Once I had a time to watch a
movie called A Doctor's Death. It is originally a Hindi movie called 'Ek
Doctorki Mout', written by Ramapada Chowdhury and directed by a renowned
Bengoli director Tapan Sinha.
The movie revolves round the
story of a scientist, Dr Deepankar, who has been spending every bit of his
moment of his ten years in the research of leprosy. He is adamantly determined
to find out the way for eradicating the leprosy from the face of the earth,
because it has been thinking that the leprosy is a cursed disease. It is
incurable and people hate to go before such lepers. It has become an inerasable stigma since history.
The story starts with the
event of experiment led by Dr. Deepankar in his private laboratory in his home.
He seems communicating with the brown mice he has kept in his laboratory for
his experiment. He injects the vaccine in the body of the brown mice. Then the
story keeps on developing with the dispute between the couple with regard to
family responsibility against the scientific determination. Seema feels many
times that she must abandon her husband because he has turned to be a
self-imposed, irresponsible, senseless man because he is so indulged in his
research. He has become so rude to her, showing no love and conjugal affection
toward her. His academic research has been everything to him.
One day, Seema writes a
goodbye letter in order to ditch Deepankar for good. But, no sooner she
completes the letter than she remembers the moment Deepankar was so happy as a
result of the solution on toxicity, which was so disturbing for him. And he had
given all the credit to Seema, because she was the one who had afforded all the
scientific appliances needed for Deepankar's experiment. She, too, was happy
receiving the acknowledgement from her husband. She stops writing and cherishes
the hope of getting compassion from her husband but of no avail. She concedes
the fact that it's her weakness and naive not to forsake him despite of her
arid life. The feud grows in the issue of cultural compulsory.
Far removed from the daily
concern, Dr Deepankar is engrossed with his experiment of developing new
hormone with the blood of horse. The hormone doesn't respond much to the body
of Rhesus Monkey. The ideal animal for this experiment is Armadillo, but it is
only found in America, which a far cry from his reaches. Pangolin is another
option for him but he cannot afford this either. Therefore, he has started his
experiment with brown mice.
Seema's duty has been to keep
her eyes on the brown mice in the home made laboratory, as though they were her
children by her husband. She has to look after the equipments and utensils of
the laboratory, as though they were the ornaments bestowed upon her. When a
single thing gets removed from the usual place in an attempt to clean room by
Seema, Deepanker burns up with his anger. He never thinks that she is taking
care of him rather it's a great disturbance against his valuable task of his
research. Both of them think that each doesn't understand the other's feeling.
‘A most interesting result! …
A most interesting result! ’ Cleaving his eye to the microscope, he ignores
everything said by Seema to him.
‘Don't you have any bit of a
concern towards other person than yourself in this home? ’
‘I have not done any injustice
to you, I'm sure!’
No entreaty moves the
mountain of his determination. He yawns at his work at midnight. Gets up and
stretches his body back and forth for exercise. Hums in tune and goes to
shower. Comes again to resume his work.
‘What time might it have been
now, can you guess? ’ Seema frowns her brows.
‘10 or 11 pm by now ’ without
moving his eyes from his work, he says.
‘It's 2 am now!’ Seema
controls herself from being violent toward him.
‘Ok, that's fine. You better
sleep’ He goes on indulging his work. What Seema intends by her words never
gets communicated.
Deepankar, as chemical,
attracts and repels many characters in the movie.
Dr. Kundu is very interested
in his dedication to his research. He studies his notes and affirms his
originality in the process of his findings. But the conclusion is yet to be
made as validity. So, he asks Deepakar about his plan to derive his conclusion.
Deepankar tells him that he is just experimenting on brown mice at this
juncture and dreaming to experiment in human body finally. This problem is
really hunting him. on another day, when they are in tea-talk, Dr Kundu
proposes that he likes to offer his body for the sake of Deepankar's
experiment. Deepankar hesitates to accept his remarks because it may be dangerous
to his life. Also, it needs permission for such work. It's life and death
issue. but Dr. Kundu convinces him that he is becoming older and older. The
body decays one day as the person dies. So, why would he not use his body for the sake of human welfare? He has an individual freedom to use his body. So, he
opines that doesn't need any permission to use his body to the scientific
experiment. He has his own choice. He also brings history of sacrifice in the
scientific research. Professor J.B.S. Haldane volunteered his body for the sake
of the experiment on cancer run by Dr. Sanyal in Kolcatta.
Deepankar feels great awe
towards Dr. Kundu's will to the knowledge for the welfare of humanity. He
thinks that if his body is used for the experiment it would be great thing for
him.
