|| Atrangi Re - Reviews & Discussion || - Page 9

Originally posted by: FingerFetish

Alright finished the movie. There will be spoilers in this review so read at your own risk.

Overall, it was a good film and I liked it. Sara was pretty good but inconsistent. I think she was great and really convincing in the first part of the movie, but she couldn’t sustain it after Sajjad’s (Akshay’s) entry. Emotional scenes are a weak point for her. Akshay was the weakest link for me. Such an OTT performance.

Dhanush is the winner for me. He is such a great actor. Honestly, I’m in love with his love. What a beautiful character. Where do you find a man like him? More than anyone else, his character seemed like a fragment of MY imagination. 😆

It’s a one time watch for me. The only thing I didn’t like about the film was the way they handled the mental health condition. I’ve done my masters in Psychology and this is the first time I’ve heard about paracosm.

While watching the movie, I did get a hint that she may be suffering from dissociative identity disorder, developed due to her childhood trauma. But I wish the movie touched on the condition and explained it more in depth. What kind of medication was being given to her? Anti-psychotic? Surely not, because she was still seeing him. Then in the climax, she suddenly snapped out of it and all is well? She no longer suffers from the condition? The mental health aspect of the film was very poorly executed, leaving a mountain of loopholes. She definitely wasn’t suffering from Schizophrenia, though it may have appeared so to the audience because of her hallucinations.

I believe if the producers are going to make movies like this, then they should educate the audience and make a clear distinction on what the condition is. You don’t just snap out of Schizophrenia. It’s a chronic mental disorder with no cure. Disassociate Identity Disorder is very complex with no evidence-based cure either. So what exactly was she suffering from? I’m googling paracosm and can’t find much. It’s not listed in the DSM-5 of listed disorders either.

I might be reading too much into it but if you’re going to touch on psychological elements in a movie, then you shouldn’t leave so many questions unanswered either. 🥲

Even I thought it's same Dissociative Identity Disorder like Vidya Balan becomes Manjulika in Bhool Bhulaiya and here Sara becomes her mother. I asked her about it because she is a psychiatrist. She explained it is neither that nor is it Schizophrenia like Bipasha in Madhoshi. She said it is fantasy coping mechanism. You can discuss with her if you want.

https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/post/159836917

https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/bollywood/5270822/atrangi-re-reviews-and-discussion?pn=8

Even though I am neither a psychiatrist or a psychologist, I believe these two psychiatry and psychology might be vast subjects and fields. One cannot possibly know everything about every kind of disorder that exists and there might be so many other conditions that may exist yet not much might be known about them.

Isn't it possible Sara might be suffering from a combination of mental health conditions already known or some condition that has not be reasearched enough yet?

Originally posted by: Festival

Even I thought it's same Dissociative Identity Disorder like Vidya Balan becomes Manjulika in Bhool Bhulaiya and here Sara becomes her mother. I asked her about it because she is a psychiatrist. She explained it is neither that nor is it Schizophrenia like Bipasha in Madhoshi. She said it is fantasy coping mechanism. You can discuss with her if you want.

https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/post/159836917

https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/bollywood/5270822/atrangi-re-reviews-and-discussion?pn=8

Thanks for the links. I don’t think the film explored the symptoms well enough to make a certain diagnosis. I haven’t heard of fantasy coping mechanism, unless the member means maladaptive daydreaming?

For me, the character resembled a spectrum of DID. She witnessed the traumatic death of both parents and began to disassociate as a coping mechanism. You can see that she began to see her father from that moment onwards. In order to protect herself, she began to disassociate further from herself, and recreated her parents love story, except she began to associate with her mothers identity instead. With DID, there’s blockage of memories (amnesia) included as a potential symptom too. That most likely explains why Rinku couldn’t recognise that the little girl was in fact herself in her past memories. I’m happy to discuss as it’s interesting but I’m more inclined towards it being DID. It’s definitely not schizophrenia for sure.

