The film is about a little boy, who’s a little
different from all the other little boys. Only the rest of the
world can’t see his troubles, terming them “attitude” problems,
or laziness. Even his parents, especially his dad (Vipin Sharma)
won’t sympathize, packing him off to boarding school where “they’ve
tamed wilder horses”.
Dyslexia is little recognized,
I’d imagine, in an atmosphere where competition is severe, and
tomorrow’s success depends on high scores in class today. We
all must be toppers, so where is the space for little buck-toothed
Ishaan? Ishaan’s elder brother Yohan (Sachet Engineer) is your
average super-accomplished kid, excelling in studies and sports.
Thus his parents are doubly disappointed in Ishaan’s red-inked
class work, oft-repeated mistakes, and frequent complaints from
school. Ishaan is lost in an internal world of misery, until
an astute and empathetic teacher Ram Shankar Nikumbh (Aamir
Khan) recognizes the symptoms and helps him out.
The film’s story is simple; it’s
about Ishaan and Nikumbh - one helping the other. The film starts
off depicting Ishaan’ problems in day-to-day life, and moves
slowly – one wished for crisper editing. While the subject of
the story would require a slower pace, and the need to delve
into details, smarter editing might have prevented the movie
dragging in the beginning. The film features some very interesting
graphics and animation sequences; the letters which Ishaan claims
are dancing, “actually” dance off the screen, the spiders that
Ishaan imagines his books to be actually crawl out to threaten
Ishaan. We get a glimpse into Ishaan’s creativity, by seeing
the adventures in his mind’s eye, and his talent in choosing
bright, vibrant colors in his artwork is depicted by moving,
swishing colors.
Safary is a very good actor for his
age, so I found Ishaan’s character believable, and I felt for
him. Aamir’s role as Nikumbh starts pretty much after the interval,
and although it was finely done, I found Nikumbh a little too
smug in his righteousness. Aamir portrays Nikumbh with a self-consciousness
– the self-consciousness of a person who knows how “good” he
is being, and that takes away some of the emotional connection
for me. I mean, I know he’s a good guy and all, and he’s the
only one who’s really helping Ishaan. But taken just by himself,
and without the sympathetic support from Darsheel’s character
I’m not sure I felt as much for Nikumbh – he was too surely
seated on his moral high horse. Still, he’s managed some heart-warming
scenes with little Darsheel – scenes which left me mopping my
eyes.
Ishaan’s parents’ story wasn’t
every well developed – they kind of disappeared after Ishaan
went off to boarding school, only reappearing as uncaring foils
to Nikumbh’s super-sensitive soul. Seemed a little contrived
in Nikumbh’s favor. Ishaan’s dad is depicted as a stick-in-the-mud
authoritarian, and in the face of Nikumbh’s persuasion, very
resistant to the idea of Ishaan’s being dyslexic, viewing it
as akin to retardation.
Vipin Sharma as Awasthi appears angry and a little over the
top, and anal, which he is, I suppose. He isn’t very subtle,
that’s for sure. His mother Maya (Tisca Chopra), acts pretty
well. Still, she who feels the most for him, lets him be carted
away to boarding-school, which I found hard to swallow, since
her character appears to care very much. Would even reasonably
competent parents sit back complacently even after knowledge
of a possible condition like dyslexia?
Taare Zameen Par features some
very nice songs (Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy) which are beautifully worded
(Prasoon Joshi). For a first film, Aamir Khan directs well,
although he could have tightened the pace a bit. The dialogues
are apt; children can be fairly amused by all the talk among
the kids in the film.
There are very few ‘desi’ movies tailored to kiddies’ audiences,
and even fewer still which deal with topics like dyslexia. Just
by that factor alone, TZP earns a few brownie points. It would
have earned more had it been a little more subtle, and sophisticated.
So, although I’m not absolutely floored by it, it’s still a
good film. And it has it’s heart in the right place. It’s earnest,
and it tries to do the right thing – a ‘weepie’ worth the watch.
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