A Drop of Sunshine

Abstract

A Drop of Sunshine is a documentary based on the story of Reshma Valliappan recovery from schizophrenia. She is an actor and an activist working on issues around disability, mental health, gender and sexuality based in Pune, Maharashtra. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia during her early twenties. This documentary captures her illness narratives and her path to recovery through art as a form of therapy. It shows how an individual can recover through alternative therapeutic treatments which are beyond biomedical understanding of cure through continuous medication. It is an important contribution in the field of mental health, particularly of young adults in the Indian context. It also accentuates the need for doctors and caregivers like the parents to go beyond stigmatizing and stereotyping individuals with mental health conditions and to treat them as an individual in their own rights. The documentary puts a question mark on the efficacy of biomedical treatment and shows that recovery can be sought without medications.