Taare Zameen Par: Beyond the Beaten Track of Stars...
by Divvy Kant Upadhyay
December 28, 2007
"Pattri se hat kar bahut kam log soch paate hain…" says Aamir Khan in one of the scenes in the movie defending 9 year old dyslexic Ishaan. (A loose literal tranlation can be 'Very few people are able to think off the beaten track').
Aamir, who has directed and produced this movie, apart from acting in it, has proved that he is certainly one among those few people. Interestingly, Aamir appears only after the intermission, the first half of the film entirely being shouldered by young Darsheel and his antics.
The stars have transcended the skies and come down to earth. The Indian film industry, thanks to Amol Gupte, his wife Deepa Bhatia, Aamir Khan and their team of 'Taare Zameen Par' have superbly crafted and enacted a spectacularly sensible and thought-provoking flick.
In Namma Mangaluru a few days ago, there was a lot of confusion among regular movie-goers as to whether the movie will be screened in the city or not. A tiff between the distributors and multiplex owners had lad to the cancellation of the movie-screening at multiplexes.
However, just then an announcement in the local Kannada paper of the movie being screened in New Chitra Talkies came to my rescue. For a movie buff like me, it had been ages since I entered one of the antique, old, single-screen theatres of Mangalore.
And then I got in Rs 40 what I haven't got spending thousands at the multiplexes in the past few years.
I am a few days away from some very important exams of my life and thus I initially decided to skip the movie. Like all very normal and concerned parents, my parents too would have got worried if they came to know their son was squandering away his precious time in the theatres.
But only for the naughtiness in the eyes of the child protagonist of the movie, I had to do otherwise. The promos of the movie were way too appealing and reminded me of my childhood, I wondered if I ever got a chance to be naughty. Today I know I am only worse!
The movie is based on a 9-year-old child, Ishaan Awasthi, which is brilliantly portrayed by child actor Darsheel Safary. In the movie Ishaan suffers from dyslexia (a learning disorder marked by severe difficulty in recognizing and understanding written language, leading to spelling and writing problems. It is not caused by low intelligence or brain damage).
Tired of his repeated failures at primary school, Ishaan's parents fail to detect his slower learning capacities and pack off their son to a boarding School so that his attitude could be corrected, in order to make him fit to face the real world which is result oriented and full of competition.
The role of the parents has been very realistically portrayed by Vipin Sharma as Mr Awasthi, the father and Tisca Chopra as Mrs Awasthi, the mother. The contrasting lives of Ishaan's elder brother (played by Sachet Engineer), a talented go–getter and that of Ishaan, are depicted with a touch of humour and sensitivity as the movie progresses.
Once left at the boarding school, Ishaan goes into his shell and allows depression to destroy whatever little self-confidence was left in him till he meets his new arts/painting teacher- a role played by 'perfectionist' Aamir Khan who is at his usual best.
Aamir Khan as Mr Ram, who also teaches at Tulip - a school for special children - helps bolster Ishaan's lost self-confidence and even informs his class that geniuses in their own ways like Thomas Alva Edison, Leonardo Da Vinci, Albert Einstein and even our very own Junior B - Abhishek Bachchan had gone through difficult phases in their childhood, grappling with learning and writing. Aamir's efforts help Ishaan to take the road to discover himself and improve his learning skills.
Freedom to think, freedom to learn is what TZP advocates, contrary to the cocktail of strict discipline, hard work and mugging attitude that children of today are high on, while taking part in the mad blind race for success in this world.
The film evokes very strong emotive reactions, forcing tears to roll down many times during the movie, seeing the young Ishaan unable to express himself, while everyone around him continues to fail to understand him.
Watch out for the scene when he watches his family leave him at the boarding school or earlier when he apologizes to his father for being naughty. It's tough not to shed a tear !
The headlines of an English news channel a week ago said that "Perhaps Taare Zameen Par has the Oscars written all over it." The Oscars might be an internationally recognized yardstick, but a common man who sees Taare Zameen Par, realizes that it's a winner all the way.
It certainly would not be a bad idea to make the movie tax-free and in fact it could be screened for all school children and teachers to see in India and abroad. It's a shame to see people burn posters of this movie in Gujarat even before watching it. Just because of a personal viewpoint of Aamir khan over the Narmada issue, people are on the roads burning posters and demanding a ban on the the film. It makes me shudder in fear, trying to think if these senseless protesters are the same kind of people who have voted in the Gujarat's election. Peoples' right to express their opinion is being attacked so vehemently in India these days; it's just shocking. It makes me wonder if these 'headless chicken' were born to anemic mothers (explained below !).
A sense of freedom can be learnt from the movie. A sense of optimism descends upon you. The movie is not just about children with special needs or students with slower learning abilities. It is about every parent, teacher and child learning to have faith in the age-old saying, that rather than seeing difficulty in opportunity, one must see opportunity in difficulty.
The movie carries a message about unfortunate children, about autistic children, about children who suffer from genetic disorders like Down's syndrome. Today's medical science allows us to detect some of these disorders early in foetal life and advise termination of pregnancy. Awareness is being spread about the possible harmful consequences in consanguineous marriages. Much more is being done.
Any child, who is cared for, is fortunate. I am a fortunate child of India. I am fortunate, because I am not one of those millions of homeless children who live on the roads, pavements and villages of India. Those who are perhaps not able to get one proper meal a day, those who perhaps die out of diarrhoeoa or respiratory infections before their third or fifth birthday, or those who were born to anaemic and malnourished mothers who are plenty in number in rural India. Research indicates that perhaps low iron or reduced levels of haemoglobin in the mother's blood leads to improper brain development of the foetus that could lead to low IQ levels in children and thus low productivity of the nation.
Would we want such a nation? Maybe this movie is a means of communication to tell us to care for children. Because in them lies the vital future of our fragile nation, perhaps our race.
A few months ago, former president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam asked the students at a science congress, "What do you want to be remembered for?" Today I have somewhat arrived at an answer. I want to be remembered as a fortunate child who was loved, blessed and brilliantly brought up by his parents and teachers, a child who has the power to dream and one who wants to do something productive for his motherland.
Just as I end this, I get the good news that the tiff is over and even the multiplexes in Mangalore will screen the movie. The better news is my parents watched the movie too and loved it.
And the good news...
Divvy Kant Upadhyay
A Lil' Bit of 'Divvy'-ation...