Citation
Ayushi Gupta
B.A. English, Amity School of Languages, Amity
University Lucknow Campus, Uttar Pradesh, India
Abstract
Young people are
becoming weighted down by the search for perfection in an age where success is
quantified in terms of marks, rankings, and appearance and social acceptance.
Competition has been made out of growth and individuality into comparison by
the pressure to excel in academic life and, at the same time, to live up to
strict standards of beauty, behaviour, and achievements. What used to be
thought of as a source of motivation has in most occasions, turned out to be
continuous anxiety, emotional suppression, and identity crisis.
This paper discusses
the weight of perfection that society has placed on young people by studying
the real-life instances that are reported through the media, as well as the
depiction of the same in present Hindi movies. Although journalistic reports
and social analysis disclose the structural facts of the increasing academic
stress and psychological distress, movies like Chhichhore, Taare
Zameen Par, Dear Zindagi, and 3 Idiots help to humanize those
pressures in terms of narrative and character. The paper connects real-life
experiences and film representations and examines the negativity and influence
of unrealistic expectations on youth identity, self-esteem, and emotional
health.
The ultimate position in the study is
that the crisis the young people are experiencing is not just academic but
existential in nature, based on a social environment where worth is
performance. The awareness of individuality, emotionality, and acceptability
comes not as a sentimental dream, but as a remedy that is needed against a
culture of perfection.
Introduction
“Sab has rahe honge
mujhpe … Mom ranker, Dad bhi ranker, aur beta loser.” This is
a part of Chhichhore that portrays the fear that is beyond the limits of
a movie, the fear of failure to live up to expectations. Equally, in Taare
Zameen Par, when Ishaan stares silently with the utterance of yeh toh naach
rahe hain, this is the representation of the misunderstood kid in a
performance-focused world. The expressions of this cinematic meaning are not
hyperbole; it is a growing truth where the youth are always put against the
template of perfection.
In modern society, there
exists a certain concept of success. Youths are not only judged on their
performance in school but on their appearance, speech, abilities, behaviour,
and character in general. The common measure of success is grades, rankings,
and institutional reputation, and average performance is a failure. Body
shaming, colorism, and comparison culture, in addition to academic pressure,
contribute to self-perception and make the feeling of insecurity and self-doubt
more prevalent.
Social and family forces
also add stress to these norms. The different talents, interest and development
rates in individuals are usually ignored because parents, teachers, and the
entire society collectively portray the notions of success. Consequently, the
youths are normally afflicted with anxiety, identity disorders, low self-esteem,
suppressed feelings, and internalized failure. Performance anxiety has now
turned into an academic problem and a self-esteem crisis, as can be seen in real-life
examples of the distress and self-harm of students reported in the media.
The study of the weight
of perfection that is imposed on young people will be studied by analyzing
real-life cases s, and how it is reflected in modern Hindi cinema. Although
practical situations, through media coverage and scholarly texts, offer an
insight into the structural and social dynamics that lead to the increasing
issue of mental health, films, as a cultural text, articulate and comment on
the same, via stories and characters.
Documented
Realities of Student Distress in India
The real-life examples
of distress in students in India can confirm the interconnection of the
academic pressure, bullying, discrimination based on appearance, colorism, and
power dynamics. All these elements cause severe mental disturbances and, in
some cases, suicide. Such cases have been repeated in different environments,
which means that it is not the isolated situations that have made students
vulnerable but an interplay of structural and social factors.
Student Suicide and
Academic Pressure
In a statement issued in
2025 by the Supreme Court of India, the existing education system has been
described as a high-stakes race, and the issue of student suicides as a result
of the pressure of high performance is becoming a serious concern. The judicial
pronouncements acknowledged that the number of suicidal students was high, with
more than 13,000 student deaths in 2022 alone, and most of these were allegedly
because of failure in examinations and academic stress, which national
statistics confirmed. The statements show that there is institutional
recognition of the systemic academic pressure as a factor that leads to
psychological problems.
This is further put in
context by media coverage. A 25-year-old woman who was studying competitive
exams was discovered dead in her home in Kanpur, with the police first stating
that this was one of the circumstances that may have led to her demise.
