Extraordinary child in an ordinary school. Review on Taare Zameen Par

Aamir Khan’s directorial debut with “Taare Zameen Par” could not have been better. The story about a dyslexia stricken child is woven around a handful of characters and with great care. Ishaan is a student of St.Xaviers School and is subjected to the strict discipline as is the case in most schools. His problem is he is poor in writing and reading and hence whatever is taught is greek and latin to him. He has failed once in the 3rd Standard and is not doing well in the second year too. He doesn’t play and is the receiver of ridicule in his area too. His mother puts in the extra effort  but to no avail. In the course of a fight, and on the complaint of the neighbours a decision is taken to put him in a boarding school as punishment of his non-performance and misdeeds.

Ishaan perceives this as a deliberate distancing from the family which he vents out in his paintings. The New Era Boarding School at Panchgani too fails to change him and the failures and punishments make him retreat and he goes into a shell. The entry of Aamir as the replacement teacher of fine arts changes the story of Ishaan.

Aamir has been through the same disorder in his childhood, so he goes to Ishaan’s family and checks the child’s history and also sees the attitude of the old fashioned father who refuses to accept the child’s dyslexia and his own failure as a father.

Aamir returns, requests the principal for time and restores the confidence of the child to his strengths  and slowly gets the child out of his shell. In an art competition in the climax, Ishaan beats his mentor Aamir to the cover of the school magazine.

Taare Zameen Par is a wake up call for all the parents, teachers and schools that make their own rules of success and intelligence and pressurize the children to perform on these lines. Also the stifling of creativity in the name of discipline is what our education system is known for. The role of a teacher is well depicted as not just for the academics but as a mentor who can change the life of a student.

The child artiste playing Ishaan is superlative and matches the child artiste’s histrionics in Black. Aamir comes only at the intermission stage of the movie. This is the only drawback of the movie. The travails of Ishaan are too lengthy and the first half seems lengthier. Had Aamir been brought 30 minutes earlier  and the length of the movie cut down by half an hour the movie would have been more successful in holding the viewer’s attention.Nevertheless, the movie is still very good. Shankar Ehsaan and Loy play the most soulful music of their career and the music blends with the narrative. A must see for every parent. We only wish there could be more teachers like this in the world.