Amulya is another character
who likes to help Deepankar with all his possible ways. He was a good student of
astrophysics but now has become a journalist. Deepakanr is not happy with his
change in the career. He has his own reason for doing that, because he thinks
science is beyond the capacity of his mind. He says that his journalism can do
many things that the science cannot do. He says that he can provide a wide
range of publicity of Deepankar's research work. At this, Deepankar expresses
his contempt on publicity. Amulya insists on its significance. Finally, he
publishes the article on the research without the consent of Deepankar. Soon it
gains a wide currency all over the intellectual circle. The more of his popularity the more the rivals he gets. The plot reaches to the
crux with the publicity of Deepankar's work. He not only receives complements
but also a threat from those who are envious of his success. Dr. Arjit, a
physician and a friend of him since his school days, is also disturbed in his tranquility. The Department
of Health calls Deepankar to explain certain matters. Deepankar is mad with his
anger on such reaction to his genuine endeavor. Many things are inquired of his
work. Which laboratory? Whose permission? Legal process? And,what not.
Deepankar, who used to be fire on his wife, has now an ample grounds for being
fire on many rivals. Meanwhile, the BBC spreads the news of his research and
John Anderson Foundation sends an invitation letter to Deepankar in order to
explain his research process on how the leprosy vaccine will work in human
body. But the invitation letter is kept hidden by the Health Department under
Dr. Khastagir, the director of the department. Deepankar is asked to submit his
report to the health department, then only the decision will be made whether or
not he will be allowed to send to John Anderson Foundation. Another option is
that he has to resign his current job and can go. He cannot leave his job as he
is already in debt for establishing his private laboratory in his home, in
which Seema had many unforgettable sacrifices, like selling out her personal
ornaments.
Some days later, Deepankar
gets a letter from the health department. He is transferred to remote hospital
in the village. He has to make his paper ready for the health department. He is
now away from his home, his laboratory, his references for the note. Most
importantly, away from his wife, Seema. Both Seema and Deepankar realize how
important they are to each other now. Seema pays a weekly visit to Deepankar in
the village.
‘Please ,stay some more days
with me here, Seema !’
‘ Then, who will look after
your children, the brown mice in your laboratory back at home?’
In the long run, Deepankar is
unable to produce his paper before the health department. By then, the rumors
spread like a wild fire that Deepankar's investigation is fake. The board of
the government doctors form an inquiry committee. Deepankar is asked to explain
his research before the inquiry committee. Deepankar, fully conceited, charges
them that they don't know anything about leprosy. They are not aware that what
they have been using as medicine against leprosy is of 19 century's medicine.
They are denuded and proved hollow in the argument by Deepankar. Debunked and
defeated before the fierce conceit, they feel insulted, for they were luminaries
in field of leprosy. The inquiry board consists of Dr. Arjit, a renowned
physician, who later disjoins the committee. Dr. Ramanand Chatterji, the
chairman of the board, who is a renowned gynecologist. Uma Shankar Upadhyay,
who runs a leprosy home of 556 lepers. Dr. Kedarnath Das, who runs a leprosy
clinic. The inquiry committee demands the paper for explanation of the
research. Deepankar demands their specialties:
‘Who among you are micro
cellular biologist? Tell me. Who is molecular biologist here in the committee?’
Fully knowing the fact that
they are creating hurdles against his intellectual effort, he gives in finally,
‘I surrender myself now,
because all of you are running after me to bring my intellectual effort into
naught.’
After facing the impudent
remarks from the science students during his lecture, which is called by them
just to ridicule him before the mass of the student, he becomes sick. Later on,
at his home, Amulya brings a news
paper and reads out loud that someone else has been attributed for the invention
of the leprosy vaccine. Deepankar's original work is abused. His intellectual
effort is ruined by the power structure.
In the end, Deepankar kills
all of his brown mice and other animals of his laboratory. Seema weeps
bitterly. A brilliant athlete in the field of knowledge looses his scientific
game before his rivals.
The film closes with Dr.
Kundu's reading a letter from John Anderson's Foundation, inviting Deepankar
again for the explanation of the experimentation of the vaccine in the human body.
The film seems to convey some
important message to its viewers. It harks back to the history of leprosy and
the social stigma attached with it. The Bible also records its historicity. In
the book of Leviticus, it says that They were outcasts of society. The leper
was to cry “Unclean! Unclean!” wherever he went: he was to dwell alone; in a
habitation outside the camp” (Leviticus 13:45, 46). They had to carry a bell everywhere they went and if anyone
should come within 50 yards of them they had to ring a warning to them. Leprosy
was a contagious disease.
