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Indian Express
25 May 2010
By Manoj More

Dr Amarsinha Nikam with a poster of PratisaadDr Amarsinha Nikam with a poster of Pratisaad
Film, titled Pratisaad to release in sixty theatres across the state HURT by media reports damning homoeopathy, Dr Amarsinha Nikam, a practicising homoeopath from Pimpri, has scripted an angry rejoinder in the form of a Marathi movie, Pratisaad. Set for release this Friday in as many as 60 theatres across Maharashtra, Pratisaad, (The Response) has been produced and written by Dr Nikam himself –probably a first by a doctor in Pune.

Hundreds of posters have been pasted at bus stands, along roads, outside hotels, colleges, schools, malls in Pune, Pimpri–Chinchwad, Khadki and Dehu Road areas. The two–hour, five–minute movie will be simultaneously released in seven theatres in Pune city. The cast includes Sandeep Kulkarni of Shwaas and Dombivli Fast fame, Kishore Kadam, Neelam Shirke, Sunil Tawde, Siddheshwar Zadbuke, Anand Alkunte and Neelambari. The film was shot at two locations –at Bharatiya Vidyapeeth Medical College and Aditya Homoeopathy Hospital, Pimprigaon –is being claimed as the first one on homooepathy in the world.

"A few years back, a newspaper first carried a big front page news item casting aspersions on homoeopathy calling it dummy science. I sent a rejoinder to the newspaper and so did several homoeopaths. But only four lines of the rejoinder were carried.

The pattern has been similar. Some people calling themselves experts are giving free interviews to newspapers and magazines trashing homoeopathy," said Dr Nikam.

"Amidst all this firing from all corners, nobody was giving us a hearing. It was a one–side story against the principles of natural justice. I was hurt badly by the bad publicity to homoeopathy.

And that is when I decided to tell the world the story of homoeopathy as it is," said Dr Nikam, amidst greetings on his 53rd birthday on Monday. Dr Nikam had gained fame after he held free medical camps at Nashik Kumbh Mela, at Vaishodevi and also in Naxalinfested areas. He has also written five books on homoeopathy –mostly about his experiences of treating patients and curing them of various ailments.

The movie, says Dr Nikam, not only seeks to create awareness about homoeopathy as a science, but it also lays focus on doctor–patient relationship which is not superficial but compassionate. "Those who say it is a fake science should talk to the hundreds of patients who have recovered fully by popping just those tiny white pills. No surgery, no injections, no bloodshed and no anaesthesia was required. The history of each and every patient cured has been well–documented.

Anybody can cross the check any

time," he asserts.

The movie has only one theme song and no other song and dance. It begins with a press conference being addressed by the doctor where suddenly an inconvenient poser is fired by a caller. "It's a movie meant for one and all. Be it intellectuals or the ordinary man on the street, the movie has a message as promises that there is light at the end of the tunnel –in the form of homoeopathy," says co–producer Dr Suchita Amarsinha Nikam.

The couple however fight shy of revealing the amount they invested.

Family members however said they had raised Rs 50 lakh, some from banks and other from friends and relatives. Directed by Yogesh Gosavi under the banner of Y D G Films, the movie ends with a verbal salvo from Dr Nikam deriding homoeopathy's detractors.

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