Originally posted by: Festival

Even though I am neither a psychiatrist or a psychologist, I believe these two psychiatry and psychology might be vast subjects and fields. One cannot possibly know everything about every kind of disorder that exists and there might be so many other conditions that may exist yet not much might be known about them.

Isn't it possible Sara might be suffering from a combination of mental health conditions already known or some condition that has not be reasearched enough yet?

Of course there are co-morbid conditions. You can suffer from a combination of mental health conditions. I agree. Mental health disorders are still evolving. The brain and the power it has is not only fascinating but equally terrifying. There are a lot of mental health disorders that have gaps in literature and not enough research on it.

Originally posted by: FingerFetish

Thanks for the links. I don’t think the film explored the symptoms well enough to make a certain diagnosis. I haven’t heard of fantasy coping mechanism, unless the member means maladaptive daydreaming?

For me, the character resembled a spectrum of DID. She witnessed the traumatic death of both parents and began to disassociate as a coping mechanism. You can see that she began to see her father from that moment onwards. In order to protect herself, she began to disassociate further from herself, and recreated her parents love story, except she began to associate with her mothers identity instead. With DID, there’s blockage of memories (amnesia) included as a potential symptom too. That most likely explains why Rinku couldn’t recognise that the little girl was in fact herself in her past memories. I’m happy to discuss as it’s interesting but I’m more inclined towards it being DID. It’s definitely not schizophrenia for sure.

So you also feel it's like Vidya in Bhool Bhulaiya?

Originally posted by: Festival

So you also feel it's like Vidya in Bhool Bhulaiya?

Same condition but on a different spectrum. Not everyone experiences mental health conditions the same way. For example: Some people with Schizophrenia might have auditory hallucinations, while another might have visual. Then you can have someone that experiences both or no hallucinations at all.

Originally posted by: FingerFetish

Same condition but on a different spectrum. Not everyone experiences mental health conditions the same way. For example: Some people with Schizophrenia might have auditory hallucinations, while another might have visual. Then you can have someone that experiences both or no hallucinations at all.

Both had a traumatizing childhood with repressed tragic memories and both dealt it in almost the same way. By spectrum, you mean Vidya's was a more severe condition and Sara's was mild version, right?

Originally posted by: Festival

Both had a traumatizing childhood with repressed tragic memories and both dealt it in almost the same way. By spectrum, you mean Vidya's was a more severe condition and Sara's was mild version, right?

Yup. Though I wouldn’t say Sara’s case was mild individually but compared to Vidya, it wasn’t presented as severely. Vidya’s expression and voice completely changed when she took on Manjulika’s identity. She even started speaking Bengali. Vidya seemed to suffer from more symptoms than Sara. So I would say it’s the same condition, but on different levels of severity.

Originally posted by: FingerFetish

Yup. Though I wouldn’t say Sara’s case was mild individually but compared to Vidya, it wasn’t presented as severely. Vidya’s expression and voice completely changed when she took on Manjulika’s identity. She even started speaking Bengali. Vidya seemed to suffer from more symptoms than Sara. So I would say it’s the same condition, but on different levels of severity.

Thank you so much for taking out time to explain in detail🤗

See she had some dissociation from reality because she supressed her childhood trauma , sometimes people know the trauma but don't remember the details. It feels surreal, but it wasn't really dissociative identity disorder it was more of more of complex chronic ptsd where she actually was coping through maladaptive daydreaming? Fantasy coping isn't a icd 10 or dsm 5 diagnosis but what she really doing. All her akshay visions were magic, fantasy like, he was a magician but she even thought he would take away her pain through magic. Her character also had some regressions behaving like a kid.

Were those true hallucinations, i don't think so....it was quite suggestible, whenever akshay interacted with other characters, she didn't correct them. They just did on cue basis, they suggested and she agreed, moreover visual hallucinations are quite uncommon in schiz.

Was she given antipsychotic? I dunno people give different medications maybe she was given an antidepressant to clear her cognition with low dose antipsychotic. The treatment for her was actually therapy.