First Impressions!!!!

Hello guys,

Before I dive into give my opinion on Sanjivani 2, I would like to introduce myself. I am Anjali. I am not a doctor but have watched medical life closely, thanks to my friends & other doctors I know & have seen. As an observant person, I have seen how doctors operate everytime I have to admit my family member in a hospital. I have been fond of medical dramas & recent medical drama that I have been watching is The Good Doctor. I didn't see Sanjivani 1 or DMG but I know the basic characters of both of these shows. Last Indian medical show I watched was Roshni starring Pooja Gor on Life OK. The show was finite & fairly accurate depiction of medical residents.

So, let's dive in without hanging on introductions.

1. The medical stuff- Show starts with Sid flirting with a girl when he sees a drowning boy. He runs to save the child & there we have a hero in him. When he tries to save the child, he feels the need to perform CPR.

Ok, so this whole CPR thing to establish that a guy is a great doctor was used in The Good Doctor Season 1 episode 1 where Dr. Shawn Murphy performs CPR on a child who was stuck by a glass piece on an airport. Then they used the exact same troop to introduce Dr. Veer Sahay in Krishna Chali London. But for a medical show, they should have adhered to exact guidelines.

Sid found an alcohol bottle & washed the knife with it. He washed the necklace tube with alcohol. Check.

He had no gloves & he didn't wash his hands with alcohol. No check.

He didn't clean the area he was about to operate on. No check again.

He didn't close the wound in the neck to stop the bleeding while he waited for the air ambulance. The child had no temporary bandage around his neck when he carried the child to the ambulance & the hospital.

Sid performed Tracheostomy on the child where he creates a hole in the windpipe of the child to help him breathe. There must have been some time between the emergency call he made & landing of the helicopter & in that duration, he should have covered the child with warm clothes to avoid hypothermia. It's ironic, no one thought of warm blanket or any cloth to cover the child, not even Sid.

An air ambulance should have had some medical equipment to provide smooth respiration, child had none when he was shifted to the hospital.

I understand their main focus is drama but for a medical show, they should consider these small things since they promote the show as a medical show with relation to real life stuff, even with a disclaimer.

2. The unrealistic- Why do all the female doctors in the hospital have their hair open? For anyone who has seen doctors in real life, they would know, in some profession, open hair is a strict No No. Female doctors don't keep their hair open inside the hospital, in the OT or the general ward or the ICU. You don't want your hair falling randomly here & there, which is the fundamental problem with open hair.

Secondly, Sid's attire. A doctor with shirt half open in the hospital premises. Seriously? What happened to the dressing code of the doctors.

Thirdly, the loud chatter in the hospital where patients are around. Doctors talk in a very low tone & they don't involve in such frequent banter as Ishani-Asha. Hospital is not medical college where one has childish loud banter, running & shouting between doctors. Resident doctors have to be really professional in the hospital premises right from the moment they step in. They have their moments of joke & fun but they are never so loud. It's always subtle.

Fourthly, hospital has rules about patients, even govt hospitals have rules- the basic paper work. I know in the show they want to portray Doctors as these heroes & Gods but in reality doctors have restrictions & rules they are governed with & have to follow. There is always a legal team at standby. No doctor, no matter how best he/she is, is supposed to promise about the patient, the way Sid did. Doctors listen a lot & speak very less to their patients because they can't let their pragmatism be clouded by emotional side. There is always a basic paper work that needs to be done to avoid legal issues which Sid completely ignored in being a hero.

Fifthly, whatever Sid was doing by suggesting surgeries to the girl only because he wanted money was strictly against medical ethics. She hadn't asked for advice but he suggested surgery for almost every part of her body for his own reasons. It doesn't matter that he wanted money for a noble cause but the way is absolutely wrong. Ishani was right to point that out but she should have reported it to the management. I don't want Ishani to get flattered by this act of his because as a doctor, it remains wrong, no matter how noble your ulterior motives were. Since, as per Dr. Shashank, Sanjivani runs on donations & govt funding, Sid could show this surgery in the CSR records where donations fund the surgery, instead of resorting to this. If he cares so much about helping poor people, then he can perform genuine surgeries of the rich & he can help the poor people with the money he rightfully earns from those high-profile surgeries.

