Under the Radar Video of the Week #1

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  Each week sees literally hundreds of new releases on DVD – everything from recent movie blockbusters and hit TV shows on down to classic movies, vintage boob-tube chestnuts, cult favorites and obscure documentaries.

Ubiquitous advertising and word-of-mouth hype the most high-profile DVDs. But the oddball releases that fly under the radar are often the most fun. Each week, we’ll pore over those bottom-of-the-list releases and spotlight one in the “Under-the-Radar Video Release of the Week.”

We’ll start with an example from the week of Jan 11. It’s:

“I’m a Schizophrenic and So Am I.” Sounds like a really tasteless and politically incorrect T-shirt logo. But this low-budget indie made by Pittsburgh, PA., physician Dr. Ravi Godse purports to be a comedy mystery with some serious issues on its mind. It focuses on cocky, self-assured character named Dr. Ravi, who makes one bad diagnosis and spends the rest of the movie anguishing over his own cultural identity and wrestling with an increasingly tangled courtroom case.

Apparently, the real Dr. Ravi is something of a ham who juggles his internal medicine practice with a burning desire to be an actor/filmmaker. He’s written a novel that’s reportedly a best-seller in India, and in 2006 he wrote, directed, produced and starred in another meta-fiction based on his own life, titled “Dr. Ravi & Mr. Hyde.”

Not rated. 81 minutes. Retail $19.99. Celebrity Video Distribution.

– Dennis King