Taare Zameen Par - A review

Cinema produced in India can generally be classified into the following categories: Entertaining, Watchable, Bad, Thrash, I want my money back.

Most movies that I have been forced to watch this year (1st day 1 show no less) can be bracketed into the latter few categories. It often pains me when I realize that people spend large amounts of money to film in exotic locations, create elaborate sets, hire some of the supposedly biggest names in the industry and yet come out with movies that I would happily relegate into the dustbin were it a piece of paper.

However there is one movie that I had the pleasure of watching that comes into a category that the Hindi film industry has almost forgotten about. It is called the good movie category. The type of movie that people who end up spending their hard earned movie deserve to watch.

Taare Zameen Par is veteran actor Amir Khan's directorial debut. Amir Khan is one of the few actors in the Hindi film industry whose films regularly check into the good movie category. Unfortunately his films are few and far between. His last venture Fanaa a pathetic venture starring Kajol made people wonder if he could ever capture the cinematic magic of the movie Lagaan again.

Happily he manages to do so with Taare Zameen Par. The movie has all the hallmarks of a great movie. It makes entertains you, makes you laugh, cry and at the same time makes you think... not just about the social issue handled so wonderfully in the movie, but also about the movie itself.

I headed into the theatre thinking it was a kids movie. I bought tickets without knowing anything about it. I had read no reviews nor had I heard any of its songs. I had no idea on what to expect from it.

The first half of the movie is extremely entertaining with lots of "I did that" moments as we follow the misadventures of the adorable Darsheel Safary in primary school. Be it getting taunted by your classmates about not getting test papers signed, or getting into fights, or to being told to stand outside class - there is something that everyone can relate to from their own lives.

Our protagonist - Darsheel Safary or Ishan as he is known in the film is a brat - a complete opposite to his perfect brother who is a topper and tennis player). He does whatever he feels like and has a tendency to lapse into a world of his own and ignore everything that happens around him. He has an unique perspective about the world and is constantly pulled up for being a misfit in a conformist world. He is a wonderful artist and uses his wonderful imagination to its fullest, but other than his brother and mother finds few other admirers. His family loves him dearly but are often left wondering what they can do to with him.

Ishan's many misadventures that include walking out of school and loafing around the whole day end up with his over-achieving father packing him off to boarding school to get disciplined.

However boarding school transforms the carefree brat into a recluse. The rigors of boarding school life causes him to withdraw completely into a shell. He struggles to cope with the loneliness thrust upon him and misses the love of his mother who despite his many transgressions was the one person who stood up for him. Ishan's condition goes from bad to worse and he becomes withdrawn ... unable to express his despair to anyone around him. Slowly we see a boy whose spirit has been broken. A boy who looks like he has nothing more to look forward to from life.

However just when things look their darkest for Ishan, along comes temporary art teacher Mr. Ram Shankar Nikumbh. Ram Shankar is refereshingly different from the other teachers in the school. He does not tell his students what to do .. rather he encourages them to think outside the box and bring out their inner artist from within. All his students love his style of teaching and have a blast in his classes. All except Ishan who does nothing but stare blankly. Stumped by his behavior Ram Shankar investigates and discovers that Ishan is dyslexic. As somone who was dyslexic himself, he takes it upon himself to help Ishan.

Taare Zameen par is an emotional rollercoaster. Grown men wept unashamedly as Ram Shankar manages to bring Ishan out of his shell to help him regain his shattered self-image.

I would gladly go out on a limb to state that this movie is possibly one of the best movies I have ever seen. Amir Khan, Darsheel Safary and Tisca Chopra (Ishan's mother) deserve to be felicated for a fantastic performance.

The music of the movie suits the movie to a tee. There are a couple of tracks that stand out (Maa and the title track). The speical effects in the movie are one of the best I have seen in a hindi movie.