Similarly, a 23-year-old dental student in Bengaluru is reported to have
committed suicide, and the news of being harassed by the faculty members
increased academic pressure upon her. Prestigious institutions through
historical media also show that there is such a situation. Even a 21-year-old
student of IIT Kharagpur, who was an apparently high-performing student,
committed suicide in his room in a hostel, implying that even the best students
are not immune to mental problems.
The above cases show
that performance-oriented settings can exacerbate feelings of inadequacy, fear
of failure, and emotional isolation among students.
Bullying,
Appearance-Based Harassment, and Colorism
Appearance and social
identity bullying has also been linked to many cases of student suicides. The
suicide of a 15-year-old student in Kochi, Kerala, was under investigation
because it was supposedly due to bullying, which involved humiliation based on
his skin color. Things started getting reported about the student being
consistently bullied by his peers, which indicated the psychological cost of
being bullied based on your color in schools.
These examples
demonstrate that appearance-based stigma, coupled with all the stressors of
academic and social life, can cause severe emotional disturbance among
adolescents.
Body Shaming and
Cyberbullying.
The level of judgment
concerning looks has been raised by the internet. The Prachi Nigam trolling
case highlighted on the fact that the academic achievements can be overshadowed
by the appearance or looks on the internet. After the photo of the Class 10
topper was made public, the social media response focused on her body hair and
appearance, but not on her academic achievement.
Although this does not
result in suicide, it has been noted that cyberbullying has a tendency to
elevate the degree of self-consciousness and emotional distress among young
people. The internet is making people more visible, therefore, making it more
judgmental in terms of appearance and academic performance.
Institutional Harassment
and Academic Hierarchies
Institutional power dynamics
can also get entangled with discrimination of identity to exacerbate distress
in students. Dr. Payal Tadvi, a 26-year-old postgraduate resident doctor,
committed suicide in her hostel room in Topiwala National Medical College and
BYL Nair Hospital in Mumbai in May 2019. According to her family, she was
constantly bullied by her senior colleagues, both with comments on her caste
and professional sabotage. Her charges were based on sections regarding
abetment of suicide and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention
of Atrocities) Act since she was a Scheduled Tribe herself. The case brought
about a discussion in the whole nation in terms of discrimination based on
caste, institutional power, and psychological distress in a cutthroat
environment of medical education.
Similarly, in 2023, a
23-year-old third year dentist student, Yashaswini, was discovered dead in her
house in Bengaluru, Oxford Dental College. Her family members said that she was
always humiliated by her faculty members, regarding her skin color, her clothes,
and her absence due to her illness in classes. A complaint was lodged, and
six faculty members were relieved of their services as the probe commenced.
The two cases are examples
of how learning institutions, which are meant to be the places of advancement,
can also be centers of mental agony when intellectuality finds itself in a
collision with social prejudice and dominance.
Intersection of
Pressures and Mental Health
When these reported
cases are viewed collectively, they are in consonance with other research
studies that indicate the interrelations between academic stress, bullying,
discrimination due to identity, and institutional authority. The studies of
mental health of students in India have found that the strong competition and
low level of emotional support is a significant factor in causing anxiety,
depression, and suicidal tendencies in students.
However, the existing
body of scholarly literature often examines these stressors in isolation.
Similarly, literature on academic pressure may not consider appearance-based
discrimination, while literature on bullying may not consider performance
pressure. It is important to develop an integrated framework of analysis to
understand how these interconnected stressors affect the mental health of
students in contemporary India.
Modern
Hindi Cinema Analysis.
Contemporary Hindi films
have ventured more into the pressures that the youth experience, namely,
perfectionism, emotional deprivation, and demands of academics. Films are the
texts of culture that comment on the real social anxieties and reveal invisible
struggles through the narrative, character development, and dialogue.
Institutional
Humiliation, Social Judgement, and Academic Breakdown– 3 Idiots (2009)
Dr. Payal Tadvi’s
suicide in 2019 brought light to the relationship of academic pressure,
institutional hierarchy, and social discrimination within professional learning
spaces. According to the reports, the 26-year-old resident doctor at Topiwala
National Medical College and BYL Nair Hospital suffered ongoing harassment from
senior staff members because of her caste identity. The case shows how systemic
humiliation within competitive academic environments can create psychological
isolation and emotional collapse.
