Mental Hai Kya Row: Kangana Ranaut’s Sister Rangoli Defends Her, Targets Deepika

After some medical experts found the title of Kangana Ranaut’s upcoming film Mental Hai Kya insensitive, Deepika Padukone’s Live Love Laugh Foundation called out the movie too. Kangana’s sister Rangoli Chandel, who is also acting as her spokesperson has lashed out at the foundation and is calling for the replacement of the foundation’s ambassador Deepika with Kangana. While Deepika is not the ambassador but the founder of the organisation that’s devoted towards ‘reducing the stigma, spread awareness and change the way we look at Mental Health’, Rangoli’s comments have started a debate with people choosing two sides over the depiction of people with mental health issues in cinema.

Depiction Of Mental Health Issues In Bollywood

While Bhool Bhulaiyya was essentially a horror comedy that showed Vidya Balan with a Dissociative Identity Disorder, Anjaana Anjaani showed two adults trying to commit suicide but eventually falling in love with a typical happy ending. Then there was Krazzy 4 that showed four patients with serious illnesses such as schizophrenia, selective mutism, OCD and intermittent explosive disorder escaping a mental help home and it was again a comedy film that made fun of their situation. Shah Rukh Khan starrer Darr showed him with a personality disorder and erotomania. While his acting skills were quite commendable, it made such patients look fearsome in the eyes of the audiences and there was no treatment of his condition whatsoever. But there have been movies like Karthik Calling Karthik (which showed Farhan Akhtar’s character suffering from schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder) and Dear Zindagi (where Alia successfully recovers from depression after sessions with a psychiatrist).

A Case Of Biased Views?

Kangana Ranaut is at loggerheads with many people in the industry and has her share of ups and downs in per personal life too, struggling as an outsider in Bollywood. Her sister Rangoli Chandel is now defending her latest movie Mental Hai Kya against comments from people who are calling it insensitive. Telling people not to jump the gun, she has said that Kangana’s sincere portrayal of a person with a mental illness will leave an impact on people, adding that the subject will trigger relevant talk and discussions around the stigma associated with mental health.

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Mental Hai Kya is set to release on 21st June 2019 and the motion poster of the movie says that sanity is overrated while calling the protagonists crazy, bizarre, crack, freaky, whacky, gutsy, weird and psycho. Have a look:

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A post shared by Kangana Ranaut (@team_kangana_ranaut) onApr 16, 2019 at 9:09pm PDT

Rangoli has also pointed out that Deepika suffered from depression due to her breakup and is now a happily married woman. Deepika had openly talked about her mental health issues and was lauded for the same. But we still live in a world where name calling of people with mental health issues and their stigmatisation exists. So will a movie that calls them freaky and psycho work in their favour or is it just to grab the attention of the audiences so that they get interested to watch a movie with a serious subject? Only time will tell as the plot of the movie is still under wraps but Rangoli has requested the support of everybody including the Live Love Laugh Foundation, saying that a private screening can be arranged for them to dispel any negative thoughts about the movie.

Do you think we need more movies tackling mental health issues or is the subject too serious to be adapted into frivolous storylines in Bollywood? Let us know on Her Zindagi’s Facebook page. To know more about upcoming releases and updates on your favourite celebs, stay tuned.

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