its share of symbolism and beautiful scenes. One of my favorite scene is when Pankaj Kapoor expresses his regret for the sufferings of the animals in his lab to Shabana. If you watch Shabana's face closely it conveys gamut of emotions...its like she is crying and screaming and telling him that you feel that for these animals but what about me? All these without a single dialog. The film has several such nuanced scenes and of course brilliant performances by Shabana Azmi and Pankaj Kapoor.
    However I do have a few complains about the film mostly structural.
    Personally I found Irfan Khan's character a bit annoying. I can see that he was used as a narrative device to convey the state of science in India...but I think his character could have been better etched out.

    I had a problem with the ending. I understand that Sinha had to change the research field from test tube baby to Leprosy for several reasons (i.e. to avoid controversy, budget, easier to shoot etc) but I think he shouldn't have changed the ending.

    IMO, the message of EKDM was to remind the Indian society of that tragic event and ...it was against the corrupt and at times incompetent system and other people's mentality of pulling down those who are making genuine advance in research field. Dr. Roy only complained about not being given the chance to prove his work. He didn't ask for the community to readily accept his claim but just an opportunity to work further to prove it and he was denied that and hence his frustration.

    carla

    Vikrant, thank you so much for that thoughtful, informative, and thorough comment. I hope to see your comments on some of the other films I've talked about too, and I look forward to dialoguing with you about them.

    I think we are in basic agreements about some points of the film. I too thought the performances were quite excellent - I only said they were squandered in some of the script's weaker moments. I also agree that the film contained some poignant symbolism; I just wish Sinha would have let those moments speak for themselves without all the talky and unnecessary exposition.

    I do appreciate your recounting of the tragic story upon which EDKM was based. But it doesn't address my basic confusion about the way science was presented in the film. The fact is that when scientists work outside the peer structure of their profession, it's no great surprise when they aren't taken seriously. That, above all else, is what ruined the film for me.

    Vikrant

    Thank you for your response.

    "The fact is that when scientists work outside the peer structure of their profession, it's no great surprise when they aren't taken seriously."

    I think I understand your point correctly now. I agree with you (Tesla comes to my mind).
    From my limited reading on scientific research and scientist of that time (1970s and 80s), I think, there were very few research labs and there was no proper and accepted peer structure(especially for research in medicine). So, scientists like Dr. Roy were maverick not out of choice but out of situation.

    Coming back to EDKM, Dr. Roy only speculated about his research out of excitement. Unfortunately it got published with sensationalized interpretation by a journalist (Irfan). I think that was a classic case of miscommunication.
    Besides, it was not that expert researchers disputed his work, it was disputed by some practicing gynecs etc. Dr. Roy made these point couple of times in the later half the film.

    Now, that you made me think of it a bit more objectively, I agree some of the scenes were a bit crude and overly dramatized. I am a bit biased I think. For someone in India to make a reasonably realistic film on a scientist is just a rare event and I am just in awe of the effort, however flawed.

    Bottom line is: you are looking at it from more objective view point (I think thats how it should be for a reviewer) where as I am more subjective as I feel for Dr. Roy's situation and hence I find reasons to support him.

    carla

    Vikrant, I am glad you are here and commenting. :) You are making me want to see EDKM again, and try to think about it from a more sympathetic perspective. You have a fair point that some of the blame for the sensationalist handling of Dr. Roy's work goes to the journalist who publicized it. I suppose the quick and respectful recognition by the foreign scientists of Dr. Roy's work was meant to allay any concerns that people like me had about his apparent crackpottishness.

    mlost

    HAHAHAHAHAAHA ROFL

    This is one of the most craziest review, I've ever read. Bhaisahab, US of A chodd ke india aao and then think from the perspective here. This is one of the most honest films ever made in India.

    Waise jise jo karna tha karr raha hai karega, aap log starbucks mein baith ke coffe piyo aur movie review karo...

    In short marate raho.........

    carla

    Thanks for the thoughtful and insightful comment, mlost.

