January 15, 2012 Y. Sunitha Chowdhary
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Director Raj Madiraju has deep respect to doctors who are considered people next to God. As a student he had read Erich Segal's 'Doctors' around twenty five times and was greatly inspired to craft a film based on their lives, their trials, tribulations and their entire lives that they dedicate to the sick.
He says, "Why do they do this, sacrifice their personal lives, be at the beck and call of the patients..all for one reason to be called a doctor. My film deals with greater issues of these people who heal but first having to go through the fire. There is lot on medico's life that we can tell the audience..we did have movies on medical students but none touched their lives in such depth..the moment you see the film our perspective on them changes, lot of students would be inspired to pursue medicine. We said we need seven and half lakh additional doctors to treat us, there is an opportunity and also a need."
He adds that there is a dialogue in the film that shows that the value we give life is receding, we don't go to the hospital till the disease becomes life threatening. While Raj Madiraju will sweep us into the lives of medical students, his film Rishi reveals the making of doctors, the merciless preparation for their entrance examinations, their demanding hours of internship, training, etc.
Rishi is the name of the person, but Rishi is his character, his philosophy. He avers "If medicine is a passion then being a doctor is a philosophy. While writing the story, I was tempted to add value to each scene and there was a tendency that I could get carried away but I tried my best to be balanced and retained the sanctity of each scene. Aravind Krishna had to behave like Rishi but not an actor who would act like Rishi, he did a reasonably good job and complemented the subject well."
The director has learnt music, is an MBA from Osmania University and even while he studied, he finished his internship in Dasari Narayana Rao's Company, learnt various aspects of filmmaking. He is also into corporate films and has a extremely clear picture about the story he wants to tell the people. He didn't have to work too hard to convince Ramesh Prasad to produce it.
What is the film's synopsis? Raj says a group of medical students, the protaganist takes up a particular case, he goes about it like a soldier takes up a fight. In the very important first half we discussed the turmoils the medical students go through. We succeeded in incorporating a very inspiring message to the society.
While preparing for the exams and becoming a doctor is difficult the hardest aspect of it all is practising it. The story is about how important they are for us and how important it is for them to behave like a doctor." The film has been awarded an A certificate because of it's bold theme.
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