Taare Zameen Par – Aamir Brings Class To Indian Cinema

Before we start with this review we would like to give a super standing ovation to Aamir Khan for making movies which make a difference. In a previous article too (check here) we had highlighted the fact that aamir is one of the very few people in Indian Cinema who shows great responsibility and maturity in the movies that he makes, something which the so called “superstars” shah rukh, salman etc don’t.

Coming back to this movie, it is undoubtedly “the best” movie of the year and even if it doesn’t make as much money as any of the other hits in this year the truth is that money isn’t the only measure of success. A film that can touch your heart, make you cry, play with your emotions and most importantly teach you a life long lesson is far more successful than a top grossing masala movie. In his debut as director aamir once again manages to send out a strong message just like he did with Rang De Basanti and this time it is directed towards the parents who hold in their hands the power to mould the future of the nation.

Taare Zameen Par(TZP) is the story of a 9 year old dyslexic child Ishaan Awasthi(brillantly potrayed by Darsheel Safary ). Ishaan studies in class 3 and has a problem with recognizing characters and numbers, as a result of which he never does well in his studies. This disability of his is never understood by his teachers or parents who accuse him of showing lack of interest in his studies. Ishaan is constantly ridiculed by his parents, classmates and teachers as a result of which he becomes highly rebellious. In an attempt to reform him, his parents send him off to boarding school where his state further deteriorates till aamir khan steps in. Well, we won’t tell you the whole story but the movie gets really interesting after this point.

The film starts off in a wacky style with animated credits and the central character is brought to the fore right from the beginning itself. The first half is dedicated completely towards the central character Ishaan and his family and tells the story of how he lands up in boarding school. Tisca chopra as Maya Awasthi and Vipin Sharma as Nand Kishore Awasthi put in good performances as Ishaan’s parents. Aamir uses the first half to highlight the disability of the central character and his state of mind. Being constantly ridiculed by your peers is tough for a person at any age but is crushing for a 9 year old child. Perhaps, aamir over does the first half a little bit as it tends to get a little boring towards the end. A word of caution here for those people who tend to make early judgements, if you walk out after the interval you’ll make the biggest mistake of your life and would do a disservice to the people by giving them your wrong opinion of the movie.

Aamir as an actor comes in only in the second half of the movie and carries it forward from there with great elegance and charisma. Sorry, shahrukh but six pack abs are not essential to make a movie a hit, good acting in a movie with a strong script is what makes a movie experience memorable. The 2^nd half of the movie is the one that actually carries the message of the film. The film depicts how India has for decades had, an imperfect education system where creative freedom and the ability to think differently was punished and rote learning was encouraged. These flaws are slowly being removed with many good schools adopting alternative curriculum for children till the age of 10.

In TMZ Ishaan is a dyslexic child who has problems in reading and writing but has free spirit and a highly creative and innovative mind. Creativity is the seed of innovation and the some of the most successful inventors of all time like edison, einstein, da vinci and many more were dyslexic. So the most important message that the film gives out is that let children be children. Don’t take away their childhood because you want to prepare them for the rat race of life, don’t kill your childs creativity and don’t assume that he is a failure if he doesn’t score a high percentage in exams. Perfection is not the goal, living your life in your way is. Thus, although the movie is all about children it actually carries a strong message for the parents.

Wow, isn’t that a lot of knowledge to get after watching a 3 hour movie. If you’ve reached here then it’s certain that you are gonna catch this flick and if you just jumped here to get our last word, then rest assure that TZP is a must watch. It’s the first movie to get a 5 star rating on DelhiPlanet and will probably be the only one in a long time to come. So head out and catch this flick, it’ll surely touch your heart and transport you back to your childhood days.