Taare Zameen Par… Clichés used well
Perhaps the only new element in the otherwise ‘seen there-watched that’ “Taare Zameen Par” is the well-deserved highlighting of dyslexia among children.
This one ‘issue’ is packaged extremely well in this otherwise routine sugar-sweet Aamir Khan-starrer or rather, the Darsheel Safary-starrer (as the movie credits would have it!).
Everything else, I felt, was just a rehash of the typical unruly/misunderstood protégé-caring mentor offerings till now. The Sidney Poitier-starrer “To Sir, With Love” (1967), Satyen Bose’s “Jagruti” (1954) and a host of sports-oriented Bollywood flicks—they all somehow make their cameos in “Taare…”
But of the entire lot, it was “Jagruti” – that black and white gem, which gave us songs like ‘Sabarmati Ke Sant’ and ‘Aao Bacchon Tumhe Dikhayen’ …” and itself a remake of Bose’s Bengali version “Paribartan” (1949)– that made its presence felt the most in “Taare…”, particularly in the first half. The similarity is accentuated by the presence of the handicapped Rajan--Inu’s classmate in boarding school and apparently the only friend who empathises with him--who reminds us of Shakti, the character played by Rattan Kumar in the older film.
“Taare…” has all the right clichés—a ‘different’ child, his special talent, an indifferent or perhaps even a malevolent society, a performance-obsessed father Nandakishore Awasthi (Vipin Sharma, quite restrained), the doting yet helpless mother Maya (Tisca Chopra, neat!), an overtly menacing set of teachers (All of them? Well well…), the demonized boarding school, the arrival of that benevolent ‘sir’ and the unavoidable poignant--ecstatic moment of redemption…
This time it is 9-yr-old Ishaan Nandakishore Awasthi (the bunny-toothed Safary), an adorable and impish Mumbai boy, who is fighting the devils – teachers, neighbourhood brats, the haranguing father, and, most importantly, the expectations created by the far better academic and co-curricular performance of his loving elder brother.
Harassed and embattled, Inu (pet name) finds freedom in his paintings that rarely get noticed despite his colourful imagination and dreamland getaways—directly lifted from a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strip. He often vents his frustration through deliberate projected defiance and fracases with next-door bullies.
The story continues till one day, fed up of his badmaashis, daddy dear decides to pack him off to that ultimate hell of castigated kids—the far away boarding school.
Petrified and bewildered, just when little Ishan begins to chart his way into a shell, vengefully abandoning his paintings, Ramshankar Nikumbh (Aamir) enters the scene (rather overdramatically, I must say) as the temporary art teacher.
From then on follows the steady return of Inu from the clutches of depression, eminently helped by a rather proactive Nikumbh, who identifies the problem with Ishan and also empathises with him as the now ebullient teacher was once upon a time himself dyslexic.
Clawing his way back to ‘life’ Ishan regains self-respect, bullet-marked by an art competition Nikumbh organises ostensibly for Ishan—who, of course, wins it to become happy and high-spirited again. The scene where Ishan accepts the prize and tearfully runs into the arms of Nikumbh is very moving, wanting to make the audience run up to him and give the harassed child a bear hug.
Apart from the decent performances by Safary and Aamir, accompanying characters too have their moments. Like for instance, Nandakishore bitterly walking away from Inu after realizing his folly, Maya’s pain and helplessness in leaving her little Inu behind all alone at the boarding school...
While Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy keep their melodious promise through ‘Ma’ and ‘Taare Zameen Par’, there is not much more to write home about in terms of the music.
All in all a one-time must watch...Perhaps the only new element in the otherwise ‘seen there-watched that’ “Taare Zameen Par” is the well-deserved highlighting of dyslexia among children.
This one ‘issue’ is packaged extremely well in this otherwise routine sugar-sweet Aamir Khan-starrer or rather, the Darsheel Safary-starrer (as the movie credits would have it!).
Everything else, I felt, was just a rehash of the typical unruly/misunderstood protégé-caring mentor offerings till now. The Sidney Poitier-starrer “To Sir, With Love” (1967), Satyen Bose’s “Jagruti” (1954) and a host of sports-oriented Bollywood flicks—they all somehow make their cameos in “Taare…”
But of the entire lot, it was “Jagruti” – that black and white gem, which gave us songs like ‘Sabarmati Ke Sant’ and ‘Aao Bacchon Tumhe Dikhayen’ …” and itself a remake of Bose’s Bengali version “Paribartan” (1949)– that made its presence felt the most in “Taare…”, particularly in the first half. The similarity is accentuated by the presence of the handicapped Rajan--Inu’s classmate in boarding school and apparently the only friend who empathises with him--who reminds us of Shakti, the character played by Rattan Kumar in the older film.
“Taare…” has all the right clichés—a ‘different’ child, his special talent, an indifferent or perhaps even a malevolent society, a performance-obsessed father Nandakishore Awasthi (Vipin Sharma, quite restrained), the doting yet helpless mother Maya (Tisca Chopra, neat!), an overtly menacing set of teachers (All of them? Well well…), the demonized boarding school, the arrival of that benevolent ‘sir’ and the unavoidable poignant--ecstatic moment of redemption…
This time it is 9-yr-old Ishaan Nandakishore Awasthi (the bunny-toothed Safary), an adorable and impish Mumbai boy, who is fighting the devils – teachers, neighbourhood brats, the haranguing father, and, most importantly, the expectations created by the far better academic and co-curricular performance of his loving elder brother.
Harassed and embattled, Inu (pet name) finds freedom in his paintings that rarely get noticed despite his colourful imagination and dreamland getaways—directly lifted from a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strip. He often vents his frustration through deliberate projected defiance and fracases with next-door bullies.
The story continues till one day, fed up of his badmaashis, daddy dear decides to pack him off to that ultimate hell of castigated kids—the far away boarding school.
Petrified and bewildered, just when little Ishan begins to chart his way into a shell, vengefully abandoning his paintings, Ramshankar Nikumbh (Aamir) enters the scene (rather overdramatically, I must say) as the temporary art teacher.
From then on follows the steady return of Inu from the clutches of depression, eminently helped by a rather proactive Nikumbh, who identifies the problem with Ishan and also empathises with him as the now ebullient teacher was once upon a time himself dyslexic.
Clawing his way back to ‘life’ Ishan regains self-respect, bullet-marked by an art competition Nikumbh organises ostensibly for Ishan—who, of course, wins it to become happy and high-spirited again. The scene where Ishan accepts the prize and tearfully runs into the arms of Nikumbh is very moving, wanting to make the audience run up to him and give the harassed child a bear hug.
Apart from the decent performances by Safary and Aamir, accompanying characters too have their moments. Like for instance, Nandakishore bitterly walking away from Inu after realizing his folly, Maya’s pain and helplessness in leaving her little Inu behind all alone at the boarding school...
While Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy keep their melodious promise through ‘Ma’ and ‘Taare Zameen Par’, there is not much more to write home about in terms of the music.
