Movie Review - Taare Zameen Par (Aamir Khan)

Taare Zameen par – Review

Hi all, in last two days, I watched three movies – all of different kind and I would definitely write reviews of all the three.

Here is the first one for 'Taare Zameen Par'. There are no spoilers in this review.

The story reminds me of my childhood when I was in class three. I remember my atrociously bad handwriting, messy notebooks, and inability to write properly. Since I did not suffer from any problem, things kept improving day by day, however I still remember some of the students in my class who were not able to perform in the class not even to the lowest set standards. The teachers would kill them for not doing anything properly. I went to Kendriya Vidyalaya where teachers would even use sticks to beat the students who would do anything inappropriate regarding the standards of discipline. Punishments won’t exclude making the students run 5 rounds of the 200 meters tracks, beating, suspension, even rustication.

This story is an eye-opener to those teachers who still do not understand how tender the children are and that they require proper grooming instead of beating at such small ages of below eight. No one can deny that there still are some schools in India where, the teachers do not take the pains to recognize the appropriate problems which students face but rather punish the children. The story is about a class 3 child – Ishan who is not capable to recognize the letters of any language properly, a problem called dyslexia. He struggles a lot but all in vain. He is however a gifted child who has a remarkable capability to think, understand, solve complicates puzzles, and problems and represent his thoughts through his paintings, a capability which would be possessed by many years’ older children.

However, his incapability to recognize the letters would always let him down in all the subjects.

Misinterpreting this problem as his tendency to not study, the parents punish him. Teachers are fed up and would punish him and scold him all the time. Fear fills in his mind in such a young age and he would bunk the school to protect himself from such severe punishments. All these circumstances lead to his failure in class three. The parents admit him to a boarding school where same things begin all over again. The teachers of the boarding school are no better and would do the same things to him. Away from his parents and his elder brother who is incidentally a school topper and is couple of years senior to him, he loses his self confidence and even stops to paint!

Situation worsens for him, but to his rescue comes the temporary teacher in the school who is a painter himself and works in a school of mentally retarded. The teacher (Aamir Khan) has suffered from a similar problem in his childhood and knows very well what the child needs. He looks at the patterns of the mistakes he repeats and diagnoses that the child suffers from dyslexia. He goes to his parents and tells them about the problem and convinces them that he would correct the problem. Aamir inspires the child, and brings out his strengths to paint and the child finally learns to recognize the words. The child passes the courses with good grades and gets his self confidence back.

Aamir has taken the risk by producing a film which has no heroine, no thrill, no drama, no Switzerland and no dancing around the bushes. The drawbacks in the movie are sadist characters such as teachers and Ishan’s father who have been exaggerated and the only weak point I found in the movie was Aamir stylish college going student’s attire. The music is very touching especially the song ‘Maa’ sung by Shankar Mahadevan. I highly recommend the movie, but watch with a serious mind. The song can be watched here --

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