OEDIPUS COMPLEX - PUNARJANM (REINCARNATION) AND SURROGATE MOTHER

Oedipus Complex-Punarjanm (Reincarnation)

and Surrogate Mother

    

Oedipus Rex was a King of Thebes in Greek Mythology. Oedipus means swollen foot. When Oedipus was born both his ankles were pinned together and thus the name originated. He had a hatred for his father King Laius and had a lustful emotion towards his mother. After the death of his father, in fact, unwittingly Oedipus Rex kills his father, and then he marries his mother Jocasta, and has four children out of that wedlock. His mother was unaware of the relationship as Oedipus Rex was out of the kingdom and returned after many years. When his mother came to know about his original relationship with him she committed suicide. However, King Oedipus Rex continued to rule his kingdom until his death.

Punarjanm or Reincarnation. After death, the soul takes a rebirth in another being. Punarjanmam is a 1972 Malayalam film based on a true story from the case diary of Dr. A.T. Kovoor. Dr. Abraham Thomas Kovoor (April 10, 1898 – September 18, 1978) was born in Thiruvalla in Kerala and practiced his crusade against parapsychology and black magic in Sri Lanka. Professor A.T. Kovoor spends most of his life in the Island country of Sri Lanka. Dr. A.T. Kovoor is an Indian professor and rationalist who gained prominence after retirement for his campaign to expose frauds in various Indian ”God-Men” and paranormal phenomena.

                                           

                                

He practiced hypnotherapy and applied psychology. The famous top-grosser Hindi Film “PK", a satire on Gods and Politics, is reportedly inspired by some of his case studies.


The famous English author Martin Buckley in his work “An Indian Odyssey” described Sri Lanka as a heavenly paradise. The beautiful emerald island landscape almost resembles God's Own Country, Kerala.

Let me share with you a poetry titbit about “I remember” here -

“I remember the fragrance of you in the morning
Dew on the petals of a new red rose
I remember your gentle reminder time
And I remember the Dragonfly dancing over our head
I remember she sang while she led us to heaven.”

PUNARJANMAM  -  Malayalam Movie

 

The 1972 Malayalam film “Punarjanmam” produced by M.O. Joseph under his “Manjilas” banner handles the issue of the Oedipus Complex. The film is directed by Sethumadhavan, who had also directed the original Malayalam version of “Chattakkari” and its Hindi Remake “Julie".


Punarjanmam Or Punarjanm, Aravindan, Or Arvind, all Indian languages are the derivations of Sanskrit.

 

 

 
The mallu film Punarjanmam is one of its kind Psychic Thriller in the history of Indian cinema. It stars Prem Nazir as Professor Aravindan and Jayabharati as his college student Radha. The college professor Aravindan falls in love with his student Radha and vice versa. Aravindan lost his dad at a young age and lost his mother six months back. He is a lonely person in this world. The only relationship that existed was the umbilical cord one. He was so much in love with his mother. After being turned on by Radha he proposes to her in marriage and Radha’s dad finally agrees to the relationship of Radha and Aravindan. They get married but Professor Aravindan has an Oedipus complex to handle. Whenever they make love he sees his mother in his wife and is unable to satiate sex with her and they remain childless. One night Radha finds out that he is making love to the young house-maid but is a failure in bed with Radha. Radha’s dad who is waiting to play with his grandchildren gets disappointed and when he comes to know about Aravindan’s problem, he takes him to Dr. A.T. Kovoor. Dr. Kovoor hypnotizes Aravindan and gets to know his history. Dr. Kovoor with the cooperation of Radha creates various seductive situations and in the climax gets rid of Aravindan’s Oedipus complex. The film ends with Radha’s dad happily playing with her child and both Aravindan and Radha make a happy couple and lead a happy married life.

 

The film was remade into many other Indian languages. The Tamil remake was “Marupiravi” starring Muthuraman and Manjula.


Bharatiya Yuiktivadi Sangam declared a National Award called the A.T. Kovoor Award for the secular artist. The most versatile Indian Actor “Kamal Hassan” was the first recipient of Kovoor Award in acknowledgment of his humanist activities and secular life.

