Taare Zameen Par (2007)

There cannot be a perfect culmination to my long Christmas break then watching Taare Zameen Par (TZP) in the theatre. Before I begin talking about the movie itself, I must first congratulate Aamir Khan who has taken a grave risk (as always) by opting to produce, direct and act in what seems to be a complete non-commercial storyline. In other words, to a lay man this project would have looked good in a book or a short story somewhere in a children’s magazine. But it only proves that Aamir is (who else?) the only commercial actor in the Hindi film industry in a class of his own who believes in making meaningful cinema — one you can easily relate yourself with.

The movie bought back some old memories of my childhood. The days when I would be woken up by my mom and was helped to prepare my school bag and so on. The lunch box and the homework and most importantly the mathematics class which I hated so much (I am still hating maths no doubt). Most importantly it reminded me of some classmates who were “duffer and idiots” just like the protaganist from the movie and I cannot help but think if they were suffering from a similar situation that went unnoticed. It’s a movie that proves that every child is indeed special (that’s the tagline) and that we must find that speciality in our children rather then pushing them into a rat race.

Before you watch the movie it is necessary that you DO NOT know anything about a disorder called Dyslexia. I am serious! and I am also aghast at how the media played out this story about a kid suffering from this disorder even before the movie was released. The entire fun and the tribulations of the kid is lost when you preempt him to be suffering from something. I realised that his actions in the first half of the movie were making sense to me and the “suspense” of knowing it all was lost forever. This was my personal experience because I had prior knowledge of the symptoms of Dyslexia to some extent. Anyway, I was talking about Ishaan Awasthi (Darsheel Safary), the hero of the movie, the boy-next-door, bucked teeth 8 year old who has little interest in what is being taught in school but loves to dream and paint all day apart from the little fishes in the school gutter. Along the way he meets Ram Kumar Nikumbh (Aamir Khan), the over zealous lover of children who notices something unusual in the young boy and grooms him to achieve the unachievable.

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s music is soothing and pretty much childish if I may say so. When the songs are used at specific portions of the movie it creates an even bigger effect around like the title song which is the icing on the cake. Talking about which, there are some parts which you cannot experience without a lump in your throat at all. Just to inform you that the end credit titles carry short snippets of kids from across the region that you must wait till the end to see it. It’s a great experience in itself — kids are playing, some are bathing, some are doing their own funny little tricks that make you feel cuddly and cute and lovable while the title songs plays in the background. TZP is a must watch movie. One which deals with the basic facets of children’s lives and one which I believe is made with a lot of conviction and truth. This one is for the young crowd of India and the parents of course who might find it necessary to understand this fairly old brain related disorder.

Important Notice – This is a movie for the children and NOT a children’s movie and it’s highly imperative that parents take note of this difference before taking their kids to the cinema halls. The storyline appeals more to the parents then the kids and they may find it boring to watch.