Tuberculosis once had been
considered as Raj Rog in India.The patients were shunned and despised. But, now
a days, with the invention of the ATT medical system the stigma attached to TB
is erasing. Dr Deepankar firmly believes that a curse has its remedy too. He
tantalizes the remedy of such stigma. But human society lives with paradoxes.
Deepankar is beset with an uphill climb to his intellectual journey. He
struggles in the welter of the bureaucratic power structure.
Knowledge is power, they say;
but sometimes it is ignorance that operates as power to control humanity for
long. There are some, for example Max Weber, who prefers to deal power as
separate entity that encroaches in human affairs. Women, who are generally
considered to be a weak vessel, have pierced the mountain-like chest of the
velour; for example, the goddess Durga stabbed the giant Mahishasur to his
death with her trident. Mahakali had trampled down the chest of Mahadeva. Some
years ago, one of the ladies member of the Constituent Assembly slapped a male district officer
in the Tarai region. So, power operates differently in different situation.
Power also controls the
knowledge. Sometimes, even research programs fall prey to the power pattern.
Thomas Kuhn has carefully studied about the revolutions that have imparted
knowledge rather than adherences to the popular paradigm. The inquiry committee
in the film represents the paradigm. I would like to borrow some ideas from Charles
Vandoren ,who writes :
In
1611 Galieo went to Rome to describe what he had seen to the pontifical court.
He took his telescope with him. Many were impressed by his findings, the
meaning of which they did not at first comprehend. But he demanded that they
open their eyes to those consequences. Among other things, he said he could
prove mathematically that the earth went around the sun and not the sun around
the earth, that Ptolemy was wrong and Copernicus right. And, he insisted, his
telescopic observations proved that the heavens were not basically different
from the sublunary world. There was no such things as the quintessence. All
matter, everywhere, must be the same, or at least very similar.
You
can prove no such things with your mathematics, said cardinal Robert Bellarmine
(1542-1621), chief theologian of the roman church. He reminded Galileo of the
time-honored belief that mathematical hypotheses had nothing to do with
physical reality. (It was this belief, held by the church for centuries, that
had protected Copernicus's work from oblivion.) Physical reality, the cardinal
said, is explained not by mathematics but by the scripture and church father.
Look through my telescope and see for yourself, said Galileo. Bellarmine
looked, but he did not see.
Why were cardinal Bellarmine
and the Dominican preachers whose aid he enlisted in a campaign against Galileo unable to see what Galileo saw,
and what we would see if we looked through that telescope? Their eyes were
physically the same as ours, but they did not see as ours would.
(A History of Knowledge. pp 201-2)
Nietzsche calls it as
cultural hypocrisy. He was the one who felt averse to human choice of obstinate
resistance to the correction of self-deception. People not only possess
self-deception but also preserve it in many forms.
Another important aspect for
the scholarly viewers of the film is that, research is a systematic
investigation of knowledge. Dr. Kundu says, ‘ being born in the family of the
king does not make a person prince!’ Validity and reliability generates each
other.validity corresponds between the concept and empirical indicators.
Reliability is a matter of consistency in the measurement. A reliable but
invalid measurement is worthless. Dr. Deepankar hums to himself as he works in
his laboratory,‘ Kitni Jane Baten Anjaan Rahjaaten hai’, meaning that so many
known things, yet they are unknown to many.
A family support for the
scholar is another issue that the film portrays to the viewers. Seema has
become an ideal woman in her support to her husband. Support and sacrifice
makes her ideal rather than her role as wife to Deepankar. Once she was about
to leave her husband but soon she controls herself and realizes how important
she is to him, however, Deepankar seems to sense this truth only when he is
transferred to remote village. The moment is so touching when Deepankar drops
tears from his eyes as he begins to talk with Seema in the remote village. Man
is a social animal, however, he is the paragon of other animals.
Cast:
Dr. Deepankar (Pankaj Kapoor)
Seema ( Deepankar's wife,
Shabana Ajmi)
Dr. Kundu (Anil Chatterji)
Amulya, a journalist. He was
a good student of astrophysics. (Irrfan Khan)
Dr. Ramanand Chattarjee, a
gynecologist.
Dr. Prashant Mullick ( not
seen in the scene)
Dr. Arjit, a physician.
(Vijayendra Ghatge)
Paramita ( Arjit' wife, Deepa
Sahi)
Anjana ( Arjit's daughter)
Dr. Khastagir, the director
of the health department.
Dr. Emile Barnard, a
representative of John Anderson Foundation, London.
