“Hippocratic,” a documentary about the life of Dr. M.R. Rajagopal, India’s leading advocate of palliative care, is now touring the United States — a country where attitudes toward pain relief have changed because of the overdose epidemic.

Dr. Rajagopal’s chief message — and that of the film — is that the essence of care for the dying is simple compassion. His inspiration came from Mahatma Gandhi, said Dr. Rajagopal, who in 2014 won a global award from Human Rights Watch for his activism.

But for a doctor, part of compassion is relieving pain when a patient’s tumors have become so large, burns so deep or wounds so grievous that they are beyond cure, Dr. Rajagopal said. And that usually can be done only with opioid-based pain relievers — like morphine and fentanyl.

People in agony may kill themselves, and the film recalls such cases.

But opioids have been demonized in recent years because so many young Americans — often prescribed narcotic pills for dental or back pain rather than for fatal illnesses — have become addicted and gone on to use heroin, street fentanyl or other concoctions, sometimes with fatal consequences.