| By Praveen Lance Fernandes for Indiatimes.com, Click Here for Original. |
Cast: Aamir Khan, Darsheel Safary, Tanay Cheda, Sachet Engineer, Tisca Chopra and Vipin Sharma.
Director: Aamir Khan
Music: Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Our rating:
Dyslexia – is it a disease or not? Some of the biggest names in history Albert Einstein, Agatha Christie, Thomas Alva Edison and according to the film even Abhishek Bachchan were slow learners. But that did not deter them from succeeding by far from most other people (barring Abhishek).
Is there space for incompetence in this fast moving world? Ishaan (Darsheel Safary), a nine year old realizes very soon that there isn’t. The young boy who finds it very difficult to cope up with his studies is unable to understand why his father and the world cannot think the way he does. Always at the back of his class, he is sent to a boarding school by his parents. Ishaan who was always close to his mother (Tisca Chopra) and elder brother (Sachet Engineer) now begins to live in a shell. His love for painting is now gone and this is first noticed by his new drawing teacher Ram Shankar Nikumbh (Aamir Khan). Ram is able to identify Ishaan’s problem – dyslexia. He goes and speaks to his parents but his father fails to understand. So now Ram takes it up himself to teach Ishaan.
The first half is definitely more gripping. While setting up the little boy’s character, we enter into a world which adults are unable to see. A vendor making a ‘gola’, cycles going over mud puddles, stray dogs – is there a sense of beauty and curiosity in these that an adult is unable to see or comprehend? That’s what we see through the eyes of Ishaan and through the lens of Aamir Khan.
Aamir’s entry just before the interval is quite filmy in a so far realistic film and lacks the punch that the viewer expects. In India, masala rules and there is a certain section of film-makers who try to lessen the spice but not completely. That is the case with Taare Zameen Par . But just as Ishaan’s father is unable to recognize his son’s issues, the Indian audience too needs to wake up and see the effort that the producers and the director are trying to say. The first half of the film tends to give you a feeling that you are watching an Iranian film.
Please note that this piece has been reproduced from Indiatimes.com, Click Here for Original.
Is the film completely gripping? No, not at all! Somewhere in the middle of the second half is where it begins to get predictable and the ending doesn’t come as a surprise. But nonetheless, it is a valiant effort from a top actor to go ahead and make a film which flows against the tide and where he is not the central character.
The teacher-student relationship was shown beautifully in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Black and though there are few scenes together between and two, it does strike an impact.
Aamir as the director doesn’t do an extraordinary job but sticks to the basics cinematically. But the major problem of the film is that it moves at a constant slow pace. It doesn’t get heavy but gives you a figment of restlessness.
The animation at various junctions in the movie is done with extreme competence and some of best seen in quite a while. What goes through the child’s mind can be quite fascinating and the imaginative sketches are amusing to watch.
The film belongs to none other than the little Darsheel Safary. Emoting just the right expressions at the most unpredictable places, Taare Zameen Par would have crashed completely if it wasn’t for him. Aamir Khan has very less space to showcase his talent but he enacts his part with complete conviction as he takes the film forward.
Don’t be under the impression that it is a children’s film. It’s been quite a while since we saw a sensitive film which the entire family can watch together. Not preachy but not completely entertaining at the same time sums up Taare Zameen Par . Watch it for the lack of melodrama, watch it for the performances, watch it for the sheer genuineness that the filmmakers try to show.
No comments:
Post a Comment