Dinesh Kamath's column on film 'The Unsound' that was published in Newsband

The 2013 bollywood film The Unsound is directed and written by Alok Shrivastav. The movie stars Shadaab Khan, Anurita Jha, Sapna Thakur, Nilesh Lalwani and Tinnu Anand in lead roles. It is jointly produced by Pinky Shrivastava and Prakash V Jhaveri under the banner of PK Arts Creation Film Ltd & J.P Entertainment.

The Unsound is a Psycho-Thriller movie and it got released on 8 February 2013. The music of the film is composed by Aslam Keyi.

The Unsound is a story of Dev Oberoi, who suffers from multiple organic psychotic disorder - a condition that makes his behavior extremely unpredictable and at times even violent. Now what is multiple organic psychotic disorder? It is an abnormal condition of the mind, and is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state often described as involving a "loss of contact with reality". People suffering from this ailment are described as psychotic. Psychosis is given to the more severe forms of psychiatric disorder, during which hallucinations and delusions and impaired insight may occur. The term psychosis is very broad and can mean anything from relatively normal aberrant experiences through to the complex and catatonic expressions of schizophrenia and bipolar type 1 disorder. Moreover a wide variety of central nervous system diseases, from both external substances and internal physiologic illness, can produce symptoms of psychosis.

 Psychosis is generally given to noticeable deficits in normal behavior (negative signs) and more commonly to diverse types of hallucinations or delusional beliefs (e.g. grandiosity, delusions of persecution). Someone exhibiting very obvious signs may be described as "frankly psychotic", whereas one exhibiting very subtle signs could be classified in the category of an "attenuated psychotic risk syndrome".

In those with an organic psychosis, a complex cluster of genetic and environmental factors are involved in the creation of the endogenous imbalance of neurotransmitters observed in those with psychosis.

People experiencing psychosis may exhibit personality changes and thought disorder. Depending on its severity, this may be accompanied by unusual or bizarre behavior, as well as difficulty with social interaction and impairment in carrying out daily life activities.

People with psychosis may have one or more of the following: hallucinations, delusions, catatonia, or a thought disorder. Impairments in social cognition also occur.

Psychosis may involve delusional beliefs, some of which are paranoid in nature. Karl Jaspers has classified psychotic delusions into primary and secondary types. Primary delusions are defined as arising suddenly and not being comprehensible in terms of normal mental processes, whereas secondary delusions may be understood as being influenced by the person's background or current situation (e.g., ethnicity, religious beliefs and superstitious belief).

From a diagnostic standpoint, organic disorders were those held to be caused by physical illness affecting the brain (that is, psychiatric disorders secondary to other conditions)

Coming back to the story of the film The Unsound, amidst a failed marriage and an impending divorce, a young beautiful girl Simran is charmed by Dev's flattering ways. But you don't always get what you see. So while those who are close to him desert him, there are others who enter his life not knowing what lies ahead. Ironically, amongst those who fall in the trap of Dev's seemingly normal attractive persona is his own psychiatrist -- a beautiful woman named Joana. Their torrid one-night affair happens despite Joana's committed relationship with Dev's close friend Dr. Kshitij Saxena. Will she expose the deep dark secrets of Dev's violent past and present to give him a better future? And can she rescue herself from the demons of Dev's unsound mind? The suspense will be revealed once you watch the movie.  

The film is shot on state of the art super 35mm format. The sound of the movie is fully equipped with 7.1 Dolby surround.

Thus The Unsound is a good story by writer/director Alok Shrivastava who has done random casting and given quite a good treatment. Even the camera angles used are quite good. A majority of the shots are close-ups of the four prominent characters. There's even a low camera shot of a visiting card being exchanged which makes it look more eerie than formal.

One of the interesting sequences of the film is where Dev’s wife separates from him, taking along with her their five-year-old daughter. She also refuses maintenance. Immediately, even before she can reach home, he has fallen in love with a hostess from the restaurant they just had lunch at. The hostess is madly in love with him.

Things get improved for Dev when his doctor friend introduces him to another female doctor friend of his and she treats Dev for free. Thus the film is all about Dev.

Thus The Unsound is an interesting film. Do watch it.