MOVIE REVIEW - Taare Zameen Par *****

Aamir Khan' latest contribution to Indian cinema -- Taare Zameen Par, in one word -- EXCELLENT. Every aspect of the film including the fascinating clay animated titles done by Dhimant Vyas was treated in a no nonsense beautiful way.

The film is the journey of an 8 year old, Ishaan Awasthi, called Inu by his family; from a life filled with escapism due to his inability to keep pace with the society' high expectations to a distraught state in hostel and finally to a hand holding phase that transforms him and the society around him.

Little Inu' life revolves around colors and nature and happiness in his imaginative world ... where the morning rush hour is unnecessary - he sleeps on the pot, takes forever to brush and plays with the soap while having a bath, wears his uniform in a dream and has yet not figured out how to knot his tie or his laces; cleanliness is not a concern and hence he is invariably punished during assembly; homework is a bore and hence never done; test papers are never shown to his mum and are instead given to street dogs to play with; his room and things are always in a mess; and above all his interest in studies is as much as his interest in his morning routine so his handwriting is as if like a baby learning to write, his spelling of the simplest of words are wrong again and again and again, his test papers always have marks like 2/25, 3/25 and FAIL written in bold acroos, he has already repeated a year, he says the letters and numbers keep dancing in front of him; and because of his inability to read or understand the complex instructions in class he is always bearing the brunt of his teacher' anger, insults and punishment ... SIGH life is soooooo tiresome .... that he choses to live life on his own terms and in what gives him happiness ... Art is amazing and he thrives on his own imagination while painting and creates some fantastic pieces of work when he is allowed to do so ... nature is fun and interesting to him and hence bunking school is so much better than dealing with a teacher who will yell at him yet again for not completing his math homework and not getting his test papers signed! Litlle Inu finds each of his routines to be a dicomfort to him and hence gives little importance to them and yet finds the time to love and de-tick street dogs, fish with a net in the school gutter and collect fish in his water bottle for his fish bowl at home.

In contrast is his hardworking and successful older brother Yohaan who he calls Dada -- they have a great relationship and love each other loads but his brother' accomplishments make his inadequacies seem even more starkly unaccepable. His super efficient top executive dad too is a stickler for perfection and success and will accept nothing less ... so he has little patience with Inu and is always letting go of his temper with violence or insults or worse still comparisons with Yohaan "how can my son be such a duffer... why are there so many complaints against him???". In the middle of all this is Inus sensitive yet confused mother who loves him dearly but is playing the balancing act between trying to get Inu to live up to his Dads high expectations, taking Yohaans help to convince Inu to get stuff done, help him thru his daily routines and above all cover up for him when he gets into trouble -- she keeps believing that it cant get worse than what it is and when Inu slips yet again she is torn between anger and "kya baat hai Inu... please beta hum padh lete hain na nahin to aaapke friends phir se aagey nikal jayengey"

The problem is that Inu is dyslexic and nobody in his family or school knows so and believe that he is the way he is because he is lazy and over time has become defiant and indisciplined. After getting a warning from the principal about Inu being probably kept back yet again and getting a hint that maybe he has a problem his father decides that he needs to be sent to hostel. Here is where his life becomes and ordeal, as he is away from his family, his street dogs and his fish; his freedom to do as he pleases has come to an end and above all he is not allowed to paint the way he wishes and gets scaled by his art teacher on his closed knuckles several times ... to the effect that he completely loses interest in the only thing that he loved doing ... i.e. Painting! He shuns all except a paralysed classmate, he stops communicating and is punished all the time, continues to do poorly in class, does not talk when his family calls him, has no reaction when they come to meet him on the weekend and slowly but surely becomes a lifeless recluse ...

The movie takes on a new pace after the interval as that is when Aamir (Ram) comes into the film as a temporary ART teacher at his school -- he notices Inu' blank art sheet and gets curious as to why he is so quiet and non-communicative, and unaffected by the fantastic display of dance and music that Ram brings into the class with "Bum bum bole..." Ram, goes thru his class books and dicovers the pattern of his errors, he visits Inu' parents to find that they are clueless and undenying of Inu' problem and discovers during his visit what a fantastic artist Inu is -- this entire sequence of his visit to his parents is delivered to Unbelievable Aamir Perfection and brought buckets of tears to my eyes ... he takes it upon him to bring about the much needed change into Inus life by harshly and assertively sensitising Inu' parents and the school principal about Inus problem, coaching Inu privately on his studies and handwriting and above all holding an art competition ... because he is so sure that Inu will excel and believes that this success will be the turning point in his life ... and he is right!! Inu wins and his painting becomes the cover page of the school annual book giving Inu a reason to smile and look at life anew :)

The casting of each of the characters, the screenplay, the interspersed animation, the music and the cinematography are all superb! My description and review of the film cannot match the excellence of the film and hence to get the complete impact of Inu's journey from darkenss to light watching the film is a MUST TO DO ... The film has some of the most amazing scenes that each of us can identify with in our own lives. This film has acquired a special place in my heart ... like Robin Sharma has said that good books are to be read again and again ... Taare Zameen Par is a film that needs to be watched again and again and again... Kudos to Aamir and his team for creating a film that will create a fresher outlook from parents, elders and teachers towards a new world so that each child from now is nothing less than a STAR or TAARA on this zameen :)