DVD: Dr. Ravi & Mr. Hyde

Like many middle age men, Dr. Ravi Godse is questioning many aspects of his life. In real-life he is a successful physician and fiction author, but the object of Dr. Ravi's desire is making a movie, which he believes is his destiny.

However, as an Indian born doctor practicing in the Midwest, he is woefully ill-equipped to secure film financing or navigate the nuances of making a film. So he does the next best thing and makes a direct-to-DVD movie about the exploits he encounters in trying to get his movie made.

Dr. Ravi wrote, produced and directed the film showing that he does have talents in the medium. But it's difficult to differentiate between the real Dr. Ravi who is the subject of the film with the heavily-fictionalized Dr. Ravi who is placed in a series of intentionally humorous and ironic situations armed only with unintentionally sardonic wit delivered in a deadpanned manner. (For example at one point Dr. Ravi is told "You sir are a nobody" to which he replies "Everybody knows that!".) Dr. Ravi might have been born in India, but he was heavily influenced by the early work of Woody Allen.

While the movie is about the unsuccessful attempt to make a movie, the subtext is Dr. Ravi's midlife crisis and the isolation he feels from his "normal" life. His family and friends don't understand his new obsession and keep telling him that he should just be satisfied being a rich and successful doctor. These things however now mean almost nothing to Dr. Ravi and the only people who understand this are a small cadre of fellow film students who become his new social circle and confidants.

This isolation from friends/family is perhaps the truest aspect of the movie from a midlife crisis point of view. From the outside, people just don't understand why a rich doctor with a big house, a good wife, etc. isn't automatically happy. How is it possible that he could need something beyond these? Over and over and over he tells people that his dream is to make a movie, but people either don't hear him or write it off as the passing fancy of a middle aged doctor. They soon begin to actively avoid interacting with him and wish for the "old" Dr. Ravi to come back.

You can see the trailer at this website.

Amazon link: Dr. Ravi & Mr. Hyde

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