Philadelphia

Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington starrer Philadelphia was apparently the true story of an attorney who sued the world's largest law firm for firing him because he had AIDS, despite the filmmakers originally claiming it to be "fictional". (Reuters: Lawyer says "Philadelphia" is true story). Now the film has the following message at the end credits: "This motion picture was inspired in part by Geoffrey Bowers’ AIDS discrimination lawsuit, the courage and love of the Angius family and the struggles of the many others who, along with their loved ones, have experienced discrimination because of AIDS."

Revathy adapted it in Hindi as Phir Milenge (We Will Meet Again), with Shilpa Shetty and Salman Khan in the lead. In the Indian version, though, Shilpa Shetty's character does not suffer from AIDS, and stays healthy till the end of the film. The emphasis was that being HIV positive does not mean AIDS.

And then last November-December, in a Kerala society that boasts of being "educated" and "cultured", Five HIV-positive children were expelled from a school after protests from parents of other children. Their future of those students is still hanging in uncertainty, and I'm not sure if they were allowed to appear for the annual examinations this March..

(Around the same time, a group of members of the neighbourhood made a big scene against cremating the dead body of a person died of AIDS. Also in Kerala.)

When do we grow up as a society?

[Image: Phir Milenge, from Times Online, UK]