Watch The Zameen
Genciana Haggins
Amidst all the latest movie releases storming Bollywood, sometimes you just have to sit back, cut the noise out, switch on the TV for a classic, and lose yourself in a roller coaster ride of nostalgia. Sometimes these rewatches can even make us rethink our childhood entertainment choices while still ensuring an enjoyable movie experience.
However, Taare Zameen Par made me rethink and reminisce about my childhood with its sentimental value. Watching it years later as a mature individual, I fully realised what I naturally failed to as a child.
Released in 2007, when Bollywood thrived off its established romance archetype, Taare Zameen Par advocated for a different cause. Featuring our dyslexic child protagonist, Ishaan Awasthi, the movie successfully advanced a message that wasn't unknown but untold at that time in Bollywood.
Previously, I had this misconception that the movie focuses on the representation of neurodivergent children only. However, the movie stays true to its name, highlighting all children for who they are: budding individuals who thrive off their creativity like stars on the ground. The movie's approach to that concept is something that resonates with adults and children alike.
The struggle of being misunderstood is one that we may have to deal with in different stages of our lives. This can begin in our childhoods when we are unequipped to properly cope with it. Parents and schools furthermore contribute to it by applying pressure based on their one-sided viewpoint of our activities. The gut-wrenching pain of Ishan as he gets thrown into an environment where he's unwelcome for his supposed flaws resonated with me a bit too well. However, the movie presents the gap of understanding between adults and children without entirely antagonising any character. By the end of the movie, my heart wished for every child to have their own Shankar Sirs to support them during their hardships.
The music sequences are the dark horses of the film. There were no songs that were added as mere music video breaks, rather they felt like spaces of fresh air designed in alignment with the impressive cinematography and storytelling. The songs perfectly captured not only the film's emotions but its distinct artistry as well.
The joy of childhood is perfectly evident in the movie, which made my heart feel the warmth of my own memories carefully slipping in. The pleasure of those lost days where we all would mix in with groups, laugh, and enjoy our time together, not knowing exactly why. I felt it vividly expressed, especially through the "Art Mela" arc.
For a movie released 16 years ago, Taare Zameen Par remains timeless and relevant even in this day and age. Not only did the actors confer an award-winning performance, but the direction and production of the movie are equally as powerful. Taare Zameen Par is a conspicuous reminder of our childhoods and how it moulds us into the stars we all are today, shining ever so brilliantly.
Taare Zameen [Images] Par is an impressive debut indeed for filmmaker Aamir Khan [Images], and showcases a brilliant performance by the young Darsheel Safary -- one of those child actors you can't possibly resist. More than just dyslexia, the film is a look at childhood dreamers who feel shunted out by the rest of the world, the cruel world that doesn't understand them. At some level, I guess we all relate. And this ends up a nice watch -- sincere, even if somewhat simplistic.
Aamir is particularly gifted with imagery. The film opens with Darsheel's character, the impish Ishaan Awasthi fishing from a naala, and heading home to literally feed dogs his homework. The child doesn't talk much but is strikingly imaginative -- a Calvin without his Hobbes -- and given to art. Misunderstood at almost every step, he stands up to a local bully defiantly, as scrappy as the strays that chewed upon his test papers. His parents have their hands full, choosing instead to concentrate on their elder son, an achiever of Complan-Boy levels.
Darsheel is superb in the role as we see him bewildered, then hurt, then frustrated with constant rejection. Khan, who handles the school sections of the film with relatable nostalgia, reels us in with poignant, simple visuals and makes us feel the child's pained confusion. A song bursts onto the scene, cut smartly like an edgy music video, showing Ishaan's father (played by Vipin Sharma) get ready for a business trip, while his harrowed mother (Tisca Chopra) gets eggs and bread ready for first father then each son, in turn. All while Ishaan is blissfully oblivious to the need of the hour, or the hour itself. By this point, we're hooked.
