Dr Rukhmabai steals ’first’ lady doc’s thunder

High on his National Award win, actor-director Anant Mahadevan waits to receive a copy of India's first practicing lady doctor's biography in Marathi before he starts work on her biopic

Dr Rukhmabai steals 'first' lady doc's thunder

High on his National Award win, actor-director Anant Mahadevan waits to receive a copy of India's first practicing lady doctor's biography in Marathi before he starts work on her biopic

Actor-director Anant Mahadevan whose acclaimed Marathi biopic Mee Sindhutai Sapkal won four National Awards this month was party to quite a revelation recently. The man who had planned to make a film on the life of India's first lady doctor Anandi Gopal Joshi (see pic above) who died in 1887 at the age of 21, has changed his mind. "While researching, I realised that Anandi Joshi wasn't India's first female doctor. She was the first Indian woman to qualify as a doctor but she never practised medicine. The honour is enjoyed by the little-known Dr Rukhmabai who travelled to London to study medicine, and became a qualified doctor in 1894," says Mahadevan over the phone from Spain where he is screening Mee Sindhutai Sapkal.

Born in Pune in an orthodox Brahmin family, Joshi when she was nine years old was married to a widower 20 years her senior. Her husband, a progressive postal clerk supported her dream after she lost her son due to the unavailability of medical care.u00a0 Although Mahadevan has already gathered a fair bit of data on Dr Rukhmabai, he is now waiting for that one link that will make the saga comprehensive. The director who has been frantically searching for a copy of the doctor's biography in Marathi, decided to seek Amazon's (website that sells books) help in acquiring a copy of the little-know book. "Amazon located a second-hand copy for me, and they've couriered it. I am waiting to lay my hands on it so that I can begin planning the film," he says.

Meanwhile, he's busy with another Hindi biopic that has Vinay Pathak in the lead. Gour Hari Dastaan is the story of Gour Hari Das, a freedom fighter. "When he set out to help his son acquire admission into college with the help of his freedom fighter certificate, he ran into red-tapism. He finally got his son admitted after a 30-year struggle. 'Fighting the Britishers was easier,'" Mahadevan says. Hailing from Kerala, the filmmaker shares his plans behind what will be his first Malayalam film, Once Upon A Time In Kerala. "It's about a despotic king from the British Raj. I've already approached Mohan Lal for the part...Would I be going back to my roots with the film? No. I think I'm more Maharashtrian than any filmmaker in Mumbai. Mee Sindhutai.. proves it."