The latest Hollywood release The Soloist is based on a real life story of a homeless violin player, Nathaniel Anthony Ayers of Los Angeles and columnist Steve Lopez. Steve Lopez saw this violinist lost in his music on a pavement in Los Angeles. A chance pause and conversation between the two changed the life of both creative individuals. A schizophrenic soloist found his audience and a story teller found his protagonist.

The newspaper columns of Steve Lopez on Ayers evolved into a book and finally the story is all set to release worldwide as The Soloist, directed by Joe Wright who did extensive groundwork to bring forth shunned humanity in to limelight.

We all ignore homeless on the sidewalks. All cities have them. Many of them try to earn through their art. They are saner souls. But lost souls like Ayers simply try to find some peace and home through their music. But in the modern busy world no one has time and intention to pause and listen to the free flowing music. It is rare to come across columnist like Steve Lopez who paused and embarked on an interesting journey with Ayers in spite of his mental condition and limitations. The film will definitely make audience perceive music, mental illness, friendships, compassion, social conditions and realities differently.

Via TimesOnline

US soldiers who fought in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder that manifests in various illnesses such as headaches, anxiety, sleeplessness, and chronic pain. Just as they heavily depended on their high-powered ammunition, so are they heavily dependent on prescription pills such as antidepressants, anti-anxiety medication, sleeping pills, and painkillers. 

It has been found that ‘prescription pill dependency among American troops is on the rise.’ In fact, the ‘Pentagon has increasingly relied on prescription drugs to keep its warriors on the front lines.’ The US Army mental-health survey reveals some facts: approximately 12% of soldiers in Iraq and 15% of those in Afghanistan admitted taking these prescription medications. Prescription for painkillers has even been on the upswing.

Soldiers with high-tech firepower at their disposal are on prescription drugs some of which can lead a user to psychosis when the medication is abruptly stopped for reasons such as unavailability of these medicines. Another risk is sending back to war those soldiers who had been dependent on these medications. According to Judith Broder, M. D., psychiatrist and founder of the Soldiers Project, a group that helps service members suffering from mental illness, “There are risks in putting people back to battle with medicines in their bodies.” 

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Via msnbc/commercialappeal.com

On April 20 1999, teeners Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold entered Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, armed with pistols, shotguns, rifles, and hunting knives, and went on a shooting spree that lasted 49 minutes and left 15 people dead.

In the weeks that followed, the media were still in a frenzy offering various explanations as to why the killers did what they did. They painted the teenagers as gang-loving and videogames-addicted hard rockers who were fascinated with weapons and Nazism, as well as worshipers of Marilyn Manson. But truth is more sinister.

What the two boys carried out was certainly well-planned and meticulously prepared. According to one investigative journalist, Eric Harris painstakingly ‘funded what could have become the largest terrorist attack on U.S. territory with a modest salary of pizza deliveryman.’ If he had more money, there could have been a far worse carnage. Money played a crucial role in one of the darkest moments in US’ recent history.

They wanted at least 2,000 dead. They were actually planning to detonate bombs. They set up some, but the explosives did not go off. One thing has been ascertained. Both young men were mentally disturbed. And those who were directly affected by the incident are still suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder to this day.

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Via abc News

Two days ago there was news of birth of genetically screened baby for breast cancer. It felt good that some diseases could be eliminated at genetic level itself. But this news of prenatal screening for Autism is truly distressing. Do we really want a world without spectrum of intelligence and personalities? Autism is not a killer disease! Everyone including people with different autistic, schizophrenic and other mental conditions have a right to live, perceive and relate to world differently. Also who decides what is normal?

Autism is neither a disease nor an illness. Autistic children are gifted. Autistic children and adults can be geniuses and have high imagination power. Einstein was autistic, so were many artists and writers. Such a screening for Autism and option of terminating pregnancy will not be ethical.

World with designer, tailor made babies will be not be much different. Upbringing and parenting is the crucial part. Parents who don’t have patience and courage to bring up differently abled child will not be able to bring up normal child too. Life is not a race course with children as ponies being groomed for races. Let us not head for an uncreative competitive world with no creative streaks of imagination and madness.

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Many Hollywood movies have explored life of people with mental disorders. Some of them are about fictitious characters and some based on real life people who have triumphed against all odds or tragically lost their wars with demons within. This heroic tale of triumph or tragic failure makes Hollywood directors explore this dark world of human psyche. 

First film which comes to mind is Rain Man. Dustin Hoffman’s character as an autistic, innocent and uncorrupted older brother is pitted against Tom Cruise’s smart, normal, savvy, selfish younger brother. Honesty Vs Hypocrisy. The film and the actors won many awards. It was a box-office success. Mentally ill came out from the confinements of asylums and became ‘Special’ people the world needs to keep innocence of the soul intact.

The other film based on life and book of highly genius mathematician John Nash was ‘The Beautiful Mind’.  Here was a man and a genius battling hallucinations and schizophrenia consciously by shutting out disturbing ‘voices’ within him and retaining his creative pursuit of mathematics. It encouraged people battling disorders to become proactive themselves and win a losing battle.

Another film – Girl, Interrupted too explored psyche of bunch of women in an asylum. The true essence of the film is the bonding between girls and a world they create within confinements of the asylum to help each other battle their mental disturbances.

There are many other films on mental illnesses which can be written about and discussed. Movies sometimes go beyond entertainment and become a powerful medium to sensitize people about specialty of ‘special’ people in the world, who often become a butt of scorn and ridicule.