‘Taare Zameen Par’ is possibly the definitive moviegoing experience of this year. Given that a banal offering like ‘Om Shanti Om’ has emerged as the year’s top draw, its refreshing to see a film weaved around ideas instead of six packs. Working on a script by Amole Gupta, Aamir Khan’s directorial debut is a victory of spirit. Few stories this year have been told so fearlessly, with conviction and with the kind of imagination that even rubs onto the credits. Fewer still have managed the task of being instructive yet warmly familiar at the same time.
Haven’t we all come across a Ishaan Awasthi (Darsheel Safary)? A third grader who’s forever lost in the world outside the classroom window, hoping that the walls would collapse to let it in. I knew him. Heck, I was him. And I grew up hearing the same things Ishaan hears. But Ishaan is also dyslexic. If you don’t know what dyslexia ‘really’ means, don’t google it yet. Let this film show you. It’s good at it. Suffice it to say that Ishaan finds it difficult to have a favourable relationship with his textbooks, preferring to stay in the colourful worlds that find their way into his drawings.
I suspect the real reason why Khan & Gupta use dyslexia is to show how our expectations of our children are without regard for their individual capacities or interests. It isn’t that Ishaan’s parents don’t care. It’s just that they, like many other parents, have been oriented to accept a straitjacket approach to education. And if Ishaan can’t perform in it, it has to be an attitude problem. Maybe, in today’s age of information, its too incredible to believe that dyslexia in a child could go unnoticed. But the film presents this possibility with such elan & subtlety that we buy it. Khan even fits in a clever song that parodies the numbing effect of being part of the rat race. When you’re obsessed with the thought of keeping your child ahead of the competition, his/her problems become that much harder to notice.
And so Ishaan is packed off to a boarding school and here too the film makes a wonderful observation. Sending your child to boarding school is one thing, but to send him with the impression that he needs to be straightened out is murder. Ishaan quickly falls out of favour with his teachers and shuts himself in a shell, hurtling towards certain doom. Enter Ram Shankar Nikumbh (Aamir Khan), a substitute Art teacher so cool, he could pass off as a VJ. He quickly discovers that Ishaan needs help and we see him become the proverbial ray of hope.
Has there been another film this year with as many perfect scenes? Consider, for example, the meeting between Nikumbh and Ishaan’s parents. The exchange of dialogue is laden with meaning and gently conveys where parents go wrong when it comes to their children. When Ishaan’s father (Vipin Sharma) confronts Nikumbh again, notice the delicacy with which Nikumbh illustrates what it means to be a better father. There is that slightest hint that Nikumbh is expressing what he may have expected to hear from his own father. Notice how Khan chooses to end that scene. Or consider how Nikumbh, faced with the daunting task of rebuilding Ishaan’s confidence, cleverly involves the entire class into a discussion about dyslexia which features, not Ishaan, but Einstein, Edison & Abhishek Bachchan. Last, but not the least, here’s a film that uses its songs with innovation, not as interludes but as dramatic ways of making points. Special praise must be set aside for ‘Kholo Kholo’ not only for its music and lyrics but also for how beautifully it accompanies a scene where children and teachers come together for an art competition. Towards the end of the song, when Ishaan and Nikumbh regard each other, we get a payoff like none other.
I admire Amole Gupta’s writing for steering clear of making extreme caricatures. Even as Ishaan’s parents grow frustrated with him, we’re still able to see their good intentions. His mother (Tisca Chopra) is that balance of sweetness & austerity we relate to. Ishaan’s brother (Sachet Engineer ), who’s a brilliant student, never lets the gap in their grades undermine their relationship. He’s kind-hearted and encourages his brother’s imagination. The principal of the boarding school, who’s uncertain at first towards Nikhumb’s strategy for helping Ishaan, finally shows the courage we expect of a good educator. And there’s Rajan (Tanay Cheda), a friend who shows care and affection when it’s needed the most.
I celebrate ‘Taare Zameen Par’ for telling a simple story with immense feeling, and in such a way that it becomes something more. It encourages a certain depth in our perception of children. It also reminded me that good teachers invariably happen to be those who are able to draw on their own childhood experiences while instructing children. It is a celebration of childhood & tells us that education, more than anything, is a nurturing process. Watching it, I discovered that when I fell in love with English, my fifth grade teacher Mrs. Lalitha Krishnan had a lot to do with it. Mrs. Krishnan, wherever she is, would find a million reasons to cheer this film.
