12-05-2025
Documentary drives home seriousness of heart attacks among South Asians
During a hike at Nainital in Uttarakhand, US-based physician Dr Renu Joshi had chest pain and for a minute was scared she would not make it. Though she recovered, this incident – combined with the alarming number of friends and acquaintances in the South Asian community developing early and severe heart disease, some even passing away — prompted her and her husband, Dr Nirmal Joshi, to take action.
The two medical school sweethearts and senior physicians from Pennsylvania with over 70 years of medical practice set out to uncover what was behind this increasing loss of life. In the process, they met more than 40 heart specialists ,well-known actors and directors to now release a documentary drama called The Brown Heart.
Released in May this year, the film unites voices from across fields to spark awareness and change and confronts this crisis head-on through real-life stories and expert insights. Heart attacks are a significant health concern, particularly in South Asia where the risk of cardiovascular disease is high and tends to occur earlier in life. According to the World Health Organisation, this premature onset of heart disease is attributed to a combination of genetic factors, lifestyle choices and environmental factors.
Dr Nirmal Joshi recalled how Renu and he would discuss the issue and decided to undertake this journey two years ago. 'We travelled to India, USA and UK to gather human stories of survival and loss related to the menace of heart disease in South Asians (from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Srilanka and Nepal). We were able to weave over 100 hours of these interviews into a two-hour documentary film,' Dr Joshi said, adding that a longer version with four 45-minute episodes in the form of a web-series has also been taken up.
Dr Joshi, who had earlier written and directed The Hippocratic Oath, a 45-minute digital film that was used for educating doctors in training across the United States, also directed the professional short film Goodnight Giggles that was selected in the Satyajit Ray short film competition at the London Indian Film Festival in November 2023. Dr Renu Joshi, who was also Vice-President of Population Health and Diabetes at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, participated actively in the unique venture.
The duo soon connected with Yogendra Singh as the film's associate director. This ambitious project received donations from private donors in Central Pennsylvania but the majority of funding was provided by two couples Hersha and Hasu P Shah and Madhavi and Ramesh Bathini. While in India, the senior doctors travelled to Pune and spent an entire day at the Diabetes Research Unit at KEM Hospital Pune. Dr C S Yajnik, director of the unit who is well-known for his research on the `thin-fat' Indian phenotype said that it was a great effort taken and the film was a one-stop compendium of factors associated with heart attack in young Indians..
Dr Yajnik also encouraged the Joshi's to create 15-minute documentaries with simple, easy-to-understand messages aimed at students in schools and colleges.'This will reinforce the importance of guiding youngsters to take concrete steps to improve their lifestyle, get necessary tests done to assess their risk of future health problems. This is the need of the hour,' he added.
The Brown Heart premiered recently on JioHotstar and according to Dr Joshi, they embarked upon this unique venture hoping to bring about a change. 'Even if we can inspire a small percentage of viewers to change after watching the film, our hard work would have been worth it,' Dr Joshi said.
Anuradha Mascarenhas is a journalist with The Indian Express and is based in Pune. A senior editor, Anuradha writes on health, research developments in the field of science and environment and takes keen interest in covering women's issues. With a career spanning over 25 years, Anuradha has also led teams and often coordinated the edition.
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