The first time my
friend told me that Dear Zindagi dealt with mental health in a sensitive way, I
turned around and rolled my eyes at her but then I don’t think I have ever been
happier about being proved wrong. Dear Zindagi is a beautiful portrayal of a
much needed conversation around mental health and therapy which does a lot to
challenge the stigma around therapy and counselling. The movie scores not only
for telling our largely ignorant society that therapy and counselling are not
about being ‘crazy’ or ‘mad’ but also for showing characters that are like us-
you and me.
Dear Zindagi teaches
us not just about mental health but also touches upon the various shades and
nuances of love and relationships. Kaira floundering her way through romantic
relationships resonates deeply with the state of today’s youth. The youth of
today are so caught up in their desire to move and to forge ahead that they
often forget to pay heed to their own self!
The journey of Kaira
from one man to another is marked with pain, suffering and a complete lack of
clarity until the therapist aka Shah Rukh Khan steps in and teaches this
go-getter that it is ok to slow down and pause. Our relationships today are
also fraught with tension because we are always so worried about the next thing
and moving ahead to an extent that we miss the moments in which we are present
even.
In a previous article,
I shared the importance of communication for creating healthy relationships.
Dear Zindagi shows with ease how the absence of clear, honest communication
sabotages relationships. As a society we keep talking about self-respect but
the discussion never moves towards self-love or the ability to pause and allow
ourselves the space to breathe and the space to experience and express our
feelings, emotions and thoughts openly. Even for Alia Bhatt or Kaira, accepting
that her trip to New York would be painful and traumatic despite the
professional gains is not an easy process.
We live in the age of
hyper connectivity and yet we have lost touch with our own feelings and emotions
today. The inability of Kaira to admit or express her deep hurt over being left
alone by her parents or her parent’s inability to acknowledge the same are a
reflection of our relationships- picture perfect on the surface and yet fraught
with tensions and anxieties on the inside.
Dear Zindagi teaches us that life is not just about looking ahead but also about acknowledging and assimilating the impact of the past on our today. It is about embracing ourselves fully without any questions and conditions because unless we love ourselves with all our failures and faults, how can we be there for anyone. So go on and embrace yourself because you are just as dear as Zindagi!!