Its a fine Friday morning in Kolkata...the winter vacation has just commenced...we have planned a day out...gonna watch Francis Lawrence's I Am Legend...but due to last minute change of plans under unavoidable circumstances we are reluctantly drawn into the first day first show of Taare Zameen Paar...we are a bunch of movie buffs who watch a Bollywood movie once in a blue moon...within the next 2.5 hrs our opinions had changed...
After back to back hits(Rang De Basanti,Fanaa)Amir khan could well have gone for another Masala flick...but it needs guts to for debut directing such a script...and then pull it off even more brilliantly...with such maturity n sensitivity...the field is teeming with great actors making for great first time directors...(Kevin Costner,Mel Gibson,George Clooney n so many others)...but never before in Bollywood have i seen a better example of this.....
the film is about a 8 year old dyslexic child Ishann who finds it difficult to read or write correctly or for that matter perform any such activities normal to children of his age...n inevitably has to bear the brunt of his parents,teachers n other people he interacts with...but his world is filled with magical creatures n thoughts that gives him company...his parents unable to realize his disorder...sends him to a boarding school where the child retreats into a self imposed exile and has to contend with the added trauma of separation from his family...in comes Amir khan the temporary art teacher who encourages them to extend their boundaries of thought and imaginations...n shows special interest in finding out the difficulty of Ishaan...with time patience and care he helps Ishaan find himself...
but more than the script its the way minute emotions are captured...the way the audience is made to peer into a child's mind nd its own mechanisms...scenes are a film's USP...n though you may forget the film its the scenes that u keep embedded in your heart...
n TZP is laden with powerful scenes that will give you moist eyes...there's this scene where Ishan's parents had taken him home from the boarding school...n then comes to leave him there all alone again for the 2nd time...the first time Ishaan had kept staring at his parent's car leaving...this time he turned back n walked away...while his mother kept staring back...this is Ishan's own kind of protest against his parent's unjust nd cruel decision...
and to complement the film's excellent theme there's the superbly crafted n maturely executed visual effects n animation to go with it...that sketches a child's world of imagination...the camera work is brilliant...top notch performance by all the actors...Darsheel Safary steals the limelight...quite explains why Amir wanted to rush into directing this film as he was worried the child may grow up..reminds of Satyajit ray n his Apu...though emotional n dramatic everything seems utterly realistic...
nd Amir's directing needs special mentioning here...the way he captures a child's world...a child's obsession of noticing minute things nd finding beauty in it...like the little fishes that inhabit the roadside pond...the water filled pothole being run over by vehicles...a mother bird feeding her children...
nd with so many news of children succumbing to their parent's pressure these days...the film has come out at an apt time...it will change the whole way u look at the relationship between a parent and a child i bet...its one those films which entertains nd enlightens at the same time...stop reading it any further if you haven't yet seen it..just take your child n go watch it...
but everything has its share of bad sides...though it matters little i would still like to talk about the little cons...the editing work cud have been sleeker...the film tends to drag a little in the middle...although as hard as he may have tried Amir khan is unable to break away from the shackles of orthodox Bollywood treatment...nd sum scenes are just too melodramatic...like Ishan sailing a boat he has himself designed...but probably it was to draw the traditional Bollywood audience into watching this unique movie...too many songs...though good music from Shankar Ehsan Loy on all the songs...but sum were unnecessary...that's all...it would be sacrilegious to speak ill of this film any further...
u r quite adamant aren't you??i thought i told you to stop reading n go watch the movie...now go nd..enjoy the brilliant world of alphabet crabs...velvet octopuses...absurd arts...nd inverse letters...
is any member of KoЯn dyslexic??...a friend of mine joked...as far as I am Legend is concerned...never mind...i'm going to watch it tomorrow...
