Taare..

A lot has already been said and written about Aamir Khan's directorial debut film 'Taare Zameen Par'. I first saw the movie couple of weeks ago and absolutely loved it. Unlike most of the people around me, I didn't cry my heart out while watching it. But I did get emotional in some of the scenes. I wouldn't call the movie perfect either, though we all know about Aamir's penchant for perfection. Also, the film is definitely not a children's film just because the main protagonist is a 9-year old boy Ishaan. The film is aimed more at parents or parents-to-be or adults in general. There are some elements which do appeal to children; like animated sequence of Ishaan's way of finding 9*3=3 or the song bum-bum bhole.

Also, in my opinion it is not a film about dyslexic kids or kids suffering from any other physical or mental disabilities. The film is about parents' over-expectations from their kids; about every parent wanting his/her child to be an all-rounder, about the aspirations and dreams of the child being drowned somewhere in the process, about our education system's lack of capability in dealing with varied needs of children having different abilities, about academic marks/grades being the only yardstick in our society for measuring a child's abilities. Ishaan being dyslexic is just for added impact; although I would have found the movie more realistic if Ishaan would have just been a child with less inclination towards studies. But then, he would have received less sympathies from people that way.

Some things I specifically liked about the film were breaking of some Bollywood stereotypes - like showing Ishaan's elder brother Yohaan as understanding & sympathetic towards Ishaan in spite of being an 'achiever', not showing any romantic angle between Nikumbh and the young lady whom he often confided in (this is something I liked in 'Chak de India' also) , of not showing any miracles unlike run-of-the-mill Bollywood films. Ishaan already had a talent for painting, so his winning the painting competition did not seem miraculous (again, I would have preferred it if he had been second instead of a winner); improvement in his reading & writing abilities did not happen overnight but gradually and with lot of practice and patience.

The film did have its weaknesses too. For one, there were too many songs. Although all the songs were great & had very good lyrics, it was not necessary to have all of them in the film (particularly 'Bum bum bhole' & 'Jame raho'), the painting competition scene rambled a bit too long and Aamir did go overboard with the character of Ishaan's father. But in spite of these, the film managed to make us all do some amount of soul-searching and relating to the movie in some way or the other. I could see Aamir's trademark attention to details in the scene where he arrives at Ishaan's parents' home in Mumbai in a cab sitting in the front seat (and NOT the rear seat). But the best part was the effortless chemistry between Aamir & Darsheel. My favorite scene in the film was when Ishaan looks at his portrait by Nikumbh sir in the painting competition and the glances they exchange without saying a word - masterpiece!

Picture courtesy: http://dvdstore.erosentertainment.com/