It is hard to know, as a director, when there can be too much of a good thing. Khan indulges himself with his nice little visual flourishes significantly in the first half, to the point of repetition. There is the clever device of the child -- being shunted off to boarding school against his desperate pleas -- making a flipbook which shows a family with one kid moving away, as the pages turn. It's a strong, simple touch, yet Khan chooses to show it to us again and again, showing the audience the flipbook every time any character sees it.
While Ishaan stands in a corridor, punished, some seniors walk by. Each of them -- every single one -- points and laughs at our protagonist, which is depressingly overdone and unreal -- even social outcasts aren't picked on by everyone; a lot of the kids just wouldn't give him a second look. The first few times the teachers rebuke Ishaan or are frustrated by him, it works. But we are forced to see everything again: pain in English class, Maths, Hindi... and so on. Flip, flipbook, flip. It doesn't help that outside of Darsheel and Tisca (and later, of course, Aamir), the rest of the performances seem either amateurish or over-the-top.
The director himself enters neatly at halftime, shushing us to announce intermission. Aamir plays temporary Art teacher Ramshankar Nikumbh, one who works part-time with a special-needs school, and wants Ishaan and his buddies to open up. Khan plays the role in just the right key, a sympathetic teacher who notices a problem but doesn't want to force himself through the child's shell. It is he who realises Ishaan has dyslexia, and goes to meet the Awasthis.
Aamir now balances his own character speaking like a Public Service Announcement with Ishaan's father spouting lines seemingly written for... laughs? Sure, they are laughs at his ignorance and a look at his lack of conviction, but the sharp contrast between the two seems contrived. The child's mother rapidly goes from confused-but-undoubtedly-caring to one who thinks googling dyslexia is enough. In fact, the whole parental angle is left considerably half-baked, seeming to serve only for a few good comebacks the teacher gets to make.
Yet, let's discount that as nitpicking. This is the story of the child and his teacher, and Nikumbh stands at a blackboard and shows pictures of Albert Einstein and Abhishek Bachchan [Images] and tells us -- and the kids -- that dyslexia is more common than we think, and that it can be helped given the proper aid. Nikumbh speaks to the faculties, asks that Ishaan be given a little more time, and, after having educating the audience thoroughly on dyslexia, proceeds to charm Ishaan out of it.
All great, except he does this over the length of one song. There are far too many musical digressions in this film anyway -- and while most are touching interludes to enhance the narrative, they end up stroking what's already been touched -- yet this is wrong in particular, to show and identify the problem and then dismiss it in a manner of minutes. It is all very well to depict that love and care will conquer all, but the process cannot be as simple as making plasticine elephants.
The songs are good, however, and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy do a bang-up job, as does lyricist Prasoon Joshi. Scriptwriter and conceptualiser Amole Gupte has clearly written a heartfelt script, and his imprint lies all over the film, even visually -- outside of the two final paintings painted by Samir Mondal, all of Ishaan's artwork is done either by Gupte or his wife Deepa, who also edited the film. This is clearly a labour of love for them.
Highly watchable and -- again, because of Darsheel and Aamir's knack for sentimental imagery -- warmly likeable, Taare flounders fatally at the end. Sure, it's okay to appease the masses with a tacked-on and cheesy ending, but for a film which stresses that we need to give our kids their space and not force themselves into constant comparisons, a film which asks them to take their time to find their talents, the climax becomes about a competition, about how winning magically makes everything better. And that's a scary thought, in context of what the film tries to say, overall.
Aamir brings us the debut of both a great child actor and a budding director with a fine eye, though he seems slightly Ashutosh'd in terms of pace. Economy is the one thing this film cries out for. Crisper, tighter, and less repetitive, and we'd have a very good movie on our hands. For now, we have a director with clear potential for solid work. And we need as many of those as we can get.
It is rightly said that we must read our favourite books or watch our most loved movies at different stages in life. We fall in love with these stories all over again with renewed appreciation because each time, we uncover a new perspective or creative brilliance that we might have missed earlier.
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