Abhay Kumar's Placebo, a documentary that is part-actual footage and part-animation, takes on the issue of student-suicides in India which was and is a persistent problem in India. The film was completed by late 2014 and had been doing the rounds of festivals and private screenings for two years till it saw a worldwide release on Netflix on Thursday (September 1).

The film shot on the grounds of the All India Institute Of Medical Science (AIIMS) in Delhi tries to understand the psychopathology of a student who is driven to suicide in a place that is host to, perhaps, the country's best geniuses. In the beginning of the film, a disclaimer says that while Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard have acceptance rates of nine and seven percent respectively, the acceptance rate for students in AIIMS is less than 0.1 percent. As such, why would, the most 'elite' of the student community of India, feel insecure, scared and agitated on a day-to-day basis?

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Placebo does not give any answers to this 'why' but it takes the first crucial step of asking that question to students, parents, teachers, and educational communities. Every time, a student in India commits suicide, the cause for it is relegated to depression and/or 'romantic problems'. In popular cinema, very recently, Rajkumar Hirani's 3 Idiots (2009) tried exploring this issue, in a rather wishy-washy manner, through the Joy Lobo character. But where 3 Idiots fails and Placebo succeeds, is that the latter does not have the burden to entertain you for money, which is the prerogative of a Hindi commercial potboiler. Therefore, Abhay Kumar is able to go into disturbing territory that would leave the audience emotionally drained by the end of the film.

Placebo's subjects are four AIIMS students - the affable Chopra, the childish Sethi, the capricious K and Abhay's own brother Sahil. Through the eyes of these four, Placebo tries to understand the mindscape of a place like AIIMS; the kind of drive millions of Indian students have in them to get here and what this place does to them once they are here.

A still from Placebo A still from Placebo

Chopra admits to the camera that an Indian child's life is a debt to his parents and that becoming a doctor or an engineer is part of fulfilling that debt. Sethi says that he has always had two ambitions; to crack the AIIMS entrance and to settle in US, because that's what the 'elite' do and he wants to be part of the 'elite'. K, a Dostoyevsky-hero personified, is the kind of guy you will not want to be locked up in a room with after 2am, and though he has, or, pretends to have an eagle-eye view of the cage that every Indian student is born into, he knows that he himself is a part of it, and that clearly disturbs him.

A still from Placebo A still from Placebo

Finally, Sahil, which is where the film becomes personal. Abhay began studying AIIMS with a handycam when his brother, in a fit of rage, sadness, and confusion, punched through glass, resulting in his right hand becoming mush. Sahil had complete nerve damage, lost motor control, and skin from his thigh was grafted into his hand. Through the course of the film's shooting, Sahil was recovering, and he was in a deep, dark place in his head, and in a telling scene, he looks into the camera and tells his own brother, Abhay, who is essentially a wall-like voyeur, "I don't know you" and "You are not helping me". To figure out whether this act of self-introspection adds to the film's emotional weight or if its simply manipulative is a grey area.

When Darren Aronofsky (director of Black Swan, The Wrestler) was asked how his films look and feel so different from each other, he said that the story at hand dictates the style instead of him imposing a style on the story. This is another grey area that will come to mind while watching Placebo. Placebo is heavily stylised. The ominous music and sound design (by Shane Mendonsa and Micke Nystrom respectively), the nocturnal imagery of the AIIMS campus making it look like purgatory itself, ample use of animation including black-and-white animated stretches, highly saturated segments, etc. takes the film away from the idea one has of a traditional documentary and tries to transport the viewer to the headspace of Chopra, Sethi, K and Sahil.

A still from Placebo A still from Placebo

After a private screening in Delhi, when asked about his aesthetic choice, Abhay said, "I've always seen the universe of this film as a larger than life, hyper-real version of the narrative. the emotions are exaggerated - the sense of competition, the ambition, the desolation, the violence, there are no soft edges here."

Full marks to Abhay Kumar and producer Archana Phadke for making a film that treats the issue of student-suicides with much-needed empathy and seriousness. Placebo needs to be seen by every Indian student burning the midnight oil, losing their minds and identities, sitting in Kota or wherever, trying to be a part of the hallowed Indian 'elite'. Placebo needs to be seen by the Indian parent who is far removed emotionally from his/her child to be able to create an environment where every child can open up to their mother and father. Placebo needs to be seen by teachers who wash their hands off students the moment a kid does not figure into the ideal Indian idea of a 'student'.

But most importantly, Abhay Kumar should continue making films. We need voices in Indian cinema like Kumar's today that do not shy away from walking the rough road, talking the tough talk.