Sixth, Sid is a third year resident and yet he gets time to go on dates. That is one lucky doctor because doctors I meet are all about how miserable their personal life is because of their hectic schedule in this profession.

3. The realistic- Politics shown in the hospital is real. The clash of morals between hospital management & doctors is real & happens very often. Management is often more concerned about the profits & protocols while Doctors have to balance the medical ethics & management protocols. The usual conflict of emotions & pragmatism of a doctor is real. That's is why most doctors we come across are more pragmatic because that's what they need to survive in such volatile environment for their entire life.

Ishani's euphoria in being handed the coat, ID was realistic. The emotions when she wore the coat & was greeted as a Doctor were real. That's what residents feel on their first day. But her OTT reaction at some things was not. I can't imagine doctors behaving that way with strangers they meet for the first time.

Rohit's character reminds me of Dr. Marcus Andrews in The Good Doctor, who was a great doctor but quite pragmatic when it came to management. I hope Rohit's character is not just restricted to management but is also shown as a doctor in future. His warning to Sid about his ways was to the point. With his pragmatism, he is bound to be seen as the evil guy who is all about money & power but characters like him are quite real in medical world who stick more to the protocols of the hospital more than their medical ethics of not denying treatment to any patient, no matter what. His comments are not really unrealistic because a hospital as big as Sanjivani with staff like that can't run purely on emotions & he won't be one of the guys having different yardsticks for different people unlike Sid( Sid has one for the rich, other for the poor as per his own socialist understanding). The conflict of his character & that of Shashank would be all about battle of pragmatism & emotional senstivity; battle of capitalism & socialism.

Dr. Shashank's answer on who would replace him was realistic as well. The management decisions are often taken with votes & not on the basis of personal biases, especially the ones where they have to decide the post of head of the hospital. The ice between Shashank & Anjali is realistic where professional life has affected personal equations as well.

Final comments-

Overall, Sanjivani is a breath of fresh air. It was a catalyst in many young minds getting attracted to medical field back in the last decade. I hope they do justice to genre of medical dramas by balancing actual medical stuff & the drama & not resort to just any drama for the sake of it. ITV has a record of ruining good shows with their unnecessary melodrama. Medical life in India goes grossly under-represented in entertainment industry & if ever they come up with such stuff, they sugarcoat it with drama that never actually happens in reality. Medical world is all about emotional upheavels, rough days, disappoinents, moments of satisfaction & small successes, pragmatism, professionalism & struggle on all front of life from personal to professional and I hope Sanjivani represents that journey of a doctor's life & not just a normal love story & immature banter between the residents. I hope they portray doctors as normal human beings instead of raising them to the level of God who has it under control all the time or as evil monsters who are all about money & power because most doctors in reality all across the world lie in the middle of these 2 extremes.

I couldn’t help but draw the same parallels as you to The Good Doctor while watching the episode 😊

The Moment Sid took off his shirt I shut my brains off 😔

That very opening clarified what this is gonna be about i.e. a droolbait for teen girls with a pinch of negativity and politics for trp audience.

The only medical show I have ever seen is Scrubs where the title itself is about the interns' and residents' uniforms.

You are spot on with all your points --- starting from the weird first meeting banter ( seriously who talks like that with a stranger !!?? ) to un-bandaged wound to doctors forgetting about something as basic as hypothermia to possibility of hair in between intestines.

The lead pair are gonna be on two extremes in the rule scale eventually the hero emerging out as a being next to the almighty.

