Bollywood Movies That Portray The Power Of The Subconscious

Our subconscious mind has immensely great power and can do wonders that one can't think of. It is a well-known fact that the dreams that we see when we're asleep, are a projection of our subconscious thoughts. But apart from that, there are a lot of things that the mind can do in that state. One of it, is lucid dreaming. The basic concept of lucid dreaming is that we can control our dreams. What we do, where we go, everything can be consciously controlled in those dreams.

This might've rung a bell for those who've watched the movie Inception. Inception very amazingly portrays the power of subconscious and lucid dreaming. Hollywood has explored this concept dynamically, but do you know about Bollywood's take on it?

(A little spoiler alert for those who haven't watched ‘Bhool Bhulaiya’ and 'Karthik Calling Karthik’.)

Bollywood too, has presented the concept of the power of the subconscious very well. Firstly, in the 2007 film, Bhool Bhulaiya (remake of 1993 Malayalam movie, Manichitrathazhu). The movie revolves around a haunted palace and the suspected presence of the spirit of a dancer, named Manjiluka, causing havoc. It is later revealed that there was no spirit, but a woman suffering from dissociative identity disorder, who thought of herself as Manjulika and that she had returned to avenge her and her lover's death.

The premise here shows the effects of when the subconscious takes over. When suffering from dissociative identity disorder, the woman forgets her actual identity when it happens. It makes her speak a language that she has never learnt, it makes her sing and dance, like the dancer Manjulika and all the while, completely blanketing her real identity.

Also, there's a scene where she's in that state, being Manjulika, and her husband yells her name, like bringing her back to her senses. This suddenly makes her conscious again and become her true self, like waking up from a sleep. This again portrays how subconscious works: like being in sleep.

Another Bollywood movie that has a great take on this subject, is the 2010 film, Karthik Calling Karthik. The plot of that movie revolves around a guy named Karthik (of course), who is not so successful in life, until he starts getting phone calls in the middle of the night, from a man named Karthik (the title does say everything, doesn't it), who turns his life around. Later on, on feeling betrayed, the caller Karthik also damages all the gains of our protagonist.

The suspense of the movie then reveals that it was our protagonist Karthik himself, who was making the calls. He makes all those calls when in deep sleep. He just wakes up every night, records the call and then sets alarm for the phone to ring. When the phone rings, he wakes up, conscious now, and hears the calls. This too shows how powerful subconscious mind is and how dangerous it can get if it takes over. When Karthik makes the calls to himself, he's in sleep, that is, his subconscious state. It makes him achieve everything he deserves and also makes him lose it when agitated.

So, here are the two movies from Bollywood that, I feel, had a great take on the concept of subconscious mind. Hopefully soon, we will get to see Bollywood explore it more.