Of insanity and other things

I saw a movie called “God’s crooked lines” few weeks ago. It was popping up on the timeline and was curious to watch it when the genre mentioned it as thriller. Typically, English dubbed movies from European languages are not my cup of tea for the level of translation and dubbing, often feels unsynch. Europeans seems to emote more or at par with Asians while the American movies are bit low on the melodrama and histrionics. Even if you don’t follow a word of their dialogues, as compared to their acting on screen to the subtitles and dubbing, it feels weird at best. Despite all this, the reviews for this movie were quite good and from the first scene, it had an eeriness about it that hooked me in. 

The leading lady is brought into a mental hospital and is left at its doorstep by a guy who praises her for her brave decision. She promises him to do her best and boldly marches into the campus that looks like a castle. At the reception counter, she produces the letter issues by her psychiatrist who had referred her to the asylum which talks about how delusional that lady is and how clever her arguments sound which often, for a junior doctor, may make one feel that she is in fact much saner than the doctor themselves. She is admitted to the hospital and after the initial formalities, except for a book, every other property of hers is taken away. When alone in her room, she opens the secret compartments in the book that has newspaper clippings and a written letter, which reveals the reason why she came to the hospital, which is to investigate the mysterious disappearance of an inmate as requested by his father. She slowly makes conversations with her assigned doctor who evaluates her situation and makes friends with couple of inmates who are not completely insane but are showing good progress and recovery. There are a twin boy and a girl, who form a weird trio, a lascivious dwarf, a silent yet violent giant, another guy who get burn injuries when he encounters water and several other characters with whom the lady interacts with. Her story comes up under scrutiny quite a number of times and each time a different dimension is revealed. As per her referral letter, she supposedly tries to poison her husband and had voluntarily got herself admitted to the asylum basis recommendation from her shrink is one version. The other being, she has been framed by her husband as insane with the support of her shrink, for him to usurp all her wealth. As she moves closer to the mysteries surrounding the hospital, couple of deaths happen and it threatens the very basis of her plot to solve the mystery for which she was sent. She even gets electric shock treatment and is put along with other difficult to handle patients, clubbed as a certified lunatic. How she manages to escape from that situation and solves the mystery towards the climax is all cinematic and is typical of any commercial movie. But the “Munnabhai” type ending was bit faltering, given the terrifying tone throughout. But just about the credit roles begin, the final twist pushes everything back to square one, making the audience wonder, wracking their head over, what is real and imaginary.

The reason why this movie felt fascinating was not just its premise and taught screenplay, but also for the fact that, the setup – mental hospital. Imagine someone trying to prove their sanity when it is being repeatedly questioned!! It is possibly one of the most arduous and difficult situations to find oneself in and is most painful as well, for the stigma would be ever present, lurking underneath, only to raise its head at any and every possibility. There will always be a needle of suspicion around those folks who will never get the same benefit of doubt as those who were never branded. Same goes for those branded as short tempered or easy to trust others or those who fall in love quickly. Such people often traumatize themselves against this stigma that always follows them and their struggle to break through that branding is real and continuous. Whenever I happen to watch movies based on people struggling to prove their sanity in an unimaginably difficult setup as an asylum, it scares the wits out of me much more than any horror movie, for their fear is real!!! Do watch this movie when you get a chance. It may make a wonderful read, if available as a book.