Spoiler Alert: For people that still haven’t watched the movie, here is the spoiler alert. Beyond this point, writer will not be responsible for you knowing things before watching the movie!
Hemlock Society – An Indian movie from the Kolkata Film Industry. It is a movie that is unique in so many ways. How so?
The storyline is of course something that a viewer should get to know about when they see the movie. In this modern era, a simple search can suffice too. But as a writer trying to rejoice the movie, I gotta discuss it, don’t I?
A girl going through tough period of time due to breakup with her fiancé who was cheating on her, her father being happily married with another woman rather than her dead mother, the authority deciding to fire her from work because of various reasons and more – decided to commit suicide and end all the problems in her life. Suddenly a stranger comes to her life, who extends a helping hand to her because he has initiated an organization named Hemlock Society that helps people commit suicide following all the right ways!
The girl then gets to a film city where all the necessary training is conducted to prepare someone properly for suicide. There are different classes taught by different teachers, the class content being how to commit suicide in different ways. Doing the classes, the girl suddenly starts realizing how her reason for wanting to die is not as serious as that of so many other people and that she has a life far better than many.
Our heroine after finishing the course approaches the stranger who by now has developed quite the relationship with her. She reveals that she doesn’t want to die, which incites curiosity in the hero; answering which she tells him that along with many other reasons, she loves him. It is then revealed that our hero loves her too but, he has a disease which won’t let him live long. The potential love story turns to a tragic story and the happy ending is all but gone!
There are of course some more details and side storylines which are being intentionally skipped here. Point of this movie was to teach people that when they have suicidal thoughts and think that everything is over; they need to sit back, relax and think deeply. “Suicide is a punishment to the people that care about the one committing it” – one of the lines that made this movie great.
This movie also in perhaps indirect ways teaches us that life does not always have a happy ending. But it is life nonetheless and you only get one. You gotta live for it for people that care about you, for people you care about, for things you are yet to experience and lastly but most importantly, for yourself.
Writer himself found this to be a very compelling storytelling. A movie released way back in 2012, he watched in 2020. Perhaps it is the time of pandemic or things going on with his life that made this a movie to learn many things from. It is not a marketing or promoting the movie kinda article. It is writer’s personal review.
diprua 