But nothing mattered to me and I liked the episode. You ask why ? Because ------ The Moment Sid took off his shirt I shut my brains off 🤢

Hi Arshi finally managed to watch the first episode. It was ott in terms of medical practices shown. I being in this field know the capability and restrictions on the residents. So it wasn't likeable on that front obviously. But the cast especially the senior ones are great I loved the aura of Dr Shashank. But the two leads SC and NK were ott barring a few moments. But I would surely give them some time before I say goodbye to this as well 🤣

Arshi I liked the way you listed out the points and I love reading your post always and I hope you know that 😊 nice to meet you here as well🤗

Thank you for this. While I liked the freshness of the show, I did not like how they portrayed the medical profession as it was very inaccurate and wrong (in the case of Dr Siddhant). Adding onto the list of medical errors, Dr Ishani is not even wearing her stethoscope the right way. And in some pictures and videos I've seen, the doctors are wearing jeans. Jeans are not allowed in any professional setting, including the hospital. I'm a bit disappointed actually. I saw articles that they hired real doctors to teach and guide them, but I felt that didn't show because of all the mistakes they made. Looking at this, I'm not going to expect much medical related stuff from the show as with most other ITV medical shows.

Thanks for a nice post.........

Originally posted by: Cute_Virgo

I couldn’t help but draw the same parallels as you to The Good Doctor while watching the episode 😊

The Good Doctor is a current sensation. It's hard not to compare. They have got the perfect portrayal of aspergers-autistic Shaun which has been approved by many real life autistic people as well.

Then the medical procedures they show are realistic despite few creative liberties they take. Many cases they have showed have happened in real life.

Medical life & the professionalism is portrayed fairly accurately except some subtle drama which happens when doctors spend so much time with each other. Of course they have liberties there as well.

And the characters are great- Gassman, Melendez, Claire, Andrews & so many others.

They actually make you feel part of that world & that's how it should be. Subtle yet impactful, an art most Indian TV shows are yet to master.

Originally posted by: stormborn

The Moment Sid took off his shirt I shut my brains off 😔

That very opening clarified what this is gonna be about i.e. a droolbait for teen girls with a pinch of negativity and politics for trp audience.

The only medical show I have ever seen is Scrubs where the title itself is about the interns' and residents' uniforms.

You are spot on with all your points --- starting from the weird first meeting banter ( seriously who talks like that with a stranger !!?? ) to un-bandaged wound to doctors forgetting about something as basic as hypothermia to possibility of hair in between intestines.

The lead pair are gonna be on two extremes in the rule scale eventually the hero emerging out as a being next to the almighty.

But nothing mattered to me and I liked the episode. You ask why ? Because ------ The Moment Sid took off his shirt I shut my brains off 🤢

😂😂

One can shut the brain off only to some extent but a medical drama should do justice to the genre & focus less on drama. For people, who have watched medical shows from different parts of the world, such portrayal becomes difficult. If medical struggles are portrayed correctly, the love story part will come very naturally between the characters without working explicitly for it.

But it's an Indian show who are shit scared of intellectual shows because they think audience won't watch it & that's why resort to such drama. They keep on ruining things because of this.

Originally posted by: LiveLifeHonest

Thank you for this. While I liked the freshness of the show, I did not like how they portrayed the medical profession as it was very inaccurate and wrong (in the case of Dr Siddhant). Adding onto the list of medical errors, Dr Ishani is not even wearing her stethoscope the right way. And in some pictures and videos I've seen, the doctors are wearing jeans. Jeans are not allowed in any professional setting, including the hospital. I'm a bit disappointed actually. I saw articles that they hired real doctors to teach and guide them, but I felt that didn't show because of all the mistakes they made. Looking at this, I'm not going to expect much medical related stuff from the show as with most other ITV medical shows.

Exactly.

Basic medical inaccuracy in the medical show is not good for the starters.

I doubt if they hired real doctors because then this would have not been happening. Atleast focus on medical accuracy, the real medical world portrayal apart from the drama of banter, romance & what not.

One most important point I totally agree with you is that lack of professionalism here as a doctor. My own sister is also doctor and we both talk about the same thing.