A similar case, the suicide of a
Bengaluru dental student, revealed another aspect of institutional judgment. According
to media reports and police investigations, faculty members humiliated her because
of her skin tone, dressing style, and absence due to illness. Six faculty
members were fired after the FIR. Family members claimed that she took this extreme
decision because of the constant harassment and humiliation.
the above reported cases reveal that
the academic environment is one place where the social hierarchies, caste,
looks, class, and faculty power affect academic performance. It also
demonstrates that emotional distress is not only caused by examinations but
also by a prolonged state of humiliation and comparison in addition to
institutional power relations.
This same trend may be observed in 3
Idiots, in the form of the character of Joy Lobo, who ends his life
following being embarrassed in front of the faculty and constant rejection. The
inequality of power between the student and the institution is indicated in his
desperate plea, “Sir, aap ek daffa dekh
toh li jiye, sir.” It is repeated with the word sir which demonstrates
submissiveness and urgency, and the way academic dominance may drown out the
vulnerability instead of supporting it. The emotional tone of the appeal made
by Lobo is the same as that of the reported student suicide notes, where the
fear of being disappointed by the institution adds to their academic anxiety.
The story of Raju Rastogi is another
illustration of how financial burden and expectation of parents put stress on
academic performance. His fear-based approach to learning is reflected in the studies
showing that students internalize the social definition of success and family
goals as a measure of self-worth.
Both
of these real-life examples and their film adaptation demonstrate a structural
problem that recurs numerous times, namely the fact that the educational
environment that is defined by the comparison, humiliation, and strict ideas of
what success means affects the psychology negatively and significantly. The
pressure of the Academic field can be combined with institutional power and
social disapproval, and more than an obstacle for students, it can be a
disruptive element in their lives.
Individual
Differences, Emotional Neglect, and Academic Pressure – Taare Zameen Par (2007)
Taare Zameen Par attracts attention to the challenges of the children with dyslexia and
other learning disabilities in the highly achievement-oriented academic
setting. Both teachers and parents do not understand Ishaan Awasthi and explain
his troubles as either laziness or disobedience instead of a neurological
condition. This misperception results in an endless criticism, punishment, and
comparison with peers. The film demonstrates that children may be under
emotional pressure because of their failure in studies done by their parents
and the school.
The way that Ishaan is judged by his
father in terms of marks and rankings is indicative of a meritocratic system in
which failure becomes something that the person is ashamed of: “Mera bada beta
har class mein first aata hai Aur who doosra? This narrates the pressure that
children are put under to perform to the expectations of the parents, and how
Ishaan does not turn out to be what he is not.
The movie reveals the psychological effects
of emotional neglect through the story. The pressure of society to mark herself
off as an indicator of personal value is embodied in “Har kisi ko apne ghar
mein topper chahiye, 95.5, 95.6 se kam toh gali ke barabar hai” This manifests
itself in the further hardships of Ishaan, as well. This has been supported by
practical studies that reflect that children with learning disabilities suffer
feelings of shame, anxiety, and low self-esteem when their learning needs are
disregarded or misunderstood.
In this respect, Taare
Zameen Par demonstrates the actual situations when a child with learning
differences is called a failure. The movie supports the significance of caring
teaching methods and initial interventions by showing the emotional outcomes of
academic rigidity and parental pressure. It shows that emotional neglect with
high expectations may have a drastic influence on the self-concept of a child,
the level of academic involvement, and the general well-being of the child
psychologically.
Emotional Suppression
and Conditional Parenting: Beyond Academic Success- Dear Zindagi (2016)
Research and
media reports suggest that occupational or school achievement does not
necessarily translate into the fact that young adults will not suffer
emotionally. One can observe that the pattern is similar in the case of
coaching hubs, coaching environment in the city, or in Kota, the high-achievers
are likely to become anxious, burn out, and emotionally unstable. Mental health
professionals have also indicated that the majority of the youths suppress
emotional pain due to performance-based parenting and the fear of failing their
parents (The Hindu, The Indian Express, and The Print).
In some of the student suicides
reported, it is stated that they are scholarly gifted and secretly feel
incompetent, isolated, and abandoned. Psychologists have linked such distress
to conditional validation, where approval of parents accompanies performance
and not the expression of emotions. Consequently, children learn to appreciate
success and override weaknesses.
