Wow. It took me a while to come back to this movie review. To be fair to me, it’s my birthday month, so my mind is not on anything but meeeeee. Not really, but that’s the intention.

Please refer back to Part One for a refresher.

After Buddhi has been injected with Dr Sathya’s non peer-reviewed medication, he wakes up a completely different person. He can focus, communicate, go to a good school, and excel in math, all of which delight his parents. Suddenly the other parents want to know them as real people, not just as caregivers. Ravi is able to perform amazingly at work, buy a fancy car, and give time to his wife. Padmini becomes a dance teacher, and their lives become much more balanced. Time for self development and goals; time for love. They buy a new bed and sleep properly together again.

We get glimpses of Buddhi struggling to understand who he is. The weird sense of amnesia leaves him unable to feel much for anyone, even his parents. He peeks in on his parents having a sweet moment, and feels shut out. Padmini has packed away his old artwork and photos, so there is no past he can delve into. Despite being brilliant at school, he is cold and mean to his old ally, the neighbor girl Pinky with the yappy dog. Said dog, by the way, now growls and barks at this new Buddhi, refusing to come near him.

Buddhi starts winning at math competitions, and becomes well known enough that a respected elder suggests he should be named Aryabhatta (ancient mathematician/astronomer). He takes it literally, and changes his name legally.

The disconnect from his past seems now complete, and Aryabhatta is now so wealthy and renowned that he can behave any old way and no one dares call him out.

Two especially creepy scenes stand out. One is when Aryabhatta kills the yappy dog. And the other is when he sexualizes Pinky and she becomes afraid. He feels no sense of shame or remorse for either, dismissing her with contempt for not welcoming his advances with the sophistication he feels entitled to.

Ravi and Padmini become worried about Aryabhatta’s behavior but don’t know how to help him. With Dr Sen’s help, they do manage to track down Dr Sathya. That quack ass is hiding out in an institution, pretending to have dementia, so as to hide from criminal charges for experimenting on disabled people. He discloses the location of his lab, where they get their hands on the antidote to the original medication.

Aryabhatta confronts his parents, wanting them to sign away their parental rights, and to gain access to his money. They agree to his demands, but only to get him to meet them in person. Somehow they manage to inject him with the antidote, and…

He wakes up as the old Buddhi again. This time, they make the necessary changes to provide him with a more stable environment. They move to a house in a quieter town, hire someone to be with him so that their own lives will be less draining, and they encourage his artistic ability, even going so far as to organize an exhibition and sale of his works.

It isn’t the most nuanced movie. And I read that reviews were very ambivalent. I can see why. For one thing, unless we approach the story as a work of science fiction, the violation of Buddhi’s rights both times is highly unethical. And yet, I do know parents who tinker with chelation, vaccine avoidance, gluten free diets, endless ABA, and much more. Even if you argue that those are not as serious as taking away someone’s memory, I would counter with the thought that being an anti vaxxer is extremely irresponsible, especially when a child cannot consent to being exposed to every contagion out there. People have complicated something that just isn’t.

And, given the Covid denial around us, I would definitely argue that, when you place yourself in a position of refusing to trust in science, I truly don’t know how you come back from that willful failure to human. I could say that you as a parent should have no place in society, but you have chosen this peril for your child too, and I can’t forgive that.

I know that, to an anti vaxxer, I am the irresponsible one allowing my child to be experimented upon, but I refuse to engage with anti science, bad faith discourse. Even if I love someone deeply, if they refuse to wear a mask and get their shots, I won’t respect that choice, and act like it’s equal to peer reviewed scientific conclusions.

I think the other problematic aspect of the plot is this: the conjecture that the other side of the autistic coin is pure evil and soullessness. Robotic number crunching. Unemotional self gratification. As if the medication removes the dependence and compulsive stimming, revealing some abled person’s fears, And, that said, it must also be stated that the Buddhi prior to medication is always a work in progress, an abled dream waiting to be realized. His parents are more fully fleshed out than he is. He is known mainly through his devastating impact on their lives and ambitions.

Moving to what I did like about the movie, I enjoyed the way they adapted to his needs at the end. I liked how Dr Sen never said what they wanted to hear, or engaged in fake science. Even if it was strangely done, I care about the fact that autistic people have sexuality, and it should be part of the conversation with regard to their adult lives.

I also appreciated that the movie didn’t avoid the truth of how we lose more community than not, and that hanging around in those spaces, hoping things will shift, is worthless, and prolongs our pain. Better to search out ways to live that are more autism friendly, and accept the smaller scale of life. It may be imposed on us by a world with no tolerance, but at least we must exercise what little agency we possess.

And finally, even though super disturbingly portrayed, I am glad that the story was capable of grappling with the contradictions inherent in our parenting experience. We want more for our kids, but we also learn that they don’t thrive while waiting for us to meet them where they are.

We have a lot of power as parents. Sometimes it’s better if we don’t wield it.

Radha.