‘Hiding Divya’ Stirs Up a Taboo Topic

Hiding Divya

bipolar disorder & lost families…

‘Hiding Divya’ is a provocative Indie film which takes on hard issues – and delivers. Mental illness is a taboo word in the South Asian -American community – it’s about loss of face, ‘bad blood’ and failure – and is often kept under wraps. The film follows the life of three generations of women – Divya Shah (Madhur Jaffrey) who suffers from bipolar disorder but whose illness has never been acknowledged or treated; shortly after she gave birth, her husband abandoned her due to her mental illness.

Her daughter Linny (Pooja Kumar) has grown up rebellious and angry, self-absorbed and unable to find her place. She runs away from home to New York as an unwed pregnant teen, and later the life of her 16-year-old daughter Jia (Madelaine Massey) turns out to be just as unanchored and stressful. When the death of her ‘Uncle John’ who had been a loving and protective companion to her mother brings Linny back to home in the suburbs of New Jersey, she has to face the ghosts of the past – and the reality of her mother’s bipolar disease.

‘Hiding Divya’ doesn’t preach but takes you right into the smoldering caldron of this dysfunctional family, keeping them always human. The film stands on Madhur Jaffrey’s powerful performance – she is utterly believable as a woman living on the edge, in her own warped world of demons. Pooja Kumar, in a role very different from previous roles, conveys the angst and alienation of Linny, and Madelaine Massy as Jia is a very natural actor.

Yet in spite of its serious subject, ‘Hiding Divya’ is never tedious; Rehana Mirza’s strong script and direction keep you involved, and the wonderful soundtrack features  works by several South Asian musicians, including songs composed by Samrat Chakrabarti, Lost performed by Meetu Chilana and Help me to Find by Manu Narayan.

Raising money and finding distributors though seems just as hard as ever for independent filmmakers – ‘Hiding Divya’ took  several years to find a distributor, and the tough economy has not helped any.  It becomes all the more important for the community to support such efforts.

Interestingly enough, the film is produced by Deep Katdare and Gitesh Pandya, the original team who made ‘American Desi’ almost a decade back. That highly successful comedy was the first to put all South Asian faces on the big screen – and now ‘Hiding Divya’ is a sign of how indie filmmakers have matured and are ready to take the next challenge – addressing difficult issues head-on.

According to Rehana Mirza and her sister Rohi Mirza Pandya, the producer, the film came about because of a real need within the community. While in school, Mirza had a friend whose father was a maniac depressive. Later another friend, whose family had unraveled due to mental illness, had asked her to give exposure to this subject which has always been ignored by Indian-Americans. Sadly both these real life stories ended badly.

“Emotional disorders are often seen as weakness, failure, or a genetic predisposition – the curse of “bad blood’,” says Rehana Mirza. “ In the South Asian community, the stigma can be almost as painful as the disease.”  Now both sisters hope that the silence will be broken on this forbidden topic. They hope that Indian-Americans will support the film and get the word out, and they also plan to take it to schools and colleges to get a dialogue going.

Families where a loved one suffers from mental illness have often felt shut out and marginalized in the larger community, and hopefully ‘Hiding Divya’ will open up some doors.