Oedipus complex, the concept was introduced by the famous psychiatrist Sigmund Freud in his Interpretation of Dreams (1899). Freud was the founding father of psychoanalysis, a method for treating psychic patients. It is also a theory that explains human behavior. Psychoanalysis is often known as the talking cure. Freud would encourage his patients to talk freely (on his famous couch) regarding their symptoms and to describe exactly what was on their minds.

Sigmund Freud was born in Vienna and was a Neuropathologist. Freud went on to influence the future direction of psychology as a whole.


The Most controversial part of Freud’s theory was psychosexual development and the Oedipus complex.

Surrogate Mother

The word surrogate means “Substitute”.   A surrogate mother is a woman who bears a child on behalf of another woman, either from her own egg fertilized by the other woman’s partner, or from the implantation in her womb of a fertilized egg from the other woman.

 

Featured snippet from the web India IVF Services Market was valued at USD 1,092.3 Million in 2024 and is expected to reach USD 5,051.3 Million by 2033, at a CAGR of 16.23% during the forecast period 2024 – 2033. In Vitro Fertilization, or IVF, is a medical procedure that offers hope to couples struggling with infertility. 

 
Conservative estimates show that more than 25,000 children are now being born through surrogates in India every year in an industry worth $2 billion. Domestic demand is increasing, but as fertility levels drop elsewhere, at least 50% of these are "commissioned" by overseas, mainly western, couples.

The Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021 prohibits commercial surrogacy. Only altruistic arrangements where women acting as surrogates do not receive any monetary remuneration or compensation are allowed. 

Surrogacy coming of age

The idea of ”Surrogate Mother” has come of age.  More and more people are opting for surrogacy instead of going for adoption.

The famous Indian surrogate child is Bollywood icon, Shahrukh Khan’s second son AbRam. Shahrukh Khan and Gauri have Aryan and Suhana two normal children. Of late they wanted another baby but could not succeed. The couple made up their mind and decided to go for a surrogate mother. They approached the same Doctor whom Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao consulted for their son Azad. It was given to understand that Baby AbRam’s surrogate mother is a UK national and she left India immediately after AbRam was born. He was weighing only 1.5 Kg at the time of birth. He was shifted from suburban Nanavati Hospital to Breach Candy Hospital, Mumbai for personal care with mother Gauri to give company all the time. Due to care and parental love baby AbRam is now a healthy and cute boy.

Though there are legal, physical, and emotional problems involved in Surrogate Mothers in the modern world, many are going ahead with the idea of surrogacy.

Is Oedipus a Villain …?

The first paragraph of this blog post portrays Oedipus as a Villain. In fact, the baby Oedipus after binding his ankles together was abandoned by King Liaus and Queen Jacosta in the Mount Cithaeron after an Oracle told them that his son would slay King Liaus. The baby was found by a shepherd in Mt. Cithaeron who felt pity on him and gifted him to a childless King Polybus of Corinth. The King Polybus and his Queen brought him up as their own child. In early manhood, Oedipus visited Delphi and upon learning that he was fated to kill his father and to marry his mother, he resolved never to return to Corinth. Delphi was the shrine of Apollo and the site of the famous Oracle, whose often inscrutable advice was sought down through historical times.

 

 

Traveling towards Thebes a quarrel happens between King Liaus and Oedipus and Oedipus kills unwittingly his real father King Liaus. Continuing on his way he found Thebes plagued by Sphinx and he solves the riddle of Sphinx and inherits the kingdom of Thebes and marries the Queen Jacosta and had four children out of the wedlock. Queen Jacosta commits suicide after coming to know that Oedipus is her own son.

Oedipus when came to know about his double sins (killing his father and marrying his mother) blinded himself for the rest of his life.

 

 

All this happened as a comedy of errors… fate and cruel destiny.


The writer recalls a South Korean film called “The Surrogate Woman” released in India in 1987. The film won many international awards and was a commercial blockbuster.


Like cosmetic beauty is next to natural beauty, the surrogate mother is the closest thing that can happen to a childless couple.