    Reshma

    To begin with, I haven't watched this movie, although I've wanted to for ages. I'm a research student in biochemistry at an Indian university, so I can comment about the appalling way researchers can be treated here with some authority. I think that more often than not, it is easier to conduct one's own research privately in India as the whole process is thoroughly entangled in red tape (it took me a year to register my topic, and it was completely free on any ethical ambiguities). The cost of materials is also pretty low and we are used to doing without "luxuries" like diposable agar plates and mol bio kits that people in developed nations take for granted, so not only are we experts in "jugaad", making things easier on ourselves with the little we have, but our research can be completed at a fraction of the cost. Hence it is quite possible to do some very meaningful research at home. Sometimes in fact it is easier. It also helps that no one cares about hazards and safety. I've seen spent used PAGE gels thrown into the sink!

    The whole point is that if one wants to publish path-breaking work through normal channels like peer-reviewed academic journals, one has to contend with jealous colleagues and nasty, often incompetent superiors (genrally administrators) who are completely unqualified to interfere in any research work. The audacity of a person willing to disregard the system to actually progress in his field annoys them. While I think jealousy is probably a universal problem, it is much more severe in India, especially in Bengal, where scientific progress seems to be systematically stifled by the State.

    As Vikrant had commented, this movie was based on the suicide of Dr. Roy, one of the finest minds that India produced. From your review, however, it seems as if the movie did not do justice to this tragedy. I hope they make a better one, though I hardly think any of this posthumous recognition will matter to him.

    carla

    Hello Reshma,

    Thank you so much for your comments. I especially appreciate your front-lines perspective on biomedical research in India.

    Are there many cases of researchers going around the peer-review process and using the press to publicize their results? How are such researchers received within the scientific community, generally? As I said in my earlier comments, what confused me most about the film was that it was supposed to be shocking that scientists were so skeptical of Roy's work. But, I did try to allow for the possibility that I wasn't coming at it with the right perspective.

    You correctly note that jealous peer reviewers (who are of course scientific competitors by definition) and incompetent bureaucracy are universal problems, but I am ready to take your word that they are particularly difficult problems in India. By the way, the state of scientific research is backsliding in the US. Government funds are becoming scarcer and scarcer - hence more conservatism in grant-seeking and more back-biting by competitors/reviewers. And in your field, more and more research is under corporate sponsorship, which has dangerous implications for ethics and scientific freedom. It's a bad scene.

    As for the movie - as I said above, I am harder on films that waste potential than I am on movies that are just bad out of the gate. *Ek Doctor ki Maut* was not a bad movie by any stretch. And especially for you, as a bioscience researcher, I do think it's worth seeing. It has a few warts which kept it from being an outstanding film - but it also has a few splendid moments which go a long way to redeeming it.


    Reshma

    Hello Carla,

    It is quite unusual for people to publish outside the peer review process, but work is often done privately (but generally remains unpublished). I have seen several instances of this. This is because research in these cases is done mainly for entrepreneural reasons.

    Naturally, if any scientist leaks a story (especially a path breaking one) to the press directly, it will be met with scepticism, a healthy habit, and India is no exception. Hence this is rarely done, unless a team of researchers at a university or research lab want to announce their findings, in which case, a paper is sent parallely to a peer reviewed journal. However, after publication of such stories, the scientific community generally does invesigate them, and does not ostracize and humiliate the scientist/s concerned.

    In this case however, the bureaucracy was at fault. Dr. Mukhopadhyay's work was not evaluated by researchers but physicaians, with very little knowledge of scientific research. This is because, in India one can apply for a medical degree directly after high school (five year course + a year's internship), so there is no grounding in a pre-med course, with any research techniques or research protocols as such. The primary function of doctors here is health care not research, though thanks to the booming pharma industry many doctors today are looking at research oriented careers.

    One must note that the international scientific community did take his claims seriously, but he wasn't allowed by the government to travel abroad to present his findings. They were just being nasty. He'd probably have done the work at his own expense too. No wonder the poor chap killed himself.

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