The Taare Zameen Par review

I loved the film. It’s emotional and tugs at everyone’s heartstrings.

An everyday story, which everyone can relate to.Ishan Awasthi is a dyslexic youngster who spells poorly, can’t read clearly and is failing in the third standard when his father packs him off to boarding school where a progressive teacher diagnoses his problem and brings out his strengths and restores his self-confidence and sorts his problem.

Yes, that’s the story of the film…. But the film is more than the story per se. The film belongs to the performances of Aamir as the ultra-sensitive art teacher who was dyslexic himself and sees his own image in the child. It belongs to Tisca Chopra’s portrayal of the mother who loves her child and is exasperated with him in equal measure.

However, more than anything, it belongs to Darsheel Safary as Ishan, who silently conveys turmoil, glee, wonder, anger and carries the film on the strength of his performance alone.

The film also belongs to Shankar Ehsaan Loy’s amazing music which in my view raises the emotional content of the movie to a huge extent. I thought it was brilliant, and not because I am a father… but also because in the movie hall there were huge groups of students being noisy and boisterous (being themselves, in other words) and yet, when the film started proceeding I could see them being touched at a deep level, connecting with Ishaan, his struggles with failure.

At that level, it is a intensely human film that tells us a very human story.No item numbers, no heroine, no songs in Switzerland. And it works ! Bravo, Aamir Khan, producer, director and actor of “Taare Zameen Par” ! In fact, the only drawbacks in the movie were the caricatures of some characters, like Mr. Awasthi, the father, and the boarding school teachers (who apart from Aamir Khan, are made to look like either buffoons or cruel sadists). The high achieving elder brother however, is not a caricature, thankfully !