This is similar to the case in Dear
Zindagi (2016), where Kaira is preconditioned by the experiences of
emotional abandonment during her childhood that influences her emotional life
during the adult life with the anxieties, anger, and fear of attachment even in
the sphere of her professional life. Her parents returned after neglect, not
out of any affection for her but due to social disapproval: “You only came back
because of me, because I failed my 2nd grade” This indicates that they did not
have fear since they were embarrassed rather than guilty. Kaira questions this
hypocrisy: “Jab bacchon ko aapki sabse zori hoti hai, ke aap aaram se chod kar
chale jaate ho” The lack of parental support during childhood years messed up
her emotional development, impairing her trust and stability.
The culture of emotional nullification
is also represented in the movie. Kaira thinks: “Aur phir poori life aise
complain karte rehte ho, ki ye muh banati hai, ye karti hai, who karti hai”
placing the emotional conditioning within context in its context, when a child
cries, the elders say, wipe your tears, smile. You see, old people say, smile
at me when you are angry. The film shows how the social and family pressures
enforce the outward appearance of life to remain peaceful at the cost of inner
feelings and emotions, which make the children hide the sadness, anger, and
frustration inside.
Dear Zindagi also reverberates the
facts of emotional neglect and conditional parental favor, depending on the
experiences of Kaira. It emphasizes the point that a successful career or
social life cannot substitute emotional knowledge and support. The film
encourages the need to embrace emotional truth, legalize emotions, and avail
pleasant environments to children and youth.
Fear of Failure,
Academic Pressure, and Social Comparison- Chhichhore (2019)
The
escalating cases of student suicides in India, which the Supreme Court of India
has admitted as arising out of a high-stakes educational culture, make one see
a systemic-level crisis, which is created by incessant performance pressure.
Since more than 13,000 deaths among students have already been recorded in 2022
alone, some of which were as a result of examination failure and academic
pressure, success has become more of a mark, rank, and institution. Reports in
the media on cities like Kanpur and Bengaluru, and even in prestigious
institutions like IIT Kharagpur, reveal that even the high-performing students
are not immune to the psychological agony. These examples demonstrate that the
fear of failure is not only an academic anxiety but a threat to existence.
Chhichhore is a cinematic analysis
of this cultural situation. The character of Raghav takes the failure in exams
as a personal loss, and he laments that people will laugh at him- sab has rahe
honge mujhpe - and how he will confront his parents after the marks. The
pressure of inherited expectancy and cross-generational comparison is
summarized in his proposition, “mom ranker, Dad bhi ranker, aur beta loser” The
panic that he describes (he thinks he might be forced to wear the permanent
label of loser forever) defines the high level of stigma surrounding any kind
of academic failure in the competition world.
This
dichotomy of success and failure is explicitly criticized in the film. In a
dialogue, Anirudh notes:
“plan sabke
paas hai ke success ke baad ka plan sabke paas hai... agar galti se fail ho
gaye toh failure se kaise deal karna hai... toh koi baat hi nahi karna chahta”
(Everyone
has a success strategy, but once that one fails to work, no one wants to talk about
how to survive failure.)
This is a
line that reveals a cultural silence about failure. The education systems and
families tend to train their learners in order to succeed, but never to cope
with disappointment. The lack of a conversation regarding failure only fuels
the fear, and academic outcomes are turned into a measure of self-worth.
Similarly,
the film asserts:
“Tumhara
result decide nahi karta hai ki tum loser ki nahi... tumhari koshish decide
karti hai.”
This is
because (Your outcome is not the determinant of whether you are a loser; your
effort is.)
This
restructuring confronts the deconstruction of identity to results. The story
challenges the prevailing meritocratic philosophy that ties numerical status
with human worth by making the focus on the outcomes subordinate to the focus
on the effort.
The other
important comment is made in the text:
“Hum
haar-jeet, success-failure mein zindagi jeena ulajh gaye hai. ki bhool gaye hai
zindagi jeena. Zindagi mein agar zyada important hai toh woh hai khud zindagi”
(We are so
busy winning and losing that we lost to live. Nothing is more important than
life itself, if there is anything.)
