'Ghost-eye' film angers doctors

[Guest guest]

Eye doctors in India have asked a court to ban a movie in which the heroine sees ghosts after a cornea transplant.

They say the film will scare off eye donors and patients.

 

The All India Ophthalmological Society (AIOS) told Delhi's High Court that the film Naina (Eyes) reinforced myths about cornea transplants.

 

The AIOS said that the movie was "detrimental to the cause of eye donations" and that there were no dangers in such operations.

 

Reincarnation

 

"This movie could create a fear psychosis among cornea recipients and their relatives as well as among potential eye donors," ophthalmologist Navin Sakhuja told the Reuters news agency.

 

 

The AIOS said that perspective donors could be wrongly influenced by the film, fearing their eyes would "live on after they are dead".

 

Doctors say that some Hindu people fear they will be reborn blind if they give up their eyes because their behaviour in this life affects them in the next.

 

The AIOS argues that the film's depiction of a cornea operation going wrong is inaccurate and misleading.

 

It says that the movie undermines extensive campaigning by the Bollywood actresses Aishwarya Rai and Sharmila Tagore which encourages people to make eye donations.

 

'Misconceptions'

 

Ms Tagore is herself a censor board chairperson, the AIOS says, and should have "thought" before giving a certificate of general screening to the film .

 

 

I want to appeal to the general public not to believe this film and continue coming forward to donate the eyes

Dr Rajvardham Azad,

AIOS spokesman

 

"We have a huge backlog of people, particularly children, waiting to get new corneas. This movie adds to misconceptions and could hurt efforts to get them those corneas," Mr Sakhuja told Reuters.

 

But Naina's director, Shripal Morakhia, said the heroine's visions after the transplant following 20 years of blindness are caused by what the donor had seen and experienced in life.

 

"If such objections are taken into account, no horror film will ever be made," the Times of India quoted him as saying.

 

The court is due to hear the case on Wednesday, even though the film was released across India on Friday.

 

Correspondents say that India needs 40,000-50,000 corneas a year but only 15,000 are donated.