This Documentary film follows 12-year-old Akrit Jaswal as he researches cures for cancer in his Delhi laboratory, which was set up by his proud parents. We see him jetting to the UK to meet top British scientists, who give their verdicts on the young genius, as well as psychologists who assess the effects these achievements could be having on his childhood.
Akrit comes from a small village in northern India. He is thought to have an IQ higher than Einstein; at three, he was reciting Shakespeare. At seven, dressed in surgical garb that swamped his tiny frame, the precocious youngster performed his first surgical operation, declaring, “Today, I am very much happy to have an opportunity to serve the poor community.”
This real-life Dexter became obsessed with medicine at an early age. He memorised medical books and witnessed surgeries, experimenting on animals at home in Himachal Predesh. “We went to the poultry farm, bought a live chicken, he dissected it, and after, we ate it for dinner,” says his mother, Raksha Kumari Jaswal. As word of the young prodigy spread, villagers flocked to their home, seeking advice or just a glimpse of the boy. He was idolised and revered as a god, much to his discomfort. But Akrit did begin to treat some of the hordes who gathered on his doorstep.. He consulted his textbooks, discussed the cases with established doctors and prescribed medicine for more than a thousand people – including a man suffering from a brain disorder.
Akrit first gained celebrity status at the age of seven, when he successfully performed an operation to separate the fused fingers of a girl a year older than him. He taught students ten years his senior and became India?s youngest-ever Indian university student.
His father, Jaswal, believes he possesses the mind of a master surgeon. Jaswal encouraged him and spent years badgering the local authorities to give his son the opportunities he deserved. Although he was maligned by the Indian media for isolating his son from other children, living his failed medical dreams through Akrit and parading him before television and news crews, Jaswal dismissed his critics as “fools.”
However, Akrit?s progress came at a price: frustrated with the perceived lack of support for his gifted son, Akrit?s father became depressed and left the family home last year, telling him not to get in touch until Akrit had found a cure for cancer. Adored by his self-sacrificing mother and treated as a genius, Akrit has no doubt he will do this.
But is Akrit just a big fish in a small pond? Word of Akrit?s achievements has spread, and our filmmakers are present when he is invited to spend two weeks at Imperial College, London. There he will meet potential mentors and IQ experts, who will test his skills and introduce him to the reality of lab work.
Once in the UK, Akrit is introduced to research biologist Dr Mustafa Diamgoz and his colleague, consultant Anup Patel. They are astounded by Akrit?s knowledge and amused by his impudence. Akrit is falling over himself to impress; Mustafa suspects that the boy misses the influence of his father, and is used to never being contradicted.
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