Discussing HIV/AIDS

By Samuel Thambusamy

Synopsis

Tamanna (Shilpa Shetty) is a successful career woman who works for TJ Associates, an Ad agency. She likes Rohit (Salman Khan), an old friend at the Art school and they meet occasionally. One night, they exceed acceptable boundaries. Tamanna is hopeful that this would be the beginning of a lasting relationship. Meanwhile, Rohit leaves to the US and Tamanna loses contact with Rohit.

Tamanna’s life comes to an unexpected pause after she tests HIV positive, while replacing blood given to her sister in a city hospital. Worse, she is dumped by TJ Associates, disowned by her mentor (TJ Subramanian) and deserted by her close circle of friends. From then on it’s a lonely battle against victimization, discrimination and stigmatization.

After an initial reluctance, Tarun (Abishek Bachan) joins her battle against TJ associates. Tarun gets the support of his mentor at Law School. A coalition of compassion is formed and together they embark on a legal battle against TJ Associates.

During the course of the legal proceedings they discover ‘gaps’ in the legal system. Tarun makes a passionate appeal to the State to step in and fill in the gaps so that HIV/AIDS victims can live their lives with dignity. Meanwhile Rohit dies. Tamanna continues to live (to die another day) with dignity.

Questions for discussion

• What is this movie all about?
• Who are the main characters in the movie? What do we know about them?
• If Tamanna had been in your circle of friends, what would you have told her after her HIV infection? Would you have remained her friend? why?
• What does the film promote: Practicing safe sex or faithfulness before and after marriage?What is the Christian teaching on Sex? Make a list of biblical references concerning teaching on sex.
• Do you think TJ Associates was right in terminating Tamanna? Would you have taken up her cause? Why?
• What can we as a church do for the care and support for people like Tamanna?
• Why do you think people are involved in sex outside marriage? What are the dominant philosophies of life? How do these influence people to make personal choices on sex?
• Who do you think are the target audience for the movie? What is the director (Revathy) wanting to achieve through this movie?
• What is HIV/AIDS? How did you learn about HIV/AIDS? What are the familiar misconceptions about HIV/AIDS and the spread of the disease in your context?
• Do you think your church/youth group needs to be educated on HIV/AIDS?Why?