I have certain prejudices about bollywood films, and I watch them very rarely .But Amir's debut directorial movie "Tare Zmeen Par" is something which is different from contemporary bollywood flicks.What impressed me much in TZP is that even being a film which is crafted by a main stream actor ,it never tries to boost up his star image. In fact we won’t get to see the star "Amir Khan", we see only an art teacher called "Ram Shankar Nikumbh" in the movie. Nikumbh is introduced only at the end of first half. Amir's effort is appreciable because he didn’t try to make yet another usual Amir khan entertainer, as his maiden dircetoial venture. Instead he has made a perfect socio-drama which has something serious to interfere with spectators.
The film deals with "Dyslexia" which is a learning disability , ie problems in ,reading or spelling etc.. the theme itself is fresh. ie Amir succeeded in the first stage of a basic movie making ; selection of theme. But most impressive is that how he narrates this simple theme and getting us involved in the movie. The story is about a school boy call "Ishaan Awasthy", the central character of the story, who is introduced as a lazy, unintelligent student in the school, regularly getting punishment from his teachers, so on ..but at the same time he is being portrayed as a good observer of nature and surroundings. ... The entire story revolves around this character “Ishaan”.
The casting for this character is an important factor in the movie. I can’t imagine any other actor, other than ‘Darsheel Safary”, as Ishaan Awasthy. Here I purposefully call him as “actor”, instead of child artist... Because the boy has displayed an incredible performance which can never be under estimated. He has got good control over the body language, expressions and dialogue presentation. One which comes into my mind is, the scene in which he is being interrogated by his father when he finds out the absent note written by his brother for him to bunk the class.
The second stage of the story also begins with this scene. Ishaan’s father decides to send him to a boarding school despite the weak protest of Ishaan’s mother and elder brother. The frustrated mind of the child at this situation is depicted well by Amir, especially the dreaming scene. But things are going bad to worse here onwards. At his new surroundings, he finds his life miserable and lonely…until he meets his new art teacher Ram Shankar Nikumbh who is joining the school as a guest faculty, enacted by Amir Khan himself. Frankly speaking, the introduction scene of Amir doesn’t fit into such a natural movie. But considering the the overall quality of the movie, we can just forget that scene.
It is Nikumbh who finds out the real problem faced by Ishaan- Dyslexia. He visits Ishaan's parents to discus about it.Some of the dialogues delivered by Nikumbh are strong enough to blow our mind, especially parents and teachers who mishandle children suppressing their born talents and forcing them to be mere bookworms; a case in point is the question he asks to Mr.Awasthy (Vipin Sharma), regarding Ishaan’s problem goes like this; “I am asking the reason for the disease and you are telling me the symptoms. “ And another scene in which he shows the packet of a toy to Ishaan’s father and asking him to read the Chinese letters in it in order to make him aware of the real problem with ishaan, is also a good one.
The transformation of Ishaan as a brilliant student has been depicted step by step. Amir displays some methods of teaching, even though I am not sure if those methods are really working for a boy having Dyslexia, still it seems adequate in the movie. The climax of the movie shows a different kind of painting competition participated by all students and teachers.
Amir is not a professional director yet, so some minor flaws, like unnecessary dragging in certain scenes and some melodramas, can simply be ignored. Also we should ignore the grammatical aspects. Moreover he has given a movie which is competing to any classic given by veteran directors earlier. He has shown adequate discipline in the making of his directorial debut and which is highly appreciable. He didn’t show any technical extravaganza in the film. Even computer graphics used only for some required scenes. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy team has given good music and well suited BGM for the movie.
Last but not least, this film may sometimes make your eyes filled, but not by cheap sentimental scenes. So don’t worry about that. Amir Khan tries to give some good social messages to parents as well as children and he has succeeded in the same to a great extend.
My rating for this movie is 9/10 .
