Pruthvi Ambaar and Rishika Naik in 'Juni'.
Credit: Special Arrangement
The portrayal of mental health issues in cinema can be challenging. While it can educate the audience about the disorder itself, and how a life with mental conditions can be, it can also at the same time create stigma and stereotype.
Juni is about a young aspiring chef, Partha (Pruthvi Ambaar) who runs a cafe and is on a quest to create his signature dish — “Partha Special Cake” (PSC). He meets Juni (Rishika Naik) and the two fall in love with each other. He soon finds out she has dissociative identity disorder (DID) also known as multiple personality disorder.
After facing continuous abuse in her childhood — which isn’t established well in the film — Juni develops multiple alters in her mind to fight the trauma.
The film starts off as a lighthearted romantic comedy but turns into a melodramatic soap opera post interval. The narrative pace slips making one restless and impatient.
Juni is a medically well researched film. However, while bringing in a narrative as sensitive as this, one needs to be aware of what the audience can draw from it. Instead of taking cinematic inspiration from films like Three Faces of Eve (1955), Fight Club (1999), Manichitrathazhu (1994), the makers seemed to be inspired by the 2005 Tamil-language film, Anniyan to show the severity of the condition.
While the makers of the film, perhaps intended to sensitise, and normalise DID, the over dramatic approach in the narrative seemed to make a mockery of the disorder.
Like any other typical Indian film, the plot completely shifts to Partha, how he copes with it and the making of his “PSC”. The film doesn’t delve into or show Juni’s point of view — what exactly is running in her mind or how she grapples with the issues. As the film concludes, there are also hints of saviour complex in Partha’s character.
The film however, is a decent attempt for a first-time director. Rishika Naik holds on to the character and is flamboyant in portraying all four personalities played by her.