In this case, academic competition in the
movie is placed in the greater existential criticism. The comparison craze
destroys the sense of perspective, where any short-term failures seem to be
disastrous. The implication in the previous part of the story that it is more
harmful to lose to oneself, as opposed to losing to others, further supports
the internalization of standards to increase the level of psychological
pressure. It is not, as one would imagine, socially humiliating.
The hopeless attitude of Raghav towards
the failure of the test, because he thinks that “sab khatam ho gaya” (all is
ruined), shows that the failure in the examination is culturally described as an
irreversible downfall. This kind of reaction is similar to what has been
recorded, where students have reported about academic failures as the final
destruction of their lives. The movie is thus more accurately seen as social
commentary, but as an intervention, as it aims at breaking down the
success/failure dichotomy of educational culture.
Re-examining the experience of Anirudh
himself in college, having survived failure, Chhichhore subverts the
stigma around failure in education and suggests a different story: in terms of
identity, persistence, relationships, and experience are all more important
than rank. By so doing, the film is consistent with wider studies that show
that social comparison, parental expectation, and institutional prestige are
heightening factors of vulnerability among youths.
Finally, Chhichhore supports the
main point of this paper: in case the performance is turned into the core of
the values, failure as a short-term academic performance is turned into a
personal shame. The burden of perfection does not consist in ambition, but it
is a cultural apparatus that makes imperfection unbearable.
Body Image, Self-Worth, and Social Validation Dum Laga Ke Haisha (2015)
The media discussion
about online trolling and the inspections of appearance reveals that academic
or professional achievement cannot protect a person against body shaming. What
often displaces the merit and becomes the subject of public attention is physical
conformity, expressing the extent to which the standards of beauty have been
internalized to influence social judgment.
This is the dynamic, which is powerfully
reflected in Dum Laga Ke Haisha. At the very beginning of the story,
there is a commentary made by the line “Size dekha hai apna?”
strips Sandhya down
to a physical dimension. It is not conveyed as an issue but as a mockery, which
demonstrates how body policing is executed in a very informal way by the
masses. The first prism in which she is viewed is physical size, and is judged
before she is even recognized by her education or individuality.
Likewise, there is the line “Tere jaisi
moti ko toh muh na lagata humaara Prem”
posits romantic
acceptance subject to thinness. In the insult, the desirability turns out to be
socially created based on the limited aesthetic standards. The fact that
Sandhya is perceived to be deviating against these norms makes her unworthy of
affection in the logic of the social environment in which the story takes
place.
Notably, another implication of this
film is that her education level is used as a form of recompense for her
weight. Her literacy and professional ability are not appreciated as it is, but
rather as mitigating factor, as a feature that makes the marriage tolerable
despite her weight. In this framing, one can trace a logic of transactionality
whereby the value of a woman is being negotiated: physical compliance is of
primary importance, whereas intellectual accomplishment becomes a secondary
concern.
These interactions allow the film to
criticize a system of perfection where women are supposed to meet academic and
aesthetic expectations. Validation is conditional, comparative, and is usually
humiliating. In this sense, Dum Laga Ke Haisha carries on the general
thesis of this paper: perfection is multidimensional, and even established
competence can be lost in failure to comply with hegemonic standards of beauty.
Critical Thematic Reflections - Connecting the Real
Cases with the Movie
The discussion of
real-life cases of student suicides and the Hindi movies shows that the stress
of the youth is interrelated, structural, and culturally supported. In most
instances, academic performance stands out as a major factor of self-worth, in
which failure cannot be seen as an educational loss, but a personal and social
deficiency. This phenomenon is dramatized in films like 3 Idiots
and Chhichhore: the experiences of Joy Lobo and Raghav show that the
pressures of an institution as well as parental expectations and peer
comparison all add to the psychological distress. Such dialogues as the one in
which Raghav is describing itself like a “Mom ranker, Dad bhi ranker, and aur
beta loser” are an example of how these pressures are internalized, with the
emotional weight of inherited and societal demands.
Academic stress is
also accompanied by body shaming and appearance-based judgment. The trolling
and social critique as reported in the media reflect the film portrayal of
Dum Laga Ke Haisha, as the competency of Sandhya is overshadowed by
comments about her body. Such dialogues as “Size dekha hai apna and Tere jaisi
moti ko toh muh na lagata humaara Prem” show that conformity in society can be
identical with social and romantic acceptance, and that merit is not always
paid attention to, nor can it provide emotional stability. These pressures are
added by emotional neglect and conditional parenting. The negative emotional
trauma, which Kaira in Dear Zindagi does not express even in terms of
professional success, corresponds to the psychological results that children
internalize perfectionism expectations and suppress vulnerability in order to
obtain parental acceptance. It is her stand-off with her parents that shows the
impact of emotional abandonment in early life stages on adult identity and
coping strategies — “Jab bacchon ko apki
sabse zaroorat hoti hai, tab aap aaram se chod kar chale jaate ho.”
Collectively, these
instances and movies demonstrate a structural weight of perfection: young
people are supposed to achieve high results, be physically normative, meet the
requirements of family and social life, and become emotional zombies. Any
failure in one of the fields comes with shame, social disapproval, or
incompetence within. The film-based depiction makes the statistical and
anecdotal evidence more human as it demonstrates not only the results but the
psychological mechanisms by which these pressures are exercised. This combined
perspective highlights the fact that academic, social, and emotional stressors
are not independent problems, but complementary factors that influence identity
and mental health.
Conclusion
This paper shows that
the mental issues that Indian youth go through are complex and culturally
integrated. The pressure of school, social criticism, body shaming, colorism,
and parental pressure do not exist independently, but rather they overlap with each
other to form an overwhelming psychological load. The suicides of Dr. Payal
Tadvi and the Bengaluru dental student demonstrate the practical outcomes of
such pressures, whereas the films 3 Idiots, Chhichhore, Dum
Laga Ke Haisha, and Dear Zindagi demonstrate the films reflecting
and humanize the realities of experiencing the emotional distress, fear of
failure, and suppressed vulnerability.
These
pressures are not only personalized by cinematic representation but are
systemic in nature, showing how the social norms, institutional authority, and
family expectations, all determine self-worth. The conversations under analysis
(some despair of Raghav in Chhichhore, the humiliation of Sandhya in Dum
Laga Ke Haisha and the confrontation in Dear Zindagi) accentuate the
internalization of the judgment, the excessive price of conditional acceptance.
To sum up,
the weight of perfection is a culturally ingrained, socially constructed
phenomenon. It needs to be not only fixed through academic changes, but also
through emotional intelligence, compassion, and societal-wide contribution
through families, institutions, and the whole society. This paper suggests the
acute necessity to acknowledge and mitigate the invisible forces that determine
identity, health, and prospects of youth through the combination of empirical
evidence and cinematic understanding.
References
1. “Dr. Payal Tadvi Suicide: Doctor’s
Death Sparks Outrage over Caste Harassment in India.” BBC News, 28 May 2019,
www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-48426378.
2. Biswas, Soutik. “Why Are Student
Suicides Rising in India?” BBC News, 28 Aug. 2023,
www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-66632176.
3. “Student Suicides in Kota Raise
Questions about Coaching Culture.” The Hindu, 30 Aug. 2023, www.thehindu.com.
4. “Kota Student Suicides: A System under
Pressure.” The Indian Express, 29 Aug. 2023, indianexpress.com.
5. “Why India’s Coaching Hubs Are Facing a
Mental Health Crisis.” The Print, 31 Aug. 2023, theprint.in.
6. National Crime Records Bureau.
Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India 2022. Ministry of Home Affairs,
Government of India, 2023, ncrb.gov.in.
Films
7. 3 Idiots. Directed by Rajkumar Hirani,
performances by Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan, and Sharman Joshi, Vinod Chopra Films,
2009.
8. Chhichhore. Directed by Nitesh Tiwari,
performances by Sushant Singh Rajput and Shraddha Kapoor, Fox Star Studios,
2019.
9. Dear Zindagi. Directed by Gauri Shinde,
performances by Alia Bhatt and Shah Rukh Khan, Red Chillies Entertainment,
2016.
10. Dum Laga Ke Haisha. Directed by Sharat
Katariya, performances by Ayushmann Khurrana and Bhumi Pednekar, Yash Raj
Films, 2015.
11. Taare Zameen Par. Directed by Aamir Khan,
performances by Darsheel Safary and Aamir Khan, Aamir